Media in the Lives of our Students

My apologies to you as I have been remiss in posting here. Lots of stuff going on and more to come on that later. For now, I have a couple of resources that I think are important in helping us understand the technology-savvy student.

First, are you feeling exhausted (as I am) just trying to keep up with all the latest technology? Multi-tasking might be the solution. At least that’s what our young people seem to be doing. They are still spending a little more than 6 hours a day using and interacting with media (just as they did when surveyed six years ago), but this study shows that they are now typically using multiple types of media at one time. Now they can pack over 8 hours of media content into the same 6 hours by multi-tasking!

The Kaiser Foundation released a report (2005) on the use and effect of media on the lives of children 8 – 18 years old. To view a free copy of "Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8—18 Year-olds", go to http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia030905pkg.cfm

So, what should we do as educators? The students of the "Net Generation" (those born in the 1980’s and later) have different expectations and attitudes about the world around them. They can’t imagine their world without technology and it impacts everything they do, from playing to communicating to learning to working. To help educators understand this generation and their learning expectations, EDUCAUSE published the electronic book "Educating the Net Generation".

“This collection explores the Net Gen and the implications for institutions in areas such as teaching, service, learning space design, faculty development, and curriculum. Contributions by educators and students are included.” View this book in its entirety or by chapters, either online or as PDF at http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=5989&bhcp=1

This is an excellent resource and I will be referring to excerpts in the future as we talk more about technology and learning.

Next time....what's on your technology wish list?