Talkin' about my generation

I've been preparing for a very brief talk on digital natives and generational learning that will take place on Monday night (9/29). Prior to class, the students have been asked to take an "Are you a digital natives?" type of quiz. I found three that will work, but none of them really rocked my world. Maybe it's because I fit into the label categories (e.g., Boomer, Gen X, Millennials, etc.) in terms of age but not in terms of technological interest or capabilities. Depending on the quiz, I was labeled a Boomer and even a Millennial. I am neither.

One of the better quizzes I stumbled upon was created by Penelope Trunk. The quiz is based on data Trunk collected from an interview with Margaret Weigel who has worked at MIT and Harvard on digital media engagement. While Margaret has taken a hiatus from her blog postings, an earlier post does refer to an interesting report titled, Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future, that attempts to debunk the digital native "myth." This is a British Library/JISC study that reviews the literature (86 papers) to determine "whether today's tech-savvy young people are really different from earlier generations.

Some interesting tid-bits from the report:

• There is a lack of literature comparing age groups. (Shock! Seems to be the story with a lot of research these days.)
• Children have been using the web for homework since the late 1990s.
• Downloading music is not a new interesting. Young people have been engaging in these recreational activities since the 1990s. Moreover, concerns about illegal downloading (at least in England) have been present since the early 1980s.
  
• Young people using natural language queries to find information pre-dates the web.
• No change in recent years in the way young people evaluate information. It's been a problem for 10-15 years.
  
• Young people have difficulty navigating electronic library resources; thus, they prefer Google, because it's easier to use.
  
• None of the literature has examined students who do not have/use the tech gadgits.
• Young people are reading!
• Students want convient, easy ways to complete assignments; exploring isn't the focus. "Power browsing and viewing are the norm for all" (p. 19).
  
• No evidence that young people are better multitaskers than others.

For those interested in generational labels, p. 29 has an interesting list.