Comments on: More Net Gen Nonsense http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2008/12/02/more-net-gen-nonsense/ learning, networks, knowledge, technology, community Sat, 4 Feb 2012 22:56:23 -0500 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: gsiemens http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2008/12/02/more-net-gen-nonsense/comment-page-1/#comment-2749 gsiemens Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:42:02 +0000 http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/?p=3647#comment-2749 Hi Chris - I think we had a similar discussion on your blog earlier this year. The "what I am seeing" argument is important in this as well. Research is only one way of knowing, but it is one that generally has greater respect than "this is what I'm seeing". On a personal level, I see how my children interact with each other through technology. It is a change from what I recall as a kid - not just technology, but process. Ultimately, the question for me is if/how we are to teach people differently today. Many change elements exist that can be a suitable premise for changes to education. Changed learners due to tech use is not the top on my list...yet. Hi Chris – I think we had a similar discussion on your blog earlier this year. The “what I am seeing” argument is important in this as well. Research is only one way of knowing, but it is one that generally has greater respect than “this is what I’m seeing”.

On a personal level, I see how my children interact with each other through technology. It is a change from what I recall as a kid – not just technology, but process. Ultimately, the question for me is if/how we are to teach people differently today. Many change elements exist that can be a suitable premise for changes to education. Changed learners due to tech use is not the top on my list…yet.

]]> By: Chris Lott http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2008/12/02/more-net-gen-nonsense/comment-page-1/#comment-2745 Chris Lott Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:53:22 +0000 http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/?p=3647#comment-2745 The biggest problem with all of this is that you, like Bullen, are engaging with what I see as mostly a strawman-- the most radical idea about generational changes in learners, specifically, a sharp age divide between a previous group and a group that is "epitomic global, connected, socially-networked technologically-fluent digital native who has little patience for passive and linear forms of learning" How many people make *that* argument other than Prensky? Maybe I don't put myself in a position to see them, but I don't see many Prensky-ites. Faculty *I* work with, talk with, and read have a much more nuanced understanding than that. What none of these studies address is what I *am* seeing, which is a significant number of learners who have had longer-term and/or nearly immersive experience with three related technologies: personal computers, the web, and social networks that are exhibiting very similar characteristics. To a degree that it is worthwhile to consider them as a group or cluster when trying to educate in an environment that goes beyond the one-on-one. I don't generally disagree with much of what Bullen says-- in that context. But I do have a problem with throwing out all the good (and true) because of some radicaly and misrepresentative view of the bad. The biggest problem with all of this is that you, like Bullen, are engaging with what I see as mostly a strawman– the most radical idea about generational changes in learners, specifically, a sharp age divide between a previous group and a group that is “epitomic global, connected, socially-networked technologically-fluent digital native who has little patience for passive and linear forms of learning”

How many people make *that* argument other than Prensky? Maybe I don’t put myself in a position to see them, but I don’t see many Prensky-ites. Faculty *I* work with, talk with, and read have a much more nuanced understanding than that.

What none of these studies address is what I *am* seeing, which is a significant number of learners who have had longer-term and/or nearly immersive experience with three related technologies: personal computers, the web, and social networks that are exhibiting very similar characteristics. To a degree that it is worthwhile to consider them as a group or cluster when trying to educate in an environment that goes beyond the one-on-one.

I don’t generally disagree with much of what Bullen says– in that context. But I do have a problem with throwing out all the good (and true) because of some radicaly and misrepresentative view of the bad.

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