I have recently read a few recent studies on the use of social networking software and “web 2.0″ in general among students and faculty. Very interesting stuff. I also surveyd our students and wrote about it last fall here. All of these studies indicate that even though students currently in universities do use technology, but are not so interested in using it productively or socially in their studies, and most do not use software belonging to the Web 2 category. The studies conclude that most current university students are NOT what Prensky (2001) calls Digital Natives. It seems that around 20-30% of students could fall in to that category.I have observed and actually also studied the technological skills, student attitudes towards the use of technology in learning as well as their readiness to use technology (e.g. owning devices, having access etc.)

I wrote an article for a University paper about the net generation finally arriving at the university back in 2004. I wrote that according to their technology ownership (adsl connections, computers etc.) it had arrived, but that is really just a part of the story..

Bennet et al.have just published an interesting review of research on current generation of university students. They criticize Prensky’s view, which claims that the generation born in 1980’s and early 90’s use ICT’s extensively and in a totally different way than previous generations, and that due to that we should completely reshape our educational system. So, educational system should change because of the way students use ICT’s? Well, my view is that we should encourage students to use ICT’s in creative ways in order to change the way people learn. Not vice versa.

Bennet et al. (2008) present a credible list of evidence that discredits Prensky’s notions. According to them, some researchers claim that due to the ways young people have grown to use technology, they also learn differently from past generations. Highly unlikely, they say, and so do I. And they present evidence to support this. Learning culture in formal institutions is so deeply rooted, that it will take more than a geneartion (or an army of bulldozers) to change that. Evaluation, competition, standards etc. are taking care that the ways people learn are not changing easily!

Bennet et al. question that a generation of digital natives actually exists. It is self-evident that a growing number young people have grown around technology. For many of them, using computers is an everyday activity. Statistics show that most young people in western countries do use computers a lot, for e-mail, many for instant messaging and so on. And most university students own computers (90% in Sibelius-Academy, similar numbers of over 90% in American universities, according to research cited by Bennet et al.). And almost everyone has a mobile phone. But what is also evident, is that computers are mostly used for word processing (as was in late 80’s!), e-mail and reading periodicals etc. Internet is mostly used for one-way communication, the way Web 1.0 was designed to be used. As Bennet et al. state ” It may be that there is as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations.” And: ” Generalizations about the ways in which digital natives learn also fail to recognise cognitive differences in young people of different ages” (Bennet et al. 2008).

According to my research, as well as research reviewed by Bennet et al., only around 20-30% of students use technology in initiative, truly self-directive, creative and social ways (e.g. edit & present video, publish their own music, maintain a blog, write to wiki’s). Hartshorne & Ajjan (2008) surveyed the use of and the attitudes toward web 2.0 applications among university students & faculty in the Fall of 2007  (in a large US university). According to their survey, 56% of the students don’t use and do not plan to use blogs (46% social networking, 20% wikis), and only 7% of them use blogs frequently (20% use wikis, 10% use social networking frequently). 62% of faculty do not plan to use blogs, 74% will continue to disregard social networking and 56% don’t plan to use blogs ni their academic activities. 1% of the faculty use social networking. Still, 69% of the students and 42% of the faculty see Wiki’s improving student learning. So, pedagogical benefits are acclaimed, but people choose not to use them. I guess it is easier to go on the way we have used to (see the complete results in the article! Highly recommended!).

I do believe that popularization of Facebook and other social networking services may change this slowly in the informal side of student life. But most of them seem to adhere to the more traditional ways of use in the formal side of their life -  in their studies that is. Research points out that technology plays such a different role in students’ home and school lifes, school activities often beinf teacher directed and strictly controlled (Bennet et al. 2008). The authors conclude that “..student’s every day technology practices may not be directly applicable to academic tasks, and so education has a vitally important role in fostering information literacies that will support learning”.

The so called digital natives are also claimed to be more skilled multitaskers than previous generations. Bennet et al. have not found evidence to support this (before students worked in front of TV, now in front of computers with distractions). Also, they point that “Multitasking may not be as beneficial as it appears and can result in a loss of concentration and cognitive “overload”…” I sure have noticed that when not in a state of “flow” in my work!!

So, a lot has to happen that technology be used in more initiative, creative and social ways in educational institutions. Lately I have also noticed (and my colleague Don Lebler from Brisbane, Australia suggested this!) that we have to first provide evidence for the students that they actually can learn better and will profit in the future from the novel ways of using technology. As one student I talked this morning said, it is difficult to know how to use technology, if one does not even know about the possibilities available!

UPDATE: See Jonathan Savage’s post from 2006 on the issue here!

**Bennet, S., Maton, K. & Kervin, L. (2008). The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational technology, Sept. 2008.

**Hartshorne, R. & Ajjan, H. 2008. Exploring the role of Web 2.0 Applications in Higher Education. Paper
presented at the North Carolina Teaching and Learning With Technology Conference 2008, Raleigh,
NC. http://conference.unctlt.org/proceedings/2008/2008_Proceedings_Pedagogy.pdf

**Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon 9(5), 1-6.

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