Also, we never claim economic considerations are the sole or even the main reason why students should be on a trajectory leading to mature knowledge creation. Homer-Dixon’s books The Ingenuity Gap and The Upside of Down provide a much more comprehensive argument, one that rests on the increasing complexity of the problems societies must deal with. Scardamalia’s and my views on these matters are most fully elaborated in our chapter in the new edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology.

That is just rubbish. Throughout the history of mankind, it has been the old generation who has taught the young the history and ways of the community, and it has been the new generation that has taken those teachings, and taken society into new areas.

Luther was not an old man, nor was Galileo, Newton, or Darwin, when they made their discoveries or conclusions that shook the foundations of the established society. It has been the 20-30-year-olds who have invented airoplanes, automobiles, and so on. And it is a commonly known fact for example in mathematics that a mathematician over 30 won’t make any groundbreaking advances any more.

It has always been the students, the youth, who have furthered society. They in turn will turn into the “previous generation” and will become conservatist, trying to protect the society they helped create. But the next generation is always there, changing things.

Granted, the Internet provides lots of possibilities, but it’s just a technology that facilitates. We’ve had face to face meetings, written letters, books, and journals, for centuries. The net just makes all of this easier and faster. Maybe.

But it’s always been the children who are most comfortable with the new technologies and ideas.

La querelle entre les empiristes et les rformistes qui dchire le monde de lducation repose sur des approches philosophiques divergentes. Norm Friesen attire notre attention sur une reprsentation des influences philosophiques qui divisent le monde de ld…

I wonder too about Tapscott’s assertion that “For the first time in history, children are more comfortable, knowledgeable, and literate than their parents about an innovation central to their society.” Really? What about the telephone, tv, and film to name a few examples?

Additionally, the Livingstone, Bober & Helsper methodologically suspect, dividing internet skills into two categories, embracing ‘opportunities’ and avoiding ‘risks’. It is not clear (and not argued) that the opportunities listed are in fact opportunities, nor is it clear that the dangers are dangers. The latter category, in fact, is made up exclusively of access to pornography, revealing information, and having friends.

This does not undermine the main argument of the section, which is to suggest that the net generation is not defined by age group alone. It is in fact defined by access, and hence, will not line up exactly with age.

But is this the myth, that the net generation is not defined exclusively by age? I cannot think of any proponent of the theory who would explicitly say so, nor certainly would they when pressed with questions about, say, net gen behaviours in the developing world.

That said, the definitions used in the Livingstone, Bober & Helsper study mask what constitutes net gen behaviour, even among those classified as being on the wrong side of the digital divide in this section. Access to mobil phones, for example, is near ubiquitous, even in the developing world, and therefore it is reasonable to suggest that associated net gen behaviours - such as ‘thumbing’ and ‘txting’ - would be found wouldwide, as would related attitudes - such as ‘connectivity’ and ’self organization’.

Does it therefore that the conusion is false, that we should not believe that “It is important to address significant inequalities in use, understanding, and facility associated with these new technologies, rather than simply painting all students with the same brush.”

Of course not. This remains true. It has probably always been seen as true, save among the most pedagogically naive.

I would be more interested in seeing whether access to technology increases or decreases the differences between children of the privileged and children of the poor.

Compare, for example, the life of the child of a New York doctor with the life of, say, a Colombian orphan. If any such studies were conducted prior to the use of the internet, we can then compare those results with results from today, in the internet age (and for fun, with what the results look like when free interenet access is provided to both children).

My belief is that these children would be less dissimilar today, and that this dissimilarity can be traced to the permeation of ‘net gen culture’ into their two lives respectively.

— Stephen