Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: As observers in both the popular media and academia have pointed out, institutions of higher education have increasingly begun to rethink the way in which teaching and learning occurs on their campuses in response to the matriculation of digital-age students, often referred to as the Net Gen or Millennials (Howe and Strauss 2000; Oblinger and Oblinger 2005). Computer and networked communication have become socially and culturally embedded throughout our students ' lives. Students not only consume the elements of a digital lifestyle, but also play a role in the production of "social practices that are evolving beyond the school within digitally saturated milieux " (Lankshear and Knobel 2003, 175). In this article we describe the results of an ethnographic study that sought to understand the ways in which liberal arts college students use technology to make meaning of their college experience in both academic and non-academic spaces on campus. While the students ' technology practices in spaces like their dorm reflected a portrait of today's Net Gen student made familiar by the media and others, the students' reluctance to use technology in their classrooms challenged stereotypical assumptions about the Net Gen's expectations for technology on campus. Our results suggest that attention to context is of great importance if we are to move away from generalized assumptions toward a more nuanced understanding of the role that technology plays in college students ' lives. Below, we briefly outline the current picture of the Net Gen before
Authors: Sarah Lohnes, Charles K. Kinzer
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Funder: Nova Southeastern University
OpenAlex ID: W1592036849