Rosen, L. (2010). Welcome to the iGeneration!. Education Digest: Essential Readings
This article was a short read about the characteristics and habits of what the author refers to as the “iGeneration”—the generation of youth who were born in the Internet age/1990s and the new century. It details the many ways in which technology is integrated into the lives of kids and adolescents today. I found this rather simple statement from the author to be quite profound: “To put it simply, children have grown up in an environment where technology is everywhere and much of it is invisible” (8). The article also included a data table which surveyed “iGeneration” youth about the amount of time that they spent consuming various forms of media and technology; the list included the Internet, computers, email, IM/chatting, telephone, texting, video games, music and TV. The youngest age group (4 to 8 year-olds) spent around five and a half hours consuming media and technology daily, while the oldest group (16-18 year-olds) spent over twenty hours a day. These surprising numbers are actually in line with other research. However, all generations are using technology or media with more frequency: Baby Boomers average nine and a half hours of consumption a day, while Generation X-ers clock in at fifteen hours and Generation Y members average around twenty hours. Overall, the author vaguely advocates for a revamping or “rewiring” (12) of education and classrooms in order to meet the needs of “iGeneration” youth (he actually plugs for his book, which made me cringe).
Given that technology is such an integral part of young people’s lives, I have wondered about how their learning and development will be different when I finally start teaching. For instance, the wealth of information available on the Internet is something that is entirely natural to today’s youth. Though I am in my early twenties, I certainly remember what life was like before the Internet. But even today, when it comes to something like historical or academic research, it is the place where we all begin. It is dawning on me that teaching my future students certain skills—for example, how to evaluate the credibility of resources—will look very different in some respects compared to how it used to be (e.g., with a book in front of you as opposed to a web page). Still, the fundamentals do not change. Kids will learn to look for things like biases within a source, how information about the author and context affect understanding of the source, and so on. The bigger challenge will be in keeping pace with the rate at which new technologies become apart of student lives and learning—something that will become increasingly important as our lives become more “wired.” While it is hard (though somewhat amusing) to imagine now, I will very likely hit a point in my career where students begin to regard me as a “dinosaur” when it comes to technology. The kids will always be miles ahead of their teacher in this respect. But as long as they are learning, this needn’t matter.
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