Fostering students’ evaluation behaviour while searching the internet

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The \u27digital natives\u27 debate: a critical review of the evidence

The idea that a new generation of students is entering the education system has excited recent attention amongst educators and education commentators. Termed ‘digital natives’ or the ‘Net generation’, these young people are said to have been immersed in technology all their lives, imbuing them with sophisticated technical skills and learning preferences for which traditional education is unprepared. Grand claims are being made about the nature of this generational change and about the urgent necessity for educational reform in response. A sense of impending crisis pervades this debate. However the actual situation is far from clear. In this paper, the authors draw on the fields of education and sociology to analyse the digital natives debate. The paper presents and questions the main claims made about digital natives and analyses the nature of the debate itself. We argue that rather than being empirically and theoretically informed, the debate can be likened to an academic form of a ‘moral panic’. We propose that a more measured and disinterested approach is now required to investigate ‘digital natives’ and their implications for education

Use of Social Media across Different Generations in Higher Education in a Developing Country

While social media is increasing its extent and reach every day, research shows that its impact seems to be more intense in developing countries for various reasons. In developing countries, social media not only satisfies personal communication needs but also tends to compete with mainstream media for news and play a significant role in social movements. Hence potential use of this mounting medium for education needs to be explored. In this study, a social media and education survey has been prepared in order to measure perceptions, awareness and concerns of students and educators coming from different generations on the topic of social media and its use in education. Such a study is crucial to materialize different policies and strategies for enhancing education with this popular and freely available technology. Students' and faculty members' perceptions, expectations and willingness about the educational use of social media are analyzed and different generations are compared. Results of this study could shed light for developing various strategies for integration of social media into Higher Education in developing countries where the difference between generations is typically felt larger