Educating the Net Generation is good!

So far I’ve made it through chapter 3 of Educating the Net Generation. I’m really loving it.
Here’s some representative quotes:

• “they’ve never known life without the internet”
• “they know more screen names than phone numbers”
• they tend to have a nonlinear thought process
• their differences include:
  ability to read visual images
  visual-spacial skills
  inductive discovery
  fast response time
• “they are constantly connected and always on”
• they thrive on social interaction
• to them technology means new features, a cell phone is not technology but a cell phone with a new feature is technology
• “instant messaging is not technology, it is an action”
• “the software blends into the background”
• they prefer face to face, not online interactions
• they are able to move seamlessly between social modes with ease — physical and virtual
• they thrive on first-person learning, experiential learning, constructivist learners
• “they are visually literate and are more comfortable in an image-rich environment rather than a text only”
• Power Point is there to “provide power to a particular point … not placing an entire course lesson on every slide”
• they share some characteristics with their grandparents, both are tinkers but take different approaches
• “they learn through social interaction”
• they know how to do what they do with technology, however this does not imply a deep understanding of technology

Whew! It’s really great so far. Beyond people just writing about the Net Generation, there’s also articles by members of the Net Generation.