March-Grown+Up+Digital+Reflections+Chapters+3-4

“Grown Up Digital” Chapters 3-4 Chapter 3 Don Tapscott defined eight norms and characteristics that help to define the net generation. The net generation desires //freedom//—this includes their freedoms in the workplace and economy and education. The net generation wants to choose working conditions that best fit their lifestyle and frequently change careers. The net generation is challenging how employees are evaluated for their work and performance. In education, the net generation wants information on their schedule and access to vast amounts of knowledge and learning. The net gen wants products that meet their needs and products that can be personalized. They want //customization//. With the vast amount of information that is available to the net generation, they must be able to //scrutinize// information—readily willing to trust this information, but must verify the accuracy. The net generation acts with //integrity//. They use their access to information to think globally and bring their actions locally. Research shows that youth are acting with integrity with less risky behavior. In addition, they expect integrity and transparency from others—including businesses and politicians. The net generations are //collaborators//. This is having a major impact in the retail market—the net gen wants to be active consumers, working to create new products. For educators, this means that the net gen wants to collaborate in school with each other and their teachers. The net generation wants //entertainment// from technology and is their careers. They want //speed//, but feel pressure for the immediateness of the world in which they live. The last characteristic of the net generation is //innovation//. The net gen wants the latest and greatest, and it cannot come fast enough. The rate of change is overwhelming.  Chapter 4 Growing up digital does change how the brain changes and grows throughout a person’s lifetime. Several researchers have argued that because of growing up digital, especially because of the amount of video game time and computer screen time, the net generation is not as intelligent as previous generations. However, Tapscott argues otherwise. Because of the amount of information available and rapidly coming at the net gen, the net generation may have added skills for reading, interpreting, analyzing, and synthesizing information. The net generation has skills to rapidly scan text and switch from multiple tasks—important due to the vast amounts of information bombarding the net generation from various sources. It is still debated about the net generation’s effectiveness at multitasking.  The net generation spends a large amount of time playing video games. These games may appear to promote and develop important cognitive skills. These skills include visual-spatial reasoning, multi-divided attention, and hypothesis testing. Gamers are able to notice more in their visual fields. In multi-player games, they promote collaboration, sometimes even globally. Because of the increased visual skills, the net generation is better able at reading pictures, graphs, and icons; therefore, they read webpages and printed text differently than previous generations.