Broadband, Social Networks, and Mobility Have Spawned a New Kind of Learner
By John K. Waters, T.H.E. Journal

Students are different today because of technology. Every educator knows this, of course, but this change is about much more than agile thumbs, shriveling attention spans, and OMG'd vocabularies. According the Pew Research Center, the combination of widespread access to broadband Internet connectivity, the popularity of social networking, and the near ubiquity of mobile computing is producing a fundamentally new kind of learner, one that is self-directed, better equipped to capture information, more reliant on feedback from peers, more inclined to collaborate, and more oriented toward being their own "nodes of production."

"These three elements together have changed the context of learning," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. "Today, knowledge is literally at your fingertips."

Rainie spoke to attendees at the 2011 State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. The Pew Center's Internet and American Life Project is a non-profit, non--partisan "fact tank" that studies the social impact of the Internet. Rainie is a co-author of Up for Grabs; Hopes and Fears; Ubiquity, Mobility, Security; and Challenges and Opportunities--books focused on the future of the Internet. He's also co-authoring a book, expected to debut in early 2012 from MIT Press, on the social impact of technology.

"I don't have to have an opinion," Rainie joked during his keynote. "I just have to find out what's true."

The Pew Center conducted its first survey of Internet behavior in 1999 and watched what Rainie called "the broadband revolution" unfold.

"We watched as the world moved from a dial-up world to a broadband world," he said." The spread of broadband made it possible for students to become content creators. We know that three-quarters of Internet-connected teenagers now create content and share it online. It's not necessarily profound stuff--it's not War and Peace. They're sharing status updates; they're telling stories about their lives; they're reacting to things; and they're rating and ranking things. But that's the way people are using these new tools to tell stories about themselves."

According to the Pew Center, 95 percent of teenagers now use the Internet, while 78 percent of adults use it. And 82 percent of teenagers (ages 12-17) have broadband at home, as opposed to 62 percent of adults.

There’s more at: http://thejournal.com/Articles/2011/12/13/Broadband-Social-Networks-and-Mobility.aspx?Page=1