Net Gen Hype Gets in the Way

In chapter 14 of Educating the Net Generation, Carole Barone makes a a powerful case for significant institutional change in higher education to address the changing social and economic realities. She argues that technology and pedagogy are converging and in the process challenging "the structure, governance, power relationships, and cultural values of the traditional campus. Efforts to transform higher education face deeply entrenched cultural, behavioral, and philosophical resistance" (p. 14-1).

She calls for the creation of a "new academy" that is founded on five characteristics:

• The interplay of culture and technology (the socio-technological context)
• A multidimensional framework for action
• New cultural values
• A new style of leadership
• The relationship of learning to space

But one of her main arguments for this change is based on the net generation hype:

"The arrival of the Net Generation on campus is causing unrest in the classroom.¹ A wave of young people empowered to create knowledge, not merely absorb it, now flows in and out of the classroom, calling into question the convictions and processes that have served as the foundation of traditional higher education. It remains to be seen whether traditional higher education will adjust sufficiently to truly engage the Net Generation."

And on what does she base this claim of the net generation revolution ? Two articles. One by Jason Frand, The Information-Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education that is based entirely on the author's personal observations of students at his institution, but no solid empirical research. The other, a thoughtful and interesting article by Gary Brown, that discusses what he sees as the growing disengagement of students from learning in higher education and the sense that higher education and what happens in the real world are two different things. Neither of these provide the evidence of the the Net Generation revolution that Barone speaks of.

A strong case can be made for institutional change in higher education without resorting to unsubstantiated claims about the Net Generation.