Net generation

Yesterday, I've had a chat with three colleagues (from three different faculties) about their use of podcasting and plans for the next academic year. Inevitably we also talked about other technologies (twitter, facebook) and also had a brief chat about ‘the net generation’, i.e. “today’s students”.

I’ve had a brief look on the internet and found two blogs that were an interesting read:
- http://edtechpd.blogspot.com/2009/06/myth-of-net-gen.html (Myth of the net gen)
and
- http://www.netgenskeptic.com/ (Study Questions Millennial Motivation)

I really want to look into this, as I’m planning to continue to implement and evaluate podcasts at our business school.
I’ve just finished (:-)) entering a survey that I did with last year’s Level 2 business students who were offered some podcasts over two semesters. I should note that in the past academic year, we introduced the podcasts during the semester whenever we finished one - it would have been more beneficial to present the students with the complete lot at the start of the semester (that’s the plan for the next academic year!).

An initial analysis shows that the vast majority of students accessed the podcasts on their laptop/PC and not on the iPods. The podcasts were visually-enhanced audio podcasts. Total student population 476, survey responses 177 - so that’s quite good.

Did the students not use their iPods because
a) they didn’t have video enabled ones?
b) they didn’t know how to transfer the files?
c) they just preferred a bigger screen? (laptop vs iPod)
d) or they considered their iPod for leisure time and their PC/laptop for study?? [as some responses indicate?]

I’ll investigate this, still got another survey to enter..