presentation given at EDMEDIA2010 (http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/)

1. A research project in Ticino
(Switzerland)
Emanuele Rapetti Samanta Ciannamea Dr. Stefano Tardini Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni

2. Agenda
INTRO
1. Intro
“The only thing
2. Addressing the topic that does not change
1. Key-labels
is that at any and every time
2. Critical voices
3. LEARNERS’ VOICES
it appears
1. Aims that there have been
2. Methodology
‘great changes’. ”
3. Results M. Proust
4. Conclusions
Quotated by Bennett-Maton-Kervin in their
“Digital Natives. A critical review on the evidence”
02/07/2010 14.39.37 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 2

3. 1. Addressing the topic
Key-labels
One dominant perspective:
Three key-labels:
DIGITALIZED
a. DIGITAL NATIVES GENERATION
(Prensky, 2001)
b. GENERATION Y OF LEARNERS
(Howe & Strauss, 1991)
c. NET GENERATION
(Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005)
02/07/2010 14.40.06 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 3
www.francisanderson.wordpress.com

4. The adoption of this model
in instructional design
Key-points:
-Teachers have to stay up-to-date
with technologies development
-Students need learning
experiences that fit with their
cognitive style
-Task-oriented
-Multitasking
-Collaborative
-Fast
-Focused
-Sharing-based
02/07/2010 14.40.13 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 4

5. 2. Addressing the topic
Critical voices - Ethnocentrism (USA)
- Unbalancing ICTs-people
- Learning processes
a. Schulmeister
simplification and generational
(2008)
b. Bennett, Maton & Kervin stereotypes
(2008) - A-critical acceptance of digital
c. Bullen
www.netgenskeptic.com
divides
(2008-present) - Determinism in Education
- Undemonstrated “media skills”
- …
02/07/2010 14.40.16 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 5

6. …what do they think about?
…how do they manage their media diet?
…how do they self-perceive their digital learnings?
02/07/2010 14.40.32 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 6

7. 3. LEARNERS’ VOICES
Aims To understand and observe in
higher education context:
- Real ICTs usages in learning
Within a broader research experiences
approach about ICTs,
eLearning and learning: - Nowadays learners’ themselves
eEthnography perceptions
In contact with similar
researches in UK, Italy,
and at the OECD
- If age can be considered the
independent variable to define
a tech-savvy and tech-oriented
group of students
02/07/2010 14.40.40 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 7

8. 3. LEARNERS’ VOICES @USI-SUPSI
Methodology
Sample:
562 university students of the
italian speaking part of
Online questionnaire
Switzerland (Ticino)
Age: Step1: descriptive stats about
Min 17; Max 75; Mean 24,5
learners’ (self)perceptions,
Context: behaviors, and preferences
USI – Università della Svizzera
italiana
Step2: crosstabs and cluster
SUPSI – University of Applied analysis questioning age factor
Sciences and Arts of
Southern Switzerland
9 different faculties
02/07/2010 14.42.44 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 8

9. Questions sections:
• Personal data (age, gender, course,
etc). • Learning preferences (in general and
• Owned digital technologies. concerning ICTs).
• Access to the internet. • The role of ICTs in studies/learning
• Online activities and frequency of experiences.
usage. • eLearning perception.
• Most used applications. • Rationales in using ICTs for learning.
• The role of ICTs in everyday life.
02/07/2010 14.43.20 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 9

10. 3. LEARNERS’ VOICES @USI-SUPSI
Results
The daily media diet
The 5 activities that students pursue daily:
•Use a search engine (79.3%)
•Read / write e-mail (78.1%)
•Watch a film / play audio files (38.5%)
•Read newsletters or alerts (36.6%)
•Read newspapers (34.8%)
02/07/2010 14.47.45 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 10

11. 3. LEARNERS’ VOICES @USI-SUPSI
Results
The role of ICTs
02/07/2010 14.45.47 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 11

12. 3. LEARNERS’ VOICES @USI-SUPSI
Results
The preferred strategies to learn
A lot Fairly A little Not at all
When you learn, you prefer: in% in% in% in%
Lectures in classroom 52.3 41.8 5.1 .8
Search engines 57.2 32.2 9.0 1.6
Individual study (using books, notes, folders etc.) 50.8 38.7 9.4 1.2
Wikipedia 35.4 43.2 16.8 4.7
Online platforms (eLearning) 35.0 37.1 22.3 5.7
Websites/specialized blogs 33.2 34.6 23.4 8.8
Individual lessons 30.7 35.0 27.0 7.4
Printed dictionary/enciclopedia 16.8 38.1 35.2 10.0
Multimedial supports 13.9 27.7 38.1 20.3
Social networking sites 8.6 11.7 31.6 48.0
The preferred way to learn
[Sample: 562. This question, missing: 50;
total 512 (100%). Multiple choice]
02/07/2010 14.43.40 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 12

13. Summing up results
about age
Does AGE influence nowdays learners… Crosstabs says:
1. Concerning the ICTs they use the most? 1. No
2. About their eLearning perception? 2. No
3. In the way they set their media diet? 3. Yes
4. Concerning the learning tools they prefer? 4. Yes
5. If observing the time they spend online to learn? 5. No
02/07/2010 14.37.56 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 13

14. Conclusions
• Average,
– AGE can not be considered the independent variable to identify
tech-oriented learners
• Rather
– It is part of a corpus of explaining factors, inter-related but
never directly correlated
• Such
– economical condition
(e.g.: palms adults)
– Discipline choice
(e.g.: web 2.0 tools engineers and computer scientists)
– eLearning familiarity
(e.s.: Moodle university platform Communication and Economy students)
02/07/2010 14.31.23 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 14

15. Key-references
• Bennet, S., Maton, K., Kervin, L. (2008), “The ‘digital natives’ debate: a
critical review of the evidence” in British Journal of Educational
Technology, volume 39, issue 5, pp. 775-786
• Pedrò, F. (2006), The New Millennium Learners. Challenging our views on
ICT and learning, OECD-CERI background paper
• Schulmeister R. (2008b), “Is There a Net Gener in the House? Dispelling a
Mystification”, in Eleed (E-learning and Education Online Journal), n. 5. In
internet: http://eleed.campussource.de/archive/5/1587 .
• Bullen M. (2008-2010) The NetGen Skeptics blog
http://www.netgenskeptic.com
• Cantoni, L., Rapetti, E. & Tardini, S. (2010), “Generation Y between myth
and reality” in (ed.) Salvetti, F., Glocal Working, FrancoAngeli, Milano
(forthcoming).
02/07/2010 14.30.35 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 15

16. Questions?? ?
emanuele.rapetti@usi.ch | www.newmine.org
02/07/2010 14.30.32 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 16

17. 02/07/2010 14.30.46 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 17

18. 02/07/2010 14.30.57 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 18

19. 02/07/2010 14.31.02 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 19

20. 02/07/2010 14.31.04 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 20

21. Historico-socio-cultural Educative-cognitive
(by Howe & Strauss) (by Junco & Mastrodicasa)
1. Special 1. driven to success
(they feel this way because of the big economic and educative (goal-oriented, they want high-rates and prefer to get the best
attention their parents devoted to them) mark instead of criticizing a teacher)
2. sheltered 2. social
(never before children received so much protection, in medicine, (they love to interact in learning: fewer lectures and more
as well as in social experiences) discussions)
3. confident 3. experiential learners
(they trust in authority because parents and educators gave them (learning with PCs, they developed the trial-and-error way to
a lot) think, they dislike instructional manuals and like to gather information
surfing freely on Internet)
4. conventional 4. multitasking
(in opposition with genX, they prefer to respect rules of conduct, (because of the “development of their learning processes using
proper dress and social authority and not to take risks) such technologies, they developed cognitive processing styles that can
be described as ‘hypertext’ in nature”)
5. team-oriented
(because of the experience in school and the opportunities given
by the Web 2.0)
6. Achieving
(in average, they score much better than even before)
7. Pressured
(they have been spoiled and cuddled to reach the top, now they
feel it’s time to give in back something)
02/07/2010 14.31.04 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 21

22. Enlarging or changing
the paradigm?
02/07/2010 14.31.05 Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH) @ ED-MEDIA2010 22