A friend at BECTA recently drew my attention to Learning from Digital Natives, a research project report recently produced by The Higher Education Academy. It offers a useful insight into how Web 2.0 or “social technologies” can benefit learning. One of the most intriguing recommendations is to “build a campus culture rich in social networking opportunities”. It got me thinking: smart-libraries that can recommend books to students; or a smart-bar in the students union that knows when you have had enough…!

This research was focussed on HE. It would be great to see a comparative study in secondary or primary schools. I’m not sure there are many teachers currently using Bebo or MySpace as an aid to learning but this paper clearly shows that there are benefits in doing so.

The report concludes:

“What we have learnt from our ‘digital natives’ in this study is that new e-tools and technologies afford processes with an informal focus on self-direction, communities of practice, collaboration, sharing and even identity exploration.

These young, and old, adults are active constructors of knowledge and are self motivated. These are skills we desire in our graduates and this provides a compelling argument to bring these skills and supporting technologies together…”