Sunday, November 23, 2008

Podcast: Nora Young interviewing Don Tapscott on the "Net Generation"

Earlier this month, Nora Young of CBC Radio interviewed Don Tapscott (24 min.). Tapscott is the the author of several books, including most recently Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is changing your world. In the interview, he outlines several norms for digital natives (or Net Gen as he calls them), including their desire:
  • To customize everything.
  • For choice.
  • To scrutinize things.
  • For innovation.
  • For speed in everything.
  • To have fun with the products and services that they use.
I highly recommend that you listen to the podcast (perhaps even twice), because Tapscott presents information on this generation clearly and in a way that will make you think.

And as you listen to the podcast, think about your digitization program and the web site you have created for it. Will digital natives -- including those school students that you want to use the information -- find it attractive? Will they be able to interact with the information in ways that they find appropriate? Or will they find that your site is similar to a department store window (which you can only look at and not do anything else with)? Will your site hold their attention or will they walk away?


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