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Summary: Insightful!
Review: Don Tapscott has compiled information about today's youth and what they will mean to the future of the economy and society. He interviewed children extensively and he found that the new generation bases its thinking on technology. Its ideas of work and play are very different from those in the past.The book is an easy read, written in a way that draws you into the world of today's youth. Common misconceptions about kids are tossed away in favor of information about the realities of this generation. Companies that wish to compete in the new millennium are urged to throw off the past and embrace the new generation and its ideas. Tapscott describes the Net Generation in a very good light - almost too good to be true. The book is well written and interesting. It can help any organization prepare for the future. We at getAbstract recommend the book to executives who deal with strategic issues or manage technology intensive companies.
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Summary: Exploring the future with those who'll create it
Review: Don Tapscott has created a master work. He combines the rigorous eye of a researcher and commentator with curiousity, compassion and sometimes amusement at this sharp, hip and savvey generation weaned on digital technologies and the wide open world of the internet. Leaders across every industry and arena should read this book. Growing Up Digital proves that the seeds of the change we worry about planting in the world of business are already sprouting and flourishing in our youth. Let's not worry about how young people will deal with the digital world, let's learn from them instead. Thank you Don, for this compelling glimpse of the next century.
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Summary: Among the most compelling and provocative books I've read.
Review: Don Tapscott has written a landmark book on the new generation which is growing up digital. This is must reading for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of our time and what the future holds for us in the next century. If only to understand our own children, the read is worth it. It's a roadmap for anyone who wants to educate, communicate or do commerce with N-Geners and with those who come under their influence. Written in lucid language, it's stimulating and thought provoking throughout. It may not sit well with those locked into the status quo, but if Tapscott is right, there is reason for great hope about the next generation. They'll do better and our world is going to benefit.
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Summary: A Few interesting Points for Parenting and Teaching
Review: Don Tapscott's " Growing Up Digital" starts out as a compelling look into how children growing up in interactive rather than passive medium will change society. However, in order to make his point he resorts to making adults sound slightly stupid and his own child sounding like a mini genius. The major points he makes in his book are good but take too long to develop and are then stated repeatedly. (I got it the first time!) He does manage to help change the perception that many kids are going in Hell in a handbasket, and at the same time makes the point that using the Internet is a positive activity. I am glad that I read the book , but do not plan on picking it up again.
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Summary: The multi-faceted divide.
Review: Don Tapscott's book, in conjunction with the associated web-site, provides a continuing survey-based description of the involvement of the next generation, dubbed "N-Geners," in the digital revolution. The survey taps the opinions and experiences of kids from about 11 to 18+ years, in the use and exploration of the information technologies with which they are growing up. This book is a very useful resource for those wishing to understand why teen and sub-teen children are on the computer and not on the phone. It also provides significant insights into the education, business, and social trends of the "online" generation. Many of the insights are revelational and contrary to what many people think are the directions in which youngsters are headed as a result of their online experiences and the time spent in that environment. An intriguing implication arising out of Tapscott's observation that "...the Net is a text-based communications medium" (p. 99), is that "digital kids," or "N-Geners" are textually/verbally oriented. Doesn't that give rise to another facet of the digital divide? Not everyone is verbal; in cognitive style, learning preference, or expression. Is the Net, then, promoting the advance of "Verbals" over "Non-verbals" in much the same way as most institutions of higher learning?
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Summary: Teacher perspective on the N-Generation
Review: Don Tapscott's Growing Up Digital provides the insider perspective on what it means to be part of the net generation. His work is the result of discussions and interviews with young people all over the world during a one-year period. What he presents to his readers is insight into the impact the Internet has had on our youth and the power this generation brings with it in making a new future. To those of us born into the Baby-boomer generation, technology and the information age are seen as challenging obstacles for us to overcome in order to survive in today's world. To the net generation, technology is merely an extension of self and is used to explore one's world to the fullest. N-Geners are born into an age of interactive digital media. They have an active role in seeking information, making connections, forming opinions, and nurturing relationships. Their time spent on the computer is in no way comparable to a previous generation's time spent in front of TV. N-Geners are forging intellectual pathways through their time learning and manipulating available digital tools. They are comfortable being in control of their own destinies. They have a solid self-image and seek authentic recognition for their talents and achievements. This is the generation that will truly transition our society into the "Information Age". The challenge they offer to society is to provide them with a meaningful education. No longer will it be appropriate to "broadcast" packets of information from a podium. These students need to learn by manipulating the information, processing opinions, forming new judgments, analyzing perspectives. This is a generation that needs to have an active learning environment. Not only do schools need to provide the mechanical means by which students can stay current and connected, but must also adjust the curriculum and standards to adapt to a population that will participate in its own education. N-Geners are globally aware and connected. They routinely collaborate across racial, gender, social, economic, and cultural divides. The neutrality that the net offers is changing the social interactions of this generation. Furthermore, they are preparing for a world where intellectual capital is the value of a company. These individuals know how to work as a team without losing their sense of identity. They recognize the necessity and value of collaboration and information management. Life in the 21st Century promises new challenges and new perspectives. The net generation will be fulfilling those challenges by bringing their fierce independence, social awareness, demand for equity, creativity, and inquisitiveness to the workforce. The traditional hierarchy of the old corporation will not survive these new workers. The office of tomorrow will have to be a true learning organization that is organized not vertically, but horizontally with equal recognition of all collaborators. N-Geners will be the intellectual capital of the future.
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Summary: Parents, educators and business leaders don't miss this one!
Review: Growing Up Digital is a must read for parents, educators, business leaders, and anyone else concerned about the future. According to Don Tapscott, the fact that the Net Generation is the first to know more about technology than their parents and to control the use of the new media has serious implications that must be considered. Their expertise and knowledge are causing a power shift in the relationship of children in the family, the school, and potentially the workplace, and the economy. Throughout the book, Tapscott discusses the potential impact of the N-generation on these institutions and enthusiastically paints a reassuring picture of the new technologies overall effects. He bases his conclusions on anecdotal evidence, case studies, personal interviews, and research conducted in a limited number of newsgroups, chats and MOOs. His findings suggest that children have been empowered by the digital media to develop critical thinking skills and use technology to gather, evaluate, and synthesize information. They thrive on interacting and communicating, and are developing skills in collaborating and teamwork. Though they reject many aspects of the status quo, they are active proponents of saving the environment and the planet. They accept diversity and have global awareness and consciousness. Tapscott creates a roadmap of the changes he believes must take place in education and industry in order to accommodate the n-generation. He outlines the new role that teachers must take-that of facilitator and motivator--and urges a shift from pedagogy to the creation of learning partnerships and learning cultures with both teachers and students participating in the design. He proposes a learning model of student-centered discovery enabled by emerging technologies. According to Tapscott, as the Net Generation takes their place as knowledge workers in the corporate world, organizations must restructure to accommodate their networked learning/working style. Because they are the key capital investment in their corporations, organizations with hierarchical, top-down models of leadership will not survive. Only corporations that adapt to their needs for flatter, more open and responsive organizations and culture, and open communication will be able to maintain their human assets. Tapscott's warn us to act now to prevent a digital divide, caused by the fact that many families and schools do not have computers and access to the Internet. He argues that unless government, business, and the private sector take roles in financing, building, and supporting new media technology growth in the schools and communities, we may end up as a two-tiered society. Overall, I felt this book provides a powerful picture of the effect of growing up digital on the Net Generation and our future economy, social structures, industry, and culture. If we can adapt, the future looks promising.
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Summary: The next generation as seen by the net generation
Review: Growing Up Digital is an insightful look at the world of tomorrow, through the children who are growing up with digital technology as the last generation grew up with the TV, as a part of the culture itself. The book is a must read for anyone trying to understand why their children know so much more than them about computers and the Net. Plenty of supporting research.
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Summary: Excellent Book on the Net Generation
Review: Growing Up Digital, is an intellectually stimulating book, that explains the rise of the Net Generation in comparison to the baby boomers. Don Tapscott designed this book to give the reader a real representation of how the Net Generation feels about technological advances. He was able to compare a generation that has grown up with the television, to a generation who is surrounded by this digital technology. In today's society, children are greatly affected by the Internet and other digital technology. Tapscott goes to great lengths illustrating how this technology plays a role in their daily lives. These children that have access to the information highway are developing socially, intellectually, and cognitively much more rapidly than previous generations. They are being exposed to a communication link that is instant and cheap. For instance, a child can download homework that he/she missed from school or chat with a pen pal from Japan. Tapscott explained that these web users are not "couch potatoes" but rather interacting with others. Tapscott not only informs the reader about the web users interactions, but also the way in which these "N-Geners" think and communicate with one another. Don Tapscott has created some intriguing insights, which allow the reader to see the reality of the Net Generation and their advantages socially and intellectually over previous generations. Tapscott leads his readers into the compelling depths of the interactive world. I would definately recommend this book to individuals who are interested in the children of our society today.
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Summary: Net Geners Seize the Day and the Future
Review: Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation. Don Tapscott 1998. Tapscott acknowledges and celebrates that "The Children of a Digital Age" are reconfiguring our work environments, relationships, educational systems and learning modes, concepts of citizenship and democracy, and our present and future. Tapscott, author of "Digital Economy" and others, President of New Paradigm Learning Corporation and chairman of a think tank funded by leading technology and government organizations, offers an insiders view of the "Net Generation". The "N-Geners" are over 88 million strong and represent the largest demographic group in the United States and Canada. They are the pioneering generation growing up immersed in the ubiquitous new digital media - computers, the Internet, CD-ROMs, video games and more. Forget a childhood of imaginary playmates - "Net Geners" now use their imaginations and technology skills to communicate across the Web, ignoring limitations of location and time via digital media. Major themes explored in "Growing Up Digital" include social transformation, democracy and citizenship, the nature of education, learning, business, communication and interactivity in the digital media era. Tapscott approaches this post "Smells like Teen Spirit" Nirvana-generation with sheer fascination and importantly, respect. Tapscott's strength is his willingness to listen. As a young "N-Gener" interviewee points out, she feels that adults take her opinion more seriously because she may know more about technology than they do. The Net interview discussions with 300 youth between the age of four and twenty, led by a research team leader all of 24 years old, produced fascinating insights into our future - who we are and who will be as students, teachers, workers, citizens, consumers. Tapscott's exuberance for our collective "brave new world" as a digital media-shaped society is tempered by an acknowledgement of the widening global digital divide. He points out that "N-Geners" may end up a fractured society of Information Haves and Have-Nots - a situation all too reminiscent of inequalities not new to this century. Need to catch up on your children's or your students' tech lingo? Why can your daughter or son access and manage these technologies with grace and a sense of play while the rest of us and our last century contemporaries secretly scratch our heads? Written in 1998, Tapscott's book is a manual for the 21st century. Other academicians may research these areas from a deeper scholarly, research-oriented perspective. Tapscott offers an enjoyable and illuminating read for educators, parents, business moguls - anyone with a vested interest in joining in the information revolution - everyone except "Net Geners" themselves - they already know... Teresa Grenot
Doctoral Student
Pepperdine University
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