The Net Generation Goes to University

Abstract

This paper describes an attempt to take a snapshot of the latest generation of students entering tertiary education. The higher education sector is one of the largest consumers of information technology in Australia. Universities invest massive amounts of money on technology based on what they believe students need, want, and already have. Coupled with a perception that emerging technology is the domain of the next generation, it becomes attractive to assume (or hope) that each intake of undergraduate students is more self-sufficient than its predecessors when it comes to digital media. In 2005, Charles Sturt University surveyed its 1st year cohort of undergraduate Communication students in their first week on campus. The primary aim was to test perceptions that the new generation of students can be categorised as Digital Natives, Marc Prensky's term (2002) to describe what has variously been called the