A cross-cutting theme informing our work on teaching and learning in recent years has been understanding the increasing population of students who have grown up with computer and information technologies. While these students are often described as very different from older generations in their use of technology, many of the characteristics of their uses of information and technology (such as actively exploring and developing their own learning environments, working in groups, and producing, not just consuming, digital resources) have also been incorporated into the lives of most adult professionals. We help institutions understand the need to reconfigure some of their services and their physical and virtual spaces to reflect the ways in which our students work with technology and information today.
As both students and faculty increasingly produce new digital information, sometimes incorporating parts of others’ work, and often in complex social software contexts, they have a pressing need to understand a wide range of issues including intellectual property, privacy, preservation, format standards, and metadata creation. A variety of literacies–information, technology, and visual–are converging as students, faculty, and others produce innovative digital content.
