It seems that one characteristic of “Net Gen” is missing from Brown’s chart: their lack of metacognition. Bransford et al. touch on this idea in chapter two of How People Learn by indicating that metacognition is “the ability to monitor one's current level of understanding and decide when it is not adequate” (7). This seems to be a serious detriment of most typical students today, especially if it is true that “the ability to recognize the limits of one's current knowledge, then take steps to remedy the situation, is extremely important for learners at all ages” (7). Most high school students today do not accept or uphold that responsibility. In fact, most learners do not feel that responsibility; teachers in classrooms, leaders of schools, and the common citizen on the street do not value the self-reflection of metacognition. This understanding holds important implications for the design of learning spaces.
Dan Gilbert Thanks for sharing this and highlighting the importance of metacognition. I wonder if learners do feel the responsibility that you metnion but are thinking about it in different terms. Obviously the 'person on the street' is not going to throw around a word like metacognition; I think however that the widespread and rapid adoption of blogs is an example that many people feel the need to say something about their experiences. And even if they are not read by many people, the very act of putting your thoughts about anything down somewhere seems to me to pass a minimal threshold of reflective.