Neue Generation, neue Medien und eine neue Bildung?

Extract Neue Generation, neue Medien und eine neue Bildung? Theo Bastiaens & Claudia Schrader Abstract This chapter focuses on the question of what influence societal changes have on learners, their learning behavior and the curriculum. Fact is that there has been one major change with an enormous impactand that is the shift towards a network society. Thanks to technology it is possible to communicate, collaborate, and exchange information effortlessly. Especially due to the digitization of materials, the availability of knowledge is without difficulty and world- wide. From the individual perspective of the learner the impact is huge. Some observations suggest that a new generation of ‘digital’ learners is born with extraordinary new competences and a different learning behavior. However, more conservative researchers think that there is nothing new about this generation. The authors take the position that the truth lies in the mid- dle of the discussion. And that only the availability of ICT tools (and with that the ubiquity of information) is already enough justification to instantly innovate the curriculum and change the focus from learning by heart to more practical usage of knowledge in schools. Next to this, authentic learning theories predict improvements in transfer of learning and students mo- tivation. However, it is stressed that a constructivist approach needs to be combined with in- struction (learners somehow need guidance and advise)