http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0353.pdf
This article from the latest educause journal describes nine patterns in the changing educational landscape, the first of which is “Learning and teaching have changed, as has cognition” (emphasis mine.) It goes on in greater detail to explain that:
A growing number of todays students, whose cognition was formed in the digital age, take access to the Internet for granted; access is simply an essential aspect of daily life. These students display an Information-Age Mindset: they expect to try things rather than hear about things; and they tend to learn visually and socially. Todays students are accustomed to using technology to organize and integrate knowledge. These students are polite, but also bewildered at first, later disappointed, and often finally disillusioned and dispirited by passive learning experiences.
Is it in fact ‘cognition,’ the act through which we ‘come to know,’ that is changing? Well … maybe. But I couldn’t just let this statement slip by, as it is uttered with apparent certainty and yet the amount of contention surrounding this one issue can, and indeed has, filled up more than a few books. – SWL
– via [OLDaily]