How to Teach and Manage 'Generation Net'

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The Industrial Age model of pedagogy is so embedded in the everyday practices of America's schools that it will take time to truly change. Consider an example from a 2007 study of the quality of students' experiences in 2,500 U.S. elementary school classrooms. It found that students were spending the vast majority of their classroom time listening to the teacher or working alone on low-level math or reading worksheets.

Education obviously shouldn't be confined to schools and colleges and universities, either. We're now faced with the fast-paced world of the information age, where, as jobs change, you can't take the time to send workers back to school for retraining. We have entered the era of lifelong learning. In some technical areas of study, half of what you learned in your freshman year might be obsolete by the time you graduate.

discretion on the Web

Learning has to be part of work. Rather than maintaining separate training programs, companies should make learning part of a Net Gener's job. For example, some companies are making it compulsory for young employees to blog, so that they learn more about the company's approach and start thinking about big ideas. We try to do this at the nGenera Insight, a community of thought leaders, researchers, and experts working to help companies adapt to the Net Generation. All employees are required to blog regularly as part of their jobs. Each of them (and they're mainly Net Geners) must think about important issues facing our clients, and—ased on their research—formulate opinions for public presentation. The blog delivers value to our clients and the market and, as part of their work, our employees learn from it. Work and learning—the same thing.

Lots of employers are understandably worried that employees will disclose important company information in blogs or other writings on the Internet. To guard against this risk, employers need to explain the rules to new Net Gen employees, says Danah Boyd, a researcher who recently released the results of a three-year study> of digital youth. "You have a guideline on it," says Boyd (who likes to render her name in lower case, as danah boyd). "You have to make it very, very clear that there is zero tolerance for sharing company information, with the penalty of being fired for cause. No one knows discretion until you teach them."

Training has to change, too. Some companies are using game-based training to update employees on short-term projects. DirecTV (DTV), for example, needed to boost sales of its sports programming package, so it created a simulation game to place the call-center agent in an interactive environment. The agent must deal with realistic characters voicing frequently asked questions about DirecTV and its programs. By playing the game, the agent practices active-listening skills, learns telephone etiquette, and is familiarized with the benefits of DirecTV's popular sports programming package. The scoring mode on the game gives players instant feedback on how well they're doing as sales representatives.

Education—at school and on the job—needs to be revamped to cater to young people who have grown up digital. The old model, the sage on the stage, needs to be abandoned, and schools and employers need to look at education as an interactive, collaborative venture that lasts a lifetime.

Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World, is the founder and chairman of nGenera Insight. Other books he has authored or co-authored include Wikinomics, Paradigm Shift, The Digital Economy, and Growing Up Digital.