In my mind, the next generation of the ‘net isn’t going to be like the early generations that were typified by people sitting and staring. The next generation, one that we are are going into now will have people interacting with the ‘net as a physical entity because it in fact is – or shortly will be through augmented reality or location based services, powered by social media. In these early days we have people staring down at their phone and before they get the hand of it – walking around and into walls. Another sign that this social media fueled transition is taking place is coming from places like Forrester who released a report that among other things suggests that one third of users post status updates, one quarter publish or create their own material and almost three quarters “spectate” on social media.
If we want to get students engaged in topics, I think we are very quickly going to have to start looking at ways to add social or physical elements to that content to allow them to interact with it in a (for them) meaningful manner.
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