Homo Zappiens: Growing up in a Digital Age »

Homo Zappiens examines how children growing up in a world of technology and change show more reluctance to fit within the education system than any generation before them. Furthermore, they frequently have a better grasp of technology than those who educate them. Instead of attempting to control, understand or master technology, they simply use it!

As technology enables,us to capture information, society is changing its learning demands away from information and focusing instead on communication, interpretation and negotiation. As long as we keep judging the Homo zappiens generation by our old standards, we may never see how their ways of playing and communicating are actually emerging strategies for our digital, creative future. Accepting education as the facilitation of learning, we must reconsider our teaching as we witness a different type of learning.

About the Author:
Wim Veen is head of Education & Technology at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands

About the Author:
Ben Vrakking is a postgraduate research student in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management at Delft University of Technology

Author's acknowledgements     5
Preface     7
A time of change     15
Meeting Homo zappiens     27
Making sense of chaos     53
Learning playfully     79
Stopping the roller coaster     99
What schools could do     111
Glossary     141
Bibliography     149
Acknowledgements     156
Index     158