Much is being written about the characteristics of the Net Generation learner in higher education but if you have a moment (about 4 minutes actually), check out the video on YouTube - A Vision of Students Today.. Or better yet, watch the first video of this three-part series, Information R/evolution and then watch the Vision video.
This example of "digital ethnography" comes from a "working group of Kansas State University students and faculty dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography" led by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State.
Two hundred of his Introduction to Cultural Anthropology 2007 students assisted with the creation of the Vision video "...to call attention to the growing gap between how our students learn and how we choose to teach them", according to comments by Wesch. The Vision video is Part Two of a three-part series on higher education that Wesch is producing.
According to Wesch, "It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in."
You can read more about this video, including its transcript in the blog Digital Ethnography. You can also read comments to the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus posting about the video here.
You may know Wesch's work from the highly praised "Web 2.0:The Machine is Us/ing Us" video about Web 2.0 that made the rounds in the ed tech community last spring. It won a 2007 Rave Award from Wired Magazine. Another project from the Digital Anthropology group is the Digital Ethnography of YouTube Project.
Wesch describes himself in this way: "I have the coolest job in the world, organizing massive teams of K-State students into global citizens working for a better tomorrow."
I'm looking forward to the third video in the series which will be "an exploration of different teaching technologies and the ways in which they shape the learning environment for better and for worse."
