Developing a Desirable Learning Environment for Digital Students
Diana Andone, Jon Dron and Lyn Pemberton
Recent years have seen a new generation of ‘digital students’ emerging in the developed world. Digital students are young adults who have grown up with digital technologies integrated as an everyday feature of their lives. Digital students use technology differently from previous generations of students, fluidly and often simultaneously using instant messengers, mobile phones, the Web, MP3 players, online games and more. A study performed in a UK university was designed to analyse the use of new technologies, especially of social software, by digital students. The methods used are based on measures of desirability. The study is part of a research project which is investigating how the development of the eLearning spaces might be informed by digital students’ attitudes. It was the first step taken towards the development and evaluation of a new learning environment for digital students.
Keywords: E-Learning, Digital Students, Mobile Learning, Desirability, Usability.