16/02/2007
The Italian students of the new millennium
first identikit

Every Italian student owns a computer, a cd-rom player and a printer; almost one out of three connects to the internet everyday, most of them use the net for leisure but also for activities related to school, showing particular interest for e-learning.

“Internet has become the encyclopaedia par eccellence”. It is exploited for investigations and personal enquiries, to find simple information as well as refined bibliographical details, last minute news and scientific research. This is, in a nutshell, what emerges from the analysis carried out by Gestimpresa on a sample of kids aged 10-24. Here some data: one kid out f two declares to spend 3,5 hours per week (a third of the whole time spent on books) to study materials downloaded from the internet. In addition to this, 67% spends an everage of 4 hours per week in front of a computer to do homeworks or other school activities and, finally, 60% spends an equal amount of time to check online dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

The Kiwi study Knowledge Interaction Web Information, run over 500 students from upper secondary schools reveals a positive inclination to a formative utilization of ICT. 80% of the interviewed considers the net a formative channel: less than 2% declares they have never used the internet for school activities. About 90% has used the net at home and 80% even at school. The use of cell phones or mp3 readers for formative aims is less used: they are instead a mean for “illicit” activities like copying or passing on information, especilly during tests in the classroom.

New technologies are becoming more and more part of the daily life of the teenagers of the new millennium, but how does their way of communicate and learn change?