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​This will have to do until we work out how to present this. __ INTRODUCTION __ Digital information is more cost effective, easier to store and manipulate, more environmentally friendly and the way of the future for almost all businesses, government departments and schools. As a result people from different generations, namely Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Gen X(1965-1979) and GenY(1980-2000) and into the future Gen Z(2000-2009) and Alpha(2010+) will have to face different challenges when attempting to navigate this vast amount of information in cyberspace with varying degrees of success. Terms coined in 2001 by Marc Prensky (Prensky, 2001) and one that has become common-speak amongst everyone from laymen to politicians to educators are the terms “digital immigrant” and “digital native”.

When discussing our assignment, **//Group J//**, otherwise known as **__T.O.I.L. - TEACHERS of ONLINE INNOVATIVE LESSONS__** – have primarily responded to an article by Barbara Coombes ( ? ) entitled: __“Generation Y: are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees?”.__ In this article she contends that if educationalists make assumptions about the level of expertise of the digital users simply because they have grown up with the internet then instead of being digital natives and thus efficient and wise users of e-learning they will actually become digital refugees as they struggle to navigate their way through the sheer volume of information available in cyberspace. The terms coined by social commentators such as Prensky are flawed because they were taken as ‘gospel’ far before any actual quantitative research was done. And subsequent research has shown that such assumptions are indeed false. “Being able to locate, interpret and use this information is going to be an essential skill set for citizens in the future” Barbara Coombes (? ).

At a time when Julia Gillard has recently announced an inquiry into the role of teacher librarians in schools in the future there is no better time to look at this particular subject. “Closing libraries is always a bad idea, but for the Google generation, it could be disastrous. In a time when information literacy is increasingly crucial to life and work, not teaching kids how to search for information is like sending them out into the world without knowing how to read.” [Scribner, S., (March 21, 2010) “Saving the Google Students”, L.A. Times]

T.O.I L’s topic therefore is “__Searching the Unknown: strategies to stop students ‘searching’ and start them ‘researching’.__ Creating an online resource that enables educators of digital high school users to effectively use the internet and other electronic sources when information - seeking.”

And if we needed any more valid a reason for investigating this topic then Barbara Coombes ( ? ) sums it up succinctly: “Does this really matter? If educators are going to graduate lifelong learners who are able to adapt to an evolving information landscape and changing technologies.; if we are going to produce citizens capable of navigating essential information in a world where everything is online; then yes, these skills are extremely important.”

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