Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Kids Don’t Like TV, Can’t Customize It

In keeping with the theme of 4 year olds talking on the cell phone, I came across another interesting article. A New Crop of Kids: Generation We

The article describes an eight year old boy,Gabriel, whose “interest in TV has really declined, because it’s just there, you can’t customize it…he’s tuned to a world where he controls media, not the other way around.”

Who is controlling the e-learning you are designing…you or your learners. Who is managing the pacing, the interactions, the content. I’ll bet it is you.

As instructional designers, the signs are all over, if you don’t start allowing the learner to be in control of the content and his or her own learning…then you are going to be missing a large part of your audience.

“You’ve got a generation of kids who’ve had an unprecedented amount of control of their media and they’re not going to give it up,” Steuer said. “It does put out a challenge–for anyone in the media busines–of how to keep attention in that media.”

or…anyone in the learning business–of how to keep attention focused on the e-learning.

Our learning systems need learner control. What have you done today to give control to your learners?
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