Terms! Terms! Terms!

OK. So here's what I'm dealing with. My goal is to write this literature review by Monday MIDNIGHT so I'm compiling my notes now. One of the biggest hurdles I've come up on now that I'm organizing my notes to write is the issue with terms. 

TERMS!

WHO is the Google Generation? 

(Berk, 2009) sums it all up pretty neatly and THEN some... I've come across most of these in my research, but not all and have been compiling a list that looks similar to this, although not quite as comprehensive.

1. Millennials: Howe and Strauss (2000) indicate that the students actually coined that term themselves to disassociate themselves from Gen X. These authors also use 1982–2001 for 18 childhood years for the high school graduating class of 2000 as they entered the new millennium.
2. Generation Y (or Gen Y): This term appeared first in an editorial by Nader (2003) in The Age to refer to teenagers born between 1977 and 1978. They are now considered part of Generation X. It was derived simply from the succession of one generation to the next—the demographic cohort following Gen Xers. (Note: This logic has already been applied to naming the Next Generation after this one, Generation Z [Tapscott, 2009].) Gen Y turned out to be a pejorative label which many teenagers found offensive. It says nothing about their distinguishing characteristics or behaviors.
3. Echo Boomers: This term relates to the size of this generation and its relation to the Baby Boomers. The Baby Boom has an echo and it‘s even louder than the original (Tapscott, 1997, 2009). They are the offspring of those Boomers. The ―echo boom‖ of more than four million births occurred between 1989 and 1993. The current cohort is now the second largest demographic in the U.S.
4. Net Generation (or Net Geners): This term was coined by Tapscott (1997). It is linked directly to the (Inter)net and the emerging digital technology of the 1990s with which this generation grew up. They never knew a world without computers and the Internet.
5. Trophy Generation (or Trophy Kids): This term is derived from competitive sports and the practice where no one loses and everyone receives a ―trophy‖ (actually a certificate) for participating (Alsop, 2008b; Tulgan, 2009). In other words, everyone wins and should be recognized for their efforts. There is a perceived sense of entitlement by members of this generation. These students are success-driven with a pressure to excel in school, sports, hobbies, and just about everything they do (Alsop, 2008b). They assertively seek constant feedback, responsibility, and involvement in decision making (Alsop, 2008a).
6. First Digitals: This term is associated with the Digital Revolution during the 1990s. This generation is the first to grow up immersed in everything digital.
7. Dot.Com Generation: This term characterizes the students who received intensive education in information technology prior to entering the university in 2000 (Stein & Craig, 2000).
8. Digital Aboriginals: Tarlow and Tarlow (2002) draw on the aborigines‘ view of the world that all things are connected and analyze this generation‘s behaviors from an anthropological perspective
9. Nexters: Zemke, Raines, and Filipczak (1999) use this term in their book to refer to this generation. It might be considered a slang version of Next Generation.
10. Digital Natives: This term coined by Prensky (2001a, 2001b, 2006) explains a lot about these students‘ characteristics in the context of the growing technology in the 1990s, but has also been fraught with considerable controversy. They are branded as ―digital natives‖ because ―digital‖ is their native language. They are ―native speakers‖ of the language of computers, video games, and the Internet and have spent their entire lives surrounded by computers, cell phones, and all the gadgetry of the digital age. As you walk across campus, you will notice that these teen and 20-something students have wires coming out of every part of their bodies. Attached to those wires are MP3 players, iPods, Zunes, Zens, iPhones, RAZRs, BlackBerrys, or the latest techy gizmo or thingamajig (Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007; Mastrodicasa, 2007; Oblinger, 2008a).

Next: WHAT is INFORMATION LITERACY?!

I've seen it referred to as:

• information fluency
• information competency

NOT to be confused with:

• computer literacy
• technology literacy
• digital literacy

Technology has increased the amount of available information but the skills associated with IL are about finding and dealing with information NOT about the medium in which it is produced or viewed. 


Information Literacy:

• Media Literacy (visual literacy, computer literacy)
• Research & Library Skills (searching, boolean logic, etc)
• Critical Literacy (critical reading, critical thinking, etc)
• Information Ethics (copyright, security & privacy, etc)