We live in a networked digital society, in an era of sharing and collaboration, made possible by the exponential growth of the World Wide Web, in particular Web 2.0 and Social Web. Digital technologies have been revolutionizing and (re-) shaping society. Education, as a key area of knowledge, cannot be oblivious to these changes, remaining stuck in old habits and methods of teaching and learning. In order to be effective in today’s digital society, citizens must have functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology. For UNESCO, empowering citizens through information and media literacy is an important prerequisite for promoting equitable access to information and knowledge and building inclusive knowledge societies. This empowering can begin within the family, but also, and fundamentally, in a school context. Therefore, it is important that the School is able to respond to this challenge. In this paper, we will discuss about the importance of collaborative learning and how digital technologies and virtual learning environments contribute towards a digital society.

Enquanto os alunos de hoje, os nativos digitais, caminham para uma educação cada vez mais mediada pela utilização das tecnologias, as instituições de ensino superior continuam a realizar processos educacionais que não acompanham essa evolução. A presente dissertação pretende explorar a contribuição dos recursos digitais no apoio às aprendizagens dos estudantes universitários. De forma a alcançar este objetivo, foi conduzida uma investigação qualitativa, através de um estudo de caso a um projeto-piloto de uma turma de licenciatura em gestão num ambiente tecnologicamente enriquecido, que decorreu no Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (ISEG) da Universidade de Lisboa. Esta investigação pretende complementar a investigação sobre os potenciais efeitos das tecnologias nas aprendizagens dos estudantes, privilegiando as perceções dos envolvidos e os fatores contextuais para construir uma compreensão detalhada da problemática da integração das tecnologias nas práticas de ensino-aprendizagem. Neste sentido, para além da análise documental, questionários e observação participante, foram conduzidas entrevistas semiestruturadas e focus groups a professores, alunos e responsáveis envolvidos, bem como a especialistas da área. Os resultados do estudo, não sendo generalizáveis, iluminam o potencial das tecnologias de informação no sentido de poderem influenciar positivamente as aprendizagens dos estudantes universitários. Consideramos que oferecem ainda um conjunto de lições para uma implementação bem sucedida dessas tecnologias. Este estudo tem implicações, em particular, para as instituições de ensino superior portuguesas que estão correntemente a implementar ou a planear iniciativas de integração das tecnologias, com especial enfase para os cursos de Gestão.

In the current communicational scenario, transformed by technological and digital advances, media literacy is conside- red a crucial competence for active and informed participation in society. In this context, the main objective of this study was to assess the media literacy competences of 416 students of the 4th, 6th, and 9th grades in Portugal, identifying training needs and presenting suggestions for intervention. A non-experimental quantitative methodology was used, and the participants completed a self-response questionnaire. The results indicate that the three grades studied have a transversal need regarding the use of media, the production of media content, and participation in society through the media, and also regarding the analysis, understanding, and assessment of media content. We confirm the importance of media education in the development of media literacy and present some intervention suggestions for the promotion of these competences in the school context, namely the reinforcement of some curricular content, the use of guiding documents, and the development of critical thinking. We emphasize the importance of training teachers and parents on the subject, and finally, we also emphasize the importance of deconstructing the belief that digital natives have natural competences in this regard and therefore do not need training in this area.

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of digital natives' perspectives on English learning. The present case study analyzes data from a group of Brazilian learners of English who study at a federal, public high school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Data collection includes: (a) a questionnaire to examine the profile of the participants and (b) learner narratives. This study privileges an interpretive approach based on Complexity Theory in an attempt to understand participants' learning experiences from a more holistic, whole-systems approach. Results indicate that the complex adaptive learning system of digital natives is self-organizing and chaotic. Moreover, the final remarks stress a pressing concern regarding English teaching in Brazil and suggest that the current pedagogical practices no longer serve the needs of the digital generation.

Members of the knowledge society, of the network society or of the informatics society are some names that seem to define the current generation. Net generation is a generic nomenclature which covers all the previous terms. Digital immigrants are the subjects whom were born before the advent of digital technologies and who joined to them. Digital natives are the subjects whom were born in the current generation and that would have special qualities, especially regarding the learning process. Considering all this context, a question arises: how the digital immigrants teach the digital natives? This item justifies itself because there is a meeting of generations, in theory, significantly differentiated. Due to this, it would be necessary to identify the appropriate educational forms according to the presented situation. Our teaching experience convinces us that, yes, we should valorize the information’s technologies and communication, understanding that these are means, not ends. It is important to highlight that any tool causes advances and regressions, a fact that serves to guide our teaching practice. 

Currently, some changes at the school environment have been caused by technological progress and among these changes, it has been highlighted the relationship between schools and the new generation of students, which generally grow surrounded by digital technologies since their birth, the so-called Digital Natives. Virtual information, available on the internet through digital devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones, contributes to a way of learning beyond school, at any time and place. Therefore, it becomes relevant to grasp through students realization the technological influence on their daily lives and how technology contributes to the different ways of learning. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between virtual informal learning and formal school learning through the perception of students about the influence of digital technologies on their knowledge acquisition processes. Empirical research was carried out from the administration of a semi-structured interview to students between 14 and 18 years old from high school of four different schools of Rio de Janeiro, two of them belonged to the private school system whereas the others belonged to the public one. The data show that young people are hyper-connected to digital information and communication technologies, they are digital natives and although their daily routine is filled with virtual networks experience, they do not disqualify the school experience. Despite addressing some critical view about traditional learning methodology, school is still described by students as a scenario that brings advantages as it is able to provide direction for learning, through teacher-student relationship as support, besides its ability to set up social networks. Eventually, digital devices are used by young people not only for leisure, but also for educational purposes and that can become an enabler tool for teachers on their teaching process.

Activating a brand nowadays implies that, in certain cases, the brand relies heavily on digital platforms and media, putting it at the mercy of its main users: digital natives. These digital natives, with a greater focus on Generation Z, are a special audience, because of the way the internet has impacted their growth. Having young people been born into technology and have been using it from an early age, they are able to observe and interact in a different way with digital content, both in its creation and its propagation, and represent a different role than other generations in the development of a brand. This opinion piece looks at how Generation Z can impact a brand activation plan.

This article reports the results of a study about the tools and services that students at a higher education institution used during the previous academic year (2009/10) to share files and collaborate online. The study aims to find out what tools and practices were used by students in activities related to learning and day-to-day (leisure and socialization) activities, trying to establish a relationship between social and academic use of these tools. The results point to a distinctive use regarding the two types of activities, with a preference for traditional means of interaction in the classroom and the access to traditional contents in a passive way. These results confirm recent studies that say that the generational split between natives and digital immigrants is a myth, and that the skills and enthusiasm for Web 2.0 tools of the digital native students are overstated and that the generation gap is not observed in learning activities. © 2011 AISTI.