Theory of digital natives in the light of current and future E-learning concepts

Abstract

The digital generation has many names: Net Generation, Generation or Digital Natives. The meaning behind these terms is, that the current generation of students is digitally and media literate, technology-savvy and are able to use other learning approaches than former generations. But these topics are discussed controversial and even the cause-effect-relationship is not as clear as it seems. Did the digital generation really have other learning approaches, or do they have only the possibility to live other learning modes? Against this background this article tries to shed some light on this debate. Therefore we use current and future projects performed at RWTH Aachen University to illustrate the relevance, value and significance due to the theory of the digital natives.