The Connecticon

Learning for the Connected Generation

By:
Frank Rennie, University of the Highlands
Robin Mason, The Open University

Published 2004

This book makes the case that the changes brought about by the connectivity of the Internet have so transformed the nature of post secondary learning that we need to view it differently. Both the content and the processes of learning have been profoundly altered because of the accessibility of information and the multi-way interactivity provided by the Internet. We call this new phenomenon ‘the Connecticon’ – which encompasses the new opportunities created by the infrastructure, the content, the multiple connection devices of the Web, as well as by the hyper-interactivity of the connected generation for whom attention is the new currency. It is the aim of this book to identify and document the Connecticon – its nature, its impact and its implications. We will do this in the broad domain of learning, though a similar study could be carried out in commercial, social or political fields.