Watch out - the Power Users are coming

Karin Tweddell Levinsen
Danish Pedagogic University, Institute of Pedagogic Anthropology, Copenhagen, Denmark

This paper analyzes and discusses the future challenges, which tertiary educational institutions may face when the traditional organizational forms and norms of the industrial society meet the first generation of natural born ICT using students who have lived their whole life with ICT and the ever changing norms and demands of the unfolding information society.

In order to analyze the premise for these challenges the paper applies a long-term perspective to the generations and organisations affected by the transmission, ICT-users characterized by:

1. Growing up without ICT and therefore having acquired all ICT competencies as adults.
2. Game generation (born after 1970), natural born ICT and wired users, while mobile and wireless competencies are acquired as adults
3. Power Users (born after 1990) are natural born ICT and mobile users

A key to gain insight to the future students and the nature of the encounter is research aimed at the present primary school. Additionally a key to the organizational perspective is identification of organizations’ readiness for change and the potential barriers for adaptation to the information society and the ´ power users´.

Based on the analysis, the paper comprises an outline of institutional obstacles towards a successful encounter and argues the necessity of integrating top-down and bottom-up initiatives in future organizations. Thus, the process of change demands awareness and support from both the authorities empowered to make grants and from the management of the educational organizations, and the paper explicitly focuses on collaborating teaching staff as a tool for improving both individual and organizational adaptability.

Keywords: ICT, Power users, game generation, university pedagogy, collaborative teaching staff, adaptability to change, information society

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