Lemmens The Virtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education Bernd Wächter (ed.) Aca papers on International Cooperation in Education The V irtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education

The new generation of learners
A new generation of youth already partially lives in the cyber world. This new
generation of learners, called the mobile net generation (MNG), cyber
nomads or 
Homo Zappiens
2
, is different from what one usually expects a
pupil or student to be like. The new learners have developed skills such as
non-linear thinking, i.e. the ability to deal with discontinuity, the ability to pick
relevant information from a non-structured information flow on a continuous
basis, and multitasking (using multiple parts of the brain: visual, textual,
sounds, scanning of screens etc.)
3
. On the other hand, they might have lost
some other skills, such as face-to-face social skills, the capacity for critical
and reflective thinking, a sense of responsibility. All this poses new chal-
lenges for the education systems.
Does being mobile on the web increase one’s understanding of other cul-
tures? Do one’s intercultural skills improve? Jacques Attali has characterised
the Internet as “the discovery of a sixth continent on the planet Earth”.
Expanding this image a little, we can say that, like the other continents, the
Internet has a culture of its own, a language of its own (based on English,
however), and customs and habits of its own. When you are mobile on the
web, you will be introduced to this culture.
Education and training systems are about the transmission of values and the
preparation of active citizens. Like the economy, our “values systems”,
whether they are national or European are, likewise, affected by technologi-
cal developments. The Internet is a treasure of information and communica-
82
1
SOCRATES 2000 Evaluation Study. Study for the European Commission (2000), ed. by Ulrich Teichler,
Jean Gordon and Friedhelm Maiworm. http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/education/evaluation/global.html
2
Term used by Wim Veen, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.
http://www.dido.tbm.tudelft.nl/Medewerkers/wimv/index.htm 
3
Don Topscott (1997), 
Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation. McGraw-Hill. Morten Soeby,
Virtual Mobility. “Mobility: from Individual Development to Employability”, Conference, Stockholm, May 31
– June 1, 2001.

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tion potential, but it is able to circumvent a number of the codes and values
we cherish in our societies. It does not always respect privacy and intellec-
tual property. It is “crowding out” personal contacts by virtual ones: between
client and customer, between government and citizens, between employers
and employees. In doing so, it may very well be altering the notion of “com-
munity” and the “art of living together”, which is a cornerstone of any modern
democracy.
However, one can equally well claim that the web can also enormously con-
tribute to the socialisation process and to the art of living together: the web
generation is characterised by strong independence, intellectual openness
and creativity (due to constant change and need for restructuring), and inter-
activity.
4
The web promotes social inclusion (everybody is equal on the web
independent of gender, race, age, disability) and free expression (inspired by
anonymity?).