New Digital Media and Their Potential Cognitive Impact on Youth Learning - New Science of Learning - page 2

Chapter 1
New Digital Media and Their Potential
Cognitive Impact on Youth Learning

Margaret Weigel 1 , Celka Straughn 2 , and Howard Gardner 1

1 The Developing Minds and Digital Media Project, Harvard University, Project Zero, Cambridge,
MA 02138, USA, e-mail: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
2 Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1301 Mississippi St, Lawrence, KS 66045, e-mail:
[e-mail]

Introduction

In his 2009 topic Grown up Digital , Don Tapscott presents a very positive view of
the new digital media (NDM). “The early evidence suggests that the digital immer-
sion [for youth] has a tangible, positive impact. Not only do video game players
notice more, but they have more highly developed partial skills the Net Gen mind

seems to be incredibly flexible, adaptable and multimedia savvy” (Tapscott, 2008,
p. 98). In this new order, others praise the transformational power of social networks
which can topple (or at least circumvent) existing hierarchical structures (Benkler,
2007; Shirkey, 2009; Surowiecki, 2004) and potentially reinvent civic engagement
(Pettingill, 2008).
Tapscott and his like-mined peers do not represent a consensus. A collection
of scholars, educators, and concerned citizens counter it. Rather than ushering in
a utopian era of self-directed youth learning across time and space, NDM are in
fact making us “dumber” (Bauerlein, 2008) and actually harming our brains (Healy,
1999). While Tapscott and others salute the democratizing power of information on
the Internet, Jean Twenge expresses concern: “Suddenly, you don't have to write
a textbook or have a column in a major newspaper for thousands of people to read
your words

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In this environment, there is no authority: information is free, diffuse,
and comes from everyone. (Whether it is correct is another matter)” (Twenge, 2006,
p. 30).
Of course, it is possible that each of these sides has some truth to it; it is also
possible that the NDM will not exert much of an effect. In education, for example,

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