While educators look for ways to incorporate a powerful learning medium into their practice, millions of youth are growing up in an online frontier where the social and legal rules haven't been written yet. At the same time, we are seeing a trend in the increasing use of surveillance technologies—whether it be cameras, fingerprints, or DNA databases—both at home and at school.
Privacy vs. connectivity; surveillance vs. security—the long term implications of these trade-offs can only be imagined. But the message is clear that social, legal and educational institutions are having a hard time setting boundaries between what is acceptable and what is not.
This issue of OS/OS explores some of the issues arising out of the new technologies enveloping the daily lives of youth, especially in the education context. It's a whole new world for Generation @.