User:Ingridod/Draft Power Users

Youth and technology
The term Power Users have also been used to describe children who have developed sophisticated technology skills. This phenomenon is being explored through a research initiative led by Education Development Center, Inc. in collaboration with a network of partners including EDC Europe, Microsoft Research, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, DigiPen Institute of Technology, CINPE-Universidad Nacional, University of Aalborg, California State University at Sacramento, KEMPSTER GROUP, PTC, and UNFIP.

EDC describes Power Users as an emerging group of youth distinguished by their self-selected, long-term, intensive experiences with technology. They think, behave and solve problems differently from others who have not had a special relationship with technology. They are "individuals who break out of the confines of traditional learning, demographic, or technological barriers by constantly using, sharing, creating, producing or changing information in creative, innovative and/or unintended ways so that they become force multipliers in their own environments."(Definition by Power Users of ICT Global Advisory Committee in 2002) Power users of ICT are students who have grown up with digital technology as a part of their everyday lives. According to EDC, these students have technical acumen beyond any previous generation. By the age of 10 to 15, they are in control of their technologies and have become self-directed learners, seeking and constructing new learning from their environments. They are characterized by their ability to "leverage the internet to the highest degree conceivable" and are energized by technology well past the point of most digital "immigrants"--that is, older learners forced to adapt from the analog age.

There are yet no long term studies to support this theory, but some research have been done to uncover the characteristics of this group of youth. Teachers have indicated that Power users prefer to use troubleshooting and online resources to learn, and that having Power Users in their class influence how they teach. Power users have also been seen to help their peers and facilitate the learning of other students, and 84% of teachers in a study reported that Power users had positively influenced their learning/knowledge of ICT.