Education Development Center (EDC) reports that teachers adapt curricula for computer-savvy students to maximize favorable learning outcomes . The study was conducted by the Salt Lake City-based Certiport, Inc., a computer training and certification company, in connection with EDC’s Power Users Initiative, and the recent United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society.
EDC describes these students as Power Users, 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 … break out of the confines of traditional learning, demographic or technological barriers by constantly using, sharing, creating, producing and changing information in creative, innovative or unintended ways. By the age of 10 to 15, Power Users are in control of their technologies and have bacome self-directed elarners, seeking and constructing new learning from their environments.
Robert Brumfield offers a journalistic summary of the study and its implications for schooling.
EDC offers a range of documents reporting about the Centriport study and the Power User Initiative.