I have a real fascination with research that attempts to build a picture of the way in which young people interact with the digital media, and the way this interaction affects their lives. I guess this comes through having five children who span three decades, and observing the differences in each of their perceptions and expectations of the media. By carefully observing these differences and monitoring such trends and developments we, as educators, will be better informed to design a curriculum that engage them and meets their needs, and learning environments that are conduicive to making this happen.

Thus I was interested to read Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds – a report from the Kaiser Foundation. (NB the full PDF download is 3.3MB – but you can download sections only from this link also)

The study examined media use among a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 3rd through 12th graders who completed detailed questionnaires, including nearly 700 self-selected participants who also maintained seven-day media diaries.

There’s a pretty good summary of the report available on the eSchool News site which is how I first came across it.