As a result of the continuous developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) young people in particular are rapidly changing the way they communicate and gather knowledge. The Internet has become a natural way of communicating and the mobile phone has evolved into an extension of themselves. Furthermore they practice multitasking, meaning they are perfectly able to be online while watching a television show, although this behaviour should not be judged detrimental . For older generations this is often hard to keep up with and to accept!
Higher education has as its mission to train young people to become knowledge workers for the modern knowledge economy. This is no easy task and lays a heavy burden on those guiding learning processes. They should at least be well aware of the information and communication behaviour of their students. It is for instance good to know that youths mainly use ICT to communicate. The focus is on contacts, rather than content. Higher education, providing all kinds of ICT-facilities for students, also contributes to enhancing the way youths use all networking possibilities that the internet has to offer, and thus -often unknowingly or unintentionally- gets the task of social enabler.
