Individuals compete for work in labour markets. Gaining a competitive advantage over other knowledge workers that compete in the labour market is increasingly about how effectlively and efficiently we manage our digital resources. Whether word-files, pdf-files, or more complex data queries - what we produce is increasingly captured, stored and transmitted in digital form.
Looking at how the “young” generation is handling digital resources one becomes aware how much more efficient this generation handles digital information. I have recently watched a documentary on the BBC where schools with distributed learning initiatives were documented. The interviewer asked some of the kids an interesting question: whether they prefer reading traditional books or books on digital devices. The answer of almost any child was straight forward: e-books on digital devices, of course! On these devices, there is much more information, not just one book but rather full libraries. The kids even prefer reading text on a screen rather than print-outs on paper! This is suprprising, because all of the people I have ased that are about my age (in their mid and late 20ies) prefer a printout over a digital screen in order to work with data. This made me realize: we are in for a quite fundamental change!
What this means is quite obvious: The next generation (the digital natives) will be much more skilled at handling digital resources! They will be faster and more efficient because they will automatically develop digital learning strategies just as we have developed strategies for written mind-maps, note-taking, etc. when we were students. And indeed, digital data is much more potent that information that is limited to be printed on a sheet of paper: digital inofmration is so poweful because of it's transferability, searchability, extendability etc. A new workforce is emerging and they will be much more potent information workers. In order for us non-natves to stay competitive we must learn how to work with digital data equally or even more efficient than with traditional methods.
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