Confronting the technological pedagogical knowledge of Finnish Net Generation student teachers

The research reported here is concerned with a critical examination of some of the assumptions concerning the ‘Net Generation’ capabilities of 74 first‐year student teachers in a Finnish university. There are assumptions that: (i) Net Generation students are adept at learning through discovery and thinking in a hypertext‐like manner (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005 Oblinger, D. and Oblinger, J. 2005. “Is it age or IT: First steps toward understanding the Net Generation”. In Educating the Net Generation, Edited by: Oblinger, D. and Oblinger, J. EDUCAUSE e‐book. Retrieved October 10, 2008, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101o.pdf [Google Scholar]; Prensky, 2001 Prensky, M. 2001. Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5): 1–6. [Google Scholar]); and (ii) when they enter the teaching profession, members of this generation will be able to transfer these characteristics into their teaching practices (Prensky, 2001 Prensky, M. 2001. Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5): 1–6. [Google Scholar]). The research is formulated around an extended framework for student teachers’ technological pedagogical knowledge. The students designed learning modules incorporating the use of information and communication technology (ICT). The learning modules were subjected to document and artefact analysis incorporating concept‐driven coding. Supplementary data were collected through a questionnaire concerned with the students’ adoption of new technologies. The findings suggest that assumptions about Net Generation student teachers’ abilities to adopt and adapt ICT in their teaching are highly questionable and that greater attention should be given to the development of their technological pedagogical knowledge.