The reality is digital media are developing so quickly that we now have a generation gap between two and six year olds! (See this interesting article in NY Times, <a href="http://bit.ly/8a3c1m" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/8a3c1m which examines the evolution of the Net Generation into the iGeneration). It’s all very mind boggling -- how do adults keep up with new technologies while at the same time ensuring the next generation has the appropriate digital literacy skills to understand and get the most out of them.

The evidence is there to support the importance of digital literacy in fuelling citizenship, innovation and electronic commerce – which is the focus of the current federal government. Unfortunately our education sector is falling way behind. With the exception of the few dedicated souls who are bringing new technologies into Canadian classrooms for innovative teaching, where curriculum does exist, it is usually focused on Internet safety issues – not the kind of transformative critical thinking skills our kids need for today’s world.

As soon as kids go online they need to be educated about the commercial imperatives of the environments they use, about data collection, privacy, copyright, authentication of information, creativity, ethics, citizenship, participatory communities – and the list goes on.

This will take concerted effort through public and formal education sectors. Libraries, schools, governments and industry all have a role to play. We don’t have a choice – and we better start soon.