Is There a 'google' Generation? : Information Search Behaviour Developments and the Future Learner

This book examines original and secondary research evidence from international sources to determine whether there is a younger generation of learners who are adopting different styles of information search behaviour from older generations as a function of their patterns of use of online technologies.

The book addresses the questions: Might the widespread availability and use of search engines, such as Google, give rise to a different type of scholar who seeks out and utilises online information sources and thereby develops a different orientation to learning from older generations whose information seeking practices became established initially in the offline world?This book provides a one of the most comprehensive analyses yet on the evolving nature of information search behaviour, and also combines a review of a wide range of international research evidence combined with original, cutting edge research.

It is directed towards industry end-users and policy makers as well as academics with shared scholarly interests. The book presents a distinctive generation-based analysis of information search behaviours, and identifies the complexity of digital divides and shows that age-related differences in use of new information and communications technologies are more sophisticated than previously realized.