IN THIS CHAPTER we

Introduction

Global internet usage has grown rapidly since the beginning of the twenty-first century. In 2001, approximately 495 million people used the internet. By 2010, internet usage had quadrupled to over 2 billion people, more than doubling by the end of 2021 at an estimate of nearly 5 billion people. In the United States, the percentage of adults who use the internet has grown from 52 percent in 2000 to 93 percent in 2021. 87 percent of American families get an internet service at home, and 98 percent of those are broadband. Notably, current internet usage for adults aged 18–29 and 30–49 is virtually universal, at 100 percent and 97 percent respectively. For younger Americans, 99 percent of public school districts are connected to high-speed broadband, and 94 percent of respondent districts indicated they used digital learning activities in at least half of their classes. That is, the vast majority of college students today have grown up with experience using the internet both at home and in the classroom. In this context, web-based curriculum or digital learning strategies should not be considered “innovative” or “transformative” in educational settings, as they now constitute convention. As convention, instructors at every level should be reasonably expected to effectively utilize its tools, methods, and media to communicate with their students.

PowerPoint slides with simple text and pictures that continue to pervade college lecture halls are not effectively utilizing the vast landscape of the internet, but are maintaining the perception that content mastery may only come from the mastery of literacy from static systems. The digital world is dynamic, as are its native users, and instructors should differentiate their teaching strategies taking this dynamism into account. Transcribing course notes and materials into a different format is not sufficient. Just as the printing press did at the end of the Middle Ages (and arguably more so), the internet has fundamentally changed the way people communicate with one another, impacting every sector of industry, emerging technology, government, and educational systems.