I'd agree with Wilfred about the distinction between a system and a concept. In trying to make sense of the world , I think it's useful to use concepts from various domains to make meaning. My latest favorite word-concept is "an ecology." I'm not sure how much all this matters on the one hand--words. On the other I think it's important because our world then becomes defined by those words. "Net-gen" is a case in point. To my knowledge there's no empirical or theoretical basis for the notion of net-gens. It's a construct, based on primarily anectdotal evidence and good PR. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I happen to perceive kids a bit differently than e- learning queen does in her 5-30 post. And I also notice that folks with kids in those age groups have a much higher opinion of them than those of us who don't. While IQs have been on the rise over the past century, there's still buckets of evidence suggesting that skills and knowledge in science, language arts, geography, etc are not where they should be by the time these kids get to college. You could argue that the measurements, the educational systems aren't aligned with the "knowledge and skills that are really important" like some of those elearning queen points out. It's a vicious circle. What's worth knowing and what's worth learning? I think that learning how to learn is worth a lot.