event: The Anthropology of Digital Natives

Distinguished scholar and child-development expert Edith Ackerman will present "The Anthropology of Digital Natives" in the Montpelier Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by the Library’s John W. Kluge Center, the event is free and open to the public.
No tickets or reservations are needed.
In addition, the lecture will be webcast live at www.loc.gov and made available on the Library's webcasts homepage www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc at a later date.

Ackerman is an honorary professor of developmental psychology at the University of Aix-Marseille in France. She is currently a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the School of Architecture and a visiting professor at the University of Siena in the Department of Communications.

This is the first lecture of the series of lectures titled "Digital Natives" and will explore how young people think, learn and play.
The four-lecture series will examine the generation that has been raised with the computer as a natural part of their lives, with emphasis on the young people currently in schools and colleges today. The series will seek to understand the practices and culture of these digital natives, the cultural implications of the phenomenon and the implications for education – schools, universities and libraries.

Ackerman is particularly interested in helping shape the future of play and learning in a digital world. "I study how people use place, relate to others and treat things to find their ways – and voices – in an ever-changing world," she said.