Homo Zappiens

Homo Zappiens: Growing up in a digital age
by Wim Veen

Homo Zappiens is an important book by Wim Veen, a professor at Delft University of Technology and a father of a zappien. Wim convincingly shows the positive aspects of short attention span fever, disdain for school, and independence. This is the first optimistic take on kids and technology I’ve seen.

Homo zappiens are active processors of information, skilled problem solvers using gaming strategies and effective communicators. Their relationship with school has changed fundamentally as these children consider schools as just one of the focal points of their lives. Far more important are their networking with friends, their part-time jobs and going out during weekends. Homo zappiens seems to consider schools as disconnected institutions, more or less irrelevant to them as far as their daily life is concerned. Inside schools they show hyperactive behavior and short attention spans, and both teachers and parents have concerns. But Homo zappiens want to be in control of what they engage with and do not possess the patience to listen to a teacher explaining the world as it is according to him/her. In fact, Homo zappiens are digital, and school is analog.

Instead of the usual hand-wringing diatribe about what’s wrong with schools, Wim proposes an alternative. At its core,

Future society needs people who can address complex and fuzzy problems from different angles and come up with unexpected solutions. Acquiring content as the main goal of education will be less important, replaced instead by meaning and relevance.

A school that would base its education on Kolb’s theory would offer a laboratory, a storytelling (aka lecturing) teacher, a lounge and a discussion forum to its students, allowing them to decide when, what, and how much to use. We see similar designs in non-linear learning theory and non-linear design of technology based training. Instead of working alone, Homo zappiens use human and technical networks when needed for instant replies.

…learning starts with play.

I interviewed Wim when writing Informal Learning, but we independently arrived at the same definition of learning. Learning = adaptation.

The strength of the human mind, and according to Charles Darwin this quality should be attributed to living species in general, is its ability to adapt to a change in circumstances. We call this learning.

And why are the zap generation taking responsibility for what they think and do? Because they can…

Homo zappiens, ever more so than previous generations, have taken control of their own destiny. Not because previous generations did not feel the same tug of the pendulum starting, but rather because they have finally been given the tools (technology) to do so. The entrepreneurial learner, one who takes his own view on the world and uses his own resources to solve a problem.

Colleagues know me as a contrarian, so they may be surprised to read that I agree with every word of this book. A mere 150 pages long, Homo Zappiens brought to mind the inspirational ideas of Kathy Sierra, Clark Quinn, Marcia Conner, Roger Schank, George Siemens, Marc Rosenberg, George Leonard, Ivan Illich, Marty Seligman, Peter Drucker, Daniel Pink, Stan Davis, Chris Meyer, John Hagel, John Seely Brown, Art Kleiner, and Maria Montessori.

Buy it.