The Guardian carried a good article the day after release:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/twitter-teenage-media-habits

There are a number of articles about how twitter is being used by Young People and being used in Schools. This is an interesting video about twitter in the classroom from the US with comments from young people who are involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8

Sensible input from Barry too. I agree.

Tim Drewitt, Learning & Development Adviser, E-learning, Eversheds LLP

First of all, let me say that despite having a reputation for being an advocate of social media etc, I completely disagree with most of the nonsense written about 'gen y'. I do not believe that UK industry will come to a halt if we don't deliver everything via social learning platforms. I do believe that failing to use the potential of the social internet is inexcusable.

I've just re-read that article, and notwithstanding the fact that it is based on the circle of friends of one teenager, I actually think it's a really good example of why organisations DO need to be embracing online learning.

"Outside of social networking, the internet is used primarily as a source of information for a variety of topics."

That would be them using the internet for learning. No?

The key messages that I get from the article are;

Teenagers have worked out that there is little value in paying for information online, because the same thing is usually available free elsewhere.
They don't have the burden of being tied to email, but they do like internet connected mobile devices (i.e. BlackBerries will not excite them...).
They are savvy consumers and want things delivered in a way that suits them.

http://media.ft.com/cms/c3852b2e-6f9a-11de-bfc5-00144feabdc0.pdf