Internet usage: Becoming the New Norm?

In today's day and age internet usage is becoming almost a mandatory skill to have already acquired. I have grown up as the internet has expanded and grown, it first became popular when I was in elementary school. So essentially we were learning about the internet, while our teachers were also learning. I remember the days of dial up, and now how the internet is starting to become the "norm." We rely on it for everyday tasks, and have even expanded it to our mobile phones to be able to have it everywhere we go. In a simple sense the internet has made everything we've ever wanted to know at our fingertips, anywhere and anytime.

Children in this internet era are brought up to know the internet and how to use it at a very young age. It is very uncommon to see a child that is in grade school that doesn't know how to use the internet or what it is at least about. There is a difference in internet usage socioeconomic status and gender. With socioeconomic status we need to consider that younger children of lesser economic may not have internet access prior to entering school, so we need to be able to teach students on different levels based on their experience and previous knowledge, not on the assumption that everyone knows the basics and how to use it. In later teen years the gender differences begin to crop up in internet usage. With girls spending more time blogging and using social networking sites, girls also start to use the internet at a younger age and are thus more knowledgeable in internet usage than boys are.

I believe that schools need to be able to accommodate all levels of internet experience as well as taking into consideration the gender differences that are presented with internet usage. I'm curious to find out if anyone else out there has had experience with this issue of children being assumed to have a basic level of internet usage experience.