There's been a lot of talk lately about creating courses that fit the needs of the "net generation," students who are comfortable with learning on their own and used to accessing instantly available information. A new Innovative article addresses techniques for teaching these incoming students. Here's their synopsis:

"Using examples drawn from an upper-level English course at the University of Auckland, Helen Sword and Michele Leggott outline seven key strategies for developing in today's students the skills, aptitudes, and abilities needed to meet the challenges of the future without losing sight of the past. By relinquishing intellectual authority, recasting students as active producers of knowledge, promoting collaborative relationships, cultivating multiple intelligences, fostering critical creativity, encouraging resilience, and constructing assignments that look both forward to the future and back to the past, teachers in higher education can help their students equip themselves to carry the past with them into a complex, constantly evolving future."

While the rigorousness of course content should never be compromised, finding new ways to present the material is definitely a step in the right direction. Check out the Innovative article here: Seven Principles for Educating the Ne(x)t Generation.