GenX vs Millenials

There's been an ongoing discussion in the SLED listserve concerning students and Second Life. The gist of the discussion has been the difficulty in getting students excited about doing business, taking classes, socializing...basically interested at all in using virtual worlds. While the listserve's discussion centered around SL, it has branched out to other VW's as well (sorry...I type that shortcut for Virtual Worlds...am I the only one who sees it and immediately thinks "Volkswagen"?).

This article, however, puts things into an excellent nutshell. While fairly general (not much room in those nutshells), I found it to be an interesting concept. Have Gen X parents have robbed Millenials of the opportunity to create?

As I begin the school year with only a general outline for this course and a few set lesson plans, I will have the freedom to adapt the lessons as I go. Feldspar Epstein's article is one I will share with the students to get their opinions (and I already know I have some VERY opinionated students in the class who will not be shy about saying what they really think! ). Am curious about their learning process...and if the premise of the article is true...this has wider ramifications for education than just learning via a virtual world!

(edited to add: I've also done about an hour's work on the wiki for the class today...arranging pages, adding links, general clean-up).