The knowledge society between “smart devices” and “digital learners”. A pedagogical-anthropological reflection about the implications of dominant rhetoric in eLearning field Emanuele Rapetti (New Media in Education Laboratory, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland rapettie@usi.ch ) Abstract: Understanding cultural rhetoric in the knowledge society is important to avoid mistakes in designing eLearning and considering properly today learners. This paper focuses on some very common generalizations around the “digital learners”. What we consider Knowledge Society is a concept that still needs to be real, for main aspects; and rhetoric does not seem to be helpful to solve knowledge gaps between generations, gender, countries, and people coming from different socio- economic-cultural contexts. The paper is written with a critical approach. After a dissertation aiming to analyse the most used labels to define learners, weaknesses of the “digital learners” approach are showed, then the paper present a comprehensive perspective considered useful to navigate the debate (the “LoDE perspective”), and, finally, some advices to educators and professionals in the field of educational policies are offered. Keywords: Knowledge society, eLearning, Digital Learners, Rhetoric, Pedagogy for the 21 st century 1. Introduction If we consider the two expressions put into quoted marks in the title of this paper, anyone can acknowledge an evident chiasm: in a proper sense, only people can be smart (or stupid), while devices can be digital (or analog). Moving from this provocation, the paper is intended to unveil some rhetoric expressions that became of common use in the field of pedagogy and eLearning, but whose use, actually, risks to unbalance our perspective on tools (rather than on learners). What does it mean to claim that we live in the Knowledge Society? We almost use this concept as description of our world and reality, trusting in the power of ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) to allow knowledge accessible for everyone; to the extent to consider the knowledge as the paradigm of our society. But it is enough to think about all the knowledge gaps and digital divides (Marshall, Kinuthia, & Taylor, 2009) typifying contemporary times, to acknowledge that “knowledge society” represents more a promise, a faith, and a potentiality, rather than being a descriptor of a matter of fact. Experts in the field of ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development) refer that those gaps are evident when comparing rich countries against developing countries (Unwin, 2009). In addition, it has to be said that, even within developed contexts, we still face unbalances in terms of technological limits, effective long-range policies of access, and prolific actions to improve media literacy (CERI, 2010; Pedró, 2010). In a global view, if observing the field of the so- called “Pedagogy for the 21 st century”, it seems that the work done so far is closer to be a chronicle of good and interesting practices than to represent a systematic frame of reflection. Specifically, this contribution will present and discuss the discourse around the concept of “digital learners”, and the reason why the dominant label used to describe today‟s learners are, actually, more di verting than useful. eLearning issues are, relatively, a novelty in human beings history (de Kerckhove, 1993; deKerckhove, 2006) and, even if the number of publication on this topic is enormous, it is likely to say that instructional designers still miss the big picture. As recently noticed, what we call eLearning has not really been realized, though academic institutions provide it since long time (Davidson & Waddington, 2010; Little, 2010). Probably, the needed discernment to have a clear framework for education today (and tomorrow) is now at the very beginning; willy-nilly, the mindset we use to interpret the role of school links to the reality of “industrial society” and to the concept of “mass standard education” (Tapscott, 2009 p. 139). Some big questions seem to need a deeper analysis: In which society are we living, today? Which implications come from this paradigm of society (namely, the “knowledge society”) for the educational system? Who are the learners, today, whose eLearning is (or can be) the educational paradigm? And, finally, which society are we building for the near future, in schools and on internet with the tomorrow citizens?