about the research process

Supposedly about the research process of 'digital natives' but frankly this sounds like the research process as a whole:

For example, digital natives gather information — as a building block in any learning process — through a multistep process that involves grazing, a deep dive, and a feedback loop.

Digital natives are good at grazing through the vast ocean of information online.

While browsing the Web, digital natives might decide to go beyond the headlines of a story and to take a deep dive, for example by following a hypertext link, listen to a commentary, or download a video clip on the topic of interest. In this way, they are searching for what’s behind the bit of information that got their attention in the first place.

The feedback loop, finally, includes some sort of enhanced interactivity with the content they’re interested in. The digital native, for instance, may decide to share the information with friends and family. Or to post a comment to her blog to critique the story he just learned about. Or to share thoughts on a mailing list. The form of a digital native’s feedback loop varies, but his level of engagement with information and the world he lives in tends to be higher than the one of the previous generation.

We’re optimistic that these features are generally good for learning.
-- Urs Gasser, Interview, "Understanding Students who were 'born digital'"-- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/10/02/digital