I cannot emphasize enough how important I think it is to introduce students to these issues.  I recently taught a Digital Media Studies class which included a two week segment on digital labor.  The first week was rather painful as most students willfully resisted the material.  As young, vibrant men and women, they were hardly concerned with repetitive stress injuries; not surprisingly, they felt themselves to be invincible.  They were equally confident that individually each would be able to negotiate lucrative and fair contracts for their labor.  I noted that market research suggested a different scenario for most workers and wondered how they intended to avoid the problems articulated by the research on digital labor.

Interestingly, our second week on the topic was markedly different.  To begin with, by week two the students had really been thinking about the issues and arguments raised by researchers.  In addition, they had begun to reflect collectively upon their limited experiences in this labor market -- recalling their internships, summer jobs, etc.  Their initial bravado had faded in the face of genuine concern.  Discussion opened with one student asking about organized labor protection for digital workers and the class joined in with ideas about the most effective way to organize isolated, dispersed workers.