Observations on the Solomon reading & other research ideas 9/7

Just quickly, in reading Solomon's article in which he mentions a study of college students use of information technology over four years in an attempt to discover how much it impacts their learning process, I wanted to take a moment to try to define another angle on the research questions that I have been tossing around. So, the base question is: In what ways has the growth of metadata definition and use within the context of publicly available information systems changed the methods and extent to which people manage their data? Are there academic examples (Endnote for example or openURL systems)? Are there personal examples (Financial records, Quicken, etc)? Is this a significant shift or merely a change in technologies? My underlying thought is that within the context of the library/information science world, the functionally being added to systems by including interoprable data models has the ability to have a significant impact on users. Perhaps not 'semantic web' but semantic user? I had thought through some other examples, including the changing nature of document generation/publication (term paper to website/blog), scholarly publication to 'data on the grid' publication, and wonder to what extent these trends would play into the embodied congnitive psychology idea proposed by Clark that users integrated with an environment undergo an (Strong word here) 'evolutionary' change in which the output is significantly greater than the output of an individual devoid of the integration of environmental factors? So Solomon's mention of the study on college students makes me wonder how I would study this population with this question in mind. Is it as simple as comparing the output of students who use bibliographic management software against those who do not? Is it an analysis of the formats of papers? Could I track the work of students who engage in an information literacy course and compare their academic careers against those who do not?
I like Solomon's research approach - a 'naturalistic collection' of facts including observation, task diaries, computer logs, documentation of the process, integrated with user interviews.