Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Empower kids through technology

I remember kids that would take apart transistor radios or clocks because they were so curious about how they ran. It is no different than Bill Gates spending all his waking hours as a teenagers learning about computers. If children are really interested in technology, it is not a bad thing.

Though I am not an advocate of hours of video game playing. DD7 has 10 inch tablet. She makes videos, she does play games on it, but she has limited time to do that. But I do want her to feel comfortable with technology. She does read, though when reading Charlotte's web, the classic, she had a hard time, questions every paragraph because too many outdated terms. The car did not pull up, the DeSoto did.

Right now I am reading George Eliot. And yes, it is interesting to read about the society back then but it also annoying in the class system, the attitudes, the lack of depth in people. She dealt with that in a ground breaking way for that time, but it is not that time.

Ren

Technology is the future. Regardless of what your child "wants to be when they grow up" they will be using technology every single day. I understand limiting access to video games, and youtube and whatnot, but not access to the medium such that they cannot use it in school. Personally, I think they aren't using computers nearly enough in school yet. Kids are going to graduate from school this year, having basically zero understanding of how the modern computer works. Not just a few kids, the vast majority of them. The same will happen next year. These kids know how to txt and upload youtube videos, but they have no idea what function a transistor plays in any of their equipment. They have no idea what the major components are of a PC. How can we be allowing an entire generation to grow up ignorant of so much what they touch on a regular basis?

DW's laptop died on her last week and refused to power up again. I disassembled it to see if there were any obvious problems I could address (loose power jack, etc.), or if I could see any obvious giveaways that the thing was useless (scorch marks on the motherboard, etc.).

Naturally, DDnearly7 found the process interesting. Not as naturally, non-technical DW found it even more so, occasionally exclaiming, "That's so cool!"... a sentiment that draws many of us to technology in the first place.

DD got her own laptop for Christmas.

Oppenheimer was a highly literate, sensitive, and humane man who decided to build the bomb to stop Fascism. He was a great leader. The bomb saved millions of American and Japanese lives and kept the Soviet Empire from plunging us into another world war.

The Terminator series is dark fantasy.

The people at Apple and Microsoft are good people who are deeply concerned about turning out good products. The advent of the computer has saved millions of lives and made our lives much better.

My own personal life has run the gamut from growing up in wilderness to living and working with the most advanced technology there is. When I was 12, I was reading Homer in the morning, hiking and hunting all day in the mountains, and programming at night.

I do not think technology separates us from the world. That is a decision that people make. And people separated themselves from the world long before we even had steam power.

Sorry as a librarian and former teacher, Web 2.0 (meaning interactive, immersive) tools are going to change the way we think, communicate, and learn. The whole human society, especially in the Western world.

Most schools are still word and print-based or auditory-sequential learning. Meaning the main transmission of knowledge is through words with the focusing on reading, writing, and doing math. If you're going to be a lawyer, politician, English professor, you will benefit tremendously from a classical (word-based) education where logic, reason, reading, writing, grammar, Latin, etc. are emphasized.

If you think in words, you've got a natural advantage with a word-based curriculum and learning. It's easy for you to remember addresses or directions by words (i.e. Take Essex Street to Broad Street) rather than by landmarks or what you see.

I've got news for you - not everyone thinks in words! It also doesn't necessarily foster creativity for those of us who do not think in words.

Some of us visual people think in images and learn more effectively and efficiently when information is presented this way. This means playing free online interactive, immersive math games or watching a educational video where someone uses color is better than a teacher lecturing us on multiplication or writing problems in b/w on the blackboard or whiteboard.

Some of people are visual-kinesthetic learners and can process information better when they play with their hands or create for themselves. These are the kids who learn more from taking apart machines than studying them from a book.

Don't believe things are going to change BIG time. Google web 2.0 tools for students or teacher or look at sites like www.livebinders.com. Having a laptop or iPad is the very, tiniest tip of the iceberg.

Jane Goodall completely changed the way we think of ourselves as humans, as well as chimps, - by observing them (using her own eyes!) and not by having a science degree. Thank color photography and National Geographic magazine and TV shows in the 70s for bringing Goodall's work to the masses.

Today it's digital technology and the open source movement that is helping to revolutionize society. We are moving from an analog to digital world.

Exactly. Google has raised everyone's IQ by 20 points. And we are going from a society where very little was known to one where everyone knows everything.



Exactly. Knowledge is no longer controlled. The printing press ushered in the Reformation and the resulting rise in freedom and capitalism. The rise of google and the ipad has changed things permanently.

As for Goodall, Chimps are not very human at all in many respects. They are violent, vicious little things. We are just as close to bonobos as we are to chimps.


Its more about people having and being able to use information. Before you and I had to talk face to face for me to learn about something. Now, I can search or go to Ted or search for books. It great speeds up understanding.

It also allows for people to collaborate better and faster.

Hello, thanks...

Google, Facebook, YouTube, Second Life, etc. are created by adults for adults with revenue in mind. Google's retrieval system is geared to advertising and profits; not to serve the public's best interests.

We don't stop and think; or most people don't. There are non-commercial free lessons or games on the web but we're programmed to pay for things so we turn to ixl.com or starfall.com instead of http://www.e-learningforkids.org/ or the Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/)

There are many reasons why we're in a stuck in an analog type mode of thinking. Part of the reason is the belief that only the wealthy, elite, educated, and powerful have access to knowledge. Part of the reason is due to copyright issues and proprietary systems. Part of the reason is due to IT professionals and business people taking over the Internet who aren't always known for making things user-friendly. Part of it is due to the teaching and library professions still stuck in words and print-based mentality.

Yes, it's about everyone having a voice and having access to knowledge. Yes, it's about collaborating and sharing knowledge and not having it restricted to the dons at Oxford or Harvard or the old (white) boy's network at Phillips Academy.

Yes, knowledge is no longer controlled. This will include teachers no longer controlling the flow of information either.

Yes, it's about our relationship to knowledge and technology. It's about empowerment. Are we satisfied with others presenting information to us and being controlled by others or do we prefer generating information or creating and finding things out for ourselves? Creative and divergent thinkers like to tip things over with control.

One problem today is that the world's information is doubly every two days and no one can keep up with it. It's too much to digest and process. How many top 100 lists can you scroll through?

Another problem is the way we think and retrieve information. Change often provokes the fight-flee response. Right now, I think many people are in flee mode or cannot handle the sheer volume of information. Sorry, but I think of Gordon Ramsay and Kitchen Nightmares here. I wish libraries and schools had a version of it for Web 2.0.

Google is looking obsolete to me when I start looking at the amount of Web 2.0 tools. It's gotta change.

Web 2.0 involves users creating the content (your own FREE virtual book, newsletter, 3D binder, games, computer program, etc.). I believe students will be creating their own sets of digital knowledge, information, or libraries, if they're not already in some capacity.

But what good is Web 2.0 if information isn't being disseminated or users cannot find it?

Hopefully, Web 2.0 will cause people to question the status quo!

I doubt it, for reasons documented in the book "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" by Bauerlein http://www.dumbestgeneration.com/home.html .

Sure, the Internet permits access to incredible amounts of information. But how are people actually spending time online?
Sites like Facebook encourage youngsters to stay in a hive of same-age peers 24/7 . I've read that newspaper reading, including both online and print versions, is lower than it was 20 years ago.

Adults and teens use Facebook. A 6-year-old or 3-yr-old?

We should be asking - how can emerging digital technology help children learn, share, or connect? How can children use digital technology to create their own information or sets of knowledge?

Those born in 2005 (this means my son) or later are digital natives. They're born with Web 2.0. I believe it's our duty as parents, teachers, librarians, and others to foster and practice global digital literacy in safe, legal, and appropriate ways.

I see Web 2.0 as a perfect opportunity to encourage children to use digital technology to create, dream, and follow a passion using their active minds. It's a way to engage kids (gifted, learning disabilities, attention issues, visual learners, divergent or creative learners, etc.)

As a librarian, yes, I can say book readership is down. Book readership has been declining for some time. No denying it. ALA (American Library Association) has figures if you like. Most public libraries track (not individuals) the figures on book readership too. Enter a public library. Are people in the stacks or are they on public computers or checking out the video or music selection?

Newspapers are bleeding. No denying it. There's a bunch of studies online. I think there's a belief that heavy users of the NY Times and Boston Globe, for instance, will still be willing to pony up the money. However, I think it's going to be an increasing issue because reading newspapers (as a medium for information) is also generational and not surprisingly relates to the level of education.

Pew did a study about the challenges newspaper face
- http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1133/decline-print-newspapers-increased-online-news

USA Today was the first newspaper to make heavy use of color, graphics, and images in 1982. At the time, it was a bit pooh-poohed in the industry as being rather breezy and less erudite with news. USA Today also relied more on AP stories than employing journalists to actually write articles. Since then, can you find a newspaper today that doesn't include color or rely more on AP wire stories?

We've become a more visual society. It started with color lithography, photos, and film, but it's escalated with television, computer games (ie. Pong vs. Nintendo) and the Internet. That's the reality. That doesn't mean newspapers or books will go the way of the dodo. But I do think that things will change whether we like them or not.

Television changed a generation. Joan Cooney Ganz founded the Children's Television Workshop and started Sesame Street to help children learn. Sesame Street helped children learn to read, write, and do math. Joan Cooney Ganz viewed television as having a powerful impact on a child's life and a source for positive societal change and action.

Joan Cooney Ganz saw how kids were mesmerized by television, like addicts. She had a powerful idea - if you capture a child's attention, you can educate them.

Internet is no different - except we've got a new generation here!

Amy, I think your child is still in very early elementary? FWIW, when we were kids we grew up in a world full of tv and most kids never learned about how a cathode-ray tube worked (I grew up way before digital tv lol!). The science-inclined kids went on to learn about science in depth, but most kids didn't learn anything about the technology behind tv and radio, but instead schools and parents taught kids about how to decipher what you read and heard vs what was real vs hype etc. Today, in school, my children had computer technology integrated into the curriculum starting in very early elementary, and although they didn't learn about the mechanics of programming early on, they were taught a lot about how to research, how to verify that the information you are reading is believable, basically *how* to use the internet and computers responsibly. My kids have also had opportunities to attend computer-learning camps during the summer which they've loved, and my ds12 has had programming classes at school.

polarbear