My perspective on children and the internet is colored by
the fact that I have three of them, and they grew up as the internet and cell
phones became popular. They were all
born in the 80’s and grew up in the 90s.
They became adults in the 2000s.
As we know, technology was changing and growing as fast as my children
were.
Children today are growing up in a
time of hyper communication/information.
No other generation in history has had so much information at such young
ages. I was struck by the work of young
artist Shilo Shiv Suleman (check out her video at the following link):
In her Tedtalk she focused on how young people
can now use technology to be creative as they read a storybook on their
IPad. Young people can interact with
other young people around the world through technology. No longer,using Suleman's technology, do they simply read a story. They can
now interact with the story, and contribute to the story.
They can do this in real time in conjunction
with other young people. This
unprecedented capacity to learn, create, communicate, and inform at young ages
makes the world a different place for our youth. Because many of them know no other world, it
is a consuming reality for them.
The pace of change in technology is relentless, and our children must also cope
with rapid change on an unprecedented scale.
While the pace of change is daunting for adults, children are more
flexible and adaptable to change ,and so they may be coping better than adults
with the hyper fast reality of today’s world.
Yet children must be shielded from the evil on the internet.
I learned more about how smart children are this
week. For example Sugata Mitra’s story
of reaching remote, poor areas first struck me.
In his story he focused on how children are self taught and can teach
other children. Here is the link to his
story:
Mitra focused on how children can learn without
assistance. That is not a new
concept. Frederick Douglass, the 19th
century abolitionist and former slave taught himself to read while still a
child after a kind slave owner’s wife was caught teaching him to read, and was forbade to continue.
Mitra also talked about the need for good
teachers. I agree that we need good
teachers, and that children can learn without teachers. Paraphrasing Mitra, if a particular teacher
can be replaced by a machine then that teacher should be replaced. Yet good teachers are still needed, because,
especially for younger children, the human element is critical. Children need nurturing while learning. Learning is not purely academic. It is social, and spiritual.
Machines cannot take the place of people when
it comes to educating our children, and I oppose efforts to get rid of
teachers, unless the individual teacher is incompetent. Yet, in the classroom, I see the reality that children can
teach each other, and can learn without a teacher. A teacher in some instances may be a
facilitator rather than directing learning directly. Children can and should be allowed to learn
on their own. Adults (teachers) should
have a vision and plan for the learning.
Teachers therefore are in an evolving role.
Education Technology (ET) spoken of in
Mitra’s Tedtalk can augment teachers and free them to take a different focus on
learning. Allowing children to think
critically has been heralded as the goal of many education programs. I agree.
Critical thinking skills are critical.
Without them, children are merely sponges soaking up what they are
exposed to. Children must be taught to think for themselves, and to think critically.
Critically means, for a good sponge, knowing where to soak. Using critical thinking,
our children can direct the sponge (their minds) to absorb knowledge and information, direct
the sponge to release some of its knowledge and information to peers who may
lack that information, and they can combine the absorbed knowledge and
information to form super sponges that can synergize and produce combined
communication/collaboration.
Children
are already doing this, as some teachers have learned how to turn students
loose and monitor, facilitate, and help, while not interfering too much. Schools of education are tasked to
incorporate ET into the classroom teacher training modules. This
is were the proverbial rubber meets the road.
Professional development, then, becomes extremely important. Seasoned teachers must be brought up to
speed regarding new innovative teaching methods.
There is a downside of the internet and children. We are definitely empowering our children to
reach unprecedented heights of achievement.
Yet we must always remember that we are dealing with children. Their development at different stages must be
understood and taken into account when planning how to teach. It is
not about controlling the students.
Rather, it is about careful monitoring of what they are exposed to. Age appropriate exposure is the key to
ensuring that we do not abdicate our responsibility as adults to maintain
control over exposure.
When we look at the world we see that there is no full
equity when it comes to education.
Different nations have deep disparities between them, and even within a particular nation, there are often
deep disparities between the urban/rural, and the rich/poor. Addressing these concerns are applicable even
in relatively prosperous nations like the USA .
I live in the USA, in an area with limited internet
service in the rural parts of the county.
The cost of the rural limited internet is much higher than the cost of
internet in urban areas and the largely satellite internet is slower. Addressing the
disparities in internet access for the poorer rural class should be a policy
discussion at the state and national level. Just as everyone in the country has
basic access to similarly priced electricity, water, gas, and phone, there
should be a level field for internet access.
One solution would be to have a grand program of laying
internet cable lines, just as we had a program of complete electrification of
our country. Such a program would be costly, but could be borne by an
equalization of prices for rural and urban, so that the urban areas pay more to
subsidize the rural areas.
Such a
program would create jobs in the short term, and the added intellectual
capacity created would transform America by creating a residual
effect of more innovation and more businesses locating in rural areas.
The time for such a grand program of national cable internet
access is long overdue. Our children deserve it.
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