Response to readings

All three articles assigned did not offer any profoundly earth shattering information relative to technology and how its used by and for children. I would assume that most of us who have raised children through this technological frenzy saw bits and pieces of ourselves as well as our children in the articles. Zero to Six quantified, by use of lots of data, what I already knew and lived through. One thing I didn't get was the testing of kids under the age of one. The article I enjoyed the most is "What Next? Toddler Netizen, Playstation Thumb, Techno-literacies".

While, again, the information is not new, some issues were examined that validated what I know to be true as an educator and parent. When Bill Clinton became President, one thing he said he would do was to see that every household had a computer. I knew that was hogwash when he said it. He may have meant well, but in the end it did not happen. And as cited in point # 4 of "What Next?...", what continues to be ignored is "that not all families are equally situated to have access to the information superhighway."We can not "ignore" the socio-economic factor in the whole scheme of things

Which brings me to a point, I'd like to raise. As a special education teacher, I have observed that most of my students are very proficient at entertaining themselves with their iPods, Playstations and cellphones, however have trouble using nearly identical technology in order to complete their schoolwork; most children that have computers don't have printers or printing supplies. To me, what's a computer without a printer? Many kids are using technology for entertainment, not academics.

Kids are learning logic through icons as well as through words. Video games teach kids how to multi-task and make choices and the children have to retain what the choices mean and represent and make decisions based on that memory. Technology teaches kids how to do things but the skills acquired or used are not qualified as academic ways of learning. Traditional teaching of literacy needs to be re-examined with consideration to this kind of pre-education.

In a nutshell... WE ALL HAVE TO ADJUST...our thinking, our methodology and ways of doing things. Everyone is really just worried that this 21st Century generation of kids are going to be desensitized and isolated from each other. But that was our parents' worry and their parents' worry as well.