Children and old technology

Watch from 1:25 for the experiment.

Elen did an interesting and funny experiment on showing children old technologies. Their lack of time awareness assuming that the first mobile phone was 100 years old shows how little children understand about how technology changes. Maybe they should be shown what old technologies looked like so that they can appreciate what they have now. Children spend so much time on technology and take it for granted.

Children find technology as we saw as revolutionary at the time such as the mobile phone as a joke. They can only see slimmed down phones with coloured screens and an app store with Face Time. 

Children attempting to use an old computer

The children in this video complained about how complicated it was to turn the computer on, it also shows how far technology has gone to make our lives so much simpler. People could plan their lives with technology such as calendars, online shopping, note taking on phones/tablets and so much more. This video comes from a Youtube series called 'Kids react...' and they have been shown old Walkmans, Gameboys and typewriter. 

Are the older generation being left behind?

Technology is a big part of our lives but mainly for those of a younger age. The older generation are not so keen on using computers to order their weekly shop, they find it easier to go out and do it themselves. Some older people can be stubborn

 about using these amazing tools available to them, or they're simply too scared to try. My parents often struggle with their phones and tablet and ask for help, they do try but they can’t grasp things as quickly as I could. They like simplicity, if I try to explain how to do online shopping or forward a message they give a blank expression not knowing when I am talking about. This is why I feel the older generation need support even if they can only watch a video online it’ll be more than what they could do before.

Adult classes for using computers are very common and often free, I feel these are essential to connecting the older and younger generation. They can see the benefits of being connected to everyone such as getting into regular contact with family that moved away  or even learning how to do something new.

Classrooms of the future

Classrooms have barely changed in the past 10 years aside from the addition of smart board to help aid learning. Paper and pen is still used and children develop their writing and reading skills on a daily basis. However, how will thing change in the next 10 years?

I found this picture online and thought how amazing is would be to have a classroom like this, not annoying projector to block and no board pens that are not in sync with the smart board. Using your hands in a marked space to use technology seems so far away, but could be closer than you think. 

Imagine removing all paper and pen for tablets and laptops, no mess on tables and everything at your fingertips? Not an ideal future for reading and writing skills but perfect for people trying to push forward the idea of technology taking over and becoming an even bigger part of our lives compared to now, would we let the fascination of new technologies take over our basic skills?

It’s not abused, it should work well especially in science lessons where children miss out on experiments due to lack of resources and time, you could simulate it.

How much time should children spend using technology?

The Measuring National Well-being - Children's Well-being (2012) by the UK government states that “Data from Understanding Society showed that in the UK 96 per cent of children aged 10 to 15 years had computer access at home.”

With these statistics are we giving children too much freedom with technology so much that their education could be hindered. For obvious reasons, children would prefer to go online than study for exams and do their homework.

Homework is vital for children to have a further understanding of what was taught during their last lesson. However, if the child is struggling for whatever reason their friends can help or they could look at a website relevant to what they need to know. The internet is going to be around for a long time, children will need to know how to use it in order to obtain information.

However, the internet is an iceberg, many dangers linger beneath the surface which can harm them mentally, emotionally and maybe even physically. Children need to be safe online and know where to spot the dangers and when to stop what they are doing. 

Cyber bullying is also a common issue amongst young people, this is often not spoken about by victims and they think it will just go away but it is a big problem. This can affect their school life because they will not want to attend school, which we cannot allow to happen.

references:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_283988.pdf

(accessed: 10/01/2015)

The development of virtual reality

Virtual reality has been a hot topic for technology recently, with the development of devices such as the Oculus Rift and OSVR (open source virtual reality) . 

OSVR ideas and concepts explained.

While both devices have their own ideas and concepts, one wants to ask when will this be rolled out and affordable to the public. The Oculus Rift currently costs $350 (£233) for its Type 2 version which is not the kind of money everyone has today, especially for education. The education sector would benefit massively through this technology with the right games for children. the Foundation Phase in Wales focuses on first hand experiences and this kind of technology would transform education as we know it today. Children could experience maths and English playing games, it could enhance Forest Schools by doing a simulator on how to start a fire before practicing in real life.

It could also be damaging for education, will children forget that what can be done in virtual reality will not necessarily work out in the real world? Will children become so focused on virtual reality that reading and writing could be a thing of the past? So much could go wrong with virtual reality if not used in a safe and correct fashion.

Teaching children to code, good or bad?

Barclays has been advertising life skills for young people as part of helping people gain new skills. The scheme is called 'Barclays Code Playground' which aims to teach children how to write in code. Their advert shows a child trying to making a dinosaur dance and say hello, by using a coding language. Children would pick up these new skills quickly and some could argue that children are our future so we need to prepare them for the wealth of technology that’s currently being developed. 

However, children be learning the basics of English and Maths before moving onto coding. Are we putting too much pressure on children to learn so much in their early years of education? We need to remember children leave school at 16 or 18 and we want them to love every minute of it while reaching their full potential.

The programme used to code on the video below is very simple and children with help would be able to use and understand what they're doing. I think it is a good idea as long as other subjects don't suffer as a result. Children are entering secondary school without basic English and Maths which is really worrying, should that be the focus or should it be the future?

Web 2.0 app http://taggalaxy.de/

I found this app very interesting because if you type in a tag for instance 'beach' as an initial tag, the universe design show lots of planets with pictures tagged with 'beach'. Pictures from the website Flikr which shared pictures are used to create these planets. The design of having the pictures shown on planets made me feel that these pictures really connect us a species, we share our own pictures and memories for others to see. The pictures sometimes have a preview of what the person that posted the picture put as a caption which I also find to be a good feature because it adds the personal touch from the author who may explain why they took the picture.

This could be used in education by asking children to post their own pictures on Flikr taken of their favourite toy or place for example and share it with the same tag as the rest of the class. They can then put the tag in the search bar and look at everyone’s picture and see all of their pictures put together as a kind of collage. This is a good way of showing children how information can be shared.

Screenshots taken from http://taggalaxy.de/ (Date accessed: 06.07.2015)