my son is a technology native. 3 years old. has his own computer; and can start it, log in, load his favourite game or website, and shut the system down (correctly). he also enjoys a wide range of dvd's and movies. (we have no cable, so are thankfully disney channel and treehouse free.... plus skip most of the general advertising.)
he also plays with play dough, and other assorted items like kids from time immemorial. including..... magnetic letters on the fridge.
now what's different isn't that he has the old fashioned magnetic letters (2 sets of 72), and the leapfrog phonics set of single letters, 3 letter words, and the lowercase letters - it's the message.....
www.sonywonder.com or www.disneydvdgameworld.com
here are some other samples.... unassisted samples just to clarify.....
actually.... what scares me is that i'm afraid i won't be able to keep up.
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on the off chance anyone is wondering what brought on the whole immigrant/native topic, here is the background:
a while ago, a friend of mine posted an entry about technology, and how agency executives are digital immigrants instead of natives.
"natives have never seen a world without the digital. they use it “natively.” if you grew up pre-CD, pre-mouse, pre-cell phone etc., you’re an immigrant."
it sort of riled me up a bit.... and i made the following comment:
what amuses me, is that the digital natives become helpless without the digital immigrants. those (meaning the vast majority of natives) who use technology and take it for granted, are dumbfounded and adrift when it doesn’t work. they also have no second thoughts about putting massive amounts of personal information freely on-line in social networks.i still stand by that, but have realized it's not completely true... i know many kids in the new generation are able to understand and fix technology. of course, all the ones i know are the children of parents who are technology immigrants and work in information technology.... who else teaches their 12 year old how to set up *nix networks, and would consider starting to teach their 6 year old SQL and Oracle?
the backbone of the system - those who concern themselves with operations, keeping things running, fixing that which is broken, and security are largely immigrants (at least those I know.)
it’s always amused me, that while I’m considered a “dinosaur” because I am of the “e-mail” generation (nay, I preceed even that) i am the one who is repairing the technology they broke.
i suddenly feel like playing the immigrant song at top volume from my iPod now.
1 comment:
"dreamworks?" really?! hmm.
i'd say the natives are capable of fixing their own tech, but they've moved on to much higher level use of it. we're capable of sewing our own clothing too, but cheap nations give us the ability to dress well and concentrate on higher reward activities.
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