Tim posted a very interesting piece on a Clifford Stoll’s presentation at TED 2006 today. I also recently watched this video and it has been niggling me ever since. How can he have so much energy and enthusiasm, and be frankly so charged about what he finds interesting. I am amazed at his exuberance. While I have not read his books, I have since explored many of his ideas as presented in many places on the web and have found that I am still unsure if I agree with him or not. However, I am sure that a man with that amount of passion and intelligence is sure to have spent time considering his ideas prior to presenting them for mass dissemination.
Additionally, as a technophile I realize that my love of technology can often cloud my judgement of the need for technology (this used to mean computers) in classroom. However, as I see my daughter (who is four) grow I realize that she will have more than ample opportunity to use technology and computers before she is an adult without making them a focus of her education in preschool or elementary school. I feel that she, currently, needs more opportunities to experience the world in a more hands on way than computers allow.
With that statement made, my daughter has an 12″ iBook of her own that she has full access to. She loves to draw with Tux Paint using a Wacom tablet. She enjoys going to Bunnytown, as well. However, she rarely uses her computer for more than a few minutes without asking for my wife or I to sit with her and “help.” This help is the interaction that computers lack for young minds. She rarely needs help with using the touch pad (she has never used a mouse) or the pen for the tablet. But when she uses the computer she seems to try to use it as a “common point” to establish social interactions.
Therefore, it is my fear that the increase of “social” websites and destinations will pull kids from the developmentally appropriate interactions of face to face, hand in hand, and toe to toe to the face to screen interaction with someone they really don’t know. While I believe that these “distant” relationships can be very beneficial for developing social understand of differences and cultural identity, I also believe that putting your hand on a sheep, in the mud or around a tree branch can be very beneficial for developing a child’s mind into the mind of a well grounded (or rounded) adult.
Finally, as a special educator, I frequently have conversations with students and parents surrounding computers and specifically game systems and how students can be so good at games and so delayed in the social areas of their lives. The statement that I find myself frequently sharing with parents is have you ever had a conversation with a person who only wanted to talk about their passion and could not shift subjects, now consider that same conversation with a person who limits their social interaction opportunities to 6 hours a day and the rest of the time they are enhancing that passion, that is what your student is doing. These parents often don’t understand that by encouraging their children to spend 4-5 hours a day on week days playing video games, because it is something that they are good at and enjoy, they are essentially closing all doors to opportunities for these same kids with limited social skills to practices social skills or basic communication for that matter.
