"Why is ICT so important?" you ask. "I don't send my child to school to play on the computer. When I was at school, we didn't use computers. We didn't need them - we used our brains. All computers do is dumb our kids down, and I don't like it!"
Over the last few decades, our understanding and use of technology has exploded. Gone are the days of house-sized shared work computers; now it seems as if every teenager and young adult has a phone permanently glued to their hand. In a world of connections, we appear to be connecting in a way that has never before been seen, and hardly conceived by our technological forerunners. "What does that matter? My child is in Prep! They don't need to know all that computer stuff yet." According to Marc Prensky, "Today's students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today's average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives." This article was written in 2001 - and it's amazing to think how dramatically the world has changed in the 14 years since! Our children, especially those who are entering the school system now, have been immersed in technology since the day they came out of the womb. Our children are digital natives - indigenous to the world of Information and Communication Technologies - in a way like never before. |
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