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Education Reflections

Mini-Generation Gaps

One Laptop Per Child
Credit: Wikimedia
One Laptop Per Child
Credit: Wikimedia

When I gave the Holiday Science lecture, one of the things that I touched on briefly was how my childhood was unrecognizable compared to the childhood of children 10 years my junior.

This article – The Children of Cyberspace – from the New York Times elaborates on that further. From the article:

“Researchers are exploring this notion too. They theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.”

Lately, I’ve been thinking more about this and how technology education needs to prepare people for the future – both in terms of how we encourage children to take an interest in informatics (Computer Science) and what they’re taught when they get here. I’m starting to work out the details for a presentation, which I’m thinking about calling “Preparing for a Revolution”.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

8 replies on “Mini-Generation Gaps”

One cool little thing to consider about today's kids: they grew up in a world where you're never unreachable. I remember the organizational nightmare of meeting friends at the mall in 1995 and having to make sure everyone understood exactly when and where to meet up. 15 years later, it's unthinkable.

Yes that's so true! I think you'll like the post scheduled for Saturday 🙂

Do you think it makes us more flaky though? I remember scheduling little things like a trip to the cinema days in advance. People hardly ever seem to do that now.

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