Posted on 09/16/2014 1:53:03 AM PDT by Enlightened1
“So, your kids must love the iPad?” I asked Mr. Jobs, trying to change the subject. The company’s first tablet was just hitting the shelves. “They haven’t used it,” he told me. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
I’m sure I responded with a gasp and dumbfounded silence. I had imagined the Jobs’s household was like a nerd’s paradise: that the walls were giant touch screens, the dining table was made from tiles of iPads and that iPods were handed out to guests like chocolates on a pillow.
Nope, Mr. Jobs told me, not even close.
Since then, I’ve met a number of technology chief executives and venture capitalists who say similar things: they strictly limit their children’s screen time, often banning all gadgets on school nights, and allocating ascetic time limits on weekends.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I would tend to agree....there shouldn’t be any laptops or computers introduced into the school atmosphere until maybe the last year or two. There are a thousand skills that you ought to develop, without the aid of modern technology.
My smart-ass inlaws, one of whom works in the tech industry and the other one close to it, harangued me the last time we got together because my husband and I don’t let our SEVEN year-old boys own an iPhone, or have video games, etc. They tried to tell me the kids should be learning programming *now* (when one of them is still learning to read! Sheesh!). Wish I could send them this article anonymously. ;)
I just know this. If children today have the public education I grew up in (70s and 80s), then they are not going to prepared for the future. Think of the technology today compared to the technology in the 1970s and 80s. Schools have to stay relevant with the technology today.
Now factor in Moore's law where technology is expanding at an exponential rate. If you read Ray Kurzweil books (Google’s Director of Engineering), then you will see he correctly predicted everything in technology from 1999 to 2009. If he is correct about the next 15 years, then our children will be really far behind in school.
15 years is not that long ago. I am sure you recall what you were doing 15 years ago. Plus I know the technology that is coming in the next 5 years will so radically change today's tech. That 10 years from now.... We will view technology today in the same manor we view technology today compared to the technology in the 1970s and 80s. That's how fast it's going to change.
I know that may seem hard to believe, but think about it this way. Compare Cell phones today to what they were 10 years ago or even 20 years ago. Way different right? What about the Internet? It's way more powerful today, than it was 10 years or even 20 years ago. Look how it's transforming everything.
So what are children to prepare for in the future? I would say Quantum computing, the Darknet, Nano tech, Robotics, Cloud Computing and network Security. This technology will be running everything from our Refrigerators, dishwashers, cars, stoves, etc...
I know this. You are about to a massive increase in our Internet speed. It's going to go from anywhere between 3mbs up to 50mbs right now to 1000mbs or better know as a Gigabit of speed. To give you an idea of how fast 1 Gigabit of speed is say you download a High Definition movie that is on average over 5.5 Gigabytes. That will down load in a little over 3 seconds. That technology will be in place in most places in 5 years and pretty much every where in 10 years. It's already in motion.
This type of speed will open application to do things that we have not even imagined. So to get back to your point. While I do agree to it, but perhaps a disciplined technology approach would be the best way to prepare children. I agree they have to be able to understand the basics without the technology.
Sure. ATT is just going to give everyone FIOS and increase our internet speed for nothing. So far, only companies near the junction points and willing to fork out big cash can get Gigabit speeds. Homeowners - forget it.
This reminds me of my own father right before I turned 16. I told my father he should buy me a car because I could drive now. LOL! Naturally he said he would not do it, but I could buy my own car and pay for the insurance if I wanted to. Once I researched how much it cost, then well I was riding with friends to school.
Maybe when he asks you can do the same approach of I will not buy one, but you can have one if you can afford it?
My pleasure. It’s always nice to share a laugh.
AT&T and Google are actually laying the Fiber. Verizon has already done some of this with the FIOS and will be turning up their 4G cell towers.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/verizon-ceo-eyes-digital-video-service-by-mid-2015-1410467151
Like I said, it will be in limited areas and cost a bunch.
Here in CT we have no such thing. Story this am: http://www.courant.com/politics/elections/hc-hi-speed-broadband-0916-20140915,0,843831.story
Cities will demand it but for us in the boonies it will either not be available or too expensive.
I’m not surprised. I can definitely see where too much tech too soon could cause developmental disabilities.
Pretty OBVIOUS stuff. You won’t find A SINGLE non-self-motivated kid who amounted to anything useful that was given full access to electronics. No way...they will NEVER STUDY if given a choice. Now there are others, mostly girls, that will study anyway (i.e., self-motivated), even if Facebook is just one click away. They do well through high school and college and get good jobs. I’d call it a feminist plot, but I don’t think they could have planned it...but they do see the results, so they keep upping the “technology” used in the schools, to intensify the results.
I had enough COMMON SENSE to know that if kids could learn from non-electronic media for 5,000 years, they probably could do the same today, regardless of how much they whined. And, as my now-grown kids have proven, I was right.
“They tried to tell me the kids should be learning programming *now*”
Programming is not a bad skill, and is a LOT DIFFERENT than giving a kid an I-PHONE with Internet access. Age 7 may be a bit young, but learning programming early did work well with my kids. The trick is to keep them off of the Internet, and that’s not always easy (I had to physically remove wireless antennas from our laptops, for example). Obviously, you also need to supervise the time they are learning programming too.
There are a thousand skills that you ought to develop...
Like reading and writing.
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