It seems increasingly easy to feel like an old fart these days. From celebrity teenage bloggers to the latest flash-in-the-pan trend, what’s new is new and what’s old, well, could be positively prehistoric, for all it’s worth.
In our area, we need only to enter any one of our elementary schools to feel like a fogey. Students as young as four are whizzing along the information superhighway – another dated term – at warp speed, via iPods and SmartBoards. And they’re not just using these items, they’re also showing adults, including some of their own teachers, the technological ropes of how to operate them.
The ease in which these youngsters touch, tap and tinker with these devices is astonishing – until you remember that these kids grew up with this technology from birth. We adults still remember typewriters, dusty encyclopedia sets and desks in rows – a far cry from today’s classroom, where children work in groups on the floor and up-to-the-minute information is available in an instant via the Internet.
While we wrap our heads around pixels, memory cards and Skype-ing, these kids accept this technology as part and parcel of their lives. What we thought of as cutting-edge back in the day, whether it be filmstrip or VHS tape, overhead projectors or carbon copy machines, would seem absolutely foreign to these kids raised on a steady diet of interactivity and Internet.
One of the biggest detractors of all of this technology is that it can also lead to inactivity and less exercise amongst our youth. However, it is important to note there are people trying to address this problem, namely our MovingON committee, which has made strong headway as a result of successful forums with many community groups, including secondary school students.
The vision of MovingON, says coordinator Kerry Price, is to create a community where everyone can safely walk and bike ... and we think that likely includes students who need to get to and from school. A series of Walk ’n’ Roll events are also lined up for April, where streets will be opened for walking, biking and fun family activities. Stratford city council has already shown its commitment to the MovingON cause by signing the International Charter for Walking.
While the digital devices that fill our schools are important for children’s learning, we need to remember to continue to look beyond them to find ways to keep kids on another beneficial route for their future – developing safe ways to keep their feet moving and not just their fingers.
