Kids and technology

I know I'm showing my age here, but I never cease to be amazed by how confident kids are these days with computers and technology in general.

My 8 year old daughter came home from school yesterday and said that the class had been split into pairs, and each pair had to put together a Powerpoint presentation about a children's author of their choice to present to the rest of the class. So they have to do their own research on the internet to get info on the author, create a Powerpoint presentation and present to the class - 8 years old!!! It's not like she goes to some school for geniuses, it's a normal every day school.

And my 5 year old son is always having to show me how to change the settings on my digital camera because I can never figure it out, hehe.

This is all just normal stuff to kids these days, wow I say!

I was brought up in the age of technology,
but not as far as that
clever kids!

<- My 2 year old

She puts her own movies in the DVD player ... hands me the 2 remote controls I need to get her movie started

let me guess, your one year old has 3 IT certifications on 200k a year?

Yes, kids are very smart these days when it comes to technology. From Baby Einstein tapes for infants to Reader Rabbit software for two-year-olds to dare I say Nintendo...given as early as fifth birthdays? It is amazing how technology advancements change over time.

Lol... My little brother changes Sky (Just the + & - buttons) to his cartoons. He is only just turned 3 lol. He also knows how to turn the computer on, navigate to the BBC site and play games on CBeebbies!

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My 9 year old brother seems to run the whole world on our PC! He is on it all the time. So glad I got my own hehe!

I personally believe that you need to crawl before you run. Granted this was 50 some years ago, but I could read, write and new my numbers before I started school. And I started when I was 4. I don't know the answer, but I often wonder if todays children can still do math or read and write without the computer to assist. In fact computerized education sometimes reminds me of the flash cards we used growing up.

well, in our place it depends on what environment the kid aws raised. If the family members are technology wiz, then for sure that kid knows how to use computer. Otherwise, for those families who can't even avail to buy a PC, children grows know nothing with computer not until when they go to high school where computer subject is being taught.

In England, and the US I'm sure, kids start learning computers from about age 5 at school.

I do have to agree with sannbe though about the declining standards in learning the basics of reading/writing etc.

WOW....when I was at college and that was only a couple of years ago, some of the class didn't know how to make a presentation using Powerpoint so I don't know how the hell they expect 8 years olds to do it

I'm not sure I agree that standards are sliding. Going on UK results, we are currently getting some of the best results ever at GCSE and A level so I don't see your point there. As well as this more people than ever are studying at degree level which, like it or lump it, is an advanced level of learning. Some skills are now obsolete and so kids don't learn them. Children are savvy, they will only do as much as they need to to get ny and the majority more than just get by.

Technology plays a massive part of this. Why does someone need arithmatic, practically speaking. I have always got a calculator with me in one form or another. Phone, laptop, pda, pc. My numeracy skills are good-I'm a straight A student-but I wonder if it is really a hindrance to those who don't have these skills. I doubt it very much in this day and age.

What are peoples views on this shift? Should children be learning technology skills at such a young age? I have my reservations but what are your thoughts?

Pete.

The basics and tech side can be taught together but equally. And as for this

My question has to be....what if the battery dies, or there is no electrical power to run them....or you are in a position where you do not have the money to buy them..... Are you planning to use fingers and toes or an abacus?

The thing is Pete, a lot of kids are coming through school without having the basics of grammar/punctuation/spelling down. It has nothing to do with their intelligence, and they are still able to pass exams and go on to do degrees etc. There seems to be an attitude coming through that those kinds of things don't matter too much.

When I've gone to my kids' school for parents' evening and I look through their work, the thing that shocks me is that often the spelling/punctuation etc won't have been corrected in their work by the teacher, but at the bottom it will say 'Good work' or something like that, leading them to think they've done it all right! They do have weekly spelling tests etc at school, but if they are doing science or something, then the view is that as long as they show they understood the science experiment, it doesn't matter if they have spelling mistakes etc in there. I think this is wrong - how are they supposed to properly learn if mistakes aren't pointed out! It sends mixed messages; you have to get your spellings right in a spelling test, but you can get them wrong in your other work I know this isn't just at my kids' school either, it's widespread.

As you know, I work in a university, and I hear lecturers complaining all the time that degree students are coming through not knowing the difference between 'their' and 'there', and other such basic stuff! They still pass the exams though, so these things don't show up in statistics on exam pass rates, which as you say are going up.

There are knock-on effects to this. There's been a decline in take up of foreign language learning, and part of the reason for this is because kids are finding language learning harder than they used to. Why? Because it's much harder to learn the grammar rules in other languages, when you haven't mastered them in your own.

Sorry for the essay - it's just a personal annoyance of mine, as a parent, and as someone who has to listen to university lecturers complaining about it all the time! hehe.

But it is difficult enough to teach one subject to young children let alone several at the same time. In an ideal world we would all have perfect grammar and understanding of out language but that has never been the case nor will it ever be. I have nothing to back me up here but I would guess that more people have good grammar skills now than ever but the proportion of people with good grammar skills who have been through a formal education has dropped. More people are educated today than ever, it may simply be a case of expposure, we know about terrible grammar now. It has certainly slipped down on the list of priorities though, I'll concede that.

With all of this in mind, how important are grammar skills? Seriously, for what are they essential? I need my grammar skills because I write a lot: essays, evidence of learning, documentation, reports. So I need to be concise, analytical, grammatically correct but I am still in formal education. My tutors mark me down for poor spelling and grammatical errors as well as for poor content so I have no choice. When I leave, however, unless I do any serious writing, I will only need to be perfect in my grammar if I choose to write copy or when I am creating promotional material for myself (we will ignore the fact for now that I'm actually going to be doing another degree). If someone just has to pop an email along to a colleague, so what if there are spelling mistakes, who cares if it is poorly punctuated or the syntax is just all wrong? If it can be vaguely understood and its message is communicated then what is the issue. I think exceptional grammar skills are rare but are also, for most people, unnecessary. Besides Word will check my spelling, hell, even my browser will check my spelling. Word goes even further and actually checks a whole range of different things.

I love grammar and punctuation and language in general, it's the sort of person I am. I will also help people with their skills if they so desire, but I don't think these skills are essential; they are barely even necessary.

Pete.

I'd say important based on what you intend to do career-wise.
If you are going to work in sales, you will have to draft letters to prospective clients. If you are a school teacher, you need to know how to write. Even sporting coaches need to draft letters to players, correspondence to parents etc.
I suppose the local trash collector will not need to know perfect grammar skills however, if he has an issue with his health insurance or the Tax man, he is going to have to put something in writing to work through his problem.

Schools are certainly evolving Vanessa. Long gone are the days of "typing class". Kids know how to type at an early age just from using computers.

My typing skills improved dramatically when I started using IM.

At the school I go to, I haven't had a computer class in about two years and when I did have a computer class, all we did was spreadsheets!

About a year ago, I typed with one finger, I was afraid to use the internet because I thought it would break the computer and I didn't know how to have more than one window open at the same time!

Thats true
But I found I got into bad habits (hw r u?)
Now I just type in a chatty way
but with as little gramatical/spelling errors i can be bothered to fix.