This was the title of a recent Harvard discussion panel regarding higher education in a digital age.
In the classroom, the digital age is changing the way that people think, read, and learn in a university environment. The internet offers new opportunities for knowledge sharing and open access. However the debate discussed that universities, the physical building, will continue to exist. The internet is a knowledge source, a forum for discussion, even open debate at a worldwide level, yet the face to face human interaction and challenge that exists in higher education will be slow to be replaced.
I agree with the sentiment that the best future will be one in which the digital and the traditional coexist.
We all know our kids text, but 80% of us do too, according to The Nielsen Company. Nielsen doesn’t say why, but most parents know…. our kids “hear” us better when we text them! Here’s some more interesting cellphone data from Nielsen:
To adults, cell phones are a communications device. To children, they are a lifeline. Consider that the average 13-17 year old sends more than 2,000 text messages per month. Compared with the total mobile Internet population, teens are much bigger consumers of social media, music, games, videos/movies and technology/science.
Phone owners are getting younger: Last year kids typically got their first phone at age 10.1; by the beginning of this year 2009, the phone ownership age “was down to 9.7.” Same for borrowing: In 2008, the average age when kids started to borrow a cell phone was 8.6 years”; now it’s 8.
How they use phones: 66% of tween phone owners took photos with their phones in the past year; half played pre-installed games; 40% activated the speakerphone feature; 28% filmed a video clip; 24% listened to tunes. We’ve already seen this reported, but “the average 13-17 year old sends more than 2,000 text messages per month.”
Younger phone owners: more than half of 8-year-old owners “used their cell to send text messages in the last 12 months. “That figure soared to 81% for 12-year-old mobile users,” with “the vast majority” (90%) of those texts going to friends and family.”
Parental controls: More than half of cellphone users’ parents don’t use parental controls. Among the minority who do, “20% limit the number of calls, texts or instant messages, followed by download limits (17%), talk time or voice minute allocations (16%), mobile website access limits (15%), locator services and restricted in/outgoing number access (13% each), time of day restrictions (11%), and alerts to unauthorized texts, IMs or callers (6% each); 60% of parents “forbid downloads onto their children’s phone for financial and security reasons.”
Kids use technology to communicate in many areas of their lives. By allowing safe access to mobiles and other forms of communication we are preparing them for lives where technology is inherent.
Since 1969, “Sesame Street” has been connecting people from nations all over the world by inspiring and educating children each day in its television broadcasts.
Independent academic researchers have conducted more than 1,000 studies, making “Sesame Street” the most researched TV show in history. A recent study found that teens who watched “Sesame Street” in pre-school had higher grades than those who did not.
40 years on and children and parents still tune in to learn about letters and numbers. Pretty impressive for a TV show that is based around literacy! My guess is that it is because it is fun. When learning is fun kids want to do it again and again.
Many kids are digital natives. Many of them have grown up with technology being part of the furniture, just part of their lives that they use for education and for fun. This video from edutopia profiles a 9 year old girl who uses technology as part of her life. A great reminder that they may well be techno savvy but they are still children. They still want to listen to stories. They still want to be creative. And they are certainly tapped in to what being a child in 2009 is like and what they want!
