I'm a digital immigrant.
Edward is a digital native.
I picked up a copy of the August 2007 issue of Sydney's Child today. It's stuffed with advertisements, but usually has some good content between the ad space.
This month's issue has a few good articles, one of the them by Dale Spender, New Sources of Meaning: the latest avenues for learning in the digital age.
If you're in Sydney, pick up a free copy somewhere and have a look. Ms. Spender's general thesis here is that it's hard for old fogies like us to imagine what is the best way and what for our children to learn to prepare them for the world of work in 2020; but that it's most likely to require an adeptness using all of the digital tools now at mankind's disposal (Ms. Spender would no doubt prefer "person kind" be used here)
This has set me off thinking about what type of educational environment will be best for Edward, and how we can best supplement whatever formal education he receives since I assume that the education system may lag somewhat.
It will be essential that he be familiar and competent in using all of the digital devices and on line resources available, including those not yet invented. He needs to be a digital native.
I realised that Edward was on the right track when he came home from Kindergarten and started talking a Ayers Rock. I asked him how he knew about Ayers Rock, and he told me he had seen it at kindy on Google Earth. He is three and a half years old.
Some more reading on digital natives can be found here, here, here, here,
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