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Its amazing how fast technology is changing. Remember the first time used a fax machine, or saw the “internet.” Kids today have no idea how far we've come in just a few short years. Truly exciting what the future can hold!

Totally agree. Technology is developing at an incredible rate, it will be exciting to witness it's evolution for our children over the next couple of decades.

Your apps, for instance, classic stories transferred into interactive iPhone apps, are a great idea – an example of utilising emerging technology to enhance the story telling experience for children. In my heart, nothing will replace a real book, but using technology in the way you have will encourage children to read more – be in on paper, on an iphone or Kindle, etc.

My son loves playing with your Humpty Dumpty app by the way – its a small world you stumbling across my blog. Thanks very much for commenting, it's much appreciated.

Nicely done, Gary.
Half a generation ago, I took my kids to the cinema and, at the end of the movie, they wanted to know where the Rewind button was to get the movie ready for the next time.

Gary,

Great post! It is truly amazing to see how fast the kids pick this up.

-Rudi

It's incredible, isn't it? Check this NYTimes article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/weekinreview/…) that expands on the theme. The divides are becoming more frequent than generational groups – even college students don't 'get' the high school students' approach to technology and its uses anymore.

Thanks for commenting Daniel (and for the info you sent, I will catch up on that soon)

Thanks Rudi. Kids are truly sponges when it comes to technology (and advertising, but that's another post coming up!). I have no doubts that my son will know things about technology and sites/services that I can't fathom before he reaches his teenage years.

It is truly mind blowing. I was sat in my car the other day programming my Tom-Tom, I then plugged in my iPod which I could then control through the touch screen on my car dashboard before the Bluetooth connected my phone to the radio system. I sat for a moment and thought about how far technology had come in my 32 years. It was certainly a long way from the after school routine of “shift, run stop, press play on tape” technology which would more often than not be followed by a “syntax error” on my commodore 64! As I started the journey home, my iPod shuffled and on it came one of my 5 month old Sons Rockabye Baby Lullaby renditions of Radio GaGa. My thoughts then turned to him. As amazing as I thought it was to have a lullaby playing through an iPod into my car radio, I am sure that when he reaches the grand old age of 32 the technology he will have and that I will tell him about will all be very GaGa to us both!

Lets be honest, the lullaby version of Radio GaGa was for you, wasn't it Ryan?

Crazy also, how many devices we have right now, but fortunately thanks to Mr Jobs et al, a lot of it can be done on your phone (satnav, internet, ipod, etc). Though I expect when our kids hit their 30s, they won't have to carry any device around, it'll just be a chip implant!

Thanks for commenting Ryan

Really interesting! It seems so funny to imagine a child swiping a tv and yet it is such logical behaviour when you think about it. My two year old niece played with my iPhone and I was floored at how quickly she picked it up. You’re right, so much will change for them in a few short years. It’s fun to think about what will exist but the reality is, we probably can’t even fathom the kinds of technology that your son will use in high school, college, even earlier.

It’s true, we can’t comprehend the fabulous technology our kids will have available to them. If you think where we were just 15 years ago – 1995, the very early years of the web – to where we are today…it will be incredible. Probably will make the iPhone and iPad quite laughable

Thanks for sharing, Michele

oops… didn’t mean to post yet… (bad ux on that “post as” button! )

The virtual classroom alone could easily change our children’s world so as to become almost unrecognisable to us. It can already be said that our choices are no longer geographically constrained, so parents could select their child’s teacher for any particular subject from anyone in the world, based on their renown or views. Perhaps a french teacher from Paris, a maths teacher from Greece and an Italian cookery course.

The teacher’s role becomes more freelance, selling places on their courses. Children are no longer restricted in their choices of what they are able to study by their local school’s budget. (Of course, they may be restricted by their parent’s budget, which would eventually create a massive class-gap, but I digress).

Perhaps it could be said that new technologies (particularly portable internet-able devices like iPad/iPhone) completely change the way human knowledge will work: If one person knows it, the world knows it. So it’s no longer necessary to spend the majority of our education going over what other people have already learnt… Perhaps the next generation will start specialising earlier, making technology advance even faster…

Plus, with our kids growing up with this technology, just “getting it” at such a young age. Just imagine what they’re going to come up with!

I really like the concept of a virtual ‘pick n mix’ approach to teachers (and how much further until we reach Matrix-style knowledge downloads – how cool would that be for some stuff?!). However, it’s a constant fear of mine with all this digital communication that we lose the ability to do it in person.

I’m reasonably comfortable of it in a adult context, but I’d be concerned with removing the physical aspect of the classroom for kids when they’re at an age when they learn the social skills they’ll carry through their life.

That aside, I think the opportunities technology will provide will be immense. Just have to remember to be human too.

Thanks for the comment Nick, very elegantly put