Technology. Where is it all going? (technology evolution)

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This past week Doug was fortunate to attend a conference on Technology and business. It was one of those weeks of information overload and excitement for him. His brain was a buzz with new thoughts and ideas.

I love it when he is challenged mentally. God has given him a great thinking brain and boredom is indeed his enemy, so this was a week of brain and thinking blessing.

He would of course come home and share his thrilling lectures with me!

Being married to someone whose line of work is totally, totally different and not only that but really separated by the way it actually functions, means you have two choices.

1. to pretend you understand

2. try and really understand 

The choice I made was indeed 2. I have a very limited knowledge and understanding but have grown to grasp a little over they years.

This one choice has been a real help and friend in my own personal technology evolution or revolution.

I was, I guess, a little old school. I really studied child development and education at a time when technology was just becoming airborne, and so I found my thinking shaped very much in a negative way towards its value and effectiveness for children and I suppose for adults too. 

Up until recently I held these kinds of ideas but far more loosely. 

Something has shifted!!

Some of the catalysts to this shift.

* the obvious and real benefit and use of technology in my life

* the trends and shifts   that are really happening for our kids

* The fast and helpful changes in the way technology actually works

* it is fun and creative 

* it links us with ideas that are bigger than ourselves ( TED as an example)

Thinking through how to make the environment we live in suite our needs with technology as a helpful tool , has been an evolutionary  and indeed revolutionary process.

Personal experience for us has been a big shifter and while we can not rely only on what is personal, I do think the reality of experience and functioning count.

I think having a teenager son has been an interesting journey with technology.

James is , like many k14 year olds, technologically savy. He can find things, fix things, learn things, show me things . He uses the computer and his cell phone for schoolwork, assignments, communication, information gathering, designing and sharing. It is amazing to really sit back and not judge morally what these kids can actually do on and with their technology.

Thomas who is 12 has an ipod. That too has been a fun learning / observing curve. 

 He uses it to help him organise his ADHD. it is an alarm to get up and to tell him when to stop reading and try sleep. It is his dressing companion. We have had many good laughs at the apps he has downloaded, all in typical 12 year old style.
ADHD people struggle with organising and executive functioning. Some clever person has built apps that specifically help ADHD people . Love this!!

Samuel is 10 and Jethro is 8. Being the younger of the 4 , they have been exposed and introduced to technology way before their brothers were. This used to really concern me and I have always felt that this was in fact a disadvantage for them. But know I am not so sure.

Games,

Boys , generally love computer games.

Moms.

Generally don't.

We feel that they spend too much time on them. We feel anxious over too little outside time and what about socialising and addiction.

The list goes on.......

We have ADHD in our family and so the real addiction to technology exists. 

So it goes without saying that timers and time limits rule.

But, this is not a post about the negatives around technology, it is about a shift in thinking about how technology works for us and with us. If I can be persuaded to rethink my views on technology and my children, well I think anyone can.

There are legitimate concerns from us as parents around technology but, I really want to be a voice of reason. The "what if voice."

The conference Doug attended was one that set out to try and future gaze. What could the world look like , technologically speaking, in the future, for business. 

Linked to this, what could it look like for our kids?

One think that we already know is that a child born today, has a very different childhood technologically speaking, than a child born 20 years ago. 

It is a faster and more digital world  and is growing more in that direction daily.

A toddler today is likely to have experience with a tablet of some sort. 

A teen will use technology for school and socialising, for learning , creating and entertaining.

The questions of how much and how little we allow our kids time to play games and use technology , has shifted from the not at all to a more reasoned, some. I recently had an interesting experience at a party.

Our two younger boys were playing a game on OUR phones. :) They were playing and chatting and laughing.  A boy of much the same age joined them. He too played this game and loved it. Then his mother joined them.

 She played it too.

These 4 people had amazing , deeply social and connected time, while playing and sharing and talking.

What does this all mean. 

The mom and I chatted and she shared some research she had read. Children who play for 1 hour a day ( my skin crawls at this :) ) are far more socialised than children who do not play at all or who play for up to 3 hours a day.

I have not read the research and I am sure that there is enough of the no games group to dispute this but I do find this kind of shift in our thinking and experience of games and computers really interesting and exciting.

There has been a shift. We are noticing it a great deal.

 Kids using on line games with their friends and chatting on Skye as an example.  This example is one that makes my skin crawl a little but it is happening. 

As a mother and an educator I hold to this one thing. 

Technology is a tool. Much like a pen. It might , in some ways replace the pen or the pages of a book, although I hope not and actually I suspect not.

It is a wonderful tool that can , has and continues changing the way the world functions.

The second observation is this... Man is deeply relational. Our greatest need is to connect with other human beings.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o)

Check out this TEd on being vulnerable

I wonder if we are not experiencing this truth.

Because we are in essence relational beings, children, teens and adults are using technology in exciting and new ways so that they are still relational. 

Of course I acknowledge the flip side of every good thing. There are pitfalls and real dangers.  There are difficult waters to navigate. I am excited though that that we can and I think, have to change the way we think about and they way we feel about it. 

Joining it is a healthy way to enter the world of our children. It is another bridge- relationally.

Teach me/ show me/ help me to learn and understand all that you experience  are perhaps ways to approach and enter into their world and it will touch and broaden ours.