Having spent the last 4 days with family, at all different
ages, I spent some time noticing the different types of literacy's being
used. Almost everyone had some form of technology
they brought with them and were using: computers,
phones, ipads, and even little electronic baby games. Not surprising, I know,
but what intrigues me, and has for a while, is my cousin. My cousin has twin boys who are 11 years
old. She and her husband are highly
educated people, engaging to talk to, extremely generous, fun, and have a nice
life style - ” good people”. What is unique about them is they do not
allow their kids to watch TV, play video games, or have phones. They don’t want them wasting time on video games
and mindless TV shows. Instead, they
have to play board games, or read, or do anything else to entertain themselves.
I am not one to judge how other people raise their kids, as
long as they aren’t beating them it’s none of my business, although, I do think it is an inconvenience when we visit
them (in San Antonio) and they don’t allow us to turn on the TV to watch the
NCAA tournament. :( As I’ve been doing my readings, and watching
videos, I’ve been intrigued when there is mention of the gap there will be
between kids like these and the literate kids of the 21st century. Now I
know there are circumstances where kids just don’t have the opportunity to access
to these technologies, I see them in my classroom, but to purposely deny them access is a different thing; maybe my cousin
isn’t doing a great service to her kid. I never thought that maybe they will
be at a disadvantage because they haven’t played a lot of video games and that
things digitally may not come as naturally to them as their peers – their brains
may be different. As the world is changing
and making accommodations for this generation, will they be behind?
As I said, I am intrigued.
I have many questions – is this “gap” really going to have a negative
impact on these kids, can we “catch up” kids in school who are behind in technology, perhaps have special classes
for this purpose, how is the message
that video games aren’t a waste of time getting communicated to parents? There are many more and I look forward to
finding answers as this class continues.
