Don’t worry, I’m from the internet

Random thoughts:

My son is asking for an iPod.  He will be 8 years old tomorrow and we will get him one.  One side of me is cringing thinking that this is wildly extravagant and that I am spoiling my child.  The progressive side of me is thinking that I am using technology to give my child control over his own well being.

This started because he is a insomniac and music helps him sleep.  First he had a radio which was difficult for him to control at such a young age. (This started around age 4) This progressed to a cheapo MP3 player which he quickly mastered but didn’t have enough space to fulfill his needs.  The iPod (which I am not so naive to understand that this is partially about materialism and having cool devices)  gives him complete control over what he feels like he needs to start his sleep cycle.  This ranges from guided meditation to his favorite songs. 

I mention this because these are solutions that I would have not necessarily predicted on my own.  The foundation was the radio, but the true solution ends with something that revealed itself through my sons own voice.

This is important on a small scale.  What is important on a large scale are solutions like the OLPC project where you dump thousands of machines (tools that have generativity) upon minds that have previously not had these types of tools.  These children did not have a voice for themselves, now they have an avenue to spread their voices thoughts and needs all over the world.  Because of the nature of OLPC it will start locally and then spread through the mesh networks, then nationally, then globally.

Is it important to predict what the voice of the children will be and what needs will it express or is it enough to say that the expression of this voice is inherently good? 

One opinion expressed currently is that some children in some communities even here in the US don’t have these tools yet. 

I have always been addicted to introducing chaos into complex set systems, so my views on the matter are no surprise.  It has never occurred to me that the outcomes could be negative, and I have yet to actually hear what these predicted negative outcomes really are.

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Blogging from IS2K7 this morning.  John Palfrey is currently speaking.

I am going to try and post this blog entries as quickly as possible so some of this may be a little raw.

I declare myself a digital native.  At 33 there may be some argument here.  I technically wasn’t born into digital technology, so some argument can be made for me being a digital immigrant.  I remember my first digital device was a Texas Instruments “Lil’ Professor” calculator.  It has games, red LED display, and most importantly it did calculations.  It was also looked at with disdain by my early elementary school teachers, a product of evil that was to be shunned because it was a cheat, and wasn’t real learning.  Later on in High School calculators were required for certain courses.  A complete reversal of the my original experience and a very interesting development.

My first computer was at 11, my first online experience was at 12 at 300 baud, but it was mind blowing.  I felt tortured in school and finished textbooks ahead of the class because the class was running too slowly.  The computer brought me beyond the textbook and allowed me access to essentially any resource I wanted, from learning a language to computer development to making gunpowder. 

This is important to me because I consider the public education available to as a failure for the most part with some small shining exceptions.  Without the wonderful gift of a computer and access to networks I would not have the job I do today and certainly not have the views I do now.

A computer (which is a rare gift that I realize a lot of people do not have) helped lift me out of poverty (by US standards) and by proxy my children have access to this new life which access to these tools and networks have wrought.

If UNIVERSITY takes this role and opens up this access, frees information, and is not concerned about maintaining a false class structure in the world then what will happen?  I am very eager to listen to this conference and possibly catch a glimpse of the future, and what it may mean to millions of individuals who started out just like me.

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