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When laptops look like this old car…
November 19, 2007 | 1 Comment
As users on this side of the planet continue to define connectivity primarily through an ever-increasing demand for PC’s (both desktops and laptops), the future is being glimpsed in the connected center of the planet – Japan.
In the Yahoo Tech blog, Christopher Null reports that the fall of the PC world has begun, with Japanese consumers, primarily young people, ditching their laptops for other devices. 2007 second quarter sales of desktops fell almost 5%, while laptops fell over 3%. The question is, why? The answer is, of course, rather simple – they demand to be connected, to their work, to their play and to their learning.
If we believe that our kids will invent the future with demand, then we are beginning to see the end of the PC. Not that it will be obsolete tomorrow, but it is obvious that the tremendous rate of change vis a vis technology will continue, with demand for smaller and more portable connectivity driving the shift. We can see evidence in devices like the iPhone, which is surely just a start.
What does this mean for education? Well, to start it reinforces the fact that it is not about any particular technology, but rather about the connectivity and the information. While PC’s are a powerful learning tool, we don’t need to spend huge amounts of time teaching kids how to use the machine. Rather, we need to spend time working with our kids to learn how to locate, assess, harvest, manipulate, synthesize, connect and communicate new information.
It also provides a challenge to those seeking to ban cell phones and other small, portable connected devices in our schools. What will be our response when, ten years (or less!) from now, our students are completely connected anytime, anywhere and laptops and desktops are not the most efficient tool for learning. How will we react? Would it not just be more effective to start with learning about proper digital citizenship, including when and where to utilize the tools?
This is not to say we shouldn’t be transitioning to 1:1 computing environments, it just means that this is only the beginning phase of a connected revolution, where being connected in an anytime, anywhere environment will be the key to learning.
tags: technology, education, learning, whipple
Photo Credit: “Old Car” by Whip62’s (me) photostream on Flickr
1 Comment so far
I quite agree. In fact, here in Manitoba, we have an initiative called Literacy with ICT that focuses on developing critical and creative thinking AND ethics and responsibility as students use ICT to engage in learning. Check out the website of Manitoba Education at http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/index.html
Cheers,
M