The World My Daughter Lives In

Sitting in a chair earlier today with my son and daughter looking over my shoulder watching a video on YouTube of the late greats, James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti, in a concert setting with full orchestra and a packed house….

And my daughter asks, “Can they hear us?”

“No,” I reply, not for once having imagined otherwise.

“Why not?,” she inquires.

This is my children’s world. A world where people – grandma, grandpa, and even great-grandma – appear on the screen and she talks back. And, yes, they can hear her. This is the world for which she must be prepared. This is not the world of her father’s education.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 10:58 am and is filed under Trends. | | | | You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “The World My Daughter Lives In”

  1. Patti Arnold Says:
    September 16th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

    Chad, This entry made me truly stop and think! Interesting perspective from your daughter’s world. Another piece of evidence of WHY we need to teach our children differently! I would like to share this one with my staff!

  2. Martha Miller-Plumb Says:
    September 17th, 2007 at 9:30 pm

    Dear Chad, What a pithy comment! Technology continues to change the way we think (Hey; who’s in control here? Oh, wait; that’s right; it’s a symbiotic relationship at the moment). I try to imagine a world 30 years hence. I fear it will be as foreign to me as email was to my delightful mother (who was born in 1914 and never drove a car).

    Right now, to a person who dreamed of being an astronaut in the 1950′s, this is wondrous and heady stuff.

    As to deceased people “hearing” us from YouTube, allow me to bring to your attention the most recent Dr. Who show [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPoTA4skBN0] in which there’s the old time/space continuum mental leap, and The Dr. talks from the 1960′s to a 2007 Sally Sparrow via VHS tapes!

    Teach our students in the same manner that we were taught? What a ludicrous and deadly exercise in boredom!

    MMP

  3. Glenn Caudill Says:
    November 6th, 2007 at 9:04 am

    I for one have longed for the star trek days which are upon many of our fingertips. Many places use video phones to communicate, and I dare say it will become standard soon. As for education, we need to find ways to keep up with todays students. As a parent with two teen boys, I am overwhelmed at times. As a tech coordinator for a school district, I am overwhlemed at times. But as a person with the knowledge that change is inevitable, I must embrace the new challenges. We can do this together :)

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