Digital “Natives” vs Digital “Immigrants”

Tuesday, 9 November 2010 | Filed under Education, Human Capital

The five-year-old child we see today will be a teenager in the year 2020. This is a child who sees the world from a view that is so vastly different from our own childhood outlook.

Technology that still shocks us with its reach and power holds no wonder for them. They take to it like ducks to water. They seem to have a sixth sense about it as though it has been coded into their DNA.

Where do they get that nonchalance from? Their little fingers speed across buttons without thought. I admire their fearlessness and that huge capacity to learn new things.

Today’s teenagers refer to us as those people born in B.C. You would be offended to think that that means Before Christ? Right? But no. B.C. means Before Computers!  To them Before Computers might as well be Before Christ.

My answer to these kids is that it was the B.C. generation that created the computer in the first place, so there!

Technology accommodates multi-intelligence and multi-tasking

Today’s children are the true natives of the digital world. And the rest of us are referred to as “digital immigrants”. And have you noticed that while most of us can only handle one task at a time, these kids listen to music, surf the net and message their friends while doing their homework, all at the same time.

They handle their multi-intelligences with ease crossing from one point to another seamlessly. This is actually a very capable generation that sources its information from the Internet and from television. They form opinions and arrive at conclusions easily.

This is also a generation that gets bored quickly and it amuses me to think how the authorities will handle the education of these kids. Research tells us that the typical school curriculum, not just in Malaysia but elsewhere in the world is focused on literacy, numeracy, mathematics, science and technology. The arts and humanities are seen as unimportant and, indeed, in the eyes of both authorities and parents, they suffer a low status.

The future is pegged to the powerful decisions of the few

But the 21st century will require a major shift in the way we look at things. The arts and humanities have to come to the fore. We know so much more about how children learn and how the brain synthesizes information and experiences. Creativity must form a major part of school education. It is not a subject to be learnt but how creativity is used to unlock the creative genius of children.

Just think that the future of the country depends on decisions made by a few people. I would like to know how decisions are arrived at and how relevant and valid they are in the face of the huge challenges we face as a people.

We cannot have an entire generation growing up in the information-rich environment of today enter a school system that operates on standards set a century ago.

Such a system will not create a thinking, creative and innovative generation well-prepared to exit into a future where the challenges are even beyond our wildest imagination.

Transform now, the future is coming

The economic troubles that we see spread across the world are the signs of a new wave penetrating to disable the old systems. The world is in transition and out of this chaos a new order will arise.

The coming decades will see a convergence of technologies such as the merging of nanotechnology and neuroscience. Predictions are that the next generation of computers will not be based on digital codes and silicon but more of organic processes and DNA. In other words the next generation of computers will be able to mimic human thought.

Here is a clue of the extent the new convergence will result in. In the United States and, perhaps elsewhere, “nano” machines equipped with rotor blades on the scale of human hair are being constructed to swim through our veins and arteries to clean out cholesterol and plaque deposits.

Prepare children to transit into a world of mind-boggling change

It has been estimated that within the next 10 years the intelligence of machines could overtake humans.  Machines created will display the full range of human intellect and emotions. They will also display skills ranging from musical and other creative attitudes to physical movement.

The child born today will enter this new world that will be nothing like the world that we know now. In this world the blind will be able to see, the deaf will be able to hear and disease will be overcome.

This is the mindset we must adopt as we plan what we wish to teach our children. Certainly the basics must be there but we must not overlook the importance of the arts and the humanities. We must reconfigure everything; break the mould to create a learning experience that goes beyond the tunnel vision we possess today.

Technology can be both positive as well as destructive: the more advanced the good, the more advanced will be the bad

However we must bear in mind that as much as we feel amazed at the wonderful creations that will result in the future, there is the negative or the dark side to the human species. The same technology will create the new weapons of tomorrow and that is the most frightening vision that I have of what people will do to each other in the name of power, greed and lust.

We must not forget that across the world there are millions who do not have access to technology that we take for granted. Over 120 million children in the world today don’t go to school. They will grow into adults who can be easily manipulated and recruited by syndicates for criminal activities. In their hands the technology developed to improve our lives will transform into weapons to maim and to destroy.

Deny education for every child and we risk destroying the world

Salvation of the world begins with the education of the child. None must be denied this opportunity. To do so is to invite greater widening of the divide between the haves and the have-nots.

The future as I see it must be one where poverty is eradicated, where everyone has access to the basic necessities of life and where every child has the opportunity to fully realize his/her potential.

If those in power are able to step out of their boxes and see the challenges headed towards us, they will feel the urgency to repair the damage we continue to inflict upon ourselves. They will divert enormous funds allocated to the purchase of weapons to build their communities.

Poor countries falling into trap of weapon tycoons and warmongers

Poor countries continue to fall into the trap of purchasing weapons that will be no use in the years to come because those developing the weapons keep the most advanced machines for themselves. They do so to sustain their supremacy as well as to fund their research into developing better weapons.

It is a vicious circle. But it is only vicious because the governments of poor countries allow it. They must know they are fighting a losing battle. The advanced technology of the future will reach a stage where the planet will be occupied by disease-free, physically perfect species of human beings, unless we destroy the planet before that happens.

It is time us digital “immigrants” learn to think like digital “natives” and create the policies that will put us on track to take full advantage of the change that is headed towards us.