Cindy has little interest in posting to my blog, but she does participate actively in several lists. A list she participants in recently began to discuss the topic of print vs. online resources with some members lament the increasing interest in online resources (because sites are not permanent).
Here is Cindy’s comment (my title relates to her comments about our “kids”)
I have sincerely enjoyed this conversation and decided to contribute.
Janice, the people that you talk to – at what point are they in their career? I ask this question as I bet they are mainly established professionals and not new to their careers. I have children that range from 20 -29 and spent time with them over the holidays. I watched as they used the Internet for everything from finding a quote from a certain author, to getting the lyrics to an old song, to comparing bridal gown prices and hunting for reception locations, to posting a college assignment to WebCt and contacting members of a study group, to keeping aware of job opportunities in a special field, to creating Christmas presents with digital images and the list goes on. This was a seamless process for them.
My real concern for children these days center around the digital divide. The divide that keeps some children from having the opportunities to participate in this seamless process outside of school and the divide that exists for all children that the world around us is growing exponentially with digital information and our education system is functioning in isolation as if it doesn’t exist. The children that take advantage of it at home become disinterested in school as they know better and the children who cannot take advantage of it at home are really left behind. Our kids really live in a world that is difficult for us to comprehend. How can we take advantage of the good and help our children be problem solvers in order to deal with what is not so good?
I also sometimes chuckle when we talk about inaccurate information in the Internet. At least the realization makes us question what we read – whoever said that everything written in a book was true? Yet, in most instances we did not question the validity.
