iSean

the The Kindergarten through 12th grade Curriculum Resource Center (KCRC) at my university is a library of sorts for our College of Education. every school or college of education in the country has a KCRC; though, the name changes from place to place. this resource center is a requirement for accreditation. students can check out textbooks from all subjects and grade levels. my students can use equipment that is often found in schools (e.g.,  Ellison machine, laminating machine, binding machine, etc.). and, for as long as i’ve been here, my students have been able to go to the KCRC and use their computers to test out hundreds and hundreds of educational software titles they had available.

well, space is a premium, which is pretty standard across all universities in my experience. the KCRC is being forced to move into two different locations and they are losing their computer lab along the way. the hundreds of software titles were going to be in limbo until i stepped in and saved the day. i now am in possession of all of the educational software that was contained in the KCRC. this stuff takes up many shelves in my office. thank gosh i keep most stuff at home so that i had the room.

i have had the software for the past 3 weeks now and i’ve slowly been bringing titles home for my kids (ages 6 and 4). it’s amazing to see how quickly my kids can acclimate to new titles and play educational games without any instruction from me. i still get calls from my own father who has difficulty using Outlook Express on his PC (i should have instructed him to get a Mac 2 years ago). he doesn’t know how to create an address book and he doesn’t realize the difference between being in his email app and being in his web browser. anyway, he’s spent far more time on a computer than my children yet he is way behind their proficiency level. there is really a general gap when it comes to using technology.

this general gap is really an item that is the subject of some debate. just from my own experience with undergrad students in addition to my own kids and my father, i think the real gap comes from those individuals who are willing to take risks and those who aren’t. my kids are not scared to click an object when they are online. they aren’t scared to fail. my father, on the other hand, is leery of everything online. perhaps he’s heard horror stories online or perhaps he’s just not confident in his abilities. i get students who fit both profiles; however, the students who are more confident are never the students who need help with technology basics . . . they’ve already taken the leap.

why don’t we see much of a gap between kids in elementary school who are scared of tech and those who aren’t? well, as kids learn technology in schools, even the kids who are scared are often getting a chance to learn slowly in elementary school where they see other kids using the technology and they often have a teacher who is ready to lend a helping hand if something were to go wrong. it’s a supportive environment versus the older generation who tend to learn all by themselves.

the generational gap will likely never disappear because technology doesn’t have a tendency to stay stagnant. that being said, i think the introduction of the internet was really a new technology paradigm . . . whereas most technology is just an improvement on some other technology or process. if no big new technologies evolve in the near future then the generational gap will shrink considerably in the next 15 years.