With
technology developing at such a rapid pace, it is not surprising that our
children are facing an entirely different upbringing than what is familiar to
the parental generations. Instead of individual desks and pens and paper,
children in schools today are most likely to be fully capable to work
computers, laptops and even tablets and iPads before they leave for high
school.
This
is especially true in the Bedfordshire area where one child, aged 14, has his
own app creation published in the Windows App Store. The fact that he has achieved
this even before him and his fellow Year 9 class has been taught programming
shows just how influential technology has become in our everyday lives.
The
way that the world is developing, and from what we have seen so far, our
children will require a far more extensive understanding of computer technology
than we have ever known in order to continue such progression. In support of
this there are emerging plans of a complete overhaul of the ICT
curriculum are coming to light, with prospective plans including a
partnership with large technical firms such as Microsoft.[i]
What limits this, however, is that teachers now have to teach a subject to an
extent that they have not been taught themselves.
With
children as young as five starting to learn coding and programming, the levels
they will reach come High School should be astounding. This is especially true considering
just how much interaction with technology they naturally enjoy having outside
of school too. By being exposed to such advanced technology at a young age,
they are much more comfortable working things that older generations have
waited forty odd years to see. Youngsters are much more at ease with
technological advances than the rest of the world, so it makes sense to utilize
this for future generations.
What
is becoming apparent, however, is the gap this is already beginning to bridge
in standards of technology. With primary school children starting to complete
tasks it has taken adults years to master already, how will the next twenty
years fare? Experts in website design, coding and programming now will not be
experts in the near future at the rate of development we are seeing. It is
amusing to think that although there is beneficial support available for school’s
web design in Luton and the
Bedfordshire area, these could soon be done by the pupils at these school’s
themselves!
Yet
this gap is necessary in order to keep pushing technology’s limits. The future
generation of coders and web designers must always be that bit further ahead of
the current standard. This is then ensures that they not only fully understand
the progress technology has made thus far, but that they can work to better it,
just how it has been bettered in the past. With this clearly prepared for
already, we shall just have to wait and see where this new technical generation
will take us!
[i] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10840632/Could-todays-ICT-lessons-inspire-tomorrows-Bill-Gates.html
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