Digital Nation

Last evening, on our television, PBS played the video called Digital Nation.  It traveled through a multitude of ways that computers and other electronic devices affect the lives of people around the world.  Many of the themes were not new: children think, and therefore learn, differently than their parents, and education needs to adjust, perhaps in a major way, as to how teaching and learning are approached.

The section about South Korea, one of the more "wired" nations in the world, and how they first teach children respect for computers and the Internet.  "Computers are helpful, we must respect them and other users," is a paraphrase of the ditty they sang.  The song ended with "netiquette, netiquette!."  And a commentator said that it's too late to do this in America.

The surprises came to me outside the education sphere and particularly in the world of the military and recruiting.  I'm still digesting the video games and the mindset for these activities.  It wasn't far from Second Life and its use in business as well as the interactive gaming activities.  

All of this encompasses education, how education is affected by these activities and attitudes and how education can affect positive effective learning in the future.  What a full plate!  Again I'm overwhelmed.  Are you ready for this?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/