Isabelle Pinard
Managing Editor
The spinning rainbow wheel of death and the clock with motionless hands are the last things I want to see on my computer screen. I press escape, hit the power button, yet my screen remains frozen, mocking me until my 9-year-old sister walks into the room.
She sees me, frustrated as I hit random buttons, hoping that something will work, and pushes me out of the way saying, “Step aside, Sis, and let me do it.”
I am almost 18, yet my sister who is eight years younger than me clearly has a wider knowledge of technology than I do.
This young generation has been immersed in technology almost since its birth with access to gadgets such as smartphones, televisions and computers. They think differently than we do, according to Robyn Zevenberg and Helen Logan’s study “Computer Use by Preschool Children.”
I always thought I was pretty tech savvy since teachers and parents often mention how advanced my generation is with texting, Facebook and Internet browsing, but I actually never touched a computer until I was maybe 11.
Then I see my sister use my iTouch and type up Word documents on the computer at the age of nine and it astonishes me. Seeing how much she knows about technology shows me how capable this new generation of kids is.
Software engineer Howard Abrams actually taught fourth and fifth graders how to build games and tell stories through computer programing at Massachusetts Institution of Technology’s Media Lab. Some of the kids can use sophisticated tools that are usually used by professional programmers.
The best iPad apps for children allow them to practice being visual, auditory and kinestetic learners, giving them a boost in any learning situation.
Although some adults might find children’s technological capability scary, I think that when it is used for their education it can have incredible effects.
My sister learned how to speed up her addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on my dad’s iPad with math applications and is now one of the fastest students in her class.
The fear of having a younger child addicted to video games, on the other hand, is still a possibility. To avoid this, parents and siblings need to monitor younger kids who use technological devices.
Parents should make sure that their kids take healthy breaks while using technology — educational and non-educational — as well as stay physically active.
Even when my sister protests to play another five minutes of Fruit Ninja, my sister shows the promise of her generation. Kids with the advantage of books, homework and classes all in a digital realm will get a head-start on their education.