Wooden Trains and Max's i.Pod

WOODEN TRAINS AND MAX'S i.POD

Took some old wooden train pieces down to three year old Max - one old too tall blue engine and two bridges that were too low for trains to go under. Max was actively playing with the old wooden trains that belonged to his father and uncle many years ago prior to this digital nation.

We got right busy and enjoyed almost an hour of play. We had numerous problems that needed to be solved as the old blue engine (we named it POWERFUL) would crash into the tunnels and bridges. The bridges would even let the smaller, older trains through. Max would have to go get his Percy engine (who has a very strong magnet) to push and pull the wrecks out of the way.

Suddenly he declared, "I need my i.Pod. What would Thomas do about this mess?" He runs to his i.Pod and starts swishing his finger across the screen, turning it first Landscape and the Portrait. He searches for the app he needs, ignores the beginning part, and goes to an episode that will tell him what he needs. He works with that i.Pod for over 15 minutes, quiet and attentive but also able to monitor what his dad and I were talking about, what his sister needed (her binkie), what the dogs were barking about, and what was on the TV (some kid movie). He could multi-task with seeming ease.

When he located what he needed, he stashed the i.Pod and returned to the wooden trains. He used the solution and rebuilt the basic layout of the track to fix the problems so his trains would not keep crashing. This very young digital native used his play skills, problem solving skills, fine-motor dexterity skills, communication skills, gross motor skills, thinking skills, and social skills. He is the complete package. What will he be able to do in the future? I cannot imagine.

If only my digital immigrant mind were wired with neurons that could put this all together, I might be able to run the remote control to our flat-screen TV and DVR at the same time. The play Max does with that wooden train is not much different that what his dad and uncle did for more hours than I can count. But he solves his problems with a different part of his brain than they did.

What do we call these young people? Digital prodigy?

Two-Year-Old Digital Natives

With the correct, specific series of seven buttons to push, one can turn the 52" screen on and find Sprout, a PBS program for pre-schoolers. As part of the Comcast package deal, this program is on 24~7. Often the topics are relevant (or at least almost watchable) not only for the two-to-five year old, but brothers, sisters, moms, dads, and grandparents as well. Sprout is as close to quality programming for tots that I find on TV.

Digital Grandma Kay has a long ways to go to remembering those specific series of seven buttons. Two-year-old Digital Native Max has conquered them. As "we" watch Sprout, Max keeps up with what is on the screen, plays with toys, is aware of what food is being consumed anywhere in the house, acknowledges anyone arriving or departing, operates toys with digital devices to make sound, color, and action, informs us when the phone is ringing, responds to any demands made by us, and entertains with gymnastic feats of strength and endurance. Max feeds play animals imaginary food while Sprout shows real animals eating real food on real farms. Max does jumping jacks and somersaults while Sprout shows animated characters going to Gym-School. Max cues in to Thomas the Train as next coming up by making the sound of a train tooting while watching a story about falling down and getting "owees" on the animated character's knees. One cannot tell if he distinguishes real from imaginary from animated.

This morning Sprout showed how to load a disk into a computer to play a game. Why? I am not sure, because there is a website that has innumerable games that relate to the Sprout show at www.pbsKids.com which Max uses. Sprout uses an old white, boxy computer that only faintly resembles the laptop Max accesses. A four-year-old with limited vocabulary explains that if you hit the number 5 on the computer keyboard, a 5 will pop up on the screen. His reasoning of why this happens made more sense than my answer of "It is a little bit of magic!"

I just finished reading Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott. Tapscott's description of the 20-year-old Digital Native watching television is an exact match to my observation of our two-year-old Digital Native grandson Max.

Digital Definitions - merriam-webster.com

Merriam-Webster.com welcomes suggestions for new words not yet in their dictionary. Our fifth graders are asking for Digital.Native, Digital.Immigrant, Digital.Tourist, and Digital.Dinosaur to be included. Perhaps I will add Digital.Grandma to the list.

#2 Blog from Digital Immigrant Rewired

Friday, October 2, 2009
Wish I Could Change Blog to Digital Grandma
At Chinese tonight with friends, I marvelled at the gist of the conversation. All four of us clearly not Digital natives, actually probably not Digital immigrants. Yet, conversation centered on the digital world. One guy had an I-Phone he continually used as an information source. Did you know there are actually four new Lincoln pennies? Two are out and two more planned. One gal is Japanese from Hawaii. I ate the entire meal with chopsticks after she taught me how. Tim wanted to show me a funny clip about a librarian, Lo said to download it to her phone and she would show it to me later. Duane and Tim had difficulty hearing despite high tech hearing aids in place. When will the digital world catch up and make an efficient hearing aid? Like those articificial legs and arms they make these days. To this elderly digital generation, these are important questions. My new blog will be called Digital Grandma. I just don't know how to change the name on this one to say that. So much for being Digital Immigrant Rewired.
Posted by Kay Douglass at 8:16 PM 1 comments