Reflection 2: Part 2

4 Year Olds With iPhones 

I enjoyed reading this article by Marc Prensky mostly because when I saw the title I thought I was going to absolutely hate it. I ended up being pleasantly surprised, but I do hold a few reservations. First of all, there were indeed many positives to a child with an iPhone. It is great that you are able to turn off the phone function. That would be my first worry in giving a child a phone. That could open the door to expensive charges as well as dangers. I also enjoyed the different apps that make learning (whether it be ‘school’ skills or other basic skills without their knowledge of actually being educated) fun. I love the voice recorder idea, and I think these types of technologies still allow the child to be creative. Then again, when children are constantly presented with ready made apps with things already created for them so that they don’t have to do anything but draw, strategize, etc. They don’t really get to come up with anything on their own, or some up with a different use for it. Also, I just can’t get into the idea of children sitting in front of screens all day. It really gives me a Wall-E type of vibe where everyone is sitting around, morbidly obese, with screens dangling above their heads because technology has allowed them to do everything without actually DOING anything. If I did have the money to buy an iPhone, I don’t think I would buy one for my own child. At the same time, I might buy things or find fun little activities for them to do on our actual computer. I just don’t want something portable that they can beg to sit with no matter where we are. For students, I also don’t know that we should be spending our money on providing these for the students, but maybe there will be some sort of compromise.