Digital natives want digital toys

Published by in economics, edtech on December 10th, 2005

My wife told me a story yesterday about what students at our local elementary school report they want for Christmas. She substituted for the PE teacher on Friday, so she was able to ask kids in all different grades this question.

Except for primary age girls, who reported wanting American Girl dolls, basically all the things students want from Santa and others this year seem to be technological. These requests for digital toys are coming from both boys and girls. They want Sony PS2 game machines, the new LeapFrog “FLY Pentop Computer”, iPods and iPod accessories, “Video Now” players, etc. Digital natives want digital toys and digital tools. My son’s only requests to Santa last weekend as he sat on his lap (at our local “Breakfast with Santa”) was an iBook laptop to replace the hand-me-down Powerbook which an unnamed older member of our family dropped several months ago and broke to my son’s dismay, and a build-your-own lightsaber kit.

To this my 5 year old daughter announced last night at the dinner table that she wants “a green laptop” for Christmas, referring to the MIT $100 laptop now in prototype but not yet available in production. And what digital native today would not want this laptop? It is amazing. Unfortunately, she and others will have to wait a few more years I think, for prices to come down and availability of these machines to become a reality.

“Pretend” Barbie laptops no longer fit the bill at age 5, when you are a digital native, living in a digital culture. Digital natives want the real thing. And they are not talking about Coca Cola!

On this day..

2 Comments »
  • http://yiibu.com Stephanie Rieger

    At a Christmas party last night I ended up speaking to a teacher about technology use at her school. She mentioned what i’ve ofen heard–that teachers often have little ICT training, that they have little time to develop meaningful lessons that involve computers, and that the best online resources are ones that kids can use with little or no guidance.

    So I wonder if our best resource may become kids themselves. How do they use technology in their spare time? How can they reuse these skills and habits in the classroom; and by doing so, help their peers (and their teacher :-) use technology in a more rewarding manner?

    And while we’re at it–what tools and applications would children most like to use (for fun, creativity, learning, and in their spare time) if given the choice?

  • http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

    Great thoughts Stephanie! I posted my responses as a new blog post since I’m hoping others may want to weigh in on the issues you raise. :-)

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