OUR FOUR-YEAR OLD learns via internet-mediated communications and she hasn't started formal schooling yet. She's touching screens to learn more things this year than I ever imagined.
I'm amazed at how she experiments in her own pathways of discovery. She is drawn into differentiated interpenetrations by exploring on-screen activities ranging from clever iPad apps, science videos, multilingual YouTube clips, multilevel gaming, and usage-based approaches to learning the alphabet. As I watch her, I marvel at the leaps we have made with the interface between life activity, learning, and cognition. Then I consider her immediate future in the traditional school system and hope there's enough in the classrooms where she will sit to continue her interest in self-learning through information technologies. Mia still has not discovered the hours of dinosaurs and historical timelines that await her, just a simple tap away on her iPad or Android screen.
Shot of Mia exploring the Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore.
