Many young people in our society have basically lost their
childhood to these gadgets, and they will probably never experience teenage
either.
One of the great open debates in our society is the manner
in which education today needs to give young people the right tools for life.
This debate does not close, because some believe children should be taught
according to the world we live in, while others believe it should be done
according to the world we could have. However, both groups fail to consult with
young people themselves.
Both teachers and politicians claim to know the kind of
education necessary to fit the world and make them useful to society, but all
the educational reforms collide with their resistance in the form of so-called
"school failure" in the best and violent hostility at worst.
And paradoxically, never has the learning process been as
systematic as now, nor has it received so many resources. The school has moved
from an education based on the tax to one based on seduction. Command and
control of white and black of the multiplication table, the teacher armed with
a whiteboard with colored numbers, more concerned with the procedures of
content. And yet, the results do not improve, at least from the standpoint of
those who have designed the educational system and the results they expected
to.
Still, the "Flynn effect" predicts that each generation,
the IQ increases with respect to the earlier one. So, the children end up being
smarter than their parents and students smarter than their teachers. According
to Flynn, changes in diet, socio-cultural, economic and technological changes,
but mainly the changes in the conception of intelligence is the main reason for
this change. According to all indications, this change appears increasingly at
a younger age, so the parents and teachers are overwhelmed by the younger
generation.
This leap forward has never been more evident than now,
because it is a time of dramatic change even for young people who have
unintentionally been able to teach their parents things they know. This is because
they have been the ones most interested in the possibilities and applications
of new technologies and they are the ones who have more rapidly incorporated technology
into their daily lives.
Hence the thesis that I come to defend, which is that, given
the emergence of new technologies and changing character, adults are confused,
and mostly lack the necessary training to educate their use, so the young
people have found a space to cope with total autonomy, both to communicate and
to acquire information. Social networks, internet, and smartphones, have become
places of learning and social relationships that lack of regulation and supervision
of both adults and teachers.
The thing that is most strange is that the schools are not
allowing the use of smart phones (smart phones) during school hours, resulting
in a strange contradiction. Parents buy and authorize the use of sophisticated
smart devices that prohibit teachers, while both fail to regulate their use and
benefit from their educational opportunities.
One thing is very difficult for these young people to
understand, and this leads them to believe one of two things. On the one hand, they
are being trained to manage a world by themselves, without running any risk
whatsoever, they are being taught to be fearless and use all opportunities and
on the other hand they are being told not to use a good technology and being
told that it’s harmful.
So, the young have found a space in their life without
regulation and supervision, they are much more competent and smart than adults.
This privacy, freedom and thinking of
teenagers is something that the adults can’t yet foresee. Adults basically have
no idea what technology means to youngsters.
In fact, if ever, someone asked for the kind of education
they want, most teenagers would probably say they are better off with their
smartphone that gives them the freedom of learning whatever they want, whenever
they want. Technology and new thinking is something that should be embraced,
rather than opposed and outlawed. We need to understand the thinking of
teenagers to cater better to their needs.
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