Our view of the child

I have been thinking how our view of the child influences what we see as "appropriate" use of technology. In fact it goes further than that to what kinds of activities we think children should participate in at all. Obviously anyone's thinking in this area can not be polarised into black or white generalisations but rather they reflect a continuim.

At the heart of my view of the child is a sense of my responsibility as an adult and a parent to facilitate their development towards adulthood. More than that I think a young child as a learner is programmed to watch for those learning moments which build their skills to participate in the world. So my children share in my life and activities. If my life and activities include talking to someone on the phone, I expect my child to be interested in talking on the phone and I do a range of things to support that learning. I provide toy phones to explore, let them listen to someone say hello on the other end, help them understand that you need to speak clearly to be heard, and gradually build thier skills so that at some point they can make a phone call, answer the phone and communicate clearly by phone.

The natural extension of this for computers is that if my children see me on a computer that is another tool for them to explore with me. I cant imagine anyone refusing to let a child explore the world of telephones although we might put some limitations on how and when they do that exploration. The question wouldn't be about wether it is appropraite to learn how to use the telephone but rather the parameters within which that learning will take place.