Information Technology in Childhood Education (2001) The Current Status of Technology in Education: Lightspeed Ahead with Mild Turbulence MICHAEL F. KALINOWSKI University of New Hampshire Department of Family Studies Durham, NH 03824 USA
[email protected] The article summarizes five trends in technology for children aged 12 and younger, identifies four current issues, and three unresolved needs related to technology and children; pro- vides six selected hardware and 30 software recommenda- tions, and offers several resources: journals and magazines, educational technology websites, software publishers, and hardware companies. During 2000, the greatest innovations were in infrastructure that will enable children to connect more quickly, interact more flexibly, respond more intuitive- ly, and use computers more creatively. As innovations pro- ceed, dramatic improvements in software for children, and continued discussion about what is relevant or appropriate is likely to be witnessed. Recent Trends The Internet trend. As my friend Warren Buckleitner, Editor of Children’s Software Review (CSR) is fond of saying, “No one will uninvent the Inter- net; it ain’t going away. If you’re a teacher with no email, no web site, and no web access, you’ll soon be in info darkness.” This is what is coming: 1999, according to the research firm eMarketer, 14 million children aged two to 12 in the U.S. had Internet access. Jupiter Communications predicts 282 Kalinowski that by the end of 2000 this same age group outnumbered teens and college students online and the current percentage of children now online will al- most double in the next five years (PC Almanac, 2000)! New software dem- os are now available as free downloads and soon much children’s software may be available by fee based downloads.