Preparing our kids for a tech future
THE news last week that the manufacturing of any vehicle that requires either petrol, diesel or indeed is a hybrid will be prohibited from 2035 has prompted me to contemplate on how different this “new world” will be from that which we currently inhabit.
This week the Government will publish league tables largely based on GCSE results and I cannot fail to reflect on how relevant these qualifications will be or how well they will prepare our children for the technologically driven world of work they will enter in the decade of the electric vehicle
Technological advancement in a relatively very short period of time has been almost uncontrollable. If someone had told me when I was of school age that I would be able to talk to and see the person I was speaking to anywhere in the world, or for that matter in space, I would not have believed them. At that time the school had one computer, locked away in the cupboard area in the top mathematics room, in which only two children at a time, by invite only, were given permission to enter. I was never lucky enough in all five years of my maths tutelage to see the wonders of the “new age”!
As a teenage I remember brickshaped boxes for mobile phones, calculators in high street shops costing nearly £100 and TV remote controllers with a cable attached that run from sofa to television, tripping up any visitor to the room on monotonous regularity.
In more recent times I recall my bemusement when a teaching colleague sent a computer-written document from her desk to another computer user several miles away. I recall thinking this was some kind of magic.
Such memories could lead to accusations of technophobia, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have embraced technological advancement but that does not prevent considerations being made on the likely shape of the future, we are leaving our children. A world characterised currently by “fake news”, failed presidential impeachments, press-shy prime ministers, social media influencers, world health scares, tensions between major nuclear states and a climate emergency, which despite some denial is one of our biggest challenges both now and for tomorrow.
I read a social media post this week from a high-profile cricketer, the post included an aerial shot from a plane of the Australian bush fires. The irony I hope was not lost on those reading the post that this “frequent flyer” was concerned about the impacts of “climate change”.
The shape of our world tomorrow is yet to be determined but for our children’s sake we have much to do to ensure technological advancement is accessible, inclusive and for the betterment of all.