Are we there yet?
Are we past the days of worrying about every new technology that our children might get their hands on?
With the Maker Movement, a tech-influenced DIY community, the prospect of entrusting our kids with tech seems more likely than ever before. With this shift, we are becoming less fearful of technology, and are instead able to recognize how empowering it can be when given the chance.
Many argue that today’s generation has grown too dependent on modern comforts. That we no longer remember phone numbers, have lost our sense of direction, and are on our way to adopting self-driving cars, rather than driving them ourselves.
Along with such modern luxuries, an amazing opportunity for children has emerged: To not only be users of technology, but to create with it. Thanks to this rising community, children are learning to how to become independent and resourceful, two important qualities for child and character development. As the Maker Movement gains traction and becomes widespread among schools, students are identifying themselves as ‘makers’ who engineer and build.
The Maker Movement emphasizes creation and design, leading children to engage in crafts and activities where they learn the mechanisms behind tech and become engineers themselves. They achieve this by learning how to fix resources and come up with ways to mend broken technology rather than throwing it away and buying new.
They are able to develop from a young age in unforeseen ways as they take on abstract concepts and apply them to real-life. For example, by using technology into the classroom in a way that involves exploring science, engineering, arts and math, children are able to grow in a more well-rounded environment that fosters inventing and life-long skills.
Rather than creating a hostile environment for our children, with the Maker Movement, technology is being introduced to younger generations in an empowering way that gives every child the head-start in life that every parent wishes for them.