> One of my saddest days in my digital classroom was when the children rushed in from the lunchroom one rainy recess and dashed for their iPads. Wait, I implored, we play with Legos on rainy days! I dumped out the huge container of Legos that were pure magic just a couple of weeks ago, that prompted so much collaboration and conversation, but the delight was gone. My students looked at me with disdain. Some crossed their arms and pouted. We aren’t kids who just play anymore, their crossed arms implied. We’re iPad users. We’re tech-savvy. Later, when I allowed their devices to hum to glowing life, conversation shut down altogether.
Look I loved Lego's growing up, I still have massive rubbermaid containers full of them but please tell me why playing with Legos is any more valuable than playing minecraft? Let's not pretend that just because kids like different things now that something MUST be lost. I never played a cup-and-ball game like I'm sure generations before me did (I'm sure they lamented the introduction of things like Lego). Every generation complains about the younger generation and how they are going to turn out wrong because they weren't raised the same way they were or with the same things ("I walked up hill to school both ways").
Did the kids get quieter? Sure, I have no doubt of that but who's to say they weren't communicating even more than before using chat programs? I had teachers in HS CONSTANTLY complain about how students were reading less and less all the time which I took issue with not only because I read plenty of books but also I read tons of articles online. The medium may change but the core concept remains IHMO. Reading Pride and Prejudice doesn't automatically make you a better person than the student who know what's happening in the world like the back of their hand.
Lastly not introducing them to tech now is just setting them up for failure down the line. For better or worse the people who know technology will excel more than those who don't. Tech is not it's own little sector/industry, it's everywhere and it's integrated in to everything. To pretend otherwise is to stick one's head in the ground and ignore the world around you.