Don’t be a digital dunce    061

No doubt you have often seen your teenager pounding, poking, scraping and swiping on the smartphone, doing who knows what. But could you do the same—well, if you had to? Here’s a real life example that might change your mind about these things.

Just two days ago I was sitting with a Year 10 student who had forgotten to bring to the lesson the official school assessment notification sheet. It was sitting at home on his desk. But, no problem—Mum to the rescue. Yes, his mother found the sheet of paper, photographed it with a smart phone, sent that photograph to the student’s phone, and then bingo, there it was, after just a few minutes. Wow, digital power in action. And it saved the day.

So parents do need to have some working knowledge of their children’s smartphones. These days it seems their whole life is stored inside that little box. Indeed most children prefer not to write something but to photograph it.

Try this out for yourself. Simply say: ‘Here’s the telephone number. You can write it down.’ Your child will pull out his or her phone and take a picture. The point of all this is that when your son or daughter is enrolling at university, or something like that, it may be very convenient for you to be able to work the technology.

Now, how will you learn? The best way is to have your own smartphone and become obsessed with it. But on the grounds of mental health you may instead just decide to learn to use your children’s equipment. They would be there of course to guide you. You could explain that if you can at least perform the basics—text message, e-mail, photograph—then it could be very helpful. And it just might—so good luck.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services