Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM, is attributed as saying in 1943, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Eighty years later, many households (let alone worlds) have more than five computers.
In 1977, Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., reportedly declared that "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." How do we know he said that?
We read it on our computer, at home. While the advance of technology has grown apace alarmingly, whether we like it or not, we are left with the reality of its existence and of its power.
Modern commentators have thus divided mankind into various categories, in relation to their approach to the advance of technology.
So, we have digital natives, digital immigrants and digital aliens, though we could add there are others out there, lurking behind the screens (computer screens, naturally) – digital exiles, digital invaders, digital refugees, digital drop-outs, digital doomsdayers, digital diehards, digital dolittles, digital revolutionaries, digital dependents.
We can fight the advance, if we want, but we will not win — and we will lose our children and become like dinosaurs.
Of course, some smart parents might argue that that is why they have children: so the children can ‘do’ the technology for the parents.
Whatever, this is, it has to be said, the digital age. This is the age of the iPad, iPhone, iPod; of Apple and Androids and smartphones.
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Years back, when the forerunners of DSTV in South Africa introduced the wonders of satellite television, they used the slogan, “You haven’t got it till you get it!”
That obviously made us question what it was that we needed to get. We were made to believe that we would not be anyone if we did not have access to such television.
They were not far wide of the mark if we drive along the country roads now in Zimbabwe and see the number of satellite dishes on the most threadbare of houses.
Maybe the bigger statement they were making (without realising it then) was that we would not be anyone if we did not get I.T. (Information Technology), not it, being just satellite television.
A hotel once had a slogan which simply said: “WE’VE GOT IT.” Were they saying they had I.T. (big deal, we might think) or were they saying they had got it made, as a hotel?
Maybe they were simply underlining the view that we have not understood a concept until we have actually gone out and bought it.
To a certain extent, that is very much the same with us now; if we haven’t understood the place of I.T. then we do not have a place here. If we have not moved to get I.T., then we will be out of place.
We will be in danger of making as equally foolish statements as Thomas Watson and Ken Olson.
We must be careful not to be looking backwards but instead must see both sides.
An interesting experience at the Victoria Falls Hotel is seeing people come through the hotel and go down the garden to take a photo of each other with the Victoria Falls bridge in the background.
What is intriguing is that very few of them turn around to take a photo in the other direction with the stunning hotel and garden as the background.
So perhaps in the whole ‘debate’ of the advance of I.T. (though actually there is no debate about it), we need to turn round and look in the other direction as well.
Some of us might reluctantly take the line: if you can’t beat them, join them.
Others might choose a different tack regarding phone technology: “if a thing’s not broken, don’t fix it”.
Whichever way we look, we cannot turn a blind eye. And we can use IT to take the photo too!
We must all in education, ultimately, embrace it (IT, that is). Some of us might choose to embrace it like we would embrace our spouse while others might embrace it as a teenager might embrace a younger sister or as a child might embrace an elderly aunt.
IT has us in its arms though. How then will we react to this i-world, this digital world? Can we say, “I dig it all”? Will we say, “I dig IT”? Have we got it? Get IT - IT is here. Get used to IT.
Schools will be communicating using IT increasingly as we believe it will help us keep in touch.
We are aware of potential dangers, just as a knife is a potential danger, but we will still use IT – with care and forethought.
And who knows what people in eighty years from now will say about what is written here! Digital – we must dig it all.
Have we got it?
- Tim Middleton is the executive director of the Association of Trust Schools [ATS]. The views expressed in this article, however, are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of the ATS. Email: [email protected]
website: www.atschisz
