Sunday, November 20, 2011

Just let your fingers fiddle around

Was chatting with a friend about learning (er... more like catching up with) new technology.

I was describing what my 19-month old nephew could do with the iPad... recognising where the apps were placed and opening his choice apps; retrieving his favourite Youtube videoclips and moving the apps all over the place; and even making 'facetime' calls! And better still, how he had removed my Apps Store icon despite the fact that I had deactivated the install/ uninstall feature! Haha... Thanks to friends around who offered me tips to retrieve that icon!

Oh yes, that's a digital native in action! And each time I watched him fiddle with the iPad, it's always a mixture of anticipation of pleasant surprises (and with a certain degree of anxiety 'cos I would not know what kind of challenge he's going to 'impose'! Haha...)


I'm quite sure the process that's described was unique to kids nowadays! They really explore!!! And I believe it's accompanied with another important element - curiosity... to discover... and the excitement to see things happening!!! Partly, because of the 'lack' of structure in the way their brains are wired helps!

I think, the reaction would definitely be very different when you ask a more senior (er... elderly) adult to fiddle around with the apps and stuff in the iPad! Take me as an example, when I first received my device, my very 'structured' mind would 'tell' me to ask my "helplines" to assist... in the setting up and what to install, and how to go about organising my stuff. To be frank, I did not 'explore'... I would systematically know what I need to do and I would stop there once I got what I need. It's only in the recent weeks that I learnt how to do a screen capture of the iPad desktop! Well, it's never too late :)

So, I guess... lesson learnt here, while we tend to tell people, just 'fiddle' around and you would find it quite 'initutive' and 'easy to use'... we have to take note of who we are giving the advice to... It's applicable to the digital native, but more scaffolding will definitely help to encourage people of the other age spectrum!

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