Technology Observations from a Homeschooling Dad

Last week, I read a fascinating list of of technology tips a dad learned as he homeschooled his son last year. I laughed as I read because they describe the reality of technology for any user, not just homeschoolers. Here’s the list for you all to read:

• Technology will change faster than we can teach it. My son studied the popular programming language C++ in his home-school year; that knowledge could be economically useless soon. The accelerating pace of technology means his eventual adult career does not exist yet. Of course it won’t be taught in school. But technological smartness can be. Here is the kind of literacy that we tried to impart:
• Every new technology will bite back. The more powerful its gifts, the more powerfully it can be abused. Look for its costs.
• Technologies improve so fast you should postpone getting anything you need until the last second. Get comfortable with the fact that anything you buy is already obsolete.
• Before you can master a device, program or invention, it will be superseded; you will always be a beginner. Get good at it.
• Be suspicious of any technology that requires walls. If you can fix it, modify it or hack it yourself, that is a good sign.
• The proper response to a stupid technology is to make a better one, just as the proper response to a stupid idea is not to outlaw it but to replace it with a better idea.
• Every technology is biased by its embedded defaults: what does it assume?
• Nobody has any idea of what a new invention will really be good for. The crucial question is, what happens when everyone has one?
• The older the technology, the more likely it will continue to be useful.
• Find the minimum amount of technology that will maximize your options.

The list is from part of the larger article “The Way We Live Now: Achieving Techno-Literacy” by Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. After yesterday’s “eBooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point” Summit (where Kelly was the midafternoon keynote speaker), I found his list to be even more enlightening.

Would any of you agree/disagree with the items on this list? Do any of them ring true to what you’ve seen? If so, leave a comment.

Photo Credit: “reassembled” by Flickr user D’Arcy Norman under a Creative Common license.