The Impact Of Technology For Gifted Children

As far back as I can remember I have had a happy childhood. I didn’t grow up depending on technology to teach me the alphabet or learning to draw pictures on an iPad. Instead I played outside for hours in my tree house inventing new ways to climb the tree in my backyard, and learning to color inside the lines of my coloring book that I bought with the quarters I earned with my lemonade stand at the end of my drive way. Families that make up our society and individuals are affected by different aspects of technology everyday. The digital age that we have rapidly approached since the 2000’s has effected minds of young children teaching them to play a digital game in a computer

Once the children have been identified, they need to have an adequate program to aid in their cognitive growth. The majority of gifted children are placed into the general education, leading to boredom. As they understand concepts faster, especially abstract, boredom sets in as the children continuously have to wait for their peers to catch up. Programs need to be made for them, as they are the future. They will aid in the development and continuation of America, far more than the average child. Several methods can be applied to a gifted program to keep the children engaged and their minds simulated. Acceleration and Enrichment are two options, with the accelerated program having the greatest positive feedback. Acceleration allows for the child to learn at a rapid pace, depending on them not their peers, while enrichment is the addition of supplement information or reading (Subotnik). Many programs in place presently have an accelerated program, but many are still too slow or parents have no knowledge of it. The programs also puts less stress on the general education teachers, especially if they don’t know how to handle these students. Teachers within the program should be specialized in dealing with the gifted, allowing for a better understanding and connection between the student and teacher. And as all gifted students are different, the teachers need to be slightly flexible, but still continue along the accelerated path. The program needs to placed everywhere, and allow equal chance for everyone to get in. Many argue against these types of programs, as they make clear the separation between the “elite” and “average” (Winner). While others offer grade skipping, but never take into account the social development of the

Since children today have become digital natives; they will never truly know a world that is not touched with technology. This means that the educational paradigm has to shift in order to keep up with the needs of our young learners (Jo, 2016). In the last thirty years, technological advances

Technology is everywhere; it is almost inevitable. In 2013 a study was done by the American Community Survey showing just how much we use computers.The study showed that eighty- four percent of american households owned a computer. Although technology is on the rise, it may not be the best answer for everything. Computers are relied on heavily in schools all over the world which could eventually be a problem. There are many flaws that the internet and schooling systems may never be able to ‘fix’. Many people take advantage of this luxury. Yet there is a large population of people who do not agree with the certain use of technology in schools. Although ideas with the internet are limitless, not all luxuries in life are provided. Most things

(2013). Curriculum Issues. Gifted child Today. Retrieved from Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), Ipswich, MA. Accessed July 29, 2015.

To begin with, one important thing I have learned through this experience is that there is a digital divide that exists within our society. There is a group of people who are the technology ‘haves’, and these people have laptops, iPhone and access to technology. On the other hand,

Nearing the end of the 20th century, at a time that is today characterized by disco and bellbottoms, America was entering an era of the future: the Digital Age. Starting with the release of the personal computer in 1970, and likely ending with the release of the iPhone 890 in 2450, the Digital Age shaped America as we know it today. This nationwide obsession with technology has led to massive changes that now simply fall under the mundanity of everyday life. Of course, there is pushback, and certainly no shortage of grumbling about children swapping a day in the park for a video game controller (which is not completely unwarranted; I've had my fair share of, as my father once put it, "reading about going outside instead of actually doing it").

It is apparent that there have been significant advances in technology over the past thirty years. In the 1987 the first mobile phone was launched, with only 4% Australians actually owning one compared to 98% in 20162. It’s no secret that technology forever growing phenomenon however, during the 1980s it was not part of youth’s daily life. Rather teenagers passed time by “…going out to coffee shops with friends or participating in sporting activities” in comparison,”…97% of youths were using the internet/ soggcial media in their everyday lives – their lifestyle, their productivity and the ways they interact with their family, friends, education and their workplaces”2..

It’s hard not to see or use a technology tool in our daily life, if we live in a modern world. The bombardment starts early in the morning and it will be manifested through our day in several ways, the regular person will wake up and check the apps on the cellphone while drinking a coffee, it can be for example to read news on the web, daily market numbers or for social interaction with others. The expansion to advanced options of communications like smartphones and tablets are great examples of the accelerated transition to a mass online communication. The social use of technology is influencing adult population in our present. According to Pew Research Center (n.d) data collected up to September 2014 in the online environment:

We grew up in the age of transition. Our childhood previously consisting of jumping rope, going outside, and playing in playgrounds quickly changed into something more technological. We watched handwritten letters became electronic, film became digital, a huge corded phones become small computers in our pockets. Now we are becoming dependent on these new technologies.

Gifted children have a different learning style that allows them to absorb vast amounts of material much faster than the average child. The current trend in education of introducing a new idea and then building upon it is simply too slow for them. It has been likened to "feeding an elephant one blade of grass at a time - he will starve before he realizes someone is trying to feed him" (Tolan 3). These children may demonstrate what appear to be poor academic skills, causing them to appear to be less capable (Oettinger 11). Sloppy handwriting can signify that a child's hands cannot keep pace with his quick mind; some are poor spellers because they do not see words as collections of single letters and some may even have trouble with memorization (Tolan 3). Gifted programs allow them to use their skills in ways that are better suited to their learning style.

Currently in 2017 tech has been in everyone's lives one way or another. Whether it's a toddler using an electronic toy, to a small child using an Ipad, technology is everywhere. But what if you were born ten to twenty years in the past, how about ten to twenty years in the future? Right now as a fifteen-year-old boy technology is in my life one way or another. Whether is using my phone to watch videos and to text, or using my Xbox to entertain myself; tech is all around me.

Imagine being a kid in the 1980’s. Kids back in those days would run around outside all day, using their imagination to create imaginary worlds to travel to imaginary places that made way for creative ideas and inventions as they grew older. One of those inventions turned out to be the tablet, the iPhone, or the netbook. Basically anything that made everything easier. Everything is now easier. One can simply look up an article and read it on their computer or phone, or research the latest fashion trends without having to keep updated on the latest magazine. Easier is okay. Let’s make things easier, but it’s when the easier starts finding its way into school systems. Easy technology usage becomes a problem when it creeps into our school, when the unreliable, and brainwashing abilities of technology creep into the minds of the young to hurt their ability to actually truly learn and experience life for what it should be.

I started middle school when we moved to Rochester Hill’s from Ann Arbor. Our new blended family (my mother remarried) had several computers and other new technological devices, as did most of the homes in the affluent community in which we lived. Home pc’s became a useful tool in middle school; I surfed the net, wrote papers, and researched articles over the Internet. My whole family became engulfed with the technology wave. Our extended family and close friends eventually all came to a point where they used some sort of pc or computing device in their everyday lives. Computers made it easy to communicate, and because our family and relatives lived a good distance apart we were able to effectively chat and email our way out of “snail mail.”

As I sit here and recall my last nineteen long years on this planet and my various interactions with different mediums of technology, it has become very obvious to me that I, like most people where I am from, have had really no major interactions with technology compared to others in my age group. I sit in coffee joints at night and watch people become more introverted than a turtle, ducking into their little shells of technological safety. They look at you through their faux, so-call trendy DKNY knock-off glasses, dressed in their Abercrombie clothes, hiding behind nothing but the glow of a laptop or in the corner talking to someone on their cell phones which just happens to match what they are