Educational Futurists and the Communication Revolution Part 3

We hope to inspire, instruct and challenge you this year as educators whether you are teaching from home or a campus. Our goal is to equip anyone devoted to discipleship-based-Christian education. I also want to remind you that while supplies last we will send you a free copies of my book, Disciplining this Generation for a Digital World, to anyone that sends us an email. We can also send you a link to the audio version of the book in an MP3 format. I will have the details at the end of the podcast.

Over the last six podcasts we have been talking about the idea that every educator is a futurist. We are preparing our children to build their lives in a very uncertain future. Our children will enter the workforce, the mission field, go to post secondary education, build their own families in a future that will bear very little resemblance to today. Three podcasts ago we spoke about the Doubling that is occurring in our technology every two years. The power of our computers is coming close to a place where they are rivaling our own capacity to think and process. This has all culminated in a communication revolution that is altering everything about our social interaction. In fourteen short years the internet has become the place where we meet, buy our goods, display our identity, share our family photos, conduct our business communication, play our games, get our news, find our jobs, get our education and 1 out 8 of us is meeting our spouse there. The doubling principle of Moore’s law (twice as much every two years) is holding true with internet technology. In fact it is happening much faster than that. From 1995 to 2000 the internet went from 16 million users to 361 million users which is a doubling every year. It has since been doubling about every two years with nearly 1 and a half billion people using the internet today. Obviously this will slow down over the next couple of years considering that it would only take two and a half more doublings to reach the entire population of the world. The convergence of the cell phone and the internet will probably make this happen in two or three years anyway.

Here is what Internetworldstats.com said about its growth: “The Internet has made real what in the 1970's that visionary of the communications Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) called the "Global Village".

In a matter of very few years, the Internet has consolidated itself as a very powerful platform that has changed the way we do business, and the way we communicate. The Internet, as no other medium, has given an International or, if you prefer, a "Globalized" dimension to the world. It has become the Universal source of information for over 1,463,632,361 people. The Internet is actually the most democratic of all the mass media. With a very low investment, anyone can have a web page in Internet. This way, almost any business can reach a very large market, directly, fast and economically, no matter the size or location of the business. With a very low investment, almost anybody that can read and write can have access to the World Wide Web.”

Bill Clinton illustrates the change, “When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the World Wide Web... Now even my cat has it's own page.”

Because this dramatic culture change has happened so quickly it has created a phenomenon that I call the immigrant affect. An immigrant is someone who migrates from one culture to another and a culture is defined as: “the behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group” (dictionary.com). Every culture has its unique way of communicating that distinguishes it from other groups. When we draw ethnic lines we develop our own languages, if the differences are social or age based we might have the same language base but the style or medium is altered so that those outside of the culture group have difficulty accessing the new communication, such as in rap culture. So anyone who grew up, received their education and started their career before the year 2000 is an immigrant to this new digital culture. This would be anyone over 27 in North America. I pick this year because even if we were doing our post secondary education before 2000 the internet didn’t really become the informational platform until late 1990’s. Google didn’t really hit its stride until about 1999. I will say more about this in next week’s podcast. One could argue that even our 20 somethings are somewhat immigrants to this new culture with the advent of Web 2.0 social networking technology. In the last four years we have seen the introduction of MySpace – the place where anyone can set up their personal web pages, Facebook – the place where anyone can structure a private network for their friends, YouTube – the place where you can post video content, Flicker – the place where you can share your personal images, Twitter - the place where you can share your thoughts. All of these are free and all of them are easy enough that an elementary student can use them with little or no instruction.

If we are the digital immigrants then our children and students today are the true natives of this emerging global digital culture. If you have been listening in to my previous podcast or read my book you will know that I am not an advocate for withdrawing from culture. In fact I advocate the opposite. I believe that our role on earth as Christians is to engage our surrounding cultures and bring the kingdom of God to our culture so that we may have as great an impact as we possibly can on the lives of that culture. If we are to follow in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul we are to “become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some..” 1 Corinthians 9:22. Therefore we must enter and engage this culture. To do this we are going to need the help of our digital native children to navigate this new culture. As immigrants we need to allow the first generation natives to help us with the language and culture just as someone from the old country has to rely upon their child, born in the new country, to translate for them and interpret the strangeness all around them. It is very easy for the fresh immigrant to judge the culture as evil because it is so different and strange. Very often it a missionary’s children that can have the most impact because they have grown up with the culture and are comfortable with their traditions and social interactions. As we have built our new educational platform, Heritage Christian Online School, we have used digital natives extensively to be the guides and interpreters for our immigrant teachers. Back in 2002 we commissioned my daughter, Christabelle, to help post her science teacher’s work online and create a website for him. Today she is in charge of all the web enhancement for the Online School with a staff of four other digital natives working with her. She just turned 21. Our director of technology, Steven, is responsible for the management of the largest Christian online school in Canada which reaches over 2000 students worldwide and all of our systems for our schools and church society. He is 23 and has been doing this for the last 6 years. My daughter-in-law, Chelsea, age 23, has written one of the most cutting edge Math courses in the world together with my youngest son, Kenneth, age 17, who we have hired as a flash animator.

As Web 3.0 begins to emerge these digital natives may need the help of their younger peers to navigate the new virtual worlds that are in their infancy. The world of second life means people can use the internet to extend their lives into a virtual world that seems so far beyond anything we can imagine as real. Now, now my fine digital immigrant don’t be too quick to judge this as invalid. People are going to University in Second life and receiving real world diplomas from prestigious institutions such as The University of Florida, The University of Edinburgh, St. Johns, Notre Dame, University of Southern California, MIT and the list goes on.

A group of Christians have had a major impact on how children are entering the virtual worlds of Web 3.0. Club Penguin was started by three Christian businessmen in Kelowna and in two short years created the premier children’s virtual world where kids play games, interact and create virtual identities. Last year they sold their company to Disney for 750 million dollars. Thankfully they retained the hands on management of the company.

The website Digtialnative.org is helpful in understanding the prolific nature of these changes and give us nine themes that we can identify as significant culture shifts that all of us, immigrant and native alike must understand and master:

1- Digital Identity

Amidst a digital landscape that offers up a constant explosion of information – and influence - natives assert their personal thoughts and experiences, as well as their own political beliefs. digital natives carry this theme of personalization into their wider lives – by creating and ‘showing their own’ in order to – among many other reasons – assert themselves amongst a sea of information and influence.

2-Digital Safety

The digital world is inherently more vulnerable to malicious intent via badware, viruses, hackers, etc. Some argue youth are also more susceptible to sexual predators and bullies online. However, often “new” dangers are “real world” threats encountered through different mediums. There is a history of panic surrounding the introduction of new media forms, and a careful, objective strategy is needed to protect our young people without hindering their development.

Let me add to this to say that Internet pornography is beyond epidemic proportions. It is destroying the sexual health of our culture. I have seen statistics that are as high as 65% of North American men over the age of 10 have intentionally visited pornographic web sites. This is something that every family must have an aggressive strategy for. It is not just affecting men. With the onset of digital anonymous chat, girls are being sucked into sexual addictions as well. Very few of us have been untouched by these secret and insidious social sins and the communication revolution has unleashed a torrent of mental and private abuse of ourselves and our sexuality. I have found two organizations very helpful in this battle of sexual addictions, like any issue touching the family, Focus On the Family has extensive materials to help inform and education and Stephen Arterburn’s, New Life Ministries. He wrote Every Man’s Battle and a serious of books to help women and young men as well. There is no doubt that many of the listeners of this podcast need to do something about this prolific problem, whether it is their own or a family member’s issue. Do not assume it is not a problem. Every one of our computers need to have pornography filters such as cybersitter or content protect installed. But these are only partial blocks. You should establish internet usage policies, accountability protocols and eliminate any secrecy in internet usage for everyone in your family.

3- Digital Privacy

Most digital natives (DNs) live online, 24/7, where everything done is recorded for posterity. Some DNs call it expression. Some digital immigrants feel it’s shifting our notions of privacy. Forums for education and discussion around online sharing practices, as well as legal dialogue about the documentation and availability of private information, have become crucial considerations for our society.

4-Digital Creativity

Just as an artist may create a sculpture from materials found in the wild, digital natives view the media landscape as their “natural habitat” from which they can pull resources for creativity, expression, and commerce. The future balance of expression and property issues will be an important legal discussion in the years ahead.

5-Digital Opportunities

Every day, the Internet becomes more important for society. The Internet revolution is fundamentally and significantly changing politics, education, and the nature of human interactions. This section explores the challenges and potential in areas.

6-Digital Information Overload

Information overload refers to the increasingly frequent state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic. This problem can lead to low productivity, frustration, stress, and poor decision making.

7-Digital Information Quality

As opposed to reading books and magazines, digital natives largely draw information from the Internet. Since everybody with internet access can be a publisher on the internet, such information can be incorrect, outdated, or inconsistent. Digital natives should base their knowledge on high quality information that is fit for its intended use. The creation, distribution, and accessibility of such high quality information is crucial for the functioning of an information society built on digital natives.

8-Digital Piracy

Most adults recognize the consequences of theft. To them, illegally downloading a song carries the same weight as walking out of the grocery store with the an unpaid gallon of milk. Digital Natives, on the other hand, are growing up in a post-Napster world where most of their peers condone casual piracy. From watching uploaded TV shows to getting an upcoming album before the rest of the neighborhood, the youth’s incentives to pirate media significantly outweigh the possible consequences.

9-Digital Education

Technology has always been an important factor for education, but the rapid development of Internet and digital technology over the past decade is changing more than just the equipment used in the classroom: kids' learning styles and school behavior are constantly being shaped by the growing presence of the Internet. This section examines digital education and the need digital literacy while also looking at the pros/cons and problems/solutions of digital education.

Obviously, we have entered this new digital classroom in force with Heritage Christian Online School.

We are in a new and different culture that will require rethinking every communication and social paradigm. As Christian educators preparing our students to engage this world we will need both their help and their attention as we pass on to them the Christian faith, values and heart to navigate this new world. Our kindergarteners will be finishing their schooling in 2022.  

Next week we will begin to consider the implications this Communication Revolution in Globalization. We would love to hear from you and I deeply value your comments. If you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to discipleship-based Christian education.