Think3 post: My Story #6 - Children

..to see what they think of us! I have spent most of my free evening time today on reading posts on TH!NK3 and prepare myself to my final 'story' so I might be a bit short now. I hope you do not mind. Two stories I want to share to make my point on the next generation: RoboCAMP's and my today's visit at the Oxford Geek Jam.

RoboCAMPs are paid courses for kids to discover the magic of robots and generally teach them to grow accustomed to new technologies. I find the idea brilliant but the activist in me find it disturbing that they are paid! I wish I could see it as a free NGO initiative for the public. I find the idea of paid courses somewhat closer to the business but maybe we should put the motivations aside and look at the effects? Maybe having this course as a model is a good start? I find it really fascinating how kids discover and lead the innovation! So why not give them a chance even in a paid form, and then look at applying the model to the general public and make it more accessible? This way I like the RoboCAMPs better.

I took my 4 year old son to the Oxford Geek Jam on the way to the cinema today (25.07) - to the most techy and geeky of the Oxford geek events in my personal opinion. I simply have no idea what the guys are coding there, but I grow increasingly impressed with their community and solutions presented so I like to drop by and say hi sometimes. Today we sat down for a bit to test the laptops used in the 'One laptop per child' project (worth reading about, as it's great, and maybe something closer to the idea I foresee for RoboCAMPs too;)). My son could not stop using the device simply to kill the time when his mother engaged in discussions about open source community, events and the need for specific solutions. He simply asked for it twice and really loved the graphical game of blocks on it. I marveled the way he investigated the design of the laptop and really quickly picked up the usage of various keys. Yes, a proud geek mother of probabbly a geekier child, but the point here is - what do we do to invest in our kids future?

I see my fellow THINKers engaging in discussions about education, health, poverty etc - all of which are crucial. I would like to see more of those with focus on the next generations and approach of actually engaging them in the conversations about it.

Let's not talk above their heads! Let's talk to them more!

Update: I should have added this one too, I hope you will find this young lady inspiring;)

This post is a part of TH!NK 3 European Blogging Competition. You will find the original post here. Enjoy!