KIDS Vision

Imagining Possible Futures for Technology

KIDS VISIon

Imagining Possible Futures for Technology

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Credit: Chris Willis

KIDS Vision: Imagining Possible Futures for Technology

Created by Latitude Studios in conjunction with 549 kid innovators from around the world. Copyright 2012 Latitude. All Rights Reserved.

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learning
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creating
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connecting
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Latitude is exploring where kids and technology can take each other.

Female, 10, Australia

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Credit: Lance Shields

KIDS Vision: Imagining Possible Futures for Technology

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Introduction

The future is not laid out on a track. It is something that we can decide and, to the extent that we do not violate any known laws of the universe, we can probably make it work the way that we want to.
Alan Kay

We often are inclined to think of technology as external to us. While it is designed to and generally does enable human progress, technology - be it of the hardware or software variety - is not typically perceived as human. The kids whose ideas are expressed in this book think and feel otherwise. They look at technology - and in particular communicative technologies like computers, the Web and robots - and see themselves. They see computers that speak, robots who are friends and partners, and an Internet that is nothing more (and nothing less) than an extended version of a family. And more profoundly, they picture, at least implicitly, these technologies as both children and parents. That is, we give birth to them in a literal sense and yet they also give birth to us: humans whose capabilities and sensibilities and even very nature are both embedded in and changed by the technologies weve created. In this sense, children do not think

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KIDS Vision: Imagining Possible Futures for Technology

Introduction

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of the human-technology relationship in terms of friend and foe nor even as intelligent being and assistant; rather, it is a journey of mutual discovery, inspiration, and increasingly vivid, sophisticated, even surprising expression. As you look at the drawings, photos, stories and ideas inside, allow yourself to travel with these kids and their hopes, dreams and envisioned realities. Whats here is just a starting point for us to explore the intricate ways a new generation approaches and interacts with technology.

Steve Mushkin Founder + President, Latitude

*The drawings in this book were collected by Latitude through two KIDS studies, Childrens Future Requests for Computers and the Internet, published in 2011, and Robots @ School, published in 2012.
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Credit: Marcus Kwan

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1. learning
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Credit: Tim & Selena Middleton

Do not, then, my friend, keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.
Plato
Credit: Nagarjun Kandukuru

BIG IDEA: kids are looking for technologies that accompany and inspire them...
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te ach + inspire me

RJ is a cool dude robot. He looks like a transformer robot, and with a click of a button he shows me his screen. It then looks like a laptop. I may type my work into the laptop, instead of writing. Then RJ fixes my spelling, and tells me when my sentence is wrong. That way the teacher does not see all the mistakes, but can see how good my idea is.
Boy, 12, South Africa

That way the teacher does not see all the mistakes but can see how good my idea is.

Easy help with maths homework.

Girl, 12, Australia

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KIDS Vision: Imagining Possible Futures for Technology

Learning

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