Dear Marcio,
As you will know, there has been a lot of work done on how children acquire language and it seems easy to speculate, as we all do, how and why, as you say "their minds become mechanized by the consistency of patterns that our (digital) culture imposes us in different ways, directing our lives".
In some sense the real question is not so much why we lose our childhood creativity and openness to new pattern but rather, why some people seem to maintain some aspects of this childhood creativity throughout their adult lives.
Some of the creativity literature talks about creative people sustaining sensibilities often at great personal and financial cost. Some of us just will not stop smelling the flowers.
I often think about it in terms of a tolerance for ignorance which also would seem to fit with a tolerance for cognitive dissonance. I know I am so much more in love with the negative stages of learning than most of my much younger students (they are mostly 40 years younger than me). Sure, they pick up on the dumb things that iPhones and iPads do with what looks like a native fluency but they are mostly accepting what is bad, wrong, dumb and coy as if the game was about obscurity. That is, most new technology is adolescent in its use and its design. It's not that old farts can't use it. An old fart wouldn't be stupid enough to leave well enough alone when there is a better way that maybe requires more foundational skills that will produce more efficiency in the longer run.
Yes, I can use these devices but like the little girl who asked her father "where is my photo" knew, we should have an instant outcome to the process, we shouldn't have to wait a week for our prints to emerge from the secret world of the photo shop.
enough of a grip for a Tuesday
cheers
keith
>>> marcio rocha <[log in to unmask]> 06/06/11 6:30 PM >>>
Dear All
Very interesting observations.
I have to say, personally, I'm intrigued
with some habilities observed in children behaviour, mainly on the "natural"
capacity and speed of learning.
I'm PhD researcher in MediaArts and Design at University of Plymouth, UK
researching cognitive dissonance in mental models in Design of interaction,
but actually what had intrigued me is observe my two daughters (respectively
10 and 11 years)
studying and living in UK (during my PhD).
They can learn english more quickly and efficient than me and my wife
and mainly, when they are playing Playstation 3, they navigate extremely
faster in some menus and submenus to choose their options, build some models
and scenes
using tools similar to CAD, combine colors, etc (despite I have worked with
graphic design for more than 12 years).
I taught them to do everything in Playstation and computers, etc..
but after a while, I can observe that gradually they are much more competent
than me
in some many aspects.
Maybe, various aspects of this kind of "intuitive learning" can disappear,
cause after a while, Their minds become mechanized by the consistency of
patterns that
our (digital) culture imposes us in different ways, directing our lives.
How is it possible to preserve the intuitive ability in children
powerful intriguing but at the same time innocent?
Sincere apologies for any errors of English.
Best
--
Marcio Rocha
Transtechnology Research
University of Plymouth, UK
http://trans-techresearch.net/researchers/marcio-rocha
+0 7553 614185
Federal University of Brazil
Visual Arts Faculty
Graphic design Department
www.fav.ufg.br
www.ufg.br
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