Children, Art and Technology
After lunch in the Grade Two classroom I was in today, children have a choice of silent reading or drawing. Several help themselves to large sheets of white paper from a drawer. When folded in half the paper perfectly mimics the dimensions of a laptop computer, with its fold-up screen and keyboard. At circle time some of the children show their products. Julius has a Toshiba. His keyboard has the letters in rows in alphabetical order, rather than qwerty, but he does have up-down and right-left arrows to one side. He demonstrates how his laptop folds up. I ask him if his Toshiba costs a lot. He thinks about it for a minute and decides to come clean: “A real one would be about $500. This one? Nothing.”
A classmate of Julius’ has been inspired by his example to create a laptop of her own. Julius is not pleased. “Everyone is copying me!” he says. Yes, and taking his creation one step further. On her “screen” is written GOOGEL. I wonder out loud what she will search for on her Internet search engine. “Hannah Montana,” she says. She has also made an iPhone, and shows us how it can be recharged by attaching it to the computer. (This involves folding and unfolding slips of paper.) Imitation technology is everywhere in this classroom. After Circle Time, we start on an art project using pattern blocks to create designs and then reproducing them with coloured paper, cut out into geometric shapes. One girl takes a break from cutting to return to her desk where she picks up her cell phone (made of construction paper in a trendy pale blue) and sits down to chat to a friend.
Children are the great imitators. The function of art here seems to be to create some personal tools for establishing independence. Even though these faux computers were created at school, the message may be directed towards parents who use this kind of technology. “I’m just like you,” the child is saying to the adult in her life. “I have all these gadgets. I can spend time on my ‘laptop’ or ‘cell-phone’. I don’t need you to pay attention to me. So you play on your computer. I’ll play on mine. And please don’t interrupt me!”