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Digital inclusion [Nation (Kenya)](Nation (Kenya) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Like women, computers have come a long way. The early computer was designed to terrify. You had to be a prodigy or a certain type of engineer to use one. People who were good at computers in those days had certain common features. They were very hairy. They smelled awful because they never found time to take a bath. They wore the same pair of jeans and a scruffy t-shirt for weeks at a time. They were also very pale because in those days all computers lived in a protected environment, in rooms that had no windows, lots of air cooling and artificial lights. These people had horrible posture because they spent most of their time hunched over a keyboard and peering at a console. They were called "geeks". However, they were highly valued by society because without them everything came to a standstill, especially the payroll. It was these geeks who introduced the dreaded "error message" into computing and for decades these messages were the instruments of digital exclusion. At first, these messages appeared as green hexadecimal numbers on black console screens in the above-mentioned computer rooms "1H5FE006" or something like that. These messages were so incomprehensible to non-experts that the geeks were asked to translate them into English. The best they could do was phrases like "fatal error", "hanging…", "aborting…", "violation no. 4038 – if you do not press a key within 5 seconds hard disk will be irretrievably wiped." These messages generated such fear in society that decade-long efforts to eliminate them can be described as the first war on terror.Mischievous scientists It is clear that, even today when we enjoy a much happier situation, computer scientists continue to mischievously introduce words that are designed to create some level of fear in the adult computer user. Consider this: why is the device we use to control the computer called a "mouse" or at best a "tracker" Indeed computer-talk seems to be an unhappy mixture of jail-speak (think of spreadsheet "cells", "blocks", "locks", "freezing" and "rows") and baby-talk ("google as in goo goo – don't cry" or "tweet, as in tweet swallow your mush, Daddy".) In an attempt to reassure the public, computers started to be described as "user-friendly." The public was not deceived. Describing a computer as "friendly" is much like describing a Rottweiler-breed dog as "friendly." It is friendly to its owner because that is the person that feeds it, however, everyone else is viewed as a potential victim- and someone who has been bitten by a dog, or computer, is never the same again. This is why both dogs and computers are best introduced early in life for complete mastery. Perfect fitI completely support any plan to give computers to six-year old children. It is a perfect fit. At this age, just like computers, children waver between criminal activity and sweet babyhood. They are completely fearless in trying out new things and very innovative in getting things to work. They love animals, so viruses and mice are the same type of things that are normally found on their hands and in their pockets. Indeed there is a global love affair going on between technology and children. In highly developed countries, a study has found that more than half of children are sleep-deprived – largely because they are spending a considerable part of the night hunched in front of computers. When we do give our children computers, we will certainly have to do some risk mitigation. We should be ready to open bank accounts for kids and issue them with credit cards. Otherwise how will Chinese children pay Kenyan children to do their English composition homework and how will Kenyan children pay Chinese children to do their mathematics homework No one should fight this revolution. It clear that, whether we are six years old or sixty, we all really want to be eighteen, and we will use all available technology to get us there whether you like it or not! Digitise your kids this Saturday! (c) 2013 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |