In September, in all schools of the country, within the framework of the All-Russian educational project, the "Lesson of numbers" on the topic "Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning" is held. The organizers are the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation in partnership with leading Russian companies. According to experts, it is necessary to acquaint the new generation of children “born with a tablet in their hands” with the professions of the future.
The speed of development of digital technologies scares some, inspires others. But the fact of the transition of society to the information age, which experts call the next step in the development of mankind, is no longer possible to dispute. The world is changing. A variety of spheres of activity - healthcare, manufacturing, business and, of course, education - are mastering innovative systems with might and main.
“Knowledge of digital technologies, the principles of artificial intelligence today is required by everyone, without exception,” says the head of the Ministry of Education of Russia Sergei Kravtsov, noting the importance of the All-Russian educational project "The Lesson of the Digit". - And it is very important that already from school, the children learn this information and, possibly, plan their career, focusing on the rapidly developing areas of knowledge.
The fact that today “other” children have come to kindergartens and schools is recognized by sociologists from many countries of the world, including Russia. Born between 2010 and today, boys and girls are the first generation in history to be surrounded by digital influence from infancy. According to international experts, the newest generation "alpha" unwittingly became part of a global experiment in which children from an early age were brought to their faces with screens that became both a pacifier, entertainment, and an educational game. Modern kids are predicted a brilliant future and even promised that they will "save the world." And society looks at them with apprehension, noticing in today's preschoolers and junior schoolchildren the pros and cons of their already "digital" thinking.
Generation theory
The essence of the sociological theory of generations, founded back in 1991 by historian William Strauss and economist Neil Howe, is that every 20–25 years a new generation of people with special character traits and habits is born. There was a lot of debate about the theory: opponents, in particular, reproached the authors for exaggerating the differences between generations, and supporters argued that the speed of variables in the psychological portrait of young people would be directly related to the development of progress. So, in fact, it happened. As soon as psychologists figured out the eternally "looking for themselves" millennials who were born after 1981 and before 2000, practical "Zetas" entered the "field". They especially suffered from experts of all stripes: here you have the clip-like thinking, and excessive consumerism, and ambition. Having grown up in the wake of the technological boom, the development of the Internet and social networks, the representatives of the "zeta" gave a lot of problems to parents and teachers. Now, with unlimited access to information technology and a huge list of opportunities in their hands, the Zetas are maturing, storming their careers and achieving material benefits much faster than their predecessors. Having received the title of "the future of the world economy" from analysts, they seem to put an end to the XXI century, yielding the center of attention to the "alpha" generation, whose representatives are destined to live in the new, XXII century.
- Of course, we must not forget that the personality of each person is formed under the influence of various factors: family, society, economic situation and field of activity - everything matters, - says Aleksey Yegorov, candidate of sociological sciences. “Therefore, in our country, it is customary to consider the theory of generations not as a problem of fathers and children. Rather, it is an attempt to comprehend how rapidly changing external factors of life affect the formation of values in a child, in order to understand how this will affect his adult life. This means - and in our future as a whole. I think from an educational point of view, this is of great importance. We must understand our children in order to know how to communicate with them and how to raise them.
The close attention to the "generation of tomorrow" is not accidental: according to forecasts, when "alphas" will enter adulthood, the labor market will change significantly, many professions will be unclaimed. According to one of the versions, at the moment there are simply no specialties that will meet the requirements of modernity in twenty years. So today's kids will have to constantly learn new things, instantly grasping the next trend of the times.
The era of screens
The appearance of the "alpha" generation is considered to be 2010, since it was then that the first iPad entered the world market and Instagram was created, which, of course, influenced the global digitalization of modern children.
- The era of screens, in which we live, has a stronger influence on those who are still only being formed as a person, - explains on his page on the network the sociologist, world-class expert, director and founder of the sociological research agency Mark McCrindle, who was the first to introduce the term Generation Alpha. - From the inability to keep our attention on something, to the transformation of education into a game, from the increase in digital literacy to the disruption of social adaptation - all this affected each of us, but only transformed the smallest. Generation "alpha" is the most financially secure and the most technologically savvy generation in the history of mankind. They will spend more time studying and personal growth, later they will start earning and will live with their parents until the age of thirty, slowly setting off on a free voyage.
The sociologist proposes to call the new generation not teenagers, as we are accustomed to, but screenagers (screen means "screen" in English). According to surveys, today, parents give tablets and smartphones to more than 80 percent of preschoolers. 82 percent of children play games on them, 14 percent watch cartoons, and 4 percent listen to music. More than half of babies spend up to 6 hours a week with tablets. And if even ten years ago pediatricians did not recommend using digital technologies for the development and training of preschoolers, today the categorical prohibition is replaced by a cautious assumption. For example, the American Association of Pediatricians, for example, recently announced that a child from one and a half to two years old can use gadgets for one to two hours a day, and children from two to five years old - no more than three hours. Russian doctors are also losing ground. So, answering the questions of young mothers, the famous pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky says that he is categorically against computer games up to the age of two, but he admits "the standard rule, which is incredibly difficult for parents to follow - no more than two hours of screen time a day."
- Remember: mom as an educational game is much more useful, - the doctor specifies. - A dad who, together with a child, builds a house out of cubes, is a thousand times cooler than any gadget.
Other games
But demand creates supply. You can't run away from progress. And although the alphas are still small, they are actively studied by various research companies, including marketing ones. As a result, the market today is literally flooded with educational digital toys.
- We try to limit our son in watching cartoons, - says the mother of three-year-old Maxim Daria Tishina. - We walk a lot, read, sculpt, draw But naturally, we do not refuse modern toys, which are recommended by teachers and psychologists.
In the arsenal of a typical representative of the "alpha" generation, there are indeed a lot of the most ordinary cars, blocks and other toys from the usual set of a preschooler. Only for some reason, his mother notes, he still "sticks" to those that are made on the basis of digital technologies or require solving logical problems. One of the kid's favorite games is a puzzle in which you need to correctly combine colors, shapes and the sequence of colored tiles. One hundred tasks of four levels of difficulty. And he decides after all. As, however, all his classmates in kindergarten.
“During self-isolation, we practically did not go out for a walk,” Daria continues. - And Max definitely needs to focus on something. Otherwise, he is practically uncontrollable and constantly demands to give him a “poke” on the phone or turn on cartoons. But, given that my youngest son is only six months old, I did not have the opportunity to constantly study with the eldest. It was then that we bought a new-fangled gadget - a light sandbox. To this day, she helps us a lot. And, to be honest, I don't see any harm from her.
At first glance, it looks like a small children's table with kinetic sand placed in a depression in the surface. This device is controlled for the development of fine motor skills and creative thinking, of course, from the remote control and has more than 50 backlight options.
- Maxim's girlfriend, Katya, - says Daria, - collects puzzles the fastest. True, she loves to draw more in a special program installed on a children's tablet. Yesterday I almost got into a fight with Max because of him. We have not yet succeeded in teaching children to share toys. Also, they say, the problem of the generation.
“Easy mastering of complex technical innovations and information programs is the main feature of modern children,” says Albina Beschasnaya, a leading Russian expert on childhood issues, Doctor of Sociological Sciences.
According to her, now on the agenda is the study of our future through the prism of modern children. “The main factor that determined their view of the world is that they are formed in the absence of rigid templates, the cult of the right to diversity and the right to be and think differently than others,” she notes.
Just kids
Despite the amazing discoveries of the early 21st century in the field of information technology, the world needs a dream. And just as each parent, looking at his child, hopes that he will surpass all expectations, become better, more successful, so society expects almost miracles from the young generation. The list of the allegedly discovered qualities of the alpha generation includes critical thinking, a creative streak and a love of learning, albeit with a proviso: only if they are interested. On millions of Internet pages, a variety of experts claim that bright, enthusiastic and self-sufficient individuals will grow out of them. And also - persistent, purposeful and freedom-loving. According to one of the largest communication agencies, "alphas" will have a heightened sense of justice, and their main value will be sincerity and the ability to be what they are.
Of course, alpha kids aren't perfect. Yes, with technology from infancy to "you" and will certainly succeed in mastering the computer mind. But for now, they are just children who can change the future, if the present allows them. After all, the problems inherited from previous generations have not gone anywhere. And they cannot be discounted.
“Like the Zetas, alpha kids are fixated on a screen that opens a window to a boundless world in which there is no main thing - feelings and emotions, they can only be given by real, live communication,” says child psychologist Lyudmila Fedotova. - They often rush between the desire for independence and helplessness in the seemingly simplest everyday things. Today we blame the current teenage "Zetas" for this, tomorrow, perhaps, we blame the same "alphas". Today's children still have communication problems. Especially if the adults around them do not help solve them, but set a bad example, sitting in the evenings on social networks. Therefore, the worldwide network teaches children independence, patience, search for information and its analysis. They also have problems concentrating. The digital model of clip thinking does not allow mastering a large volume of text, because there, on the Internet, graphics and pictures prevail. Recently I read that in kindergartens, some kids, when they look at illustrations in books, try to enlarge them, like an image on a tablet. So much for the advancement
The issues related to the upbringing of the younger generation are more relevant today than ever, the expert believes. In their studies, in the development of a new information space, the school successfully helps them. There are no problems with this in the capital at all. Schools are equipped with the most modern equipment, and the Moscow Electronic School, according to experts, has no analogues at all. This internet platform is even called the education system of the future. It has all the necessary educational materials, almost 38 thousand interactive lesson scripts are posted.
There is no doubt that the current school curriculum keeps pace with the times. And children live up to expectations. For example, recently it became known that Moscow schoolchildren won two silver medals at the IV European Junior Olympiad in Informatics.
“Of course, our era makes its demands on the younger generation,” says the psychologist. “But man is not a robot. And it's good that today, from an early age, we teach children to multitask, mastering a large amount of information, this will certainly come in handy in the future. But something else is also required. It has long been proven that a child with whom parents are engaged, learns knowledge and skills faster than their peers. The point here is not at all overpowerfulness, but in how much effort, attention, care and, of course, love have been invested in it. And how our "zetas" and "alphas" grow up still depends on adults who are able to take into account the peculiarities of the time in which their children grow up. Alphas really need support and emotional protection so that they can reveal themselves, realize their creative potential, and not drown in the sea of temptations, trials and temptations. And you always have to believe in children. And then they will be able to really surprise you: they will move mountains and change the world for the better.
SOCIOLOGY
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