It seems increasingly easy to feel like an old fart these days. From celebrity teenage bloggers to the latest flash-in-the-pan trend, what’s new is new and what’s old, well, could be positively prehistoric, for all it’s worth.
In St. Marys, we need look no further for evidence of feeling like a fogey than at Central School last week. Students as young as four were whizzing along the information superhighway -- another dated term -- at warp speed, via iPods and SmartBoards. And they’re not just using these items, they’re also showing adults, including some of their own teachers, the technological ropes of how to operate them.
The ease in which these youngsters touched, tapped and tinkered with these devices is astonishing -- until you remember that these kids grew up with this technology from birth. We adults still remember typewriters, dusty encyclopedia sets and desks in rows -- a far cry from today’s classroom, where children work in groups on the floor and up-to-the-minute information is available in an instant via the Internet. While we wrap our heads around pixels, memory cards and Skype-ing, these kids accept this technology as part and parcel of their lives. What we thought of as cutting-edge back in the day, whether it be filmstrip or VHS tape, overhead projectors or carbon copy machines, would seem absolutely foreign to these kids raised on a steady diet of interactivity and Internet.  
This technology showcase was for the benefit of potential donors to Little Falls Public School’s fundraising campaign, and campaign volunteers and teachers alike extolled the benefits of technology in the classroom. Students co-operate better when they have to regularly share an iPod or laptop. They are also more confident, via explaining to teachers and other classmates about how to best operate these devices, as well as via making their own content to broadcast to the world. It’s a  simple fact that knowing this technology gives youth an advantage in the workplace of today -- and a foot in the door for whatever comes tomorrow.
It’s also, as Little Falls fundraising chair Lynn Hainer pointed out, an attractor for economic development. The new elementary school will be a beacon for families looking for small-town life with big city benefits, provided the school board will be able to afford keeping the technology up-to-date once the school opens and the donation well runs dry.
Interesting, on the same day as the technology showcase, Coun. Bruce Symons (who attended the event) made a small mention at the meeting of town council of a Canada Walks plan, which seeks to improve walking  mobility in communities. Of  special note was  the development of safe walking paths to schools, so children wouldn’t have to be driven.
One of the biggest detractors of all this technology is that it leads to less exercise amongst our youth. Perhaps, while money is being raised for all these digital devices, we could also be looking at ways to keep kids on another beneficial route for their future -- developing safe ways to keep their feet moving and not just their fingers.