Necessity: Introduce Students to New Technologies

Bill Gates at age 13 in 1969 got his start using a computer for the first time at General Electric, reports Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers.

     The New Story a non-profit organization, with the help of Icon construction, was using 3D printers to create the houses rolling off an assembly line in 2018. Designers on the "Project Runway" TV show used 3D printers to create their own fabric designs the previous year.

     To get a head start in life, students need access, not only to 3D printers, but also to virtual reality, holography, robotics, green screens, solar panels, and every other new technology. Whether one advanced technology teacher and a sample are allocated to each school or a teacher and sample travel around a school district, the objective is to give students hands-on exposure to the fields of the future.

     The school that wins a contest to name a robot could get the first one. You can imagine how excited students would be about coming to school every day, if a robot greeted them saying, "Good morning, I have a riddle for you...." Pick the toughest kid in the school to escort the robot and make sure no one harms it. The kid might transform into a new Bill Gates.

     Kids will devise all sorts of ways to use virtual reality to illustrate original fantasy stories and to view wonders of the world and rare animals. There must be ways to use holography to resurrect historical characters and to use green screens to produce special effects for the school play.

     What might kids heat or power with solar panels?

Bucket List: Things I Want to Try

My father worked for a company than made point-of-purchase advertising. When you're in a business that looks for new ways to attract the attention of in-store shoppers, you work on the cutting edge of innovation and develop an eye for what's new in all aspects of life.

     At one point, we had a plastic form for displaying bras and motorized roses circling a bottle of liquor on our dining room table. Our dining room table took a beating, when Dad brought home one of the first ball point pens. It came on a pedestal in a see-through cylindrical display container. We immediately took it out to try and gouged our names right through paper into the dining room table.

     When President Eisenhower initiated the Interstate Highway System, Dad drew a picture (not with a ball point pen on the dining room table) of the new type of clover-leaf interchanges it would have. Then, there was his excitement when he told us we'd be taking one of the first passenger jets to see the new Disneyland in California.

     With this kind of background, I realized I had been making a mental bucket list that included the following: (It might be time to make your own and look for ideas from around the world.)

• Flying a dronw
• Using Virtual Reality glasses to see Victoria Falls
• Making something with a 3D printer
• Twirling one of those fidget widget things
• Programming a simple robot
• Seeing how intricate cut paper pop-ups are made for books and cards
• Trying various hearing aid devices
• Playing "The Settlers of Catan" game
• Seeing how a green screen works in movies
• Making all kinds of repairs
• Riding a Hoverboard
• Using all kinds of phones

As I hear about new things, I wish there were somewhere to go to try them. Maybe in abandoned shopping malls.