

Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier (PBS) - rhl
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
Longtime reader, never submitted... but this PBS documentary spreads out in so many directions that are congruent with the YC crowd -- personal productivity and multitasking, education for the digital natives, school computer access, privacy, etc. etc. -- that I <i>have</i> to share it.<p>Some key moments from the first half of the show:<p>- brain scan research at Stanford on the impact of multitasking on productivity<p>- a Korean facility for internet and video game addict high school students, and a shot of 5 or 6 year olds signing up for a school-operated social network and singing a song about 'netiquette'<p>- a teacher and the principal of a 'wired' high school in the US saying 'We can argue for ages about about kids needing to stay in their seats and keep quiet, but I don't know any job that exists, now or in the future, that requires them to stay in their seats and keep quiet' 'They won't be asked to remember a bunch of information someone told them, they will be asked to do stuff, build things, work on stuff'<p>- the dean of that same school monitoring the computers in real time (most students have Photobooth open) -- <i>huge</i> privacy breach (at least that's how I'd feel).<p>This is fascinating -- what are your thoughts on this?
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rhl
Longtime reader, never submitted... but this PBS documentary spreads out in so
many directions that are congruent with the YC crowd -- personal productivity
and multitasking, education for the digital natives, school computer access,
privacy, etc. etc. -- that I _have_ to share it.

Some key moments from the first half of the show:

\- brain scan research at Stanford on the impact of multitasking on
productivity

\- a Korean facility for internet and video game addict high school students,
and a shot of 5 or 6 year olds signing up for a school-operated social network
and singing a song about 'netiquette'

\- a teacher and the principal of a 'wired' high school in the US saying 'We
can argue for ages about about kids needing to stay in their seats and keep
quiet, but I don't know any job that exists, now or in the future, that
requires them to stay in their seats and keep quiet' 'They won't be asked to
remember a bunch of information someone told them, they will be asked to do
stuff, build things, work on stuff'

\- the dean of that same school monitoring the computers in real time (most
students have Photobooth open) -- _huge_ privacy breach (at least that's how
I'd feel).

This is fascinating -- what are your thoughts on this?

