Gloria Skurzynski

It's a Wired World After All:Children, Books, and the Internet

I LOVE THE INTERNET. I log on at least half adozen times each day, usually for work, but

sometimes just for fun. The other day when I wasplaying on the Net I came across a web site thatmade me chuckle: It was called "The Book-Lover'sGuide to the Cinema" (Gold, 1999). So if you re-ally love books, you can log onto the Net to findout which movie you should see.

Usually, though, I use the Internet for re-search. I've always been a thorough researcher formy books, but now I can dig deeper and rangewider because of the Internet. It reminds me of theold days when I would browse the card catalog inthe library, except that now the references comeup in color, with hyperlinks, and some of themwith sound and animation. And at the other end ofmost of my inquiries is a live person who willanswer my questions via e-mail.

This new technology has brought me a lot offascinating connections with people worldwide. Buttechnology can also create a cocoon of isolation.A year ago I received a letter from a little boynamed Troy who had read my book, Robots: YourHigh-Tech World (Skurzynski, 1990). From the wayhe printed, I would judge that Troy was about 7years old. He wrote:

Dear Mr. Bradbury Press [obviously Troy was nottoo clear about the relationship between publishers

Gloria Skurzynski is an author of children's books re-siding in Salt Lake City, UT.

and authors], Please would you send me a real smallmoving robot. Because I love robots and your bookwas cool. Please I need a robot because I have nofriends and I'm not lying. Please send me a robot.Thank you for reading my letter and for sending methe robot.

At the bottom of the page was another "Please"with an exclamation mark. Beside that was thebook's title, and next to that he had printed myname. Spelled correctly, by the way.

My first inclination was to rush right out andbuy a robot to mail to Troy. But I hesitated, be-cause I began to worry about this little boy whowas ready to give up on human friends in favor ofa mechanical one. One of the concerns about ad-vancing technology is that it may become so pleas-ant and comfortable that users will not want todeal with real-life situations, but will stay cocoonedinside their virtual-reality helmets, where they willalways be in control. I know how it feels—I haveexperienced just about every form of virtual reali-ty that exists today, and I know it is addicting.Each time I had to take off those 3-D goggles andleave that computer-generated environment to re-enter the real world of real people, I felt strongresistance. Virtual worlds and robots are easier todeal with, because they do not talk back.

I did eventually buy four robots and sent themto Troy with these words:

You said you want a robot because you have nofriends. Robots are fun, but they aren't nearly as

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much fun as real people, because robots can't thinkor talk, at least not yet. And even if they could, theywouldn't be as interesting as real people.

I'm sending you these robots in the hope thatyou'll find some kids who seem nice. Maybe there'sanother boy or girl in your neighborhood or in yourschool who is as lonely as you are. You could startby saying "hi" to that person, and ask if they likerobots. Then, use these robots to make up storiesand games together, and if you see someone elsewatching you, ask them if they'd like to play, too.

Please keep on reading books, Troy, because bookscan become wonderful friends for the in-betweentimes when no one else is with you. You can carrybooks wherever you go.

Pages and ScreensThat is one of the best things about books—

their portability. That has not changed in a couplehundred years. It feels so good just to hold a bookin your hands, even before you open it and be-come transfixed by the words inside. It is too hardto carry a laptop around to read a book on.

Having said that, I must note that three porta-ble electronic books have just been designed: Nuvo-Media's RocketBook, Virtual Press's SoftBook, andEverybook from Everybook Inc. (Silberman, 1998).Notice that all three include "book" as part of thebrand name. They are easier to read than a laptopscreen. They weigh 1.25 pounds, 2.9 pounds, and3.65 pounds respectively, which means they are areasonable weight to carry; and they advance onepage at a time with a button push rather than byscrolling. Texts are downloaded directly from on-line bookstores into two of these digital readers,and through a personal computer into the third, theRocketBook.

But no matter how much these devices pre-tend to be books, they still have screens ratherthan pages. I have grown accustomed to readingmy own books on a computer screen while I amworking on them, but the vast majority of peopleare more comfortable reading print on paper. Ifyou have to train yourself to use a technology asin these digital readers, it is not going to be toopopular. People prefer the intuitive over an acquiredskill.

Since computers and electronic informationhave become ubiquitous, it might reasonably beexpected that the use of paper pages would de-

cline. For years we have been told that electroniccommunication would save trees from being groundup into pulp for paper mills. But as more and moreinformation has become available, the number ofhard-copy pages printed out has risen—dramati-cally—rather than decreased (StoreBoard, 1998).Digital information is perceived as harder to use(if you have to struggle to figure it out, you willgive up) and as less permanent (computers crash,hard drives die, e-mail disappears). Nervous usersquickly print out their bytes and bits; paper is stillthe medium of choice, because, as with books, youcan hold paper in your hands and feel that youreally have something, not just ephemeral protons.

But for sheer volume, digital informationwins. It bombards us until we scream for mercy.Psychologists have a name for it: They call it "in-formation fatigue syndrome" (K. Ellis, quoted onCNN Future Watch, 1997). The symptoms are fail-ure of concentration, greater irritability, and sleepdisorders. In a survey conducted by the Reutersnews organization (CNN Future Watch, 1997), 43percent of the people polled said they had troublemaking important decisions because they had toomuch information. Information breeds information.The more you know, the more you want to know,and the more that then becomes available for youto know. Nearly half the people surveyed said theythink the Internet will be a prime cause of infor-mation overload in the next century.

Other experts say there really is not too muchinformation available. It is just that we do not knowhow to handle it.

My daughter Jan is one of those disbelieverswho scoffs at the idea of information overload.Jan works for Hewlett Packard as a manager ofmanufacturing engineering. In her job, she travelsfrequently, all over the world. Recently she camehome from a 10-day business trip to find 1,000 e-mail messages waiting for her on her computer.

"What did you do?" I asked her. "How couldyou sort through 1,000 e-mails?"

She answered, "Well, I couldn't. So I justdeleted all of them without reading any of them."

Obviously Jan has figured out how to handleinformation overload. The only problem is, a cou-ple of those e-mail messages she trashed happenedto be from me!

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Here to StayNow that I have listed all those negative fac-

tors about the digital world we live in, I must ad-mit to believing that the advantages of it mightilyoutweigh the disadvantages. It is a good thing theydo, since the billions of bits and bytes that bom-bard us every second are here to stay—for which Igive a loud and resounding cheer.

Jan frequently travels to Singapore, amongother Asian destinations. Singapore has a popula-tion of only 3 million people, but over the next 5years its government will spend 2 billion dollarson computers for its schools. Its goal is to haveone computer for every two children.

Contrast that with another country on theAsian continent—Pakistan. Pakistan has a popula-tion of 133 million, half of whom are under the ageof 15. Its literacy rate is 38 percent, which meansalmost two-thirds of Pakistani people cannot read orwrite. Much of Pakistan is remote. Only 16 out ofevery 1,000 people see a daily newspaper.

Other poor nations are even worse off regard-ing literacy. Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology's Media Lab—a thinktank dedicated to the study and experimentation offuture forms of human communication—asks,"What sense is there in providing computers tochildren in nations where there is inadequate food,clothing, and medicine?" (1997, p. 184). His an-swer is that it makes a tremendous amount of senseto do just that. It is similar in concept to the adagethat if you give a family a fish, you feed them fora day, but if you teach them to fish, you feed themfor a lifetime.

Interestingly, Bill Gates (1999) disagrees.Gates, who heads Microsoft, says, "I think it isalso important to consider priorities. I have chosento focus on making sure that children in poor coun-tries get access to vaccines so they can live ahealthy life. This has to come before making surethey have access to computers" (p. 80). Gates hasgiven more than $6 billion to foundations that pro-vide both medicine and information technology topoor countries.

Quoting Negroponte again: "Opening theminds of children is the ultimate investment forbreaking out of the vicious circle of poverty andilliteracy. Sooner than skeptics can imagine, digi-

tal connection with a bigger world of people andideas (and hopes and dreams) will be possible"(1998).

People from all over the world responded onthe Internet to Negroponte's idea. One message inparticular caught my heart. It was from a youngman in Uganda, David Seruyange. He wrote, "Icome from a land that has been ravaged by warand destruction, a systematic victimization that hasbled people dry. As we astonish ourselves moreand more with the technologies we are able to de-velop, we also build a gap between entire nationsin which those technologies are not even a dream."He went on to say that children's cries need to beheard, "not simply the cries of infants with fliescrawling on their faces, but the cries of opportuni-ty, of barefoot children whose eyes say, 'I can doit,' but who never have a chance to."

Visionaries and PioneersTo digitally connect the world's children is a

dream of almost impossible proportions, but thatis what visionaries are for—to dream the impossi-ble dream. We can identify the visionaries becausethey are the ones tugging so hard on one end ofthe pendulum, trying to move it as far as it will goso that when it swings back again, the arc willgrow a little wider.

From the visionaries, dreams go to the pio-neers, who try to implement them. You can identi-fy the pioneers, too: They are the ones with thearrows sticking out of their backs. A lot of themdo bite the dust, but some struggle on, pushing thedream forward. They search for practical answersto impossible questions, such as "How can we pro-vide computers to poor children when computerscost so much?"

Computers do cost a lot, but $1,000 for acomputer is a price that is artificially maintainedbecause enough people are willing to pay it. It ispossible to make a stripped-down version of a com-puter for $130. That is the price of Sony's 32-bitPlayStation, which is a video-game system, butvideo-game systems are nothing more than low-end computers.

Two schools in Salt Lake City, where I live,are testing a program in which students use SonyPlayStations connected to the TVs in their own

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homes. The sets are loaned, along with softwareCDs for math, English, and social studies, to thirdand fourth graders during the school year. Theproject's effects on learning are being tested by1,600 other students in 40 states.

Pamela Donaldson, a third-grade teacher,says, "This has extended the school day and learn-ing for students. They must use it [the program] atleast 20 minutes a night, but many play for hours.At this school, we have many students and parentswho do not speak English fluently. But they read itand enjoy using the PlayStations and CDs" (Bryson,1998).

Early results: Test scores in Eisenhower Ele-mentary in Mesa, Arizona, showed a 36 percentgain in math. At Lake Hazel Elementary in Merid-ian, Idaho, reading comprehension scores rose 13percent (Bryson, 1998).

Although the Sony PlayStation game sets arerelatively inexpensive, the software is not. Thirtysets of PlayStations, plus software and peripheralssuch as cables, connectors, and teacher-trainingmaterials, cost $30,000 in the school where Donald-son teaches. That puts the system far beyond thereach of most impoverished countries, even thoughvolume of production could cut the cost of thehardware to $100 per set.

Reaching Remote AreasYet for use in developing nations, these very

basic computers could get along without CD drivesand software. The only functions they would real-ly need are word processing and a hook-up to theInternet. Supposing a billion units could be man-ufactured for less than $100 a unit. A billion is agood number, because 1.2 billion children betweenthe ages of 6 and 11 inhabit planet Earth, and 10percent of them already have access to computers.That leaves about a billion who do not.

Half of those billion children have never evenmade a telephone call. So how can they possiblyconnect to the Net when there are no telephonelines where they live? The answer: The Net canreach them via satellite. One small satellite dishper village would handle that. At present, thosedishes are selling for around $100.

What about the villages in Ethiopia or thePeruvian Andes or Nepal, which do not have elec-tricity? Answer: Computers can work on batteries,

the way my laptop does. One small gasoline-pow-ered generator per village, or even better, one solar-powered generator or a wind turbine, could rechargebatteries. It is possible to do all this right now.

But what if it could be done without batter-ies? Well, it looks as if that might be possible. In1993, an Englishman named Trevor Baylis had anidea. He had been watching a program about AIDSspreading rapidly in Africa because the people therenever get any information about how to prevent it.Why not, he thought, make a wind-up radio thatdoes not need batteries to run it? The technologyis not new—I remember playing with an old wind-up Victrola as a child.

Baylis had a vision that this technology couldbe used to broadcast information to the most re-mote, impoverished areas. He got financial back-ing, manufactured the radios, and they work like acharm (Eco-Sustainable, 1998). When I spoke at aNational Science Teachers Association conference,I tried out one of the wind-up radios on display inthe exhibit hall. It played just as well as any otherradio. You can hook a flashlight into a connectorin the radio and get light, too.

Then, in the summer of 1997 at an educationconference in Botswana, Baylis had another, evenmore revolutionary idea (Bowers, 1997). He pluggedan Apple eMate 300 laptop computer into a jack inthe back of one of his wind-up radios, and the com-puter ran for 13 minutes before it crashed. Baylis andApple Computer Inc. conferred about creating a wind-up eMate 300 computer that would not need batteriesto run, but nothing came of it. In fact, Apple recentlystopped manufacturing the low-cost eMate 300. Still,the technology is feasible: to crank a handle that windsa spring that turns a shaft connected to a small gener-ator that will power a computer. If this technologyever gets successfully designed and marketed, it wouldbe a godsend for emerging nations with limited elec-trical power.

Near the equator, developing nations are eagerto get solar energy to remote villages, even though itcosts a lot right now to do that. They have found thatputting lights and electricity into the poorest homeshas a way of reducing runaway population growth.

Wayne Gould of Southern California Edisonsays, "If they can put a light in the hut, they realize a12 percent reduction in the birthrate right off thebat. If they can put a television or radio in the hut

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in addition to the light, they can get another 8percent reduction in the birthrate" (O'Brien, 1997,p. Bl). He does not have statistics for computers,but we have all heard stories about people stayingup all night just to chat on the Internet.

What about the language barrier? That is thetoughest problem. Researchers are working ontranslator software programs, but it is a tremen-dous undertaking, considering the number of lan-guages spoken in the developing world.

An even more difficult problem involves thepolitically repressive governments that do not wanttheir citizens to be influenced by the outside world.A government that requires a woman to cover her-self from head to toe when she ventures out of herhouse is not likely to let a schoolgirl access anInternet site that promotes women's equality. Thegovernments of China, Singapore, and the Philip-pines already restrict access to the Net. They donot forbid it, but they restrict it, in order to controlglobal impact on their local cultures.

Gates (1999) says: "The increasing speed andflow of information has opened up closed econo-mies and helped democratize the most repressiveregimes. You can close geographic borders but youcan't build effective borders in cyberspace. So tech-nology is giving people more freedom, and thepower to do more with that freedom" (p. 78).

Empowering ChildrenIs global impact a threat to indigenous cul-

tures? Yes. But at the same time, it is a chance toprovide two-way communication between children.Two-way means that children in the poor, isolatedvillages can send us information about their cul-tures. As they record, save, and share their tribalstories, they build pride in who they are.

Bringing computers to children who live intechnologically isolated places has many other ad-vantages. What could the children of the world dowith the technology if it were to actually reachthem? Well, I imagine that first they would go onan orgy of game playing. Soon they would be mo-tivated to learn to read and write so they couldfollow the game clues to become better players.

When children play computer games, theybegin to learn the patterns of the way problems aresolved. They get immediate payback: Push the rightbutton and a visible result appears, instantly! They

improve their skills through games, and then theyunconsciously transfer these problem-solving pat-terns to other computer applications. Unlike grown-ups, who have to think out problems from theground up when they use computers, children in-stinctively stumble onto solutions.

Those of us who have children or grandchil-dren who look over our shoulders while we workat computers have undoubtedly experienced this:You sit there scratching your head, wondering ifyou need to get out the manual, and the child reach-es over and punches a key. And it works! Certain-ly that has happened to me. It is not that childrenunderstand computers all that much; they just rec-ognize the road signs more easily because they arenot intimidated by keyboards and screens or joy-sticks and mice—electronic or real.

The United Nations Development Programreleased a report that said, "Mass poverty is thegravest human tragedy of our time" (Speth, 1997,p. A8). To combat it, the report said, governmentsneed to expand economic, social, and political as-sets; combat gender inequality; and give poor peoplemore of a public voice. What better way to find apublic voice than through the World Wide Web?

Consider this possible future scenario: Whenimpoverished, disadvantaged children all over theworld grow more and more empowered by the com-puter skills they acquire, they will look around themand clearly see what is wrong with their real-lifesurroundings. Now they have the tools to find outwhat can be done about these real-life problems,because they can reach millions of people on theWorld Wide Web who will gladly offer guidance,and who will lead them toward solutions. As the chil-dren grow up, becoming better and better informed,they will learn how to improve their surroundings,e.g., they will learn to build chimneys in huts that aresmoke-filled from unvented cooking fires, purifydrinking water, fight infectious diseases, increase cropyields, prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Toward LiteracyBut getting connected electronically is not an

end in itself. It is a means to an end of something farmore important—literacy.

Esther Dyson (1997), who has created a bookand an electronic newsletter about digital commu-nication, asserts:

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What impact will [multimedia] have on how wethink? Optimists . . . trust that children can learn bythemselves [through multimedia], exploring the ge-ography of Africa one day and the wonders of bio-chemistry the next. . . . Instead of dry words, [theysee] images, videos, references to Websites, evenreal-time video. . . .

[But] do you want an enjoyable experience thatflows through your head, or . . . something moreinteractive in the truest sense of the word—that is, abook. . . . that makes you think. (Dyson, 1997)

We need to start thinking about how and whywe can strive to lead poor and isolated childrentoward literacy through technology. What we en-vision today may be altogether different from whateventually happens, yet the vision serves as an ar-row, pointing us toward the road where we can atleast make a start. Digital communication is still adeveloping process; we can veer off the road inany direction that looks promising. The destina-tion would always be the same—literacy.

For me, speaking as both an author and alover of communications technology, there has nev-er been any suggestion of abandoning printed booksin favor of digital communication. After all, I makemy living writing books. I believe, though, thatwhat would be most valuable would be to combinethe best features of digital communication with thebest features of paper-and-print books.

The data/information/knowledge revolution willkeep happening, whether we join it or not. Why notdirect it toward literacy for children everywhere?

Note: Gloria Skurzynski welcomes e-mail at skurz@ix.netcom.com. Her web site is http://redhawknorth.com/gloria

ReferencesBowers, S. (1997, August 6). Clock idea is chip off the

old block. The Guardian. Retrieved December 18,1998 from the World Wide Web: http://online.guardian.co.uk/archive.html

Bryson, R. (1998, August 10). Video games help kidsdo homework. The Salt Lake Tribune, p. D1.

CNN Future Watch. (1997, April 6). Future Watch takesa look at the latest technological news in ourchanging world. Retrieved April 8, 1997 from theWorld Wide Web: http://cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/9704/06/fw.00.html

Dyson, E. (1997). RELEASE 2.0: A design for living inthe digital age. Chapter 4: Education. RetrievedDecember 18, 1998 from the World Wide Web:http://www.Release2-0.com/inside_the_book/971027_excerpt.html

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ber 18, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://www.2b1.org/Mission.html

O'Brien, J. (1997, October 9). Solar energy as birthcontrol. The Salt Lake Tribune, p. B1.

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Speth, J. (1997, June 13). U.N. agency spells out planto wipe out poverty. The Salt Lake Tribune, p. A8.

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