'Candy Tuft' by Hannah Polleck, Age 11I am always amazed at the pace of technology and curious how the next generation relates to the ever-increasing pace. I am a gadget girl - CNET is one of my favorite websites and I get a kick out of reading all the reviews and comparing before I settle on buying something. However, I can remember, albeit vaguely, life without internet or cell phones. This is giving away my age but in my 20's I lived in England and cell phones and texting broke there before coming to the states. I remember the plethora of people on cell phones being so foreign to me. It was if this was a new species, communicating in a technological way. That and I thought one out of five people were crazy because they were talking to themselves, or they seemed to be, while briskly walking towards Oxford Circus.
For the next generation, cell phones, computers, and digital cameras are something they have always known. While I had to get to know how to use the technology as it was developed, they have been introduced to it already molded and they are incredibly comfortable using it. This became readily clear to me coordinating the California in Your Backyard Youth Photo Contest. The creators of this contest and subsequent exhibit designers decided to only take digital entries. Thus only digital cameras were used and it was less of a deterrent that I surmised. We were even able to get a donation of digital cameras to a classroom of students in the area. Not only are permanent digital cameras readily accessible, now disposable cameras come with the option for digital images rather than film. For the class, we were able to get children-friendly digital cameras they could re-use.
The work of all those who entered the contest was impressive. The judges were blown away by the level of detail and sharpness of the pictures. Some entries rivaled the quality of professionals shooting with film. Half of the equation of this high quality was of course the digital medium but I believe the other part children's innate ability to immerse themselves in a state of wonder and curiosity. Images were up close and imaginative. There was a great sense of play in the 150 submissions that were received.
Only twenty-five of the images were chosen to be displayed in the Children's Gallery of California Academy of Sciences. Winners were announced on August 1st, 2008 and they received cash prizes as an award. However, the judges were so impressed by the level of work, the decision was made that all the submissions should have a chance to be displayed. So through the grace of technology, an online gallery was created, housing all the work submitted in the contest. You can browse through the images at www.calacademy.org/gallery.
Working on this project has given me a new sense of wonder about technology. As the museum is being built, multi-media and technology is being incorporated into the space to better relate relevant material to the public. It is an ever-changing medium but one that can bring up to the minute data. I am very curious how the next generation will take this information and technology and run with it and what they will create for future generations.