“Technology is good and it can help our lives, but let’s not be fooled into thinking we can live without nature,” said Kahn. “We are losing direct experiences with nature. Instead, more and more we’re experiencing nature represented technologically through television and other media. Children grow up watching Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, playing with robotic pets, and taking virtual tours of the Grand Canyon on their computers. That’s probably better than nothing. But as a species we need interaction with actual nature for our physical and psychological well-being.”

Freier also noted that the interactions and amount of time that children are spending with technologies, particularly the Internet, communication technologies, and video games, are forcing educators to redefine what they mean by learning processes and outcomes.

“As we worked to develop ideas for the special issue of the journal, important considerations when assessing the benefits of new technologies, especially those of a digital and virtual form that act as a go-between with the physical world, are the benchmarks to rely upon when establishing the benefits and harms,” Freier added. “Such benchmarks may include psychological and physiological effects experienced while using a form of technology.”

The Future Impact of Yesterday’s Technology

The journal also highlights the fact that visions of the future as portrayed through media and literature (such as science fiction) are one of the powerful drivers of technological environments. In the mid-1960s, for example, Gene Roddenberry, creator of the original Star Trek television series, saw the value of small, handheld mobile communication devices; thus the “flip” design of the crew’s Communicators seemingly influenced the design of the common cell phone we see in use today. Also, the android character Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation shows us how fragile our own self-identity is when we look into the eyes of a man-machine and see our own reflection. And perhaps, the woman-machine in the classic Metropolis reflects our deep-seated nightmares of a future gone wrong.

Freier noted that we also see this tension play out in Asimov’s iRobot series of short stories in which robots are intentionally designed to benefit humanity, but all too often the robots (and humans, ironically) fall victim to their own immense complexity.

“It is obvious that today’s children are coming of age in yesterday’s science fiction future,” Freier said. “Children today know no other way of being, no other way of existing in the world. Our faith in the benefits of those who play a significant role in shaping our technological force is often balanced with the fears of the unknown and uncontrollable sinister force embedded within the technologies, often unbeknownst to the designers themselves.

“This process of balance — which leads to children’s intellectual, social, and moral development — will be, and already is, strongly shaped by the technological environments children inhabit,” he added. “Thus we need to design our technological environments wisely.”

To view the publication, visit http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/19_1/.