The kids are all right

I had the great opportunity just a few days ago to speak with a room full of 11-15 old kids as part of career service offered by my local secondary school. The idea here is that the school invites speakers from a range of backgrounds and professions to help give the kids some insight into the opportunities that lie ahead. I was guinea pig for a fuller programme in 2010. I like being a guniea pig . I was invited to speak about digital careers and futures. So with 23 kids in room where do you start?

So I thought I would ask them some questions . How many had mobile phones? 22 out of 23 and the 23 had just lost hers. How many were smart phones ? ( I held up a iphone as an example ) 7 out of 22 were some kind of smart device. Brand names? No iphones at all, mostly Samsung and LG , one Nokia.How many had heard of social sites? .We wrote a list Bebo, My space. Facebook, You Tube, Flickr , even Spotify were all mentioned and all had accounts on more than one. Also very popular was MSN ( for chat ) and Hotmail . No one mentioned or had an account with Twitter or GMail .What followed was fascinating QA session. Some samples...Do I need maths? My answer ? No but if you want to programme or do Comp Sci it will do no harm.Will you look my Business Case ( an 11 year old with a plan for a web hosting service . Yes. Which is the best games service? No idea.Coolest phone? Try iPhone or android device What was fascinating in all of this was the insight that the kids were no more or less technically proficient than any other age group. But they were keen on experimenting and had no technofear. Hand them a new device or game and they just go for it..Without instructions or a manual or indeed a corporate training programme . All in a sense got the idea that emergence, imagination , experimentation was a routine methodology. How different I thought to many adults and groups and companies overly obsessed by ROI and Business cases for anything new. All quite happy to waste tonnes of money and risk on the old ways and old tech though. Something not quite right there . What happens after 18 then!