Of surprise when teaching IT to the young kids in the 21st century

I do love « IT » even in my personal life. So far that I did accept to teach my oldest boy (10 years old) class on a Saturday.

I was ready for a 386 computer for twelve kids , a crappy MS Dos and children only ready to play with it…as we dealy hear that public schools are so poor. I was so wrong.

They had a Dell Computer for two kids and all of them networked to a laser printer ! So 12 computers whith flat panel screen running the very last MS Windows XP.

Then I discovered that children had to follow a very strict program : being able to correct a poem , colorize it , and then print it. Teacher was only there for spelling correction ! They were working with the very last Open Office writer !

I was thinking of the billions that companies’re still paying for MS Word to write simple letters…

Then I saw most of the kids jumping, once poem printed -without any help- on the fantastic Google Earth tool and sharing all together they summer vacation localization… still without any help ;-)

Here are the future generations : how’ll they fit in companies where internet access is prohibited and MS Word is still a standard tool for daily work ?

PS last night I had to help a father with a 12 years old girl blogging ! That achieved me !!...