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Information equity and the digital divide: Dane Dell, Dir. of Info Systems, Onondaga Public Library
34 Plays1 year ago
Dane Dell G'11 G'17 is the Director of Information Systems for the Onondaga Public Library system, and holds a graduate and doctoral degree from the iSchool. In addition to his professional role, Dane has taught at the iSchool. He joins us in this episode to discuss information literacy and access to information, and the role libraries play in digital inclusion and equity.
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Transcript
Introduction to Dane Dell and Role in Library System
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Hello friends and welcome to another episode of Infovercity, coming you live from the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. Our guest today is Dane Dell. Hi Dane. Hey, how are you doing? Director of Information Systems for the Anabaga County Public Library System. Dane oversees the enterprise library information systems for 32 libraries in Anabaga County. He holds a master's degree in information management and a PhD in information science and technology from Syracuse University. For his current role, he earned a bachelor's degree in information technology and psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has taught technology courses here at the iSchool. Dane's a firm believer that the digital divide is both a technological and social justice issue and is committed to enhancing computer literacy and providing equitable access to information and communication technologies in impoverished communities.
The Role of Libraries in Community and Public Service
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Welcome, Dane. Thanks for having me.
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and So, can we get started? so ask you a couple questions to start You grew up in the drops, you love technology at a young age. What about technology did you like and did you ever manage it and you would be where you are today in a library? You know, and I never saw myself in the library. um yeah This funny thing is that I think like libraries in general, um once I got past a certain age, I saw libraries as a place you go to when you're on campus or when you're at school and you go and study.
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um and I kind of forgot about the um the community aspect of it and not until getting back into libraries as a profession um did I really sort of regain that perspective of how important libraries are to
Dane's Technological Journey and Library Influence
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communities. So um I'm happy I'm here. um but I did always think of myself as working in and civil service and in government. and you know our Our library system is part of our county government, so um you know I feel like I landed in a ah place where I kind of wanted to be. so um ah Technology growing up, I think, for me meant
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being able to do things that I, but in ah in an easier way. So um instead of, I remember having typewriters and I remember how much better the experience was when we started using a computer when I had a in-home computer. And I've always been able to go to um houses of other family members or friends and use computers there. but never had it in my own home. So it was like, ah you know, I was really happy when I was able to do that for myself and my family was able to kind of make give me that that opportunity. um But, you know, things like little things like printing, little things like
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you know, making cards for you know my my mom on Mother's Day. yeah You know,
Impact of Library Technology on Patrons
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little things like that. being I really started appreciating the ability to do stuff like that using computer programs and then accessing information over the internet, communing communicating with friends over the internet. that I mean, that was just it was just all just very cool to me. so That's the best part about computers is they're like a creative tool, right? Yeah. Such a creative tool. Yeah, exactly. Makes it fun, makes it interesting. um Yeah, that's actually what I like most about it. People think I'm just like some weirdo that likes to code all the time. but It's like, I find it in a tremendously creative outlet at times. It is. Yeah, it it it is. you You know, there's so much to do with with computers. um Once you have information, once you know what you're doing with it, it's like, you know, the possibilities are endless. So that's one of the
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coolest things about technology. and
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So you work as a technology director and you are sort of inward facing. You're not in front of patrons, right? So how do you feel that the work that you do impacts their lives? Yeah, um I think something I think pride in one is that at the work myself my and um our team um that work in our department do is is that we make we hopefully make the work that librarians do um a lot easier. So you know providing providing productivity tools. um
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you know
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In terms of the public facing stuff, um the ability to access our catalog online, um finding materials and things they want to read or research materials, um the digital databases that we provide, um all that stuff. ah all all the information resources we can provide online, um and then also the access to the internet through our public access computers, through our Wi-Fi. Those are all ways that I feel, you know, art the work I do, the work our team does is able to kind of impact the positively impact the community.
Misconceptions and Opportunities in Library IT
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What do you think the biggest misconception is about your work?
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um I don't know. I'm not sure what people think. I do. but Maybe that's a misconception. is i' like What does he do? exactly right and yeah Maybe it's it's not not quite clear, but um for me, in terms of what I do, I i you know supervise the activities of our of our IT operations team. It goes from help desk to port to you know um database work with our with our enterprise system. it's It's looking for new opportunities to create new digital services, um dealing with vendors, interacting with our county IT department, yeah you know managing a federal reimbursement program, like use um or the-rate program, which allows us to to fund a lot of our
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broadband services. so um you know it's it it goes It changes every day and it's there's just different projects every day, but you know it's it's it's fun.
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It's always interesting to try to take what you do and distill it into a sense. My mom still doesn't know what I do. yeah and i've i've I've been working for 20 something, 30 something years and she has no idea what I do. yeah i think I think my family, they know I work in libraries, they know I work with technology, but they probably think I'm, I don't know, fixing computers all day or something. Yeah, you probably get what I get. You go to Thanksgiving at a relative's house and next' you know you're like uninstalling malware or something like that. Fixing a router. Fixing someone's phone. yeah Fixing their phone, right? Why does my phone turn on? it's like Because you need to power it. Yeah, exactly.
Addressing the Digital Divide and Inclusion
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um Speaking of, let's talk digital divide. um What do you want people to to know about the digital divide from your perspective?
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um
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The digital vibe, you know, that's that a classic like haves and have nots, the haves and have not ah story with when it comes to technology. But really, and I guess more modern time, we talk about it in terms of digital inclusion. And I think, you know, what everyone needs to remember, not just from, um you know, we we think about technology as consumers, right, we think about, you know, what's the what's the next best app we're going to use, we think about social media, we think about you know, all these things. And if we're in education, in our educational, we're trying to become, you know, developers, we're trying to become network administrators and this and that. You know, I think if we can all think about the fact that what we do is going to provide some sort of good or service to people, um that there are those that
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for a variety of reasons are excluded from that. And that could be their socioeconomic background. That could be lack of, lack of skills, lack of knowledge. um lack of infrastructure and in some areas. And so I think there are things that we take for granted as far as like who has access to what. um And so I think you you know if we're if you're a developer, I want you to think more about, you know hey, is what i'm is is there a way that I can create this product in a way that people with different ability levels can still use it? um Is there a way that I might be able to make different
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iterations of this product where I might be able to provide the same service at a tiered level where it's affordable for um certain people who could take it ah you know take advantage of the product. so and i And you can you know take that same scheme across a lot of different um you know, portions of technology and and still end up in the same in the same place. Like there's some people who will want access and need access to this and may not even really realize how important it is to them. So it's it's just a, I think it's ah it's a composite of different components that that can
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You know, when you when you look at all of them as as ah as a whole, it it all creates that digital inclusion discussion that we're they were leaning into.
Library Initiatives for Digital Access
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I think you hit the nail on the head when you're talking about inclusivity as part of the digital divide. Many of us think of it in terms of like it's a physical, you know, I don't have internet access, but it really goes well beyond that. Yeah. um And I love your perspective on there's many different facets of it, right? It could be that someone is building a system that isn't easy for another person to use versus just not having physical access to the
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networks or computers necessary, right? There's lots of different ways that you sort of need to think about it, right? So from your perspective, what specific steps are you taking to help bridge that gap?
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um I think it's the it's the projects we we do at the library. So for example, um we have the hotspot lending program. um you know These are projects that are kind of near and dear to my heart um because it's you know, when you when you see someone who, first of all, we we we provide access to those who don't have it at home, right? so But we don't we're not open 24 hours a day, right? So if you're not able to get to the library because you don't have a, because your your work schedule doesn't allow it, and maybe you can't bring your child into into the library to take advantage of those computer resources or or the internet or the Wi-Fi available,
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Being able to take a computer device at home from the library, take it into your home, borrow it for up to three weeks, along with a hotspot that would support you know up to 12 devices. I mean, that's a ah huge ah huge deal. And I think a lot of people appreciate being able to use it um and and to you know the things they could do with it, whether it's homework, whether it's applying for jobs, or or any other, communicating with family even. We have a lot of, in our community, we have a lot of refugees who, and we have a lot of people from all over the world who have family in places that, you know, they may or may not have direct connection with. So being able to provide like a communication platform is is also a really neat thing. Yeah, I can i can see that for sure.
Social Justice and Internet Access
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um there's a There's a issue with this with the divide, right? And that it creates social injustices. And can you talk a little bit about why why making internet affordable would be helpful to mitigate that? You and I talked about this before we turned the mic on, right? yeah Yeah, I mean, it's the services that you get, right? So, um you know, someone who has you A really slow, creepy service is not able to interact with some of the you know the programs um available online that you might be able to with. You might you might just give up doing certain things because you know a page is loading too slow or everything you type in is taking a million years to show up.
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um or, you know, things that you're trying to submit are, you know, it's just creeping and loading. So the quality of service that you might be able to get is, is you know, because of the different tiered services um is is a problem. um And not being able to afford a certain level of internet or no internet at all um to be able to do some of those things is is a problem. So I think that's where you get the affordable, afford wax, it's not just afford wax, but you know, being able to afford access that is like actual decent quality service is a is a problem. So if you look where things are trending, it's like what can you do without a smartphone? Right. Um, you know,
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A lot of people might lean into the idea that so many people have smartphones, um but that's, I mean, working in the library, you see that not everyone does. It's not a not a thing. But even if you do, there are certain things you can't do on a smartphone, right? Like you don't really want to write an essay on a smartphone, right? You don't want to, if you're doing some kind of, I mean, even some applications are not necessarily mobile friendly, so you don't want to You know, but me personally, i I prefer to do a lot of things mostly on my laptop because I, you know, you just get frustrated trying to, you know, fill in different forms on, you know, on your mobile devices, you know, just makes it for you can do it. But you know,
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I mean, I think when you can spend less time doing it and get on to other things that you may need to do in your day, in your night, people are busy, you know, people have, yeah you know, I know having two kids, like, you know, if you if you're gonna go to work and then come home. And have to spend time, you know, a whole lot of time because you you're trying to get that next job and trying to take that next jump in your um in your economic status. You know, it's wasting time with slow technology or, you know, ineffective technology just is not what you want to do. Okay, there's so many facets to that. There's
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You know, we talked about the infrastructure, right? We also talked about, you know, and you you and I both kind of agree that, you know, the internet should be available to everybody. You know, it it could come to cost, but it needs to be affordable. um And then there's also the the platforms, like do you have a laptop versus do you have a smartphone? and What can you do on a smartphone? but What can you do on a laptop? But then there's also the literacy side of it, right? there's a you know you and I can probably take our hotspot, take our phone, turn it into a hotspot and get our laptop on the internet. right That's not for everybody. right right So there's like there's many facets to this. right So that being said, what do you think are the biggest, like what are the low hanging fruit and maybe like the biggest barriers that you have in this area? What's the easiest thing? And then what's like kind of the hardest thing?
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Yeah, it's it's a constantly shifting. um I guess you kind of feel like you're chasing your tail a little bit sometimes because you know technology advancement is really good. But when you think about devices, right as you grow into new advancements, for example, let's let's let's use 5G, for example. like Having a 5G network in theory is great. Do you have devices that can take advantage of that? I don't know. you You may not, right? So there's that. So that's that's like the device piece of it. And then let's say you do have it, but you don't know what to do with it. You don't know how to use it. you know that's the you know That's the literacy piece of it.
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And then you know if you want to take it more back to the fundamental part of it, this 5G is available. OK, there's devices that support it. Can you afford any of those things? yeah So it's yeah you're constantly chasing these things. And when you talk about barriers, though, um I think we've made a lot of improvement in terms of like getting the government the federal government to be interested in this problem. And so we've seen a lot of lot of grants come out. you know You know, huge investments. I think the federal government in 2021 made a like a over $2 billion dollar investment into um digital inclusion initiatives. um So, and we've been able to see local governments like Onondaga County, so you know, the city of Syracuse take advantage.
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by you know offering sort of more you know affordable broadband programs um that would extend broadband into areas that don't have it or don't have affordable access to it. So you know I think those things are coming along, but we still have a huge problem when it comes to um different populations being having the capacity to use these devices and literacy that comes with it. It makes a lot of sense.
Populations Needing Digital Access
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So um what what groups of people do you feel need the most?
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help right now in terms of access? is Is it maybe age or another demographic that you see that is most impacted by this? It's probably a few, to be honest. Yeah. it just definitely you know and it's you know In each community, you really want to do like a needs assessment yeah um where you can really get get an idea of what it is your community needs. So it's going to be different based on where you go. But I mean, in general, yeah, I think the aging population is definitely a vulnerable population. um I mean, and even locally, we we hear a lot a lot of requests by the um the aging population that they would like more computer classes available. like you know more like i mean they some people might think or some people Some people are afraid to use new technologies or just don't want to be bothered with it at all. but
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there are there is a lot of interest there, right? Because it I think a lot of people realize this is way i this is a way I can connect with my younger family members or this is a way that I can do certain things and still participate in in government, still participate in other community initiatives. So um I think i think you know that's a... a That's a vulnerable ah population, but then also anyone who's considered to be low income is definitely always going to be ah a population to to focus in on. um what What is working well right now?
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um I think what i what I mentioned before, that the the government, the federal government is is really taking notice and really putting a lot of investment towards digital inclusion initiatives. And and again, we we're, you know, with things like syrru with the Syracuse surge, their surge link ah broadband program, and then Onondaga County committing working with Verizon to extend broadband infrastructure into rural areas. yeah um though I think those are some some good strong examples of of things that are going right.
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moving things in the right direction. I think 5G has a lot of potential. It's going to take a while. And I think i feel like the city of Syracuse with JMA being here and might be a more early adopter of getting more prevalent 5G into neighborhoods. yeah i think there I think that there's there's some maybe some good synergies there. I don't know what they have going on. Do you know anything that they may or may not be doing? um Not not namely, but um i I do. And we we did hear initiatives taking place, especially on a city level to um to create the infrastructure that would allow, you know, the 5G network to thrive in the community.
Future of Connectivity and Infrastructure Challenges
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um The library itself, we we have we actually are preparing to release new 5G hotspots um that will be available for for lending. So that will allow you know people who don't have 5G phones or other devices to at least try to take advantage of that. yeah I think of like my own neighborhood and there's a lot. like If I look through the Wi-Fi in my neighborhood, there's like an excessive saturation. I don't know what the neighborhood is. There's like an excessive saturation of Wi-Fi. Getting a lot of interference. Yeah. It seems like so wasteful. and like you know There should be more of a community Wi-Fi where we all pitch in. and
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yeah we're saying We said we'd probably upset the service providers. It's interesting you say that. yeah them are our our Our library network engineer talks about that a lot at some of our libraries. where you know Some of our libraries are posted in in communities where there's there are a lot of other competing devices you trying to soak up that that bandwidth. and yeah um you know i You tell me if you have a solution to that. but the the um The community Wi-Fi piece is is really interesting. I think i think more and more mu municipalities are looking into that. yeah Yeah, it seems like it would be. I mean, i ah from what I understand of Wi-Fi, it seems like it'd be fairly easy to to implement. There might be some
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weather oriented things that you might have to deal with right but other than that i mean it seems like you be able to put my utility poles and things like that right yeah you still gonna have to deal with some wire routing here and there and that's gonna work anyways or things like that this is where five g might help a lot as you can easily have you can imagine a. 5G gateway that you know is is using Wi-Fi. And then it it moves the Wi-Fi signal over to the 5G signal. right And then that could be a community Wi-Fi. And that can just sit on a pole and be powered. Yeah, I think people would love that. That that that would be a really interesting project.
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Yeah, I think people love that. And that maybe moves things more into um what we talked about with the utility, um the utility piece of of, you know, having access to internet, you know, it's like electricity or just like you mentioned, roads. Yeah. i mean and You need it. yeah The big issue before that is someone's got to run the cable, someone's got to run the fiber, whatever it is. think and If you can um find a way around that, it does it does lower the barrier to entry quite a bit. yeah When you talk about barriers, i mean that's precisely it. right One of the barriers was you know how do um some of our big ISPs ah reconcile with the idea of making
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service is more affordable um because because it's such an important need, you know but they're in it for you know, their own profits, right? So, you know, those things don't always play well together. i And none of that money you were talking about earlier goes to them, right? That's not the how those programs work, right? Which is sort of where, like, if government were more involved in the and the internet infrastructure, it would, right? Yeah. And that's sort of where, like, you know, it's kind of like a toll road, right? Yes, exactly. It's like we don't privatize our toll roads. Right. It's the same idea. Yes, it's exactly. Right. Yeah.
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and's ah I think i think you know probably more and more you'll start to have those same kind of conversations when it comes to even things like like AI. and um i mean you know We'll see where it goes.
Technology's Role in Daily Life and Inclusivity
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You can see that but in a lot of different things that um are going to end up being sort of foundational to what we to what we use every day. you know As you and I were talking about, it's like you can't apply for a job. right without a computer and the internet. You can certainly try to apply on a phone, but that's yeah not going to go well. yeah um And so like these certain like basic levels of rights to live you know um are sort of like now part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? You need food, shelter, water. In many in many ways, we need we need access. Yeah, it's it's a quality of life thing. yeah know it's it's yeah it's It's not going to be
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not going to You hope it never becomes a point where it's like live or die, but no but it it certainly feels like quality of life um is certainly impacted by that. um you know ah I shared a story before about just something, being being able to have a ah printer in my house just kind of cut so much time off of my off my schedule to you know be able to have access to that. you know or I mean, that's just one example. but you know not having to leave my house and go all the way to another location to do some research that would help me with my homework. I mean, that's that's huge. time is Time is money, but time is also you know such an important piece of you know what you do with your day and and your and and your um and how you how you live. so I think we need to do better as a society just thinking about
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ways we ask people to use technology, especially in education. you know I've seen it with my own kids when they were younger and you know there's like an exercise that requires the use of a computer, but at home we had one computer and there's two people that have to fight over that one computer. There's probably families that have three or four. Kids that need to fight over that one computer. um I also had ah a story of my son where he had to do an activity where everybody in the class had to take out a smartphone and he was the only person in sixth grade that didn't have a smartphone. Me and two other people. yeah And he came home in tears and you know I was like, this is why you can't do those kinds of things. right It does bring up a really good point though that we
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When we're designing things, we need to make sure that we think of everybody. Not just, well, most people are going to have a smartphone. Most isn't enough. When you think about, you used to be able to call a cab or call a bus and now everything's moving. Cabs are going away because of Uber and things like that. It's like people that don't have a smartphone and they need to get robbed. Right. Those things are, we need to start thinking more about those things. Yeah. Be more mindful in the types of technologies that we create. Right. For sure. Exactly. I mean, you know, even things like, you know, getting alerts when there's some kind of disaster that makes a strike.
Raising Children in a Tech-Driven World
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I mean, you know,
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That's that could be the difference between life and death for someone right so yeah having being able to get good cellular You know cellular service even this is it's just like it's important. Yeah things like that. So Yeah, like, you know over the air TV and over the air radio. Those are all you know They're still around, right but they're not as prevalent as they once were. And it does raise a concerning effort is will we ever reach a point where the only way you can get anything is to first have internet access and then that becomes a huge barrier to a lot of people. Yeah, I think people do take that for granted. I think people do assume that everyone has it. It's a pretty dangerous assumption.
00:27:49
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Sorry to go off on the tangent, but it's great to talk to you about these things. So you're from Jamaica. You grew up in the Bronx. How did your childhood shape your beliefs about technology and why technology is important? I think when you don't have access to a resource, other than being able to, let's say, go to a library, awesome and you see others that do, I think you you start to realize like, oh, okay. Like, you know, you mentioned your son, not being, being the one who didn't have that, that smartphone. I mean, it's it's, it's not as that, not another privilege as that. So yeah, that's, yeah um you're beginning that smartphone by the way.
00:28:30
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I felt really bad. It took another year before you got it, but you didn't get it. well And being blessed to be able to do that is totally another thing, right? so yeah um you know But I think you know when you realize, oh, how much easier my life could be with certain things, it it sort of kind of puts that, embeds that that principle in your head, like, oh, this is ah this important. And it's important to to get people to start thinking about this when it comes to, you know, the haves and have-nots and, you know, those those gaps that start to to grow as technology grows in its and there's different phases. So I have kids, you have two young kids, right? Yeah. So my kids are probably a lot older than yours.
00:29:21
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what I have a lot of questions, but like, what what role does the technology play in your kids lives? Right? Let's start there. And then I'll i'll move on. Well, right right now they Right now they know a lot about you know mobile devices, um particularly YouTube and and Netflix. and of course you know So they they're their favorites. um My daughter is two and my son is five. and um i mean My daughter, she she knows what she's doing on iPad. and you know my My son, he he knew very early what what he was doing on an iPad.
00:29:55
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um so it's I lead them more towards the educational content. um And so for them, it is a way that they can sort of be entertained, but it's also I try to make sure that um it's a way that they can, you know, get some education, a different format of education, something else that they're outside what they're doing in school or in or in daycare. or when they come to the library and play with you know all the different cool ah gadgets and and and toys that are available in the libraries, but it's it's it's just ah it's just a different piece. so they i think a feel like I don't think they even realize what they're doing when they're doing it, but yeah for me, I've seen
00:30:44
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Adults who can't really interact with with those devices in in the in the same way, is like it's it's amazing to me to see how how quickly they picked up on it. I have some theories on that, which I probably should read literature on. Yeah, but I mean, you know, it's one of those things where I see that as well, with like my older parents, and then when my kids are growing up and you could give them a tablet and they figure out the tablet, right? Right. I think a lot of it is like somewhere along the line, we lose our inquisitiveness. And we have an expectation for how something should work. Yeah, and we can't break the mold of this is how we think it should work. And it doesn't work that way. And we're just
00:31:17
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We're just frustrated. I mean that same piece too is like, you know, some technologies you you build them off of. you know, things that people already are familiar with, right? Yeah. So you would think as you get older, and you know, you start to see, you know, fastest of that in the technology, maybe it will sort of the connections will be there. But these are, um these kids are are, you know, from they've they've got nobody of knowledge to, yeah, to pull on. So they're just kind of like, they're just watching, observing, and then just mimicking and, you know, they're doing so successfully. I don't know why. And experimenting too. They're like, they grab or they squeeze or they pull or they push and they say, Oh, that's what that does, right? Yeah. So it's, it's kind of, it's kind of interesting or anything about it. Yeah.
00:32:04
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So what's your feeling on like this i got my kids started in technology kind of early my neither of my um two sons are on technologists like the like dad the wife i just work fix a life right now i wish they got more involved in it like that i just didn't have an interest in our interest right right on but. How much do you allow your children to use technology to just sort of like, you know mentioned YouTube, right? So you're letting your your child your children like go on YouTube, look at things on YouTube. you know That's kind of how I was doing it too. I was blocking certain things, of course. um But I was always a firm believer in letting them like sort of experiment a little bit and understand what their boundaries should be you know rather than me imposing those boundaries on it. I'm just curious as to your take on consumption versus you know creativity, because you and I were talking about creativity earlier, right? Yeah. i on
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Speaker
i think like like what you do it I like to watch i just like to watch them and see what they do and and then put those boundaries in place where they need to be. But I find that they kind of they know what they they know what they like and they tend to stick in that in that in that narrow space. um Once in a while they might come across something that's different and that they find interesting and that's ah that's a ah kind of a fascinating thing for me too to watch and see what becomes interesting to them. um
00:33:37
Speaker
But I like to watch as like my son, he got to play like ABC mouse in the library and, you know, seeing him interact with that and seeing him, you know, he was I mean, for having not used a mouse before he was, you know, surprisingly really good at it. and So um it's just It's just fun to watch them do that that stuff. and i i like I like the creativity part. I like i guess I can leave the creativity piece outside of that with you know with their blocks and with their... Yeah. Because they're they're so early in age right now. Right. Yeah. so they they I think they express their creativity in those ways, but I think eventually they'll learn how to kind of blend them and that would be interesting to watch too.
00:34:21
Speaker
yeah Who knows what technology technology technology will be like in 10 years too. Probably be able to do some really interesting creativity you know creative things like with easier 3D printing or more affordable 3D printing. yeah i'm sure Does the library have 3D printers? It does. yeah Our makerspace has 3D printers. and you know you could There's maker spaces in a few different libraries throughout the county that have that happen. Yeah, so the big question is like they're so young So how are you going? at How are you parenting in a way that fosters like like healthy use? of technology because you know it's like you know Okay your job was discovered something on youtube but did did The algorithm just you know, I mean right what you know This is the part of it that I kind of i find predatory because I think people who who put these this content together, they load them up with these ads and they load them up with these. and but you know My daughter now, she's just like she'll just click away. I think they know that, right? They know that. It's some amazing how quickly they pick up on this as an ad. I don't want to watch this. right
00:35:27
Speaker
skip it yeah know it's it's really something but i think on the other end someone is loving it because they're like oh they keep clicking this ad we' read so i can't i'm like they did this on purpose yeah you know so and they make these ads now they look like other cartoons oh yeah oh yeah oh You know, <unk> been there for a long time, because it's like a problem my kids are probably like 12, my youngest is probably 12 years old. I guess I'm i just noticing now just like, because I'm like, why do you keep clicking on that? But I'm like, oh, it's because because it looks like another like cartoon or cartoon you're familiar with that you want to, you want to watch. But it's, but in terms of being healthy, I think, you know, it's just a common thing is, you know, you try to limit
00:36:10
Speaker
um how much time they're they're spending. yeah um And, you know, making sure that they're still doing things like running around and, you know, playing with other objects in in their vicinity, and not so much just always being on the computer screen. But I, I'm i'm okay with them having some great time. And I'm not, and you know, I know some parents don't allow any at all. Yeah, you know, that's fine, too. But i Kind of I like it as more of just like my technology background. I just like to see them interact it with it and see what they do Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. I was always the same way, too It's like get out there and do something and you know how it is yeah you're being you growing up me growing up It's like you don't have anything i right two sticks and and having two out here the phone with two sticks Yeah yeah right exactly So it's it really is um
00:36:59
Speaker
you know it's It's fascinating, the the journey when they grow up, especially when you're involved in technology and you being a technologist, I think you're going to love it. I used to experiment on my kids all the time. I'm like, I'm going to give them a little bit of access to this and see where this goes. I'm like, well, that wasn't good. We're not doing that now. I'll give them something like... an access, like really early access to like, you know, I have like an old laptop. And I was like, all right, can they figure this out? Right. And with the eraser, remember that little yeah eraser thing? Yeah, and one of those old laptops, you know, privilege in having an extra laptop kicking around, right? And it's like, you know, they're you figuring out how to use that eraser, you know, and it's like, this is good, yeah because they got to learn different interactions. Well, I found my son Lexus is actually typing, just, you know,
00:37:46
Speaker
ah He knows how to write his name, and says, his but oh, well, I know how to spell my name on the with the keyboard. And I think he just likes to see that. He loves numbers. And so you know being able to kind of you know press those keys and see them come up on ah just a notepad. I've never spent extensive time on a notepad app yeah like this. but My youngest used to do that. He used to just sit there and type things in notepad, right and then erase them, and then type other things in notepad. He just thought it was the coolest thing. he's Awesome, yeah. and Okay, this is why I wanted to get to this point because I'm like are my kids weird or babies normal and who knows It's good either way. Yeah, it's fun journey and um it's it's
00:38:30
Speaker
It's nice to be blessed and be able to give them things like internet access or you know you can use my iPad because if I break it I can afford to get it another iPad or something. or right um you know that's always a It's a different perspective. ah it is yeah you know it does it does There is a challenge with technology and that is it doesn't age Ages very quickly. There's a lot of planned obsolescence in smartphones and things like that That's another thing that concerns me is like the affordability of this stuff for most people. It's like um You know for a family of four When you have you know, eventually your children are gonna need their own phones. I mean you're gonna see it's just like it's ridiculous Yeah, how expensive it gets and it's like, you know, I get it it
00:39:16
Speaker
Call somebody something but you know have we have to decide um if there's a better way to do this. Yeah, ah because it isn't accessible for everyone. It really isn't. Yeah. And that's, you know, going back to my comment about, you know, Technologists, whether you're a software developer or you're on the hardware side, you know thinking about how do we make these things still affordable or is every every technology has its own life cycle, right? So yeah you know even if you were fortunate to get the access to the device at one point, you know it it has its own lifespan. It will at some point need to be replaced.
00:39:53
Speaker
And, you know, now you're multiplying it by probably many, you know, two or three, if you have, you know, a couple of the people in your household that need to use the device too. So how do you make it so that it's, you know, it's affordable to do so and replace them when they need to. So that they just still use it. So it's it's, you know, that's that, you know, cat chasing his tail thing again. Yeah. The one piece of technology in our household that has outlived all others is the Wii.
Favorite Technologies and Learning Potential
00:40:20
Speaker
Every song that you put that thing out and play play with the Wii, they get on there and do Smash Brothers and I don't know some other games. I have mine ready to to unre plug it up and see. what like When my kids were little, they used to love playing bowling on that Wii. It's still a thing. it's like Nintendo was like just genius with that. umm you know Unbelievable. i'm gonna im good i brought i put I pulled it out with all the intents to hook it up, and I still haven't done it, but I'm planning this summer to to bring it up.
00:40:49
Speaker
They haven't used it yet. They haven't used it yet. I haven't seen it yet, so I'm i'm patiently waiting for it. so that let's ah Let's conclude with the talk with what is your favorite technology and why. um I mean, I guess I'd be in between video games. And I'm not a huge gamer. But growing up, it was just a big part of my life. So Super Mario World, and Mario Kart, and Mortal Kombat, and all these things. But then the games didn't end at some point. I'm like, the ones that my kids play. I don't know what kids are playing now. But then I started getting into sports games, and I'm a man, and it's OK, and all this.
00:41:32
Speaker
um and ah Other than that, I would say the the internet. yeah And it it's, there's a lot of fun to it, obviously, there's a huge entertainment factor. um But I think just to access the information, if you're someone who likes to learn, um and there's a lot of a lot of things to filter out, but you know I think when you you know when you know what you're looking for and you find what you're looking for and you know you're able to kind of learn new things and be exposed to new things, you know see places that you may not have been able to see for yourself with your own eyes or be in a location. it's i mean it's it's just a When you think about it, it's just a really cool thing. so I would say the internet.
00:42:14
Speaker
yeah i would I would agree with that. Well, it was it was a pleasure, Dane. I appreciate it. And this wraps up another Infroversity. Thank you very much. Thank you.