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I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

sethpurcell.com

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Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#321

Post by salamanderman »

aidenn0 wrote: post #295
CrazyStat wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I toured our neighborhood public elementary school a couple years ago. Almost every classroom we passed the kids were staring at their chromebooks, even in the art room—digital art, I guess [1]. In the music room the kids were sitting at rows of desks with electronic keyboards and headphones while the teacher sat at the front of the class and gave them instructions through a microphone (to be heard throug…

My son went to one of those chrombook-intensive public schools (though at least at the time they didn't start using them until 3rd grade; they start younger now). Any time he had the chromebook out, he just played webgames. Not an exaggeration, he would go back on task when the teacher corrected then switch tabs the moment the teacher was not looking over his shoulder. I told the teacher to take the chromebook away i…

I've heard parents say they "got a 504 and then had to pay a lawyer to enforce it" so many times. I just hate the idea of being forced into such an adversarial relationship with the school. In my life, any time we start talking about needing a 504 I think "we might as well just say screw it, because what good will come of this?" Like, in your story, I assume that while they complied, the way they interacted with your kid was tainted in some other from that point forward because your kid got them in trouble. Hopefully I'm wrong, but it's that kind of thing that I worry about for my own situation.

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#322

Post by sersi »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #187
CrazyStat wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I toured our neighborhood public elementary school a couple years ago. Almost every classroom we passed the kids were staring at their chromebooks, even in the art room—digital art, I guess [1]. In the music room the kids were sitting at rows of desks with electronic keyboards and headphones while the teacher sat at the front of the class and gave them instructions through a microphone (to be heard throug…

When my kid was going to start preschool, we went to see a relatively posh private school in the neighborhood. The first thing they showed was a photo of a 3-year-old kid solving a jigsaw puzzle in a big touchscreen. A jigsaw puzzle, you know, that thing where 80% of the challenge for a kid that age is physically inserting the pieces the right way. In a touchscreen! They also boasted about not having any books until…

No books before age 8 sounds like waldorf. They have this weird crazy belief that books shouldn't be introduced before the first adult teeth come out but at least they usually also shun digital in favor of more physical activities.

When we visited schools, we were also very surprised at how many schools encourage screen time. One of the most reputed school near us require each child to have an ipad at 6 years old. I'm completely against that. I see no value in introducing an addictive locked down device this early on. Instead, we chose a Montessori school that forbids electronic devices on campus except for the computing room where primary school children can go with a clear objective in mind (research, robotics project).

But, it was really surprising to me that that school is the exception and most highly ranked school have significantly more exposure to screens even at a very young age

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#323

Post by aucisson_masque »

Did the Author missed the note about digital age ? Society evolved since he was a kid.

His kid will also probably end up doomscrolling on TikTok and have the attention span of a gold fish.

That’s just how it is, you can’t change society and going against it is a tough fight.

I’d even say that the author contributed to it seeing his age and he works in tech.

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#324

Post by xg15 »

fxtentacle wrote: post #311
moi2388 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing funnier than tricking teens into liking math

Show them Red Faction (the video game) and then explain that all the destruction is calculated using binary space partitioning and that all they need for making similar games is to accurately calculate the intersection of planes, lines and points. Add a few linear forces and numerical integration and there you have your Trojan horse for getting kids hooked.

...and then hit them with the "Attention is all you need" paper!

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#325

Post by eloisant »

Certified wrote: post #220

Vindication! I’ve spent over a decade of my life putting physical interactives into museums. I have preached (sold) many museums on the stance that they should put unique experiences into museums that can’t happen on an iPad at home, to varying degrees of success. The museums that have listened are the ones that continue to be wildly successful to this day. They are hard to do right though. I used to compete in comba…

I think up until about 15 years ago, there was no such negativity against "screens", so it was genuinely seen as something modern to add them. With the added benefit of being more robust (no moving parts) and cheaper to change the content to keep it fresh.

Now that both adults and kids spend their days on screens, and are looking to limit their exposure, it suddenly makes less sense to have them in museums.

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#326

Post by thw_9a83c »

ryandrake wrote: post #216
kleiba wrote: post #94

There is an incredible pressure on a lot of public facing endeavors to include digital , no matter whether it makes any sense at all or not. Take education, for instance - if it weren't such an important topic, it would be almost comical to observe how our schools are trying to jump through hoops to cram more IT into the classroom. (I wish the people responsible would take a look at Scandinavia though, where they are…

I feel like half the products the tech industry comes out with aren't really useful, but they exist because of this performative trend-following. Competitor has a mobile app, we have to have a mobile app. Harvard business review says blockchain is big, we need to have blockchain. Our CEO's investor buddy said AI is the next big thing, we need to jam AI in or product.

This has been an increasing problem. People, companies, and organizations implement things not because they make sense or benefit someone. They do it because they need to follow the trend.

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#327

Post by 1718627440 »

efskap wrote: post #301
parpfish wrote: post #4

One of my longstanding peeves is that art museums are treated as serious places for grown-ups but science museums and zoos are treated as places for kids.

I mean as a kid, zoos are "wow cool, animals :)", while as an adult, you realize that they're basically prisons profiting off animal exploitation for entertainment

> they're basically prisons

Sure, a zoo can never simulate reality exactly, but they come pretty close now-a-days. Animals have several square kilometers to run and it's crazy how they are able to simulate different climates. A lot of animals now only exist in zoos since the natural environment now got inhabitable.

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#328

Post by shmeeed »

AndrewLiptak wrote: post #138
smj-edison wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit of a tangent, but has modern maker culture made it easier to make and maintain exhibits? Things like 3D printing, version control, Arduinos, etc. Thank you for all the work you do :)

It's situational. It's helpful to us that our executive director is a carpenter: he makes and fabricates a lot of things that end up in displays. As far as 3D printing, we haven't dabbled with it, but we have had folks come in to scan our objects, which is pretty cool. But we're also a small staff that doesn't have the time to really dig into the tech as much as we could.

I had to think of 3D printing immediately when you mentioned the human heart model: such things used to be incredibly expensive, but today any makerspace would be able to produce a respectable replica for pocket change or might even donate it for a mere mention. 3D data is often available under free CC license, e.g. https://www.printables.com/model/5612-anatomic-heart-multi-m...

Entry into this tech has become pretty cheap (a few hundred bucks for an entry level printer) and much more accessible in recent years. Maybe a volunteer/intern could help set you up.

Edit: NVM, I only just realised that was probably a _walk-in sized_ heart you're talking about. That's probably not gonna get cheap to produce anytime soon...

Re: I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

#329

Post by jillesvangurp »

rs186 wrote: post #63

My biggest gripe is that art museums, especially modern art museums, play documentary/clips from documentary that last anywhere from 2 minutes to 30 minutes. Those films are not accessible anywhere else. I would be very willing to watch them in full, but like most other visitors, I have limited time, especially when visiting a new museum in a different city. If you say observing a painting/sculpture in person is diff…

I always just skip video installations in modern art museums. Because these are usually a bit meh and dated technologically, and you always walk in mid way through some screening of some random thing.

Somehow it never occurs to them to just put that stuff on Youtube or one of the other streaming platforms. I guess that would be a bit too modern. It always annoys me when they have a lot of this going on; especially when the ticket price is high. Usually a sign of a weak curator and exposition. If filling the space with interesting art is a challenge, that's what you do. And the art is why I go there.

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