Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 15/01) - Computers are no longer the future of education but the present.

Ryan Walker, solutions manager for SSI Micro, said the use of computers by school-aged children prepares them for the wired world which they will face once they leave school.

"The sooner you get kids into technology the better they can deal with it," said Walker.

"Computers today give students access to resources students could only dream of before."

Walker said the use of a keyboard gives students the basic skills needed for the business world where everything is wired.

He also said the use of the Internet allows students to collaborate with their peers from all over the world.

But computers are changing the spectre of education.

In 10 years the Dewey decimal system will likely be obsolete at Canadian libraries. No longer will students have to pour over books to research homework topics, they'll just have to type in a keyword on an Internet search site and zappo, they'll have more information than they can use at their fingertips, said Walker.

"If they want to find out about the Spanish Inquisition they'll just have to type Spanishinquisition.com," he said.

Walker also said he expects handwriting skills to deteriorate in the next 10 years as more and more students learn to rely on the keyboard.

"Society as a whole is embracing technology."

But Walker doesn't lament the loss of handwriting and library research. He said the end result is still the same but the medium is evolving.

"Just like we moved from smoke signals to handwriting, the way we communicate constantly changes. The message is the same, (but) the medium changes," said Walker.

So as the school year begins again and the computer labs fill up, Walker said it's important for students to learn the use of computers because it is the inescapable reality of a wired world.