10 years ago I predicted that within 5 years, iPads in schools would replace books. At some more exclusive schools (think rich neighborhoods and private schools) that was true beginning back in 2015. We are seeing electronic devices slowly penetrating even poorer school districts nowadays, but we still see regular old text and notebooks being used regularly so that revolution is taking much longer than expected. 

What was unexpected was remote learning becoming the norm because of COVID-19 (if you can call it the norm). We skipped the whole bringing your iPad to school as your primary learning device and did away with going to a physical location for school altogether. Yes, it’s temporary (or so we hope), but will become more normalized, especially for higher education.

What’s even more interesting to look at is how prevalent it is to see pre-teens building their own websites and launching their own Youtube channels.

Going from fitting inside of the laundry basket, what seems like not all that long ago, Baby Bell has both her own website about crafts and whatever other random things she decides to post, to a Youtube channel about Pokemon and mobile gaming like Roblox.

Our society is noting yet like Star Trek, but it’s certainly becoming more virtual. We aren’t traveling the galaxy, but are traversing the bit-world, working from home and even dating via teleconference. Health lockdowns don’t seem all that bad when we can diddle away time virtually.