How far back do you go?
Did you have a Little Orphan Annie or Captain Midnight decoder ring?
Did you marvel at Dick Tracy's two way wrist T.V.?
Were you amazed by the communicator on Star Trek?
How about Mr. Spock's tricorder?
As fantastically implausible as these futuristic technologies looked at the time most of us now carry them around every day.
Cellphones, smart-phones, iPods, laptops, and the internet are all part of our daily lives and an even larger part of the lives of our Scouts. If you think about it most the Scouts we work with today were all born after all of these things were commonplace in our society.
How do we incorprate these technologies into Scouting? Most of us have embraced email, websites and computerized record keeping into our Scout troops, packs and crews. But when it comes to portable electronic devices what happens next?
Just saying 'no' to cellphones, iPods and associted electronics is a common approach that may not be as valid or possible as it once was.
I have set up a survey to see how we are working with Scouting in the Electronic Age
This survey is open to youth members with parental permission, so if you are the parent of a Scout ask if they'd like to take the survey.
It should be up to the Scouts.
If the Scouts are teaching the skills then they should have to deal with the distractions. If the Scouts are running the meetings, then they should deal with the distractions. If they ask for our help, then we should suggest or help. Not decide.
I personally am annoyed by some of the current addiction to these devices, but it's not up to me to make all of the decisions for the Scouts. The Scout Law should give us some guidance (A Scout is Courteous for instance).
Posted by: Larry Geiger | October 13, 2010 at 02:10 PM