We were asked to write a short story imagining the year 2050 in the context of education technology. That year is not too far away. Given our growing dependence on technology, I wondered what would happen if the internet shut down. This act of imagination is not wishful thinking: I do appreciate the wonders of the internet, its capacity to provide me with information that I could never access in a pre-internet world. At the same time, I am saddened that so many children spend their free time inside, glued to connected devices on which they play video games in the virtual company of other children, instead of playing with friends and neighbours outside on real, tangible Earth. Regarding the use of technology in education, I sometimes worry about how much screen time is being added in the classroom when so many children are already spending hours in front of a screen every day at home.
Here is the beginning of the story:
When the bandwidth finally broke, or all world servers went down, depending on the story, the cloud dump flattened systems. The Net ceased expanding. Not a local event, the outage was pandemic. Those who remembered took up the simple objects of old: chip-less, dumb, analogue. Sabotage or fate, the effect was the same: many lofty ambitions were grounded, much corporate greed thwarted, the end came to many forms of so-called entertainment.
Those of us who remembered took up our bicycles, pencils, instruments, and books. While adults floundered at work, untethered without computers, the children still had to be taught. As the weeks passed and devices remained inoperative, the collective shock faded and a new normalcy crept in upon us. Screen-free, family members searched each other’s faces for diversion and discovered unimagined human qualities. Boredom drove the children outside into the blinding sunlight. They invented games that, unbeknownst to them, had already existed in the Before times.
Those of us who remembered, who knew how to live without electronic notifications, were sought for advice and, well, for our fine motor skills. Papermaking became an important cottage industry for former tech employees. Hunched, swiping children eventually straightened their spines and went outside to play with sticks, mud, and plants. Some regained feeling and dexterity in their fingers. Many young adults were not so lucky.
In fact, the children fared the best. Once they had learned to use a pen and turn a page, those of us who remembered saw that school had returned to what it once was. The lifeless gadgets were removed; art supplies and books returned, many of them rediscovered in forgotten storage units and archives. When the travelling theatre troupes arrived with their elaborate costumes and spellbinding stories, the children’s eyes barely dared to blink, so alive was live theatre in the flesh.
