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Cybernetyx Bridging Digital Divide Cybernetyx interfaces not just are interesting for the present digital natives, but also help the digital immigrants to adapt to the newer technology in a more efficient way
Nishant S. Rajawat Director (Technology)APAC, Cybernetyx Interaktiv UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Stadthagen, Germany
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s Marc Prensky puts it, “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.”It is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. They are Digital Natives, born in the information age, and at ease with it. So what does that make the rest of us? Those of us who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fasci-
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nated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be compared to them, Digital Immigrants. Consequently, the digital natives tend to understand better with the digital representation and processing of the available information whereas, the digital immigrants intrinsically only comprehend the physical objects and information and relate the digital information with the same for the purpose of understanding. For the digital immigrants to get comfortable to the newer tools of learning, these tools have to mimic the real world in a convincing way. On the other hand, for the digital natives, the new learning tools have to be a swifter and exciting way to interact with the vast amount of digital information available to them. Digital information is increasing exponentially in the form of images, videos, and data. Cybernetyx also plans to introduce various devices in the Indian market pertaining
to better interface between the students and the enormous amount of digital information available in a rich and a fun way. We are focused on introducing interactive tools which will understand the “human” ways of interaction and which will respond to our ways of communication. Additionally, these tools will be intelligent enough to be capable of interacting with real physical objects. Children can learn alphabets by taking a physical dummy of the letter and keeping it on the table-top interface. The interface will not only identify the object and its genre but also will react by triggering a set
of relevant events including various ways of writing and pronouncing the alphabet. The new parameters of the digital interaction will also allow us to move beyond the single-input driven WIMP interface, and the newer set of devices will allow us to interact with the interface using our gestures and physical movements. One important skillset that will be required to succeed in the advent of the information age is bound-less collaboration. This essential skill can be boosted by using the collaborative interfaces that the newer devices of interaction will provide us. These interfaces will not only entice and excite the kids to learn the essential skills of collaboration, but also how to use it for meaningful creation. The results of these acquired skillsets will go a long way into their lives, as the digital information will only increase exponentially in the coming times. \\