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Digital Competence in the 21st Century

Afbeelding voor Digital Competence in the 21st Century
As we prepare for our Summit: Montessori and Technology? taking place on Saturday 25 September from 10.00 – 15.00 (CEST), we consider that the question should not be if technology should be included in a Montessori setting, but how.

A discussion with young students from the Agora project at the Montessori College in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, which we will share with participants at our Summit, shows they cannot imagine a life without technology, wisely exploring how technology doesn’t just form an integral part of their social lives but also of the world as a whole affecting everything from the practice of medicine to the conduct of war.

In a discussion between Sarah Kennedy Berge, Aleksandra Zarosa, Nicole Hermann, Kamila Bertlik and Eduard Vilanova (from Waterpark Montessori and Montessori Palau Girona) which we will also share at our Summit, technology is explored as a tool, a material, which opens for our children, windows to the world, extending their knowledge and awakening their curiosity. They remind us of that powerful Montessori quote from The Creative Development in the Child (2020):

“This then is our task, to gather the highest discoveries that have been made in the sciences, to render them clear and fascinating, and offer them to childhood.”

(Montessori, 2020: 367)

Laura Flores Shaw, one of our guest speakers at our Summit stresses in the Montessori White Papers, Volume 4, Digital Technologies and Development that, as Montessori encouraged us, our role as adults is to prepare our children for life. It is our duty, as echoed in this article on the School Education Gateway, to prepare our children for life in a digital age, helping them understand the benefits and consequences of digital technology.

Even the youngest children, growing up surrounded by technology, can explore its benefits as our Summit participants will learn from a presentation by Carola Lang Howard who will share how children from her nursery in Cyprus will connect with children from other nurseries in Europe to share their hope for peace on International Peace Day.

The digital era is here to stay. The discussion should not be whether or not we should include technology in our environments… but how.

Join us on Saturday 25 September 2021 from 10.00 – 15.00 at our Summit: Technology and Montessori? to explore this further. Click here for further details.