Not an iPod or a Zune or even a PC, but an …

 

The specific vision of the type of technology device that the millennial learners would desire was disclosed when the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Education, and NetDay study (Visions 2020.2: Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies) offered in the fall of 2004, 60,000 K-12 millennial learners the following question:  

Today, you and your fellow [learners] are important users of technology. In the future, you will be the inventors of new technologies. What would you like to see invented that you think will help kids learn in the future? 

Looking across the four broad themes of the millennial learners’ answers and combining some of the most popular concepts in these answers describe perfectly … 

… the  

Every [learner] would use a small, handheld wireless computer that is voice activated. The computer would offer high-speed access to a kid-friendly Internet, populated with websites that are safe, designed specifically for use by [learners], with no pop-up ads. Using this device, [learners] would complete most of their in school work and homework, as well as take online classes both at school and at home. [Learners] would use the small computer to play mathematics-learning games and read interactive e-textbooks. In completing their schoolwork, [learners] would work closely and routinely with an intelligent digital tutor, and tap a knowledge utility to obtain factual answers to questions they pose. In their history studies, [learners] could participate in 3-D virtual reality-based historic reenactments. 

If the PC is the window to the world of digital learning resources (eContent),  then for the have-not learners the is the porthole through their at-home digital isolation to targeted digital learning resources!