Sunday 13 January 2008

Scouting and Technology! Welcome to the twenty-first Century

most adults that I run into unless they are a computer or technology guru misinterpret the reason why technology can be so beneficial to the scouting program. Yeah there are a lot and I mean A LOT of BAD STUFF OUT THERE but there is also looks of good information and resources that I use on a daily basis that help to make my life easier. Technology allows me to keep pace in such a fast paced world. The standard for delivery of information has come down from years to practically instant communication. Having this practically instant communication without the face to face contact makes it much easier for youth and adult leaders of Scouting units to get the point across.

Technology is a scary thing to so many people in this world but truthfully it is like any other feature or skill, it has to be learned and everyone is capable of learning to work with these advance electronic gizmos to a certain degree. What I am not saying is that everybody is going to become a instant expert. Experts are in a field are nurtured and built up over the course of many years.

Technology has it's place in scouting. We as the leaders of the movement need to encourage the national leaders of the movement to start taking advantage of the many different venues that technology creates for us to use. Yes this is going to take time and work but this is the type of work that we should commit ourselves to. This is about bringing more kids and retaining kids longer in a day and age of whether you have a Ipod or not can determine you social popularity. This may not be totally right but in order to understand and develop ways to work with this problem we must learn to immerse ourselves into the problem and tackle it head on.

Yours in Scouting
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

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