Technology and the Gifted: Focus, Facets, and the Future

Abstract

In the transition from the industrial age to the information age, the 21st century has brought with it new challenges for the educational needs of the nation's youth. Information-intensive and technology-driven jobs encompass 60% of America's job market (Jukes, 1997). Over the last decade, over half of the new jobs created in the United States have evolved from new technologies (Jukes). Occupational futurists predict that in the first decade of the 21st century, eight out of every ten jobs will be information-intensive (Jukes; Naisbitt & Aburdene, 1990). The National Science Foundation (1997) estimates that by the year 2010, one-fourth of all new jobs will involve technology. Effective leaders and productive citizens will need to possess both skill and confidence in their abilities to use and manipulate technology and information (Jones, 1990; Jukes; Morgan, 1993).