I
want to touch on a familiar topic that you may find interesting: technology
and children. Many of you may think that technology is great and that all
children should be able to use the different technologies out there, while some
of you feel that technology has held our children back from reaching their full
potentials. In the last discussion forum in my class, the professor asked three
questions about the use of technology by children, and they all got me to
thinking about the benefits and disadvantages of technology:
- What are some of the
things a parent can do to maximize the benefits of technology with their
children while minimizing the harmful effects from technology?
- One of the readings
this week talked about imagination in children being replaced by PCs. Do you
agree with this generalization? If so, what can we do to encourage imaginative
play in our children?
- Several of the
readings suggested that technology appears to be somewhat intuitive to small
children today. On the other hand, it is increasingly complex to older people.
The only similarity is how the old and young consume online content is that
both groups tend to be very "trusting" and somewhat naive when
dealing with online content. What can parents, educators and scholars do to
help warn the very young and old about the dangers of digital communications?
These three questions raise some very
important issues concerning children and technology. I would be remiss not to
write on this subject, especially considering my husband and I have three
children.
Technology seems to have taken over
every aspect of our lives, including our children’s lives. Our children are
ages 7, 6, and 3, and they all know how to use our cell phones, tablets, and
laptop to a degree respective to their ages. One of our main concerns as
parents is making sure that these media platforms are beneficial to our
children’s education and imaginations. Too often, we see children that know how
to operate digital technology but have trouble reading, writing, and thinking
critically. Our boys are old enough to watch shows like SpongeBob, Power
Rangers, Sanjay and Craig, etc., all of which we feel do not give them any
educational benefits, but they want to visit the websites for these shows to
play games associated with the shows, and sometimes we indulge them. I am fine
with the games on Nickelodeon’s website because there are games that challenge
them to strategize and to think critically, but I have banned them from logging
on to Cartoon Network, because there are too many shows on that channel that
are highly inappropriate for children to watch.
One of our rules we set for our
children when using these media is to look at something educational. I feel it is
our responsibility to ensure that they visit websites and use apps that offer enrichment.
My boys’ teachers give us websites that we can use at home, like www.starfall.com
and www.ABCya.com, that offer additional practice on all the subjects they
study in school. I also signed up for ABCMouse.com so that my three-year-old
can learn even more than what we and her Head Start teachers are already
teaching her. I especially like ABCMouse.com because it teaches her all of the fundamentals
a preschooler should know in preparation for kindergarten, and it teaches her the
basics of how to use a wired mouse. There are also toys that incorporate
different technological advances to teach children basics like ABCs, 123s,
shapes, colors, and emotions. My daughter has three different stuffed animals
that teach her these things through song and dance. One of them, the LeapFrog
My Pal Violet, actually teaches her how to spell her name. Cool, huh? With all
of this computer time and involvement with technology, there comes the need for
boundaries, especially on time limits, on what they play with, and on what they are viewing.
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(from
left to right) My daughter's Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Love to Play Puppy
(http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/brands/laughandlearn/products/30407), her VTech
Peek at Me Bunny (http://www.vtechkids.com/product/detail/1939/Peek_at_Me_Bunny),
and her Leapfrog My Pal Violet (http://shop.leapfrog.com/leapfrog/jump/My-Pal-Scout-%26-Violet/productDetail/Toddler-Toys-Sale/lfprod19156/cat800014?selectedColor=&selectedSize=&navAction=push&navCount=0&categoryNav=false)
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Without these boundaries, children
become addicted into the digital world and miss life and opportunities for
learning and imaginative play. Don’t get me wrong, technology is awesome and
there is nothing wrong with it. It is the use and abuse of technology that
causes problems. Often, I see how parents plop their children in front of a TV
and allow their children to watch cartoons for hours on end, while parents with
older children fail to check their children’s use of PCs, mobile phones, and
other digital devices. Why is this a common occurrence? We can attribute this
to the fact that many of us parents came of age during the Internet age
(McMillan & Morrison, 2008, p. 78), and our children are reaping the
benefits of advanced technology.
I was born in the 1980s, and I witnessed
the birth of the Internet and its slow but steady rise in popularity. I
remember when we first had access to the Internet in my computer science class,
which was back in the mid-1990s. As I think back, I see how amazing the Internet
seemed in our eyes, and it was equally awe-inspiring when we were able to
search for different topics and get the information we were looking for. As I got older, I used the Internet more and
more, especially to write research papers, but more so to connect with my
friends on the new social media sites that were appearing (i.e. MySpace, hi5,
kiwibox). Looking back, I see how I was slowing becoming addicted, to an extent,
to the use of the Internet. In their article, “Coming of age with the Internet,”
which was published in New Media and
Society in 2008, Sally J. McMillan and Margaret Morrison discuss the Internet
and its integration into the lives of those people who grew up alongside the
Internet. Their study found that many of the “participants saw themselves as relative
dinosaurs by comparison to their younger relatives who are learning technology
at a much younger age” (McMillan & Morrison, 2008, p. 80). We see this to
be true in our children now, who are growing up as technological innovations
emerge on the scene.
With so many innovations and with so
much technology integrated in our lives, especially through PCs, it is easy to
suggest that our children’s imaginations are slowing being replaced with PCs.
However, I disagree with this generalization, because I have witnessed in my
own children how computers have enhanced their imaginations. My children all
know how to use digital technology to some extent, and I have noticed how once
they finish using the computer, cell phone, or tablet, they will go outside or
to their room and play out what they have learned on the educational apps or
websites they had visited. They took what they learned and integrated it into
their daily play.
In her TED video, Shilo Shiv Suleman describes Khoya, an
interactive book app that allows children to enter the stories they read. This
app works by integrating the app and actual outdoor play, “linking together
magic, the earth and technology” (Suleman, 2011, “Using tech”). I thought this
was an awesome idea, because children of this generation, many of them having grown
up along with the Internet, have become so technically dependent and integrated
that they have no idea what it means to have fun without some type of digital
hardware. They do not know how to go outside and use their imaginations.
Parents could use apps like these to encourage and enhance imaginative play and
critical thinking in their children.
With the ready availability of
technology, it is easy for our children to fall into danger. There are several
predators out in the world that look for naïve, unsuspecting children to prey
on, so it is very important that we as parents, educators, and scholars make
sure that the proper programs and parental controls are put in place to block inappropriate
content. This is easy to do with younger children, but trying to do this poses
a greater problem with older children and teenagers. In their article, “The
Role of Mobile Phones in Family Communication,” which was published in Children and Society in 2009, Kerry
Devitt and Debi Roker found that “many young people and parents considered that
a young person might have a sense of ‘false security’ in having a mobile phone,
and take more risks as a result” (p. 200).
I found this to be true because I
also felt that same sense of security with my cell phone as a teenager. The
authors also found that parents believed that “they had less control over their
child’s private life as a result of mobile phones, and were often wary about
what might be being planned without their knowledge. I also took more risks
than I normally would because I had a cell phone. In hindsight, I see how I had
too much freedom as a teenager with my cell phone and put myself in danger with
the blatant disregard for my safety because of trusting in its ability to
connect me to safety (i.e. my parents, the police). Again, boundaries come into
play, as they are key to ensuring our children’s safety in the digital world.
Technology provides users with so many
opportunities to do great things, and it is a great asset to have in the home
and in schools, especially for our children. It gives parents the ability to
enhance their children’s minds and foster imaginative play, and it gives
educators the tools they need to enrich their class curricula. Technology has
its many advantages, but there are also risks involved with using it, so it is
imperative that parents and educators find ways to protect their children and
students from the potential pitfalls of technology. I believe that a hybrid of technology
and “normal” child’s play is our best bet for ensuring that our children have
the best of both worlds. Don’t you agree?
References
Devitt,
Kerry & Debi Roker. (2009). “The role of mobile phones in family
communication.” Children and Society 23: 189-202. DOI:
10.1111/j.1099-0860.2008.00166.x
McMillan,
Sally J. & Margaret Morrison. (2008). “Coming of age with the Internet: A
qualitative exploration of how the Internet has become an integral part of
young people’s lives.” New Media and
Society 8(1): 73-95. DOI:
10.1177/1461444806059871
