Blog Post 13 - What was left out?

This week my blog is entirely devoted to a subject that is important to me that was left out of my list of assignments for this semester. When I read this assignment, I figured it would be easy to find something I was passionate enough about to create an assignment around, but it is surprisingly challenging to do so. I am an elementary education major, so I have decided to address an issue that seems to have several parents and teachers in a fuss. Here goes...

How young is too young for technological exposure?
Check out this video with Dr. Kristy Goodwin: How Young is Too Young for Technology?
Read what Robin Raskin had to say: Raising Digital Kids-$69 LeapFrog Toy Takes on the $500 iPad
What does ABC News think? Generation iPad:Could Device Hurt Toddler's Development?
Watch Bridger, a 2-year old with an iPad: Baby Works iPad Perfectly!
Check out George Couros' blog entry: The Principal of Change
Watch these kids: Young Kids and "Old" Technology: A Parent's Retrospective

After reading these blogs and watching these videos, discuss your opinion on the matter. Tell me the pros of giving your child an iPad, iPhone, etc. and the cons of having a technological pacifier, as it has been called. Talk about this matter from a teaching perspective first, but also tell me how you would feel about this as a parent. Would you worry about their social development? Do they need to always have something to keep them calm? Perhaps the technology is not the real problem, and maybe it is just the parenting. Maybe some children have parents who allow them to play games on their iPhones, but whom also have interactive time as a family...but there could also be parents who strictly give their children an iPad or game to keep them quiet. Tell me your stand.

My Response:
I believe children are the product of their environment. For some families, the parents work so much that they are hardly able to spend time with their children, and as a result, they buy them iPads to serve as a source of, both entertainment and, apology for the lack of their presence in the home. We can't always blame the parents because sometimes life does get so busy that it is hard to juggle everything, but we can blame the parents for not making the appropriate amount of time in their busy lives to hang out with their kids. Some children suffer serious emotional heartache and are unable to develop socially because they have so little interaction with human beings; our parents are the first friends we make as children and they are ultimately responsible for the people we turn into. What is "young" though? Two years old? Four? In my own experience, my niece and nephew have fabulous parents! They spend time with them every day, they take them to the park on weekends, and they have family time with my parents, my fiance' and I on a weekly basis. They are incredible parents. Interestingly enough, my niece, Ella-7, and my nephew, Lincoln-4, are more tech savvy than any of us are. They have beat my high score on Temple Run. Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja more times than I would like to admit, but they are well adapted to being social at any time of the day. They don't need an iPad or an iPhone to keep them entertained, in fact, the only time they get them is if we are in a nice restaurant and the food is taking a long time and they are just bored. Even that is rare, though. They allow specific times for them to use their iPhones because they don't want them to become a pacifier or a necessity, and I completely agree with their philosophy.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. -Bill Gates
However, as a future educator, I love technology for small children...in the classroom...in moderation. I believe there is a time and a place for the use of any device that could draw their attention away from things around them. In my experience in a first grade classroom this semester, the classroom seems to run much more smoothly when all the students are able to work on something different at all times-someone is typing their spelling words on the SMARTboard, someone is writing sentences with thought provokers on an overhead projector, someone is taking AR tests on the computer, someone is learning sight words on an iPad. The kids in that classroom seemed to really love technology, but they loved their friends and teacher even more. I think the amount of technology you allow in your classroom has to be correlated with your teaching style. Are you a fun, upbeat teacher? Use any and all technological tools you can get your hands on. Are you more laid back and want the kids to work quietly? Try not to have too much technology in your classroom because it could become a source of less social interaction amongst the students. The students can only be expected to work with what you give them, and I don't mean the technology.

In response to the video by Dr. Kristy Goodwin, How Young is Too Young for Technology?, I agree with her belief of what developing brains need-1. serve and return interactions, the children need their parents to work with them and teach them appropriate behavior and social interaction. 2. physical movement, children need to be active to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep their energy at an easily maintained level. 3. language rich interactions, how else with they learn to speak correctly? I thought it was really interesting that she said children are unable to learn from media until around 2 years of age, television that is; interactive media is a totally different story. They may learn some things form their iPad or your iPhone, but they ultimately learn everything from YOU. The video about Bridger and his iPad, Baby Works iPad Perfectly!, was a perfect example of a healthy way for a child to use an iPad. The parents had taught Bridger, a 2-year old, how to draw, read, and learn words on his iPad, instead of just showing him where all the games were. While I realize he probably know where all of them are and probably plays them, too, it was really impressive to me that they chose to film him doing all of the educational things his iPad had to offer instead.

What Robin Raskin had to say in her blog entry, Raising Digital Kids-$69 LeapFrog Toy Takes on the $500 iPad, really spoke volumes to me. What is the difference between an iPad and LeapFrog? Not many parents are willing to go out and drop $500 dollars on an iPad for their 4-year old, especially because it "might make them less socially developed", but yet they are willing to spend a significantly less $69 dollars on the exact same thing? Strange. LeapFrog may be producing games and apps that are more educational and kid-friendly, you will still get the same anti-social product if you allow your child to use this device too often. Parents need to be more interactive with their children if they want positive results in the development of their children, not just kid-friendly toys. The video of the children learning about "old" technology cracked me up-Young Kids and "Old" Technology: A Parent's Retrospective. We should really teach our children about new and old technology more often. How else will they appreciate what they have now? They need to know where everything started before they learn about where everything is now. What ever happened to the Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, floppy disks and rolls of film? Why did they go out of style? And dial-up internet? That's one thing I'm glad to see gone! My middle school days were full of that awful sound of the internet starting up...and no, I do not miss it.

I feel like the last two things I was asked to review, Generation iPad:Could Device Hurt Toddler's Development? and The Principal of Change could be more related to teaching than to parenting. In the ABC News video, the anchor discussed the story of a family of 3 little girls who were completely consumed with their iPads. They challenged the family to remove them from the home for a month and see what the girls would do with their free time, and it had surprising results. Instead of moping about their iPads, they actually seemed to not be bothered by the lack of their presence-they found time to play together and the oldest daughter even took up sewing! Once the iPads were returned, the parents set strict limits on the amount of daily use they could have because they saw how much the results altered the interaction between their girls. The girls managed to calm themselves down in stressful situations instead of being calmed by an iPad or iPhone and that was the most positive thing in the parents' eyes. In teaching, if I were to just hand a student an iPad to keep them quiet if they were disrupting the class, what would that teach them? "If I act bad in my class, my teacher will let me play games to make me stop, so I'll just act up more."? Possibly. Maybe one day technology should be removed form the classroom for a quarter, just to see how children of this generation would react. George Couros read my mind in his blog entry! He brought up the fact that technology is NOT supposed to just teach children how to create things on a computer, but to teach them how to work together and how to learn things independently. Project Based Learning could be the best thing to ever happen to the education/technology world because it forces students to work in pairs or groups but it allows them to do so in a productive, less frustrating way. All in all, the education department has made some phenomenal changes in improving technology in the classroom, but maybe a step back would be a good learning experience for both teachers and students.