The New York Times just printed an interesting article on the ways in which technology - and the ever increasing pace of change that comes concordant with that - might be affecting our children. This is interesting in and of itself. We might wonder how our children's malleable young minds are shaped by the cacophony of media they are exposed to, how their understanding of the world might shift as they inhabit more and more time in electronic and online activities, and how the absence of many of the influences of the past might shape their development. Already we see some differences - younger generations expect information immediately, seem to have less privacy concerns and are better at multitasking than older adults. These changes may not be all good. For example, the increase in multitasking could potentially have negative effects on the ability to focus on materials for longer periods of time - such as is needed in schooling.
But there's another issue that has to do more with the increasing pace of change rather than the actual experiences themselves. We'll be talking about research methods tomorrow, and we'll be discussing types of studies that utilize what are called "developmental designs". I know you'll be excited to learn about won't really have a choice but to listen to me talk about cross-sectional, longitudinal and sequential designs. All three of these are ways of looking at change over time. Cross-sectional designs focus on looking at a group of people of slightly different ages at one point in time, with the implicit assumption often being that by looking at the differently aged people, you can figure out what changes in development due to the effects of age. Longitudinal designs focus on a single group of people over time with the implicit assumption often being that that particular group of people should be illustrative of how development generally occurs in people outside of your specific study sample. We'll talk about why these assumptions are not always correct, but for now I will just note that sequential designs are an attempt to pin down the actual differences between age effects, cohort effects and time of measurement effects by basically combining longitudinal and cross-sectional designs.
But what happens when change gets really fast?
Researchers are exploring this notion too. They theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.
“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”Already, we have to be careful in research to attend to which of our findings are driven by actual developmental change and not by cohort. What happens when cohorts shrink in size?
Yeah i agree with the scratching your head part. I was confused when i saw elementary aged kids on their cell phones.
ReplyDelete900013193
that is interesting. i see those same things happen with my family generation older then my, my mom for example can not understand the simpelest things about computers such as how to check her email. im not all that computer saavy myself, but come on! and then i look at this 7 year old girl i nanny. she has mastered the technology of my cell phone far better then i have owning it. i still stumble around its "apps" & struggle to figure out where things are in the damn thing while she (the 7 year old) picks it up & gets around it in seconds. so, i see the gap in understanding technology between generations.
ReplyDeleteas for it effecting their level of focus, i have a torn debate with in myself thinking that people can pay attention t o what they are interested in. school, may not always fall into that catagory. or at least not every subject. which then brings me to feel that so many of the countrys people are misdiagnosed with "add/adhd" because they dont want to sit in a chair & "learn/focus" in class for 8 hours. i am fidgety after 1 hour, let alone 8! so, im on the fense about how i feel about our attention being negatively effected by technology on the basis of academics.
(continued)...that is why (i think) that now, schools like montessori and waldorf are doing child based learning or independant learning... because children are natural learners. you dont really have to force feed them information while in a chair quietly for 8 hours. along with understanding learning styles. public ed more often then not expects children to absorb information in the same manner, by listening, & being quiet & the spitting back all the information in some standardized testing. i feel this is out dated. people have different learning styles & different ways of showing their knowledge. so why do we blame outside sources (like tv, technology, peers, parents, whatever) when maybe the problem is the curriculum & the teaching style & the testing?
ReplyDeleteKim Wiseman
ReplyDeleteI agree that our children are being affected and in a large way by the speeding up of technology. I know most of us are familiar with the movie "super size me" and if someone has not watched this movie I strongly suggest they do. Because of our fast pace life we have developed unhealthy ways to keep up with eating and this leads to obesity and many other health issues. More children are socially inept due to less interaction in social groups because now we can communicate on computers. It is difficult as a parent to be sure that my child grows up with the tools to make it in the world.
Kjerstin Brinton-PSY 311
ReplyDeleteI find that the younger generation is becoming increasingly knowledgeable and evermore affected by new forms of technology popping up in our fast-paced society.
In my church, I have the opportunity of teaching the five and six year old children every Sunday. It is wonderful, and I have learned a great deal from these extremely intelligent kids. Last Sunday, for example, we were having a discussion about God and our Heavenly Mother. Although we don't know very much about our Heavenly Mother, there are scriptural references that can be found in the Bible. After we talked about this topic, one of the five-year-old girls in our class raised her hand to ask a question. She went on to say that if we didn't have very much information about our Heavenly Mother, why don't we just "google it?"
I look back to when I was five, and my family didn't even own a computer! I didn't start using Google until I was in high school. This young girl was in Kindergarten and already knew about computers, the Internet, and Google. So much has changed in a relatively short amount of time! Technology has exploded, and younger and younger children are being affected by it, both negatively and positively. I would have never dreamed of saying, "you can google it!" when I was in Kindergarten if I didn't know the answer to a question. I found this to be a unique indicator that children are becoming more and more influenced by our rapidly changing and improving technology.
Rachel Jones PSY311
ReplyDeleteThe computer in our house has been for the most part an important learning skill that is very useful these days. My family does really well on the computer because they spend at least 2 hours a day on them and enjoy working on them. I have a hard time sitting that long and normally need to get up and move around which makes it hard for me to come close to their skill level.Should we allow our children on the computer? What age is appropriate to let them start on a computer?
I have a friend who did not allow her children on the computer. Mine all started at a early age. They type fast and can navigate around the internet well. This is very important in school these days with finding grades online and typing papers. Anyway my friend called the other day and I said what are you doing? She responded by saying, "Typing a paper for Jimmy". I said I think it is time you start letting them explore the computer for the sake of their academic achievement. She finally agrees that it will be important.
Trinh,
ReplyDeleteTechnology had improved our life in many ways but at the same time technology been causing more headaches for us. For an example, the internet is awesome tool for research. You can now find almost anything from the internet, and majority of time the information are free. On the other hand, if the internet were being use by a sex offender than the become a tool for them to reach their victims. Now parent have to monitor closely with their children internet usage because you don't know who else is on the internet at the same time as your kid. Technology are advancing so fast that the laws and regulation having problem keeping up with it. Hopefully one day we figure everything out and have a better plan for the next generation.