The Australian Federal Government and governments around the world have sought to close the technology gap by providing computers for all children and by providing high speed internet services. However, according to a new study of 150 000 individual students, by scholars at Duke University’s Sandford School of Public Policy, “... having home computers widens the achievement gap in reading and maths results.” Students in years 5 to 8 tend to post lower results once these technologies arrive in their home. Why?
Technology when used appropriately can be a great resource. However many parents don’t really know just how much time children are spending on recreational and social use of computers and the internet as compared with educational use of computers.
Computers and mobile phones can be a major distraction to children when they are doing their homework or studying for exams because incoming emails, text messages and updates to the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can capture their attention and interrupt or distract them from focused study time.
A balanced approach with healthy timeframes between recreational/social use of computers and educational use is what is needed.
If we try to ‘out-law’ the recreational use of computers and phones entirely we run the risk of creating a ‘black market’ situation where children may find underhanded ways around the strict rules without parents knowing.
Fruition recommends that parents talk with their children about safety issues of using social networking sites including:
- never disclosing personal details e.g., full names, addresses or phone numbers as well as school details etc
- always telling an adult if there are threatening or negative messages being posted
- never making personal comments about others.
Fruition recommends that parents ‘limit’ the use of computers, internet, emails, computer games and use of mobile phones to something separately reasonable for both the week days and weekends.
Fruition suggests that parents have a reward system in place where children earn the privilege of using the computers for recreational and social reasons, after they have appropriately attended to school work requirements and physical/outdoor activities.
Parents are encouraged to take control of the use of technology for their children just as they would control TV viewing, regular exercise, creative development and nutritional food intake, for example.
Parents clearly have the responsibility to set boundaries for technology use for their children in their homes.
Every now and again it is good for parents to actually play the computer games that their children are playing in order to evaluate its content especially in higher levels and often there is increased violence as the game progresses.
At least, it is good to be aware of how technology is being used by children, knowing that there is now substantial evidence that in-home technologies can lead to decreased school results.
Some questions parents could ask themselves to help evaluate if technology is being used in a balanced way include:
“What has the use of technology replaced?”
- Has it replaced family interaction and general conversation?
- Has it affected the moods of my children?
- Has it reduced reading of books?
- Has it altered the amount of exercise and outdoor activities?
- Has bullying occurred?
- How addicted is my child? How do they react to having techno-free times?
Click here to link to this Duke University study http://papers.nber.org/papers/w16078
Fruition’s Mission is to inspire successful learners and to support families. To this end, Fruition is beginning to work with 123educate me to bring balanced technology use back to your children and family.
Find out how you can use Fruition Tuition hours as a way to reward your children with recreational use of their computers!
We invite you to phone Fruition Head Office on 07 3862 3255 or go to www.fruition.com.au/Tools/123EducateMeSoftware.aspx to find out how you can purchase EducateMe software to balance the recreational use of your computers on things like Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites and computer games with the educational use of your computer.
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Children with home computers likely to have lower test scores- media release
DURHAM, N.C. -- Around the country and throughout the world, politicians and education activists have sought to eliminate the "digital divide" by guaranteeing universal access to home computers, and in some cases to high-speed Internet service.
However, according to a new study by scholars at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, these efforts would actually widen the achievement gap in math and reading scores. Students in grades five through eight, particularly those from disadvantaged families, tend to post lower scores once these technologies arrive in their home.
Professors Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd analyzed responses to computer-use questions included on North Carolina's mandated End-of-Grade tests (EOGs). Students reported how frequently they use a home computer for schoolwork, watch TV or read for pleasure. The study covers 2000 to 2005, a period when home computers and high-speed Internet access expanded dramatically. By 2005, broadband access was available in almost every zip code in North Carolina, Vigdor said.
The study had several advantages over previous research that suggested similar results, Vigdor said. The sample size was large -- numbering more than 150,000 individual students. The data allowed researchers to compare the same children's reading and math scores before and after they acquired a home computer, and to compare those scores to those of peers who had a home computer by fifth grade and to test scores of students who never acquire a home computer. The negative effects on reading and math scores were "modest but significant," they found.
"We cut off the study in 2005, so we weren't getting into the Facebook and Twitter generation," Vigdor said. "The technology was much more primitive than that. IM (instant messaging) software was popular then, and it's been one thing after the other since then. Adults may think of computer technology as a productivity tool first and foremost, but the average kid doesn't share that perception." Kids in the middle grades are mostly using computers to socialize and play games, Vigdor added, with clear gender divisions between those activities.
Vigdor and Ladd concluded that home computers are put to more productive use in households where parental monitoring is more effective. In disadvantaged households, parents are less likely to monitor children's computer use and guide children in using computers for educational purposes.
The research suggests that programs to expand home computer access would lead to even wider gaps between test scores of advantaged and disadvantaged students, Vigdor said. Several states have pursued programs to distribute computers to students. For example, Maine funded laptops for every sixth-grader, and Michigan approved a program but then did not fund it.
"Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement" was published online by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The research was funded in part by the William T. Grant Foundation.