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Technology gives kids constant media access
Sharp rise in students' media use challenges educators to make lessons more engaging, experts say
The rise in children's access to mobile technology has enabled them to spend an average of nearly 8 hours per day using entertainment media.
Educators face a growing challenge in trying to compete for their students’ attention with near-constant access to entertainment media outside of school, a new study suggests.
Today’s technology enables children to have nearly 24-hour media access, and many are choosing to spend an average of close to eight hours per day using entertainment media, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The study, “Generation M2: Media in the Lives of eight- to 18-Year-Olds,” found that children devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media during a typical day. However, because they spend so much of that time “media multitasking,” they manage to fit a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into that 7 and a half hours. The report identifies media multitasking as using more than one medium at a time.
“Generation M2” is the third in a serious of large-scale, nationally representative surveys by Kaiser about young people’s media use. It includes data from three time periods—1999, 2004, and 2009. The most recent report is based on a survey conducted between October 2008 and May 2009 of 2,002 third through twelfth grade students ages 8-18, including a self-selected subsample of 702 respondents who completed seven-day media use diaries, which were used to calculate multitasking proportions.
The study found that high levels of media multitasking also contribute to the large amount of media young people consume each day. About four in 10 seventh through twelfth graders said they use an additional medium “most” of the time they’re listening to music (43 percent), using a computer (40 percent), or watching TV (39 percent).
Paul Olean, director of marketing for interactive teaching technology provider mimio, said he was not surprised by the survey results. Olean said he sees the burden this increase in entertainment media use puts on teachers.
“The relationship to that and the classroom seems to place a greater burden on teachers to compete for [students'] attention and keep the student engaged. While interactive teaching technologies are not the whole answer, they are [an] instrument by which teachers can break through the clutter,” he said. “When teachers are given the opportunity to [use interactive technologies,] they are in a better position to compete with the commercial media for the minds of the student.”
Stephen Balkam, chief executive officer of the Family Online Safety Institute, attended the Jan. 20 event announcing the survey’s findings and said attendees seemed surprised with the results.
“I think everyone in the hall was somewhat taken aback by the degree of increase in media consumption,” he said. “I know that one of the authors had said five years ago that he thought we had reached the ceiling of how much media kids could consume, and yet there was this dramatic increase.”
Balkam added that handheld technologies have contributed to the swell.
“And part of why there was this increase was the mobile technology that allows kids to walk around with the internet in their pockets, basically. To have it on the school bus, to have it at playtime, to have it when they’re going to bed. In Japan they’ve created a waterproof cell phone, so now kids can take it in the shower with them,” he said.
According to the report, mobile media device ownership increased dramatically among 8- to 18-year-olds, from 39 percent to 66 percent for cell phones, and from 18 percent to 76 percent for iPods and other MP3 players. During this period, cell phones and iPods became true multimedia devices, the report said.
3 Responses to Technology gives kids constant media access
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papertalker
January 25, 2010 at 4:21 pm
When Sesame Street first appeared, it was extolled as the model of educational television. But creativity on the tube did not transfer to the early childhood classroom. Now millions of dollars are being spent on product development and promotion by game manufacturers trumpeting the miracle of technology. Meanwhile, students just entering the job market are being fired because they can’t stop texting on the job. Technology is a tool, not a pathway–this is an unpopular position to take, I know. But the creative use technology will not, by itself, alter the rigid nature of the school culture—how will technology promote eye contact and help kids articulate and grasp the larger narrative of ideas? Whatever it is must happen away from the computer and the handheld device. With their noses 3 inches away from the screen, students are going to bump into a lot of barriers they have not learned to see.
JP
http://www.puppetools.com
papertalker
January 25, 2010 at 4:21 pm
When Sesame Street first appeared, it was extolled as the model of educational television. But creativity on the tube did not transfer to the early childhood classroom. Now millions of dollars are being spent on product development and promotion by game manufacturers trumpeting the miracle of technology. Meanwhile, students just entering the job market are being fired because they can’t stop texting on the job. Technology is a tool, not a pathway–this is an unpopular position to take, I know. But the creative use technology will not, by itself, alter the rigid nature of the school culture—how will technology promote eye contact and help kids articulate and grasp the larger narrative of ideas? Whatever it is must happen away from the computer and the handheld device. With their noses 3 inches away from the screen, students are going to bump into a lot of barriers they have not learned to see.
JP
http://www.puppetools.com
val_lichtman
January 27, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Multi-tasking destroys concentration and focus, certainly in higher level courses ie. calculus, physics, etc. lack of concentration is and will be a huge problem for students. The rest of the world doesn’t confuse entertainment and education. Finland, number one in the world on international tests, uses very little technology. To declare that we must once again change everything to accommodate what students do and like, will ultimately guarantee that the US becomes a third world country.
val_lichtman
January 27, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Multi-tasking destroys concentration and focus, certainly in higher level courses ie. calculus, physics, etc. lack of concentration is and will be a huge problem for students. The rest of the world doesn’t confuse entertainment and education. Finland, number one in the world on international tests, uses very little technology. To declare that we must once again change everything to accommodate what students do and like, will ultimately guarantee that the US becomes a third world country.
rickatoxford
February 17, 2010 at 12:36 pm
As I sometimes point out to the technology-obsessed students in my physics classes, Einstein formulated the Theory of Relativity with a pencil and paper. Shocking! Until such time as they are prepared to extend and/or improve upon his work, I’ll remain skeptical of claimed positive educational impacts of technology in the classroom. A good doctoral reasearch topic in Education would be to perform a statistical analysis of standardized test performance between tech-heavy and tech-light student populations. A little actual data would be far more meaningful than the mere opinions we currently have available on this question.
Rick
rickatoxford
February 17, 2010 at 12:36 pm
As I sometimes point out to the technology-obsessed students in my physics classes, Einstein formulated the Theory of Relativity with a pencil and paper. Shocking! Until such time as they are prepared to extend and/or improve upon his work, I’ll remain skeptical of claimed positive educational impacts of technology in the classroom. A good doctoral reasearch topic in Education would be to perform a statistical analysis of standardized test performance between tech-heavy and tech-light student populations. A little actual data would be far more meaningful than the mere opinions we currently have available on this question.
Rick