Digital age is dumbing down our children

Child looking at computer

IN 1984, when I was teaching in the western suburbs of Melbourne, I was one of the first teachers in Victoria to introduce computers into the classroom.

As part of the English class, students wrote and edited their stories on screen and I was amazed how motivated they were and how much time and effort they put into their work.

Since the early to mid 90s I have used computers and the internet on a daily basis and as I sit typing this chapter into my fifth-generation Macintosh (while checking emails, paying some bills, downloading research papers and Skyping friends) I realise the value of the new technologies and how useful they are.

We live in a global village with instant communication via television, computers, the internet, mobile phones and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype. While parents are often described as out-of-date and old-fashioned when it comes to new technology, children are celebrated as digital natives.

Schools have embraced the digital age and new technologies with a vengeance, including laptop computers, replacing printed books with e-books, making students use the internet to carry out research and getting them to create multi-modal texts.

In some schools libraries have disappeared to be replaced by digital resource centres and classrooms transformed into open learning spaces where electronic whiteboards are used instead of blackboards, teachers are described as "guides by the side" and children become "knowledge navigators" surfing the net.

Homes have also been transformed, and not just by the explosion in numbers of home theatres and big-screen TVs. A 2009 Australian Bureau of Statistics survey shows that computers and the internet are also taking over:

* 72 per cent of households have internet access;

* 78 per cent of households have a computer;

* Between 1998 and 2008-09 internet use jumped from 16 per cent to 72 per cent and access to computers jumped from 44 per cent to 78 per cent;

* In a survey of 2.7 million children aged five to 14 years, 79 per cent said they used the internet with home internet being the most common.

Just look at how schools market themselves and it's obvious that one of the key selling points is being at the cutting edge of new technology. Laptops are compulsory, whiteboards are in every classroom and students learn the skills needed to surf the information superhighway.

It's not just schools; the federal government is spending billions connecting schools and homes to the National Broadband Network and providing computers to senior school students.

One of the arguments used to defend investment in new technologies is that books are out of date. For hundreds of years we found knowledge, information and pleasure in reading the printed word. No longer.

Today's students are techno-savvy and no longer read novels cover to cover. How many times do you see children as young as six and seven in cafes playing with Gameboys while their mum and dad sit drinking coffee? On public transport and walking through shopping centres, it looks as if every teenager has a mobile phone glued to his or her ear and having a site on Facebook is compulsory if you want to be part of the "in" group at school.

While nobody denies the value of computers, the internet and TV for getting information, keeping in touch with friends and learning more about the world, the danger is that too much time on computer games, watching screens and surfing the net damages the way we process information and the way we think. Unlike printed texts that require you to focus on the words, concentrate, read carefully and sit quietly, TV and computer screens are full of colourful graphics, ever changing images, sounds and lots of movement.

When reading a printed page your eyes move from left to right following the words, with stops to process meaning, as you move systematically across and down the page. Reading a computer screen is very different, as described by a US researcher Jakob Nielsen.

Initially, reading a computer page is similar to reading a printed page. Your eyes move from left to right in a methodical fashion but with computers, after a while, your eyes stop reading all the way across the screen and only read the left-hand side - moving vertically instead of horizontally.

Surfing the net is the opposite to reading a book as viewers, instead of reading page after page and working their way through each chapter, flit quickly from site to site and rarely spend more than a minute or two accessing information.

When it comes to new technology, especially computer games, Susan Greenfield from Oxford University puts it this way: "(The) environment has changed in an unprecedented way, it's bombarding you with boom, bang and bang images, what I call the 'yuck and wow' scenario where every moment you're having something flash up in your face and bombard your ear."

The professor, who specialises in researching how the human brain develops, is especially worried about the impact of TV and computers on young children.

The worst thing a parent can do, especially with toddlers, is to sit a child in front of a TV or let him or her play computer games for hours, as being bombarded by sounds and ever-changing, flickering images alters they way the young brain works.

"My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment," Greenfield says.

No wonder teachers complain that students are unable to sit still for long periods and work quietly. The reality is that if young children have never spent time reading a book or been taught that learning requires concentration and effort, everything at school will have to be designed to be immediately entertaining.

Reading a novel or a poem requires concentration, weighing each word or sentence and using your imagination to enter the world created by the author or poet. We can all remember being so caught up when reading that it is almost as if we are there with the characters. You can be so engrossed that you don't even notice when somebody comes into the room, or that you've been reading for so long.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tells his daughter the best way to get to know someone is to get inside their skin and walk around in it. At its best reading the printed word, especially literature, allows that to happen as you live the lives of the characters, experiencing their emotions and feelings. With computers and the internet students skim words and images, quickly moving from page to page and site to site without pausing. Instead of enjoying the language and getting lost in what they are reading, they are in the "here and now" searching for information. Computers don't allow time to stop and think or promote the ability to reflect, the very things needed for a strong imagination and good education.

One of the arguments for using computers is that learning will improve. If only it were that simple.

Research carried out on the results of international mathematics and science tests and examining why some countries and students do better than others suggests computers hinder learning.

European researcher Ludger Woessman, who carried out an investigation into the Programme for International Student Assessment tests, says the "availability of computers at home is negatively related to student performance in maths and reading, and the availability of computers at school is unrelated to student performance".

Woessmann makes the point that students can waste time on computers and the internet (socialising, talking to friends, playing games) and he argues that "availability of computers at home seems to distract students from learning". Research into how young children learn best also tells us that instead of relying on calculators and computers, students need to strengthen their brain power by memorising multiplication tables, doing mental arithmetic and learning how to recite songs, ballads and poems by heart.

A couple of US studies into whether or not computers help disadvantaged students and the effectiveness of learning software programs also raise doubts about the new technology.

One study from Duke University examined the test scores and computer use of 150,000 primary-age children and found that those who didn't do well in the tests had high computer use, with most of the time spent socialising and playing games.

While governments across the world are spending billions making sure that more children have computers, the researchers conclude "programs to expand home computer access would lead to even wider gaps between test scores of advantaged and disadvantaged students".

A second US study examined the effectiveness of a number of educational software programs in helping students improve learning. In the US, as well as Australia, parents are spending millions of dollars ever year trying to give their child the edge by buying the latest educational computer packages. The US researchers, after evaluating the impact of a number of educational software products on classrooms, concluded: "Test scores were not significantly higher in classrooms using selected reading and mathematics software products."

It's easy to understand why computer companies and software designers advertise that new technologies will raise standards and make students better learners. But at the same time parents need to be careful and make sure that whatever they spend money on has been proven to work.

New technologies take away valuable time from interacting with friends and family and learning how to deal with relationships face to face.

Some years ago an American researcher, David Putnam, wrote a book called Bowling Alone in which he argues that people no longer socialise and meet others as they once did. One reason sporting clubs and community groups have declined, he argues, is because of TV and the fact that most nights families get their entertainment at home.

It's not unusual now for Australian families to have two to three TVs and a number of computers and laptops, with children and teenagers disappearing into their bedrooms for hours every night caught up in a virtual world devoid of any real human contact.

There is also the problem that a lot of TV programs and computer games are violent and destructive.

A report by the Australian Early Childhood Foundation suggests that by the time they finish primary school, children would have seen more than 8000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on TV. As a result, violence and bullying increase in the playground as children are conditioned to believe anti-social behaviour is acceptable. Child psychologists also warn that watching death and violence at an early age can harm children emotionally and psychologically.

Parents should also be hard-headed about at what age their children get a mobile phone and join social networking groups. Mobile phones are not only expensive and take time away from interacting with friends face-to-face, they can also be used for cyber bullying. While playground bullying has been around for years, and is more obvious and easier to deal with, cyber bullying often happens without parents or teachers knowing about it. Given the technology, cyber bullying can also be like an infection that spreads quickly across the mobile network or internet and the victim is often powerless to deal with or control it.

There is no doubt that technology is a daily part of our lives and that it brings many benefits. At the same time, there are harmful consequences. Children have a very versatile, powerful and cheap computer with them all day, every day - it sits on their shoulders and it's called a brain.

Make sure they use it.

This is an extract from Educating Your Child ... it's not rocket science! by Kevin Donnelly (Connorcourt, $19.95).