Many parents provide their children with a range of technology (smart phone, tablet, desktop computer…) in the belief that they are investing in their education. In my view, this is largely self delusional. The reality is that much of the time that children spend on their gadgets is brain-numbing game-playing and using social media, neither of which offers them any real educational benefit.
I’ve always been a bit of a gadget person and love messing about with computers, tablets and calculators. As an educator, I have been excited by the opportunities that these magical, electronic boxes can bring to maths learning. In my work at the Open University I was usually at the front of the queue when it came to incorporating into students’ learning the use of mathematical apps, spreadsheets, calculators and the like. Indeed, many students have reported that they have enjoyed these parts of their courses and gained a good deal of benefit from them.
But these courses were written for adults. Is the same thing true for children’s learning? Some years ago, I would have said ‘Yes’, but over the past couple of years I have come around to the view that this is probably not the case. First, there is the obvious concern that staring at a screen for 4 or 5 hours a day will probably dull a child’s brain, It will also prevent them from taking exercise and will discourage them from talking to people face-to-face. But I’m also dubious about whether the much hyped learning benefits really happen in practice.
 |
Source: Ofcom Report 2015
|
So here’s my problem with this explosion of technology inside children’s bedrooms. We shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that spending a lot of screen time with a computer is equivalent to ‘real learning’. If you put a tablet or smart phone into a child’s hands and ask yourself what they are more likely to do with it – practice their maths skills or play Angry Birds? Well, you know the answer to this.
So what IS ‘real learning’? There are many elements to this but here are five features that I particularly value. Helping children to:
- engage with ideas and concepts at a deep level;
- bring two or more different ideas together to reach a new conclusion;
- take an idea learned in one context and adapt it to apply to a new context;
- develop problem-solving skills;
- be intellectually curious.
Where technology becomes of real benefit to learners is when it is used to support these learning skills, rather than being a goal in itself.
One consoling thought with children spending so much screen time is that perhaps, along the way, they are developing useful keyboard skills and a confidence with the computer environment. Well, this may have been true once, but children pick these skills up very quickly. Also, as technology gets better, it becomes much easier to master, so skill and confidence development become non-issues.
The reality is that, left unsupervised, too much of the screen time that children spend on their computers involves game-playing or social media, whatever they may say to the contrary. For quite a number of children, this can become so addictive that they will strongly resist attempts to remove or limit their use.
These and many other reasons for doubting the usefulness of technology as the great panacea for education can be found in a new book by computer whizz, Kentaro Toyama, called Geek Heresy. Toyama suggests that:
’What’s not being taught through exposure to technology are things like the basic mathematics that you need to become a good engineer or the writing and communication skills you need to become a good journalist.’
Based on his experience of testing out technology initiatives in Indian schools, he argues that technology-based initiatives are often successful in pilot schools when the exciting new ideas are first introduced. Here, the teachers are well supported by the researchers and are excited to be part of a cutting-edge project. But too often it all tends to fall apart when the same approach is offered to ordinary schools, where the teachers are unsupported and where they may have a very different agenda about educational priorities.
Postscript
In this post I suggested that unsupervised technology offers few benefits for children's learning. However, I still strongly believe that, when carefully planned and properly integrated into their learning, technology can have a very positive effect. I'll be looking at some examples of this in future posts, starting with an exciting and growing feature of children's education – a new topic on the curriculum called coding.
If you are interested in reading more about these issues, have a look here in my website, www.MathinPictures.co.uk.
