As President Obama discusses our State of the Union with a much needed focus on innovation, education and investment in America's future, let's focus on one area that is ripe for radical change: how digital media can be used for education and hands-on, lifelong learning beginning right from the start.
We need to focus more attention on the potential long-term effects of a major investment in the early years, especially in building an entirely new learning equation for the children who will graduate in 2025. New studies and stronger investments in children under 10 are needed because relatively little research or breakthrough program development has been done on the preschool and middle-childhood periods, which scholars in child development, behavioral and cognitive psychology, and neuroscience have pointed to as critical for all that follows.
Last month, we released a new report intended to get this conversation started. Focused on the explosion of mobile media in young children's lives, Learning: Is there an app for that? found that young children love smart phones, can navigate their use seamlessly and can be engaged by their parents in playtime activities just about anytime, anywhere. This study also found that parents are still skeptical about the educational value of apps, even though well-designed ones can teach key literacy skills, especially to those children who ordinarily struggle. In fact, some of the apps tested for the recent study gave a very significant, albeit short term boost to children's vocabulary learning.
Right now, experts, parents and educators are confused by the aging down of the media blizzard: can they control the wave of digital input while preparing students for success? While experts such as the American Academy of Pediatrics caution against media consumption in the early years, most parents are trying to combine good sense with the practical realities of modern life and informal experimentation. Like most adults immersed in our "digital century," parents are modeling a predictable response: if you can't beat them, join them!
Most parents of kids under six are engaged in what cultural anthropologists and media observers are calling the "pass-back" effect -- those precious moments of relief when a parent hands their digital device to a child on a car ride, standing in the check-out line, or at the doctor's office. Many are engaged in role reversals as they learning from their children how to play video games or check-in on Facebook. Are these new interactions a key learning moment to savor and support or a profound waste of time?
Parenting and early education challenges in the iTot age are even more important when viewed in a larger context: nearly one-third of all young children in the U.S. are, according to kindergarten teachers, not ready for school when they enter. Moreover, less than 15 percent of African-American children are proficient in reading by the end of the fourth grade -- a scandalous data point that reinforces the fact that the U.S. track record in overall achievement has been standing still in the past two decades while other nations have soared past us. In fact, one of the key findings of a report to be released by the Sesame Workshop and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center this March suggests that while the technology gap between low and middle income children is closing, a new type of "participation gap" -- perhaps even more worrisome -- is growing. Children raised in lower income households are more likely to fall further behind their wealthier peers on both traditional and "new literacy skills" as they use less sophisticated modes of inquiry when they use digital resources. These skills can be modeled and taught by engaged parents, well trained teachers and other caregivers.
A good part of the lack of progress can be attributed to the fact that we, as a nation, have simply failed to keep up with effective ways to improve classroom productivity. Most educators lack strong guidance from research on how best to use, limit or combine current approaches with the new technologies.
They are sadly locked in a time warp. For instance, most preschools do not use technology widely or wisely. Many have lacked the resources to modernize. But let me be clear: this is not the practitioners' fault. Usable information about the benefits and pratfalls of modern technologies is scarce and the profession is seriously undervalued.
The recent studies and the disappointing lack of progress against national education goals leads me to suggest several steps President Obama, national and state leaders should consider to jump-start innovation in early learning and development. Substantial federal and state investments in the past decade have led to only sluggish gains in early learning benchmarks. It is time for our nation to seriously assess and integrate the digital tools and new teaching practices that have the potential to promote the types of skills and knowledge demanded by employers in the 21st century. Digital media, well deployed, can have enormous educational impact almost immediately. Over the next five years, let us:
When it comes to the digital environment that permeates younger and younger children's lives today, we live in the age of the Jetsons. But when it comes to our understanding the impact of ubiquitous digital habits on children's learning, our research enterprise is more like the Flintstones! As the President will argue this week, ongoing American global leadership requires a renewal of our long admired creativity, communication and innovation skills. A new, more balanced diet, leveraging the untapped potential of digital media, can help jump start the effort to ensure a brighter future for all of our children.
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I also appreciate that these issues are complex and that we're talking about more than just plopping kids down in front of digital screens. This is why I'm so grateful that we have professionals like you and institutions like the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Street to lead rigorous, research-based innovation initiatives, and to provide the thought leadership that we need to navigate these issues.
Thank you for all you do, Michael, and please, please keep it up!
Yes, the "pass-back effect" is very real, so helping parents understand the importance of quality interactions with their preschoolers is vital. (Many preschools are struggling with parents who won't hang up the phone long enough to say hello and give/receive a hug from the preschool child they are picking up at the end of a long day.) Let's get our children well-grounded in the actual world around them before we thrust them into the virtual world. Check out Tony Wanger's book The Global Achievement Gap about what our children will need as they grow up in the twenty-first century. Even the high-tech, global industries want people who can problem-solve, collaborate and have curiosity and imagination. They also have to know how to "read" people and ask the right questions. When you are young, these skills come from interacting with others - not from screens.
I'm a big fan of yours, your work on Empowered By Play and a huge proponent of developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood settings and child-initiated play. I think it's important to note that Mikael's article doesn't advocate for increasing screen-time or abandoning established practice in early childhood settings. I don't think there's any hint of relegating yourg children to learn through media and technology alone or in a vacuum. As a matter of fact, I believe Michael and the Cooney Center advocate for high-qualiÂty,child-direÂcted interactions with interactive media under the supportive guidance of well-trainÂed adults. Michael makes a case for empowering parents and educators with appropriate training.
As an early childhood educator for nearly 30 years, I have been frustrated by the commonly held notion in the ECE community that technology and media are diametrically opposed to developmentally appropriate practice and high-quality interactions. It's this resistance that keeps us stuck in the dark ages falling further and further behind. The "actual world around"preschool children to which you referred in your comment, is, in fact, laced with technology and media. Resisting technology by turning our backs in the name of play is simply counterproductive and ineffective. Technology is not going away. Doesn't it make more sense to seize the opportunity to combine our understanding of best practice in child development with the opportunities offered by media and technology, rather than insisting that ignoring them is better?
I agree that we must capitalize on the "pass back" moments and the precious moments we have with young children in the classroom. However, I believe one of the keys to advancement for the iTot generation is a call to action to developers to collaborate with the best minds in early childhood education to develop developmentally appropriate applications that develop critical and higher order thinking, rather than focusing on the lower hanging fruit, which is rote skill development. Looking back on the history of educational (edutainment) software development,especially throughout the 80s and 90s it seems that there was a dearth of great and meaningful titles for early learners.I assume the reason for the focus on entertainment value over critical thinking is because it was easier to crank out volumes of commercial-grade software than software than it is to develop deep, complex applications. Today's mobile applications offer new opportunities to developers. I hope we will see new depth and complexity in the applications developed for young children, their parents, and their teachers in the iTot generation. I know you are on the forefront of the movement to make a difference in this regard. Thank you for your work and your efforts to inform and educate.
- Karla (www.totthoughts.com)