Childhood in the Digital Age (Week 3) #FLdigitalkid15

There are constant references in the media to the “fact” that digital media are “rewiring children’s brains”. Journalist Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows has been particularly influential in this context. He discusses changes in the brain, and how, as a child, he used to get lost in the twists and turns of a book, but now “can’t concentrate” as he clicks among the data his brain has become hungry for. As his old computer turned him into a word processor, so the new machine has made him into a high-speed data-processing machine.5 Technology certainly does make it possible for us to change our practices, but I am a notorious “polymath”, and a good book or film, or even (dare I say) the writing process, can draw me in for several hours, so I’m not convinced by his arguments.

Newspaper headlines have promoted the idea that the internet is changing our brains, typically for the worse. In the Pew 2012 “Hyper-connected” survey, a number of experts highlighted how every activity we undertake will affect our brain functioning or our thinking, but that doesn’t make it inherently bad. Communications consultant Stowe Boyd said:

The reason that kids are adapting so quickly to social tools online is because they align directly with human social connection, much of which takes place below our awareness. Social tools are being adopted because they match the shape of our minds, but yes, they also stretch our minds based on use and mastery, just like martial arts, playing the piano, and badminton.

Blogger, journalist, and communications professor Jeff Jarvis said we are experiencing a transition from a textual era, so we are thinking differently, but that doesn’t mean that the physiology of our brains is different:

Before the press, information was passed mouth-to-ear, scribe-to-scribe; it was changed in the process; there was little sense of ownership and authorship. In the five-century-long Gutenberg era, text did set how we see our world: serially with a neat beginning and a defined end; permanent; authored. Now, we are passing out of this textual era and that may well affect how we look at our world. That may appear to change how we think. But it won’t change our wires.6

Video: Your Brain and Video Games

See Daphne Bavelier:
[ted id=1618]

Video gaming is pervasive, but the average age of a gamer is 33, not 8! Parents worry about the amount of time that their children are playing games, but wouldn’t have similar worries for kids with their heads in Shakespeare or Sudoku [because it’s ‘educational’].

Testing out some of the ‘Friday night pub conversations’ in the lab –

• Extensive game players have increasingly good vision
• Action video gamers have an ability to track objects well (6-7, rather than 3-4)
• Gamers are better at multi-tasking (can see changes in the attention areas of the brain)
• Not all multi-tasking is equal – those using a range of media have much poorer attention spans – so need care with ‘comprehensive’ statements.
• Those who think they are good at multi-tasking are often surprised at how poor they are.
• Like wine, there are poor uses, but the right quality in good doses can be good ‘for health’.
• Seeking to use lab results to learn how to use games well for learning and brain retraining… but having to fight with a games industry that is [solely seeking ££?]

Article: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

See Raise Smart Kid website article The Positive & Negative of Video Games – an extensive list of pros/cons.

Discussion: Your View on Video Games

• In your experience is there a link between video game playing and negative behaviours, such as violence, aggression and social isolation?
• Being more of an optimist, what do you feel are the benefits of playing video games?

Look up Susan Greenfield and Neil Levy for more on videogames.

Great range of comments re which direction does negative behaviour flow – is the game the cause, or are those who behave that way attracted to aggressive games? If time is spent away from games are there other factors that may be improving behaviour, e.g. spending more face-to-face time with others?

Video: The Strengths of New Technology

Paul Howard-Jones, educational psychologist and optimist about digital technology – seeing it as reshaping neural connections in the brain & strengthening acquisition of new skills.

• Games are teaching us: improved visual motor response, improvements in switching attention, even improvements in being able to not be distracted
• People haven’t really understood the underlying processes of ‘gamification’, and often when educational materials have been ‘gamed’, children don’t understand why they are not ‘fun’ & don’t work as learning tools
• The importance of rewards/dopamine, and the uncertainty of rewards – lead to engagement and excitement. [Reminds me of Martin Saunders recent piece in Christian Today]
• Importance of sleep & nutrition, in which technology/caffeine can be disruptive.
• Paul thinks about how he manages things with his own children – the younger are restricted to before 7pm, but older children are learning to manage their own communications/with friends so is more NEGOTIATION.

Article: Prescribing Video Games for ADHD

See McKnight and Davies, 2013 for examples of how technology is improving life for those with additional needs. Studies have shown that game-playing with children with ADHD has led to improved success in engaging in clinical support, and also increased ability to stay on task – but with a warning that all games are not created equal!

Article: Costs & Benefits

The hope is that people have learned that technology can be used in innovative/creative ways to be positive.

Next week “In the final week, you will look to the future for the digital child as a learner and what the learning environment might look like for them.”