Screens Challenge Children's Mind Set

Sara Dewitt, Children Media Expert at TED, yield a seminar on how technology can improve a child’s learning ability; “DeWitt envisions a future where we're excited to see kids interacting with screens and shows us exciting ways new technologies can actually help them grow, connect and learn” (TED). By using new technologies, children may improve the way they learn.  Dewitt, wanted to grab her audience attention by making a parallel between parents using their phone devices, verses their children using new technology. Dewitt adds, “within the first five minutes of waking up, 40 percent of Americans look at their phones […], they look at their phone 50 times during the day. Grownups consider this device to be a necessity.” In today society parent’s do not consider the affects phones have on them. There was a turning point in her presentation, she wanted the audience to see what would happen if you were to put a phone in a three-year-old hand, the child becomes excited and anxious. However, the parent becomes worried and frighten of the device. Parents become worried that new technologies will control the children’s mindset, and keep them from getting up and moving.

Dewitt portrays that parents fear technology is disrupting their children’s childhood. She argues that parent’s views on phones may hurt the child growth, but she introduces a strategy that screens can get their children up and moving, “they have the power to tell us more about what a child is learning than a standardized test can” (Dewitt). Her thesis of this study is that screens can prompt better communication skills between parents and their kids. She used great examples in her presentation to support her argument. Dewitt’s first study and interaction were with a three-year-old named Maria. Maria has never seen a computer or knew how to use it, the first thing Dewitt thought her was how to use the mouse and keyboard. Maria began to move the mouse across the screen and stopped on the letter “X” for the Owl. The Owl lifted his wing and waved at her. Maria became excited, she dropped the mouse, leaped up and began to wave back. Dewitt stated, “Her connection to that character was visceral. This wasn't a passive screen experience. This was a human experience. And it was exactly appropriate for a three-year-old” (Dewitt). During the presentation, there was no question asked, but she drew her audience attention in closer by using prompts. She showed how technology is positive in children’s lives.

In today society parent faced three common fears: screens are passive, video games have a bad influence, and screens can isolate kid’s interactions with parents. Dewitt used examples to support her facts against these three fears. For example, with the support of a software, the screen camera could capture a kid pretending to be a bat. Dewitt was using this simulation to show how kids loved seeing themselves on-screen with wings, and how screens are not passive. Kids were able to remember bats habitat lifestyle the way they sleep and eat. This software also allowed the children to view other species with wings habitats and lifestyle, “the digital technology prompted embodied learning that kids can now take out into the world” (Dewitt). The second fear parents have about screens are that video gaming distract their child learning ability. Dewitt argues that game developers could learn more about a player’s skill by looking at data to see where the child paused the game, where they made several mistakes before finding the right answer. The reasoning for the method was to take a toolset and apply it to a child academic learning, “in Boston, WGBH, created a series of Curious George games focused on math. And researchers came in and had 80 preschoolers play these games. They then gave all 80 of those preschoolers a standardized math test” (Dewitt). The game was helping the child learn some key skills. They used this simulation to predict a child math scores based on playing the Curious George game. According to Dewitt, “the team that did this study believes that games like these can teach us more about a child's cognitive learning than a standardized test can” (Dewitt). Down below is a chart: The first chart is a subset standardized child math scores. The second chart is the computer prediction of the children’s math score after playing “Curious George games”. The games were not built as an assessment but a team who did these studies can teach us a child cognitive learning.

The third reason isolates kid’s interactions with parents. Dewitt uses a scenario in her presentation, “parent, and you need 25 minutes of uninterrupted time to get dinner ready. And in order to do that, you hand a tablet to your three-year-old” (Dewitt). This is where parents feel guilty of giving their child the tablet. They do not know what the child might do to it. Later, in the presentation, she said the parent received a text message saying your child just matched five rhyming words. This is the moment where parents should interact with their child at the dinner table, and ask them words that rhyme.

 The act of talking to kids about their media can be incredibly powerful. During her speech she did very little pacing and moved every ten minutes, but she kept her audience engaged by using examples. When she brought her personal life into her presentation she took the audience down a path. She also used little a humor as she compared the interaction with her four-year-old, “Were you playing a car game earlier today? And Benjamin perked up and said, ‘Yes! And did you see that I made my car out of a pickle? It was really hard to open the trunk’” (Dewitt). She was not suggesting all social media is great for kids, but they are legitimate reasoning why parents should allow their kids to use the screens more often. She asked several questions:

1.      What if games could reduce testing time in the classroom?

2.       What if they could reduce testing anxiety?

3.      How could they give teachers snapshots of insight to help them better focus their individualized learning?

Finally, I was engaged with Sara Dewitt’s presentation and her remarks made me think more. I’m not a parent, but I do have nieces, nephews, and cousins who are six to ten years old. I thought phones were very disruptive. Once I watched this video, I have a different outlook on children using technology to improve their growth and learning. However, it is important that parents interact with their children, while or after using technology, to improve the child’s   learning ability. Dewitt used an example, to show how she engaged with her son. The more question she asked about his car made out a pickle, it kept him thinking on ways to improve his car. Children are the future and they can teach others something new, “but when we fixate on our fears about it, we forget a major point, and that is, that kids are living in the same world that we live in” (Dewitt). This is the world where Americans check their phones more than 50 times a day. We must have a positive outlook on technology when it comes to children using screens to learn more.

Thank you.

https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_dewitt_3_fears_about_screen_time_for_kids_and_why_they_re_not_true/transcript#t-601181