Why I Sometimes Hate the Behavioral Sciences

photo by robertnelson

This article about child development and computers popped up into my reader:


Cue eye roll and exasperated sigh. I'm so sick of these studies coming out of the soft sciences that are 100% predictable as well as confuse correlation with causation. Computers don't make kids stupid, use of computer technology not conducive to education and proper development is more likely to do that, but that's just my random shot in the dark theory.

They might as well have created a study about the effects of kids and dilly-dallying, or kids doing just about anything without supervision or structure from a parent or other authority figure.
“Adults may think of computer technology as a productivity tool first and foremost, but the average kid doesn’t share that perception.” Kids in the middle grades are mostly using computers to socialize and play games...
Even if you are an adult who is not tech-savvy and still dazzled by the wonders of the Internet, you'd have to be pretty dense or oblivious to not notice your kid is not using his computer for productivity purposes if his computer time is monitored in a common area of your home. You'd be hard-pressed to confuse video games and chat rooms with an excel spreadsheet or library database. This is the crux of the problem - parents who let computers babysit their kids or mistakenly believe computers are somehow learning tools first and foremost just because they have a hard time using them.

I for one do not plan on letting my kid have his or her own private computer or fancy cell phone. And if any teacher attempts to make students use their cell phones' search function as a classroom learning activity I will quickly petition for their removal for shoddy pedagogical techniques.*

For those of you who might think this is a double standard considering the not-small amount of time I spend blogging, tweeting, and updating my Facebook page, it's not. Mommy, Daddy, and even Grandma get to waste time online since we're all old enough not to be taken advantage of by wackadoo predators and our homework has been all done for a looooong time.

*This is not because I do not think a scholarly rationale for using a cell phone as an educational device (such as using it as an audio or video recording device in a communication arts class) has no merit - but because the applications I have heard of do not seem to optimize learning in ways looking things up in oh, I don't know, books, can.
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2 Comments:

  2. I was recently at a meeting with a principal who was attempting to make her point with a flimsy statistic ("Only 10% of students are actually at their specified grade level"). Then there's Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook)who wants to tell you that teenagers run the (tech-comm) world. Obviously, we've had enough of education stats that tell us nothing and don't address the real problem.

    For the four millionth time, and I know you agree with me here, the internet is not to be blamed for [insert social malady here]. Before term papers could be bought online, somebody was selling them behind the bikesheds. Before Atari, kids were reading comic books. Before everything digital, it existed elsewhere. Kids have always been distracted!
    You can take a child to a library, and they are not going to head straight for Encyclopedia Britannica. Left on their own, you'll find them amongst the comics, superhero novels, and cheat code books.
    I think it's a very good thing for teachers to encourage technology as a research tool, because it will teach children that the very thing they use to yack to their friends with can actually be used for looking up things they didn't know. Imagine!
    When I was a kid, and I asked my parents a question, they would frequently say 'Look it up in the dictionary/encyclopedia'. Now I tell my kids 'Google it'. It's a tool. As long as kids know how to use it - and, yes, actually get outside in nature once in a while - I see no harm.

    However, you're right- it's a matter of balance. I spend most of my waking hours in front of a computer, but thanks to my parents' constant nagging, I also LOVE being outdoors, in the mountains, by a lake, etc.

    And yes, studies need to be more balanced. Hey, they're just scrambling for shock stats to up their readership!
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I'm curious to see what you are thinking...

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