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technology

12 Mar

Screen Time and Childhood

Jennifer Rogers by Jennifer Rogers | Montessori Blog
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Fourteen years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement addressing children’s screen time that created a media hubbub. The statement was weak and ineffective. The ruckus was in grand disproportion to the Academy’s ho-hum recommendation that parents “avoid television for children under the age of two years.” It generated no positive results. Screen time for all children continues to increase. Parents still consider the television a member of the family. Mobile apps are every parent’s new best friend.

© MariaMontessori.com
© MariaMontessori.com

Parents now assume screen time is an important element in early childhood development. Only 14% of parents remember their pediatricians giving any advice about media use, despite the Academy’s 2011 reassertion of their policy. Pediatricians know parents quit listening to that message more than a decade ago. Our best educators worry about the influence of unregulated technology use on the growth of young minds, wonder at the obvious but under-reported connections between screen time and the deterioration of attention. They know they cannot hold the attention of children raised on two-second sound bites.

Children spend an average of five to seven hours every day in front of a screen. The only activity that occupies more time for children is sleeping. These same young kids are experiencing speech and language delays, and chronic attention problems. Literacy is becoming increasingly hard to achieve, creativity rare. Though there is little research to establish connections between so many young children’s failure to thrive and their over-exposure to technologies, the conclusion that screen time is corroding young minds seems ridiculously obvious to most teachers.

The AAP’s most recent research indicates that a shocking 90% of children younger than two watch some form of electronic media. By age three, one third of these kids have televisions in their bedrooms. Modern parents consider one of the most unpredictably dangerous influences on the lives of young children to be a peacekeeper, a “safe” activity for their children.

Well-educated, upwardly mobile parents fancy educational technology for kids. Lower income families use the television as a babysitter. The New York Times calls this the “app gap.” The Times points out that both sets of parents are thumbing their noses at the AAP, relying on screens to occupy their children.

The Mayo Clinic’s available information for parents acknowledges a lack of definitive research, but links too much screen time to behavioral problems, irregular sleep, poor academic performance and, most convincingly, obesity. Most major public health organizations have described obesity in epidemic terms. Screen time is obviously not the only cause of obesity, but experts consider it a primary gateway to things like soda pop, sedentary lifestyles and high-fat snack foods.

The effects of screen time on the health of families are easy to visualize. They are All American images: An overweight family gathered around the television, eating separate, high-fat meals, sharing two-liter bottles of soda. Young children eating finger-foods in their car seats, mesmerized by the screens attached to their parents’ head rests. Bug-eyed youngsters passing time on iPads and cell phones loaded with mobile apps.

The AAP, the National Institute of Health and the Mayo Clinic urge parents to limit and plan screen time, and strongly discourage allowing children to eat in front of a screen. Do not allow children to have televisions or computers in their bedrooms, they say. Do not leave the television on throughout the day. Make choices. Plan outdoor activities. Turn the television off for a day. Though teachers know parents are not following the AAP guidelines, they know less screen time for longer would build a healthier child.

A paltry 10% of parents follow the AAP guidelines. There are apps available for kids so young they are more inclined to chew the cell phone. Fishing poles and family meals are Norman Rockwell, retro visions of a time that may be forever gone. The thought of commuting or eating or falling asleep without a screen makes most parents shudder.

Teachers do not have spare time and money to sponsor research. Studies into the effects of screen time on children will probably always be poorly funded and inherently limited in scope and value. Even the best studies cannot compare a mature adult with the person she might have become, had she enjoyed a different upbringing. When a child is diagnosed with hyperactivity or an attention deficit, parents can get a prescription with relative ease. But they cannot get a do-over. When an adolescent commits an act of violence, it’s too late to turn off the video games.

Good parenting has never been easy. Bad parenting has never been easier. Screen time seems like a safe, peaceful, educational way for parents to entertain their children. Teachers of every age group know we will have to change our approaches to remain relevant and keep kids engaged in learning. Good teachers of the world will continue to dream of every child reaching his or her potential. Good parents of the world will dream too, resisting, adjusting and adapting to protect our children from the influences most of the world has accepted without question.

Filed Under: Montessori Blog Tagged With: attention, montessori, parents, research, screen, sleep, technology, time

02 Oct

Montessori 2.0

Jim Fitzpatrick by Jim Fitzpatrick | Montessori Blog
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There are many IT or “tech-y” Montessori materials available and being used every day in and out of classrooms, often times unknowingly. “Google it” is now part of our culture. Google is a Montessori material (or, at least, was developed by Montessorians Brin and Page). Amazon is more than a river; it’s from a Montessorian, too!

But what about today’s techy doo-dahs and young children? An increasing number of apps targeted at young children are in the digital storefront; is there value for them? Does your 3 year-old have to have their own iPad? What would pioneering educator Dr. Maria Montessori think about these doo-dahs? Now that I think about it, what did my children play with in the car? It seems the newest source for quiet passengering today is a smart phone, especially those with video capability…

“Mom! The DVD is stuck!”

“Honey, that’s not a DVD. It’s streaming video. We must be out of the hotspot!”

“Mom! Turn around!”

Montessori classroom materials (the ‘real’ ones that are expensive and finely crafted and have been around for more than 100 years) provide an experience meant for collaborative learning within the classroom setting. But don’t even consider piling the Pink Tower into your child’s car seat, and the Red Rods are too long for most fuel-efficient cars. But the digital versions of these educational tools fit into your child’s palm. That means Montessori ‘materials’ are available all the time, even in the car on the way home!

I actually think there’s a Montessori approach for children to experience Montessori “apps.” Some traditional Montessorians might gasp at the thought. I’m a traditional Montessorian and I’m suggesting that when in traffic, when in line, when your child is desperately seeking something to busy themselves, that if digital Red Rods capture their attention, or the tracing of digital sandpaper numerals fixes their concentration until you reach your destination, what’s the harm? If a Montessori-style “app” keeps them focused until you’re again available, might they learn something? Might there be some value? What would Dr. Montessori say?

Do today’s techy doo-dahs have a place in a traditional Montessori classroom? For adolescents, yes. For primary level three and four year-olds, no. Montessori adolescent programs often feature and utilize Smart Boards, iPads, laptops, and hand-held devices as commonly as paper and pencils. For now, those digital “accessory” learning tools are not expected in the younger children’s Montessori classrooms. But a surprising number of young children (under six years) now have access to their parent’s equipment at home, where the one-on-one nature of the techy doo-dahs makes for a better learning experience than in a Montessori classroom.

The Montessori preschool classroom may not be the ideal place for techie doo-dahs, but on the way home in their car seat when there’s traffic and they want to be doing what their older brother or sister are doing? Then, let’s consider the possibilities.

As for Dr. Maria Montessori, herself? She’d be tweeting. She’d be all over today’s techy doo-dahs, presenting lectures and streaming information everywhere. She was a pioneer 100 years ago and she would be today. In fact, here we are now, using IT experiences to share Montessori’s vision for children and their families. Welcome to Montessori 2.0!

Filed Under: Montessori Blog Tagged With: advice, parenting, primary, technology

23 Nov

Montessori Apps – Help or Hindrance?

Marcy Hogan by Marcy Hogan | Montessori Blog
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There has been much talk recently about Montessori-inspired applications for devices like Apple’s iPhone and iPad – specifically about the apps recently created by Montessorium.  Some Montessorians are enraged, feeling that the apps violate the very foundation of Montessori pedagogy.  Others love them, and claim that if Dr. Montessori were alive today she would use an iPad in the classroom with the children.

Dr. Montessori was very clear that the first 6 years of life are a time for children to explore the world around them.  Young children develop an understanding of their environment by having concrete, hands-on experiences with real objects and using their senses (feeling, touching, holding, seeing, smelling, etc) to take it all in.  Dr. Montessori spoke of how the hand is the tool of the mind, guiding it through learning and exploration.

The simple truth is the manipulation of a virtual object through a computer screen, even via your fingertips, cannot compare to the visceral experience of feeling the real object itself.

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Montessorium has released two apps for use by young children: Intro to Letters (based on the Sandpaper Letters classroom material) and Intro to Math (based on the Sandpaper Numbers and the Number Rods).  The Intro to Letters app is very similar to the Sandpaper Letters activity; the screen looks like the Sandpaper Letters material, it shows the child how to trace the letter with his fingers and says the sound the letter makes, and has the added features of allowing the child to record his own voice pronouncing the letter sounds and repeating it back to him.  However, one of the most important features of the actual material is the way Dr. Montessori designed the letter tablets with sandpaper. As the child traces the material in the classroom, he very clearly feels the difference between the rough shape of the letter, and the smooth surface of the wooden tablet upon which it is fixed.  This essential tactile experience provides both a control of error and helps to affix the shape in the child’s mind and muscle memory (which aids in the indirect preparation for writing).  Unfortunately, a touch screen does not provide texture, meaning a significant portion of the intended sensorial experience of this material is missing.

Similarly issues exist with the Intro to Math app. Not only does it lack the texture of the sandpaper numbers used in the classroom to introduce children to number symbols, but it also fails to replicate the experience of physically handling the Number Rods.  These rods were purposefully designed to be a certain shape and length.  As the child carries each rod, from the smallest one rod (10cm long) to the longest ten rod (1 meter long), he notices the difference in weight and length.  For many of the children, the ten rod is as tall as they are– imagine how impressive that is to them!  By handling the Number Rods the children gain a concrete, physical sense of number quantity and the contrast between smaller numbers (shorter, lighter) and larger ones (heavier, longer).  Again, this is impossible to reproduce in an app.

If you do choose to use these apps with your children (and especially if you plan for your child to attend a Montessori school) I strongly suggest you not introduce the apps until after your child has mastered the materials in the classroom.  Once a child plays with an app that looks like the Sandpaper Letters, it may not seem novel or exciting to him when he sees it on the shelf at school; his interest in the actual work may wane.   In a Montessori classroom, children work from the concrete to the abstract.  I fear that exposing young children to virtual Montessori materials may hamper this important developmental process.

I’m curious to hear what other Montessorians think.  Are these apps useful? When is it appropriate to introduce children to this sort of technology?

Filed Under: Montessori Blog Tagged With: home environment, parents, technology, toys

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