by Stephanie Brown*
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center promotes advancement in children’s learning through digital media.
Their recent research involving a study of more than 800 parents of children ages 3 through 10 exposed how parents all over the country feel about educating their children in the face of technology. The results from this research were complied into their “Families matter: Designing media for a digital age” report.
Some of the key findings include:
- Institutional and cultural factors as well as parents’ personal histories shape children’s experiences with digital media.
- A majority of parents would rather share “traditional” media activities with their kids.
- Most parents believe computer-based activities are the most productive and beneficial type of media for a young child’s learning, while mobile phones are seen as least worthy for learning.
- Parents worry about the way digital media and kids…mainly that children’s physical health, safety and privacy, and face-to-face interaction development are being affected. Call it old-fashioned, but face-to-face communication is still vital in developing strong interpersonal skills and something digital media can’t offer.
- Virtually two-thirds of parents limit their kids’ media use on a situational basis.
- How do you feel about kids and technology?
This is Parents as Teachers 