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Do Tablets Help Children Learn?
hypnosec writes "With the wide array of electronic devices available in our everyday lives, it appears that children have formed an attachment to a different kind of toy. According to the latest survey, 77 per cent of polled US, UK parents believe that iPads and other tablets are good educational tools that boost kids' creativity. Meanwhile, researchers in this field explain that it is a matter of balance — and a child's access to tablets and other similar electronic devices should be monitored. Specialists warn that using tablets in excess could cause attention deficit disorder and even autism, particularly at a very young age."
Do they help us learn? Well, it depends on the software.
Are they part of the Star Trek future-utopia? Hell yes.
Cell phones...tablets...we're well on our way to holodecks, and I'll be damned if we stop now.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
The real question is, is our children learning?
Yes, and too much television will rot your brain, give you cancer, and ruin your eyes.
Tablets: They're new, they're (a little) different, they'll have lots of critics and fear mongers.
As for "causing ADD/Autism", I only see that happening if they're used as the ultimate babysitter (kinda like TV 30 years ago.) If a kid's whole day, every day, consists of 99% tablet interaction and 1% ducking criticism from parents and other adults, yeah, they're going to come out a little bent, at least compared to kids who didn't grow up that way.
Anybody still go to a school that forbids simple +-x/ calculators in advanced math and science courses? This, too, shall pass.
I wish people would stop making the assumption that there is only one way to learn something. It implies that there is one superior form of learning and a bunch of inferior ones. One problem of one-to-many teaching is that it must use a learning style which is effective to the broadest audience, which can (and usually does) mean that the learning style used is not the optimal one for some, if not most, of the audience. Another is that not all material is equal; You do not teach math the same way as you do phy ed; The goals are different, and in fact the areas of the brain targeted for development are different. Radically so.
So to ask a question "Do tablets help children learn?" is disengenuous at best. They will help in some situations. They will not help in all situations.
With that out of the way, I have some personal experience worth sharing. My sister is age 15 and has struggled with reading and math; Her verbal vocabulary vastly outstrips her written vocabulary. I purchased an iPad 2 for her this christmas (not cheap!) after several previous failed attempts to get her interested in reading. Since then, her reading comprehension has improved, and I believe access to a tablet device can be credited with that, because of it's interactive and hands-on nature. It is a more intuitive design for written material than a computer, and it is in a more accessible format. As well, because she can just swipe her finger over a word and get a definition and a spoken example of the word, it helps associate the written form of the word to the spoken one. I think tablets are very good for certain specific cases like this; and could be very beneficial for people with specific learning disorders.
But I do not suggest everyone buy a tablet for their child (or 'a' child, as the case may be!).
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We monitor all of the "screen time" our kids get. Phones, computer, TV, DS and Leapsters can be played with or watched for a while (usually about one hour a day). We also don't allow screen time before lunch and make sure they also have physical activity, read books, play games (card, board, puzzles), Legos, ride bikes, go to the park, go outside (sledding, swingset, bubbles, hula hoop) and do organized lessons (dancing, swimming). We also take family vacations at a lake where we do swimming, fishing, canoeing, tubing, hiking and other outdoor stuff. Last year I think they went four days without TV. Sometimes they whine that they want to watch something else but once they get involved in something new they generally forget about it.
We'd never just park them with a tablet and let them "learn" that way. They still have a lot of real-world stuff to figure out before they can spend significant time in electronic land.
"Specialists warn that using tablets in excess could cause attention deficit disorder and even autism, particularly at a very young age.""
Specialist in what, making scary shit up about technology?
The tablet is a window to the world. Parents should control it, but that's about it. If it gets the child active in something, then it's good. The fact that it's a tablet is secondary.
I ma from the era where for entertainment kids through rocks at each other. i.e. every generation prior to 1995.
My kids are very much in the internet generation. And they can do and learn far more then I had the opportunity to.
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I personally work in education in a fairly large school district.. Whenever people discuss this topic, they tend to focus on the wrong things in my opinion. What we need to focus on: 1) Is this a matter of taking a technology that was developed for personal entertainment and trying to make it conform to "serious education". 2) If kids can't write/express succinctly on paper or read a book, what makes you think that some shiny $500 tablet will? 3) Total cost of the device, not just initial.. you look at your average tablet plus e-books, plus apps and you have a very expensive alternative to plain ole notebooks, pencils, and textbooks 4) Management.. Schools quickly learn that just giving these things away to students quickly amounts to a management nightmare they didn't foresee.. Everything from warranty repair, broken glass, application deployment/updates and acceptable content are only possible with a well thought out plan, and school-wide participation at all levels..
Stop being myopic. Please THINK.
Let me twist that around:
How does connect the dots with a crayon increase creativity more than an iPad where they can learn to play music, finger paint, and read.
It's what you DO. You sound like those people that complain TV is bad and then go off to read a 10 cent romance novel.
It's a tool. Use it as such.
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More generally - is there anything they aren't blaming autism on these days?
let's go further. is autism an indicator of our evolution? is autism a natural progression of our minds mixing with technology before we merge with it a la kurzweil-style? the borg seem pretty autistic.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
As I've pointed out in other threads, I work in a school where we're slashing budgets but somehow can afford to buy ipads for all the classrooms. Sadly, the ipad isnt well integrated into the curriculum, there isnt an IT strategy or plan nor people to do something if there were one. Waste of money.
Creativity? Sure. We had etch-a-sketches for that sort of thing, and play doh and finger paints. Seems they're just electronic versions of the same.
The company that did the survey, KidsIndustries, offers their marketing service "to ensure your brand is front of mind with your consumer". So quick, run out and buy several iPads; everybody knows they make your kid smarter.
We observe clear addictive behavior in adults who use the Internet to consume media. Being able to carry the Internet with you on your phone or tablet obviously exaggerates these effects. So you really should be asking yourself, does it make sense to not only expose, but force, children to use devices that clearly lead to addictive patterns of behavior when used by adults?
I own a tablet, and I find that I can no longer entertain myself effectively by reading a book. Instead of grabbing a book I impulsively reach for the tablet. Instead of sitting down for two hours to work on something in a concentrated way, I find myself becoming distracted regularly and goofing off with the tablet. My wife and I both exhibit these addictions and we will often sit on opposite sides of the house, isolated, browsing random shit online. Yes, a computer can do all these things but you don't sit at a computer 24/7 (well, most people don't). With a phone or tablet it's trivial to carry the addictive substance with you everywhere you go.
I allow my older son to use the tablet for about five minutes per day. And even that is perhaps too much. When it's time to stop, he gets combative and irritable. It reminds me a lot of how I used to behave when I couldn't smoke a cigarette. The only way you could not notice that this is a bad thing is if your head is up your ass.
No, we should not be exposing children to this any more than necessary, and we should definitely not REQUIRE it!
I realize there is software written for tablets (someone linked to many below) which emulate activities such as drawing and painting. The point of this article is that creativity and learning are improved over traditional methods. I doubt that doing things on a tablet is even equivalent to the physical interaction of other methods, let alone superior.
Is a math program better than watching and interacting with a teacher? Are 8 blobs of colored pixels really better than the 5 oranges and 3 apples on the table?
Is drawing (with a 100+ ms latency) better than on a piece of paper? Will a flat glass screen provide the subtle, subconscious insight into texture, shading, pressure, etc that crayons do?
Is a finger painting program provide as meaningful feedback as actually getting paint on your fingers? Just how well can you simulate the color and paper for water-colors?
Humans are social animals that have evolved to use our hands to examine and manipulate our environment. There's a reason smaller children do things like finger paint -- it's a very tactile activity with clear feedback.
Technology has a place in the classroom, of course -- the newfangled school computers I used in my middle school years are what pushed me at CS and programming -- but tablets like the iPad are solutions looking for a problem. That they're failing to find one is why we get these articles claiming they're "better" because, gosh, 77% of adults guts' say so.
You say they're a tool -- okay, nice truism. Please, tell me what tablets do to improve more traditional methods.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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But sadly the problem is that is EXACTLY what often happens, they become fancy electronic babysitters. I have gone in houses where there isn't a single book, not a one, but they make sure the kid has an X360 or PS3 because that keeps little Billy out of their hair.
As for the tablet i don't see anything the tablet could do that a cheap netbook or desktop could do, except maybe cost more. in the end its not about the tech, its about actually stimulating the child's mind, really interacting with them instead of just handing them some more technocrap and sending them to their rooms.
I had mine build their own desktops, showing them along the way what each piece was and explaining how it worked, I loaded up modding tools to show them how code was translated into what they saw on the screen, etc and now while the oldest has many friends that are having to take remedial computer classes he gets extra points being a TA and helping show the others how to properly research on the net. its not the tech, its actually spending time with the kids that counts.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
When I first got into teaching, I got in towards the late-end of a district's adoption into an all "leftist" exploratory K-12 math curriculum. I'm sure most of you are familiar with at least one series that falls into this category. We had "Math Investigations" in grades K-5, "CMP" 6-8, and Core-Plus 9-12. The core concept of this series was that teachers were not supposed to teach rote-learning of math facts. Calculators would supplant that "old-fashioned" method of learning. Kids grew up learning how to "explore" math, rather than memorize addition & multiplication tables, practice procedures repeatedly, and churn out page after page of "drill n' kill" problems.
I got these kids in high school. When we ended Core Plus and reverted back to a traditional textbook, they couldn't do 40% of what you would find in an Algebra I textbook, because they did not have these basic math facts. They couldn't divide, so they couldn't factor. They couldn't calculate powers, so they couldn't understand square roots. They could not see patterns in numbers, because they had never learned to calculate. When they let the calculator do all the calculations, their brain never stopped to watch the patterns that were emerging.
Now we want to give iPads to kindergartners. Has anyone stopped to think about what basic skill sets we'll be depriving these children of that we adults take for granted? The ones we take them for granted because we grew up w/o iPads to impede learning basic skills...skills like social interaction, self regulation, dialog and public speaking... Forgive me, it's been a while since I've studied child psychology, but there's a significant amount of neurological development that occurs in elementary school and continues on though middle and high school. Has anyone really stopped to examine and consider the long-term effects of significant exposure to this technology, especially at such young ages?
I may have grown up with a computer, as well as most slashdot readers out there. But it's mere empirical evidence to say, "Look at me, I turned out fine." (Besides, your concept of "fine" may include living in your parent's basement at the age of 35.) Are there any real studies (rather than some questionable poll) that have examined this subject?
How are they able to get any value out of a computer that you can't compile on?
But sadly the problem is that is EXACTLY what often happens, they become fancy electronic babysitters. I have gone in houses where there isn't a single book, not a one, but they make sure the kid has an X360 or PS3 because that keeps little Billy out of their hair.
Yes, yes. It seems bad parents can use devices too. However, the OP wasn't about bad parenting--more about the usefulness and/or hazards of these new-fangled devices for learning.
As for the tablet i don't see anything the tablet could do that a cheap netbook or desktop could do, except maybe cost more. ...
Obviously, you haven't been paying attention. My first grader is using an app called "Teach Me First Grade". She sits on the couch with me and is still learning to read. She uses her finger to WRITE her answers on the tablet that is accurately interpreted. When she writes a letter or number wrong, the app gives her help on how to write it correctly. Strangely, this sort of thing wasn't as intuitive on my laptop. Compared to a tablet, a laptop is bluky, uncomfortable and requires a level of abstraction (hit key here, comes up there.. slide finger her, mouse moves there) that presents one more barrier to learning. Educationally, the software is excellent and is helping her with addition, subtraction, spelling and sight words -- in addition to honing her ability to print.
There are always those who feel that because something is new and/or different, it can't replace "how I did it, back in the day." I'm not suggesting that all new tech is automatically good but it isn't automatically bad, either. I've been in the educational software industry for over 30 years (TUTOR was my first language after HP BASIC) and have seen tech come and go -- mostly for good reason. The tablets? They're here to stay. What I see being developed really does fulfill much of what was promised so many years ago. They are truly the "flying cars" of education.. and they're here.