Young Kids Learn Tech Skills Before 'Life Skills'

I guess the comment I placed under the article on toddlers and technology got me thinking ... and I did some research. According to a new ‘Digital Diaries’ study from Internet Security Company AVG,

"Small children today are more likely to navigate with a mouse, play a computer game and increasingly – operate a smartphone – than swim, tie their shoelaces or make their own breakfast."

The AVG Digital Diaries is a series of studies looking at how children's interaction with technology has changed. In one of the studies, researchers polled 2,200 mothers with Internet access and with children aged 2-5 in the U.S., Canada, the EU5 (U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Spain), Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The mothers were given a list of tech skills and a list of life skills and asked which ones their very young children had mastered. Some of the results are as follows:

1. More kids aged 2-5 can play with a smartphone application (19 percent) than tie his or her shoelaces (9 percent). 
2. Almost as many 2-3 year olds (17 percent) can play with a smartphone application as 4-5 year olds (21 percent)
3. There is no tech gender divide between young boys and girls. As many boys (58 percent) as girls (59 percent) can play a computer game or make a mobile phone call (28 percent boys, 29 percent girls)
4. European children aged 2-5 lead their U.S. counterparts in knowing how to make a mobile phone call (44 percent in Italy vs. 25 percent for the U.S.), playing a computer game (70 percent U.K. vs. 61 percent U.S.) and operating a computer mouse (78 percent France vs. 67 percent U.S.)

The study received quite some attention - and criticism.  One of the more recurrent commentaries was that "It's much harder to learn how to swim or learn how to ride a bike than move your wrist or press a button..." and that it requires a different set of skills to successfully ride a bike than to use a computer. 

A more profound study on the use of touch screen technology in early learning, undertaken as part of a study for the U.S. Department of Education Ready to Learn Media Grant, the Michael Cohen Group contends that there is a compelling case for using touch screen devices as learning tools - but the study also places a lot of emphasis on the design of the learning app's that "...is as critical as the platform and needs to be intuitive in order to easily afford access."

According to the study, from a developmental perspective iPad usage can be organized in six ability and preference categories. These categories include: 

1. motor skills
2. approaches to exploration
3. game concept
4. generalization of skills
5. preferences for activities and designs
6. comprehension of App interface

The study makes some recommendations on application design, both from a usability and a content perspective and ends with an interesting overview table, including recommendations.

AVG's Tony Anscombe, meanwhile, recommends finding a healthy equilibrium between tech and tradition, and urges parents to exercise what he calls their "digital responsibility." Anscombe thinks that today's parents "need to look at making sure that we give our children a balanced life and a mix of both life skills and technical skills." I couldn't agree more.

Digital textbooks open a new chapter

Recently, I came across this BBC article on education and ICT. In the article, Gary Eason explores South Korea's (SK) announcement that:

South Korea, one of the world's highest-rated education systems, aims to consolidate its position by digitising its entire curriculum.

By 2015, it wants to be able to deliver all its curriculum materials in a digital form through computers. The information that would once have been in paper textbooks will be delivered on screen.

The arguments of the South Korean Minister of Education to support this initiative is that it will allow students in remote rural areas access to more and better information and that "... allow students to leave behind their heavy backpacks and explore the world beyond the classroom".

South Korea however is not a universal example. The penetration of technology and the ICT skills of SK teenagers should make the transition relatively easy, says the Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development (OECD).

In the United States of America (USA), the government is also looking at making more and better use of ICT, but not from an educational starting point. For President Barack Obama and his administration ICT could help lessen the burden on a very stretched education budget. Obama's "Digital Promise", announced in September 2011, involves a new national centre to advance technologies that could transform teaching and learning. The USA will first evaluate what works and what doesn't before making major changes.

Eason rightfully asks the question whether more technology also means better results, both for the students and the teaching/learning process. And he points to the fact that the role of teachers in this digitalisation is important. They will require more training on the use of digital learning aids, for themselves and their students as part of the curriculum.

"The sad truth is that students can learn just as badly with a class full of computers, interactive whiteboards and mobile technology as they can with wooden desks and a chalkboard." ICT teacher David Weston, founder of  'Informed Education'.

I agree with Weston that the methodological approach to teaching is what makes the difference and that ICT in itself does not offer an improvement of children's motivation, knowledge or results. In the end, an e-book is a book; the content is what is important, not the carrier. A good book, with an approach that helps children and students to acquire new skills in a meaningful and motivational way is a good tool. Whether on paper or on LCD. 

I do believe that ICT offers new ways of presenting meaningful content in a novel way, but '3-dimensional content' with hyperlinks that lead off in all directions pose a serious challenge for curriculum developers, methodologists, pedagogues and authors alike.