The creation of digital media for adolescent children should take into consideration the importance of “the three C’s”: the child, the context of use, and the content. According to Lisa Guernsey, director of the New America Foundation's Early Education Initiative, all three of these terms must be reflected in the purposeful choice, application, and development of digital media for children. One could consider that the foundation of children’s digital media content must account for the four stages of child development as stated by, social constructivist, Jean Piaget.
By employing active mediation and co-viewing a child’s parents and peers can participate in a child’s experiences; using digital media in the context of learning can facilitate the understanding and processing of content in programming and advertisements.
When establishing the formation of digital media content for a child, one must account for the cognitive abilities, intelligence, and social-emotional needs that progress at different developmental stages. Jean Piaget theorized that children move through four specific stages of learning: sensori-motor (birth to two years), pre-operational (two to seven years), concrete operational (seven to twelve years), and formal operational (twelve years and up) (Marzzarella 65). The application of the Piagetian theory, in regards to the creation of children’s digital media, primarily focuses on the cognitive limitations of preoperational thinking in children under the age of five. Children in the preoperational stage have difficulty understanding the content of television (Marzzarella 66). When media producers develop a show for an audience of toddlers and preschoolers, they must take into account the child’s inability to ...
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...ge of development, to distinguish the transition from programming to commercials. Differentiating the transition from programming to commercials is simply the first step in understanding advertising. Without understanding this concept, a child in this developmental stage is far from comprehending an advertisings persuasive intent.
Producers of children’s digital media should attempt to create age appropriate content by thoroughly understanding the Piagetian theory and its stages of development. If a child is unable to understand the content, a parent or peer should enforce co-viewing and aid in the child’s comprehension of the media programming. The use of co-viewing may also establish a child’s understanding to differentiate commercials from programming, thus removing the child from the clutches of salient and formal features displayed in advertisements.
In the passionate article, “The Digital Parent Trap” by the renowned Eliana Dockterman, the author convincingly portrays that there are benefits to early exposure to technology and that this viewpoint needs to be more pervasive or else there would be a severe problem with broad consequences. The author effectively and concisely builds the argument by using a variety of persuasive and argumentative rhetorical techniques including but not limited to the usage of ethos, evidence, and pathos.
Television has become a big part in children’s day-to-day lives especially in the 20th century. Children in this century rely on television to keep them entertained and educated instead of entertaining and educating themselves by participating in activities, which will teach them a lot more in life then the actual television. There is no doubt that children are most easily influenced by television because of the different content that they watch as well as the amount of time consumed watching TV. The television does have an emotional and intellectual development on children but this all depends on the content that they’re watching and the way that they absorb the information that the show is trying to send out. Different programs will portray
In the article, “The Digital Parent Trap”, author Eliana Dockterman reveals the benefits of introducing technology to the youth. Dockterman’s purpose for this is to expose to parents that it is beneficial to expose technology to the early age. She utilizes a formal tone in order to effectively persuade her readers to believe in the pros more than the cons of screen time. Throughout the article, Dockterman successfully builds her argument by utilizing evidence, appealing to the emotions of her audience, and inductive reasoning.
Thompson, R. A., & Nelson, C. A. (2001). Developmental Science and the Media: Early Brain Development. American Psychologist, 56(1), 5-15.
According to Goessl, “children today are engrossed in technology. Everywhere they turn technology is a prominent part of their lives.” (2009, para.1) The content of this essay will give information on the impact of young children aged between 3 and 9 using television and computer games. It will then discuss the benefits of mental stimulation during young children’s developmental stages of using technology. Thirdly it will discuss the health dangers of a young child’s diet when it comes to using technology, and what this can lead to. The essay will then analyse the dangers of the eyesight of young children using the technologies’. It will then proceed to discuss the mental danger by viewing restricted content on television and computer games by young children. Lastly, it will provide recommendations to create a better understanding of which can be done to create television and computer games are more beneficial for a young child.
Times have changed and due to this new technological era that we live in, children are spoiled with various types as well as numerous electronic devices. Although these advances are rewarding, they are detrimental to the youth. From xbox to television watching children spend more time trapped in their house, t...
In today’s society we are overwhelmed with technology. Technology is changing everyday, and will forever be a staple in our lives. The effect that technology has on our children has brought on some concerns and some praises. Children these days have no choice but to some how be influenced by the ever growing technology in our societies. Our common concern has been that although digital technology has boosted children’s talent for multitasking, their ability to process information deeply may be deteriorating (Carpenter, 2010). Many people have a wide range of opinions on if technology is having a positive influence on our children or a negative, there is a vast amount of evidence to support both of these arguments. Technology can refer to so many things, but there are three main parts of technology that are having the greatest effects on our children: video games, television/media, and computers. The modern technologies we have today are so powerful because they attract our genetic biases, that the human brain has a tremendous love for visually presented information. Video games, television, movies and computer programs are all very visually oriented and therefore they attract and keep the attention of children easily.
Piaget would believe that technology could benefit children in different stages of cognitive development. In the sensorimotor stage, children can use visually and auditorily stimulating technology and applications to provide the child with sensory input. In the preoperational stage, technology could be used to exercise the child’s representational thought processing because using games on technology involves them being able to understand that if they are playing a game on an ipad that there might also be a physical version of the
Pitman, S. (2008, August). The impact of media technologies on child development and wellbeing. Retrieved from http://www.ozchild.org.au/userfiles/docs/ozchild/research-papers/ImpactOfElectronicMedia.pdf
Judge, S., Puckett, K., & Bell, S. M. (2006, September/October). Closing the digital divide: Update from the early childhood longitudinal study. The Journal of Education Research, 100, 52-60. Retrieved from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.42
Growing up in the twenty-first century is monumentally different than past generations; young children now have access to complex technology in their everyday lives. Handing a young child a smartphone or tablet can satisfy them for hours, placing them into a technology-induced trance. Smartphone and tablet apps have been created, specifically targeting young children with the purpose of appeasing them. Especially for busy parents, allowing their young children to use smart devices makes dealing with their erratic behavior less of a hassle. In addition, many of the apps made for young children also serve with educational intents, increasing the incentive for parents, daycare providers and preschools to allow young children to have more ‘screen time’ with smart devices. However, with rapid expansion of technology
The field of technology has seen continuous growth and advancement in society and has changed gears and is now heading for a road less traveled. The road, as bumpy and winding as it seems, as following a path dictated by television and all the powerful media. The television requires visual perception and is an inactive form of gratification for viewers. The hardest hits are the young children. Children shows like cartoon have positive and negative effects on the children, and the parents should not let their children adopt the television scenario as the guide for living their lives.
Technology affects everyone! Whether positive or negative, we are all affected, how it manifests itself into problems for youth will be studied and debated for years. Balancing technology throughout the educational process and keeping with current trends and uses of technology will affect everyone. Technology has transformed our youth’s daily and social lives. How do we measure the effects of technology on our ability to socialize or have a successful social life? Socializing is not just talking face to face, it’s our ability to interact, learn, and create original thought. Technology hindering today’s youth and their ability to socialize is affecting their capacity to read, write, and communicate. Today’s youth depends on careful considerations for the implementation of technologies. Our youth do not have the capability to convey their emotions through the use of technology, understand sadness, happiness or joy through simple text or emails. Communicating through the use of text, chat, and social network sites is lost using abbreviations and slang, inhibiting the use of the Standard English language. Using computers and hand held devices for relationships, reading, writing, and entertainment, turning them into introverted and socially inept individuals. Current trends resonating from our educational institutions to our workplace can be examples of how technology has altered the way younger people communicate. This tragedy transcends from youth to adulthood affecting the workplace. Social networking sites have begun to take hours away from employers. How do students understand ethical and moral dilemmas unless they are allowed to make mistakes and work through a particular problem? Creative and original thought needs...
However, since childhood is an integral phase which shaped the younger generations’ development, some believe that its overuse may affect their development. The usage of computer technology in this phase reshape children’s physical and mental state in different and profound ways. Critics claimed technology in schools especially computers wastes time, money, and childhood itself by speeding up the pace and cutting down on essential learning experiences. (Cordes & Miller, 2000; Healy, 1998) Besides that, children may often get interested to addictive games easily available on the internet making them loose interest in studies. This is the reason why children especially in kindergarten should not be exposed to computer technology until late in the education process because computers often distract young learners from learning the basics, or have the basics done for them by computers.
There are many reasons why ICT is particularly important during early years education, some of these include: It is not uncommon to walk into a nursery and see children independently taking photographs of each other using a digital camera. Today’s young children are growing up in a world in which technology is so pervasive that to them it is the norm. Because of this it is all too easy to deny that we have a responsibility to teach ICT to children because ‘they know more than we do’ or because ‘they will learn how to use it anyway’. Angela McFarlane, in a presentation at the Naace 2009 Conference, challenged this myth of the ‘digital native’. She reported that although a third of the children in her study were really engaging with technology, a significant proportion were not engaging with it at all and that the remainder of the children really didn’t know how to use technology, even if it looked like they did! We need to be clear, therefore, that we do need to teach our young children about technology so that they can all engage with