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Could we decide what we want for our children? How long can we protect our kids from technology?

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On a recent summer day in Nashville, Kara Teising opened her Facebook page for a lunchtime scroll through her timeline when she discovered a photo posted by her son's daycare: an image of her 18-month-old son surrounded by other toddlers, their chubby faces glued to a brightly colored, animated screen of an iPad. The accompanying post read, "We are taking a BYTE out of our new Apple iPads! We are hungry for learning!" Teising was shocked, unaware that the school, which serves children from six weeks old to pre-K, even had iPads.

A few days later, Teising arrived to pick up her son a little early and found her child's caregiver "sitting lazily on the floor, showing him a video on her phone," as she put it. Teising became incensed. Up to this point, she and her husband had been very happy with school - a pricey, highly academic daycare/preschool chain that calls itself "The Princeton of Preschools."

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Discovering That Your 18-Month-Old Is Using an iPad in Pre-School

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On a recent summer day in Nashville, Kara Teising opened her Facebook page for a lunchtime scroll through her timeline when she discovered a photo posted by her son's daycare: an image of her 18-month-old son surrounded by other toddlers, their chubby faces glued to a brightly colored, animated screen of an iPad.

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How could we use the tablet optimally to help children learn?

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How could we use the tablet optimally to help children learn?

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Naysayers would highlight the detrimental effects of the tablet on young minds.

However, are there special conditions which can help children use tablets to learn better?

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Does the tablet undermine self-awareness and discipline in children?

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I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic.

We were sitting in a restaurant, trying to have a conversation, but her children, 4-year-old Willow and 7-year-old Luca, would not stop fighting. The arguments - over a fork, or who had more water in a glass - were unrelenting.

Like a magician quieting a group of children by pulling a rabbit out of a hat, my sister reached into her purse and produced two shiny Apple iPads, handing one to each child. Suddenly, the two were quiet. Eerily so. They sat playing games and watching videos, and we continued with our conversation.

After our meal, as we stuffed the iPads back into their magic storage bag, my sister felt slightly guilty.

"I don't want to give them the iPads at the dinner table, but if it keeps them occupied for an hour so we can eat in peace, and more importantly not disturb other people in the restaurant, I often just hand it over," she told me. Then she asked: "Do you think it's bad for them? I do worry that it is setting them up to think it's O.K. to use electronics at the dinner table in the future."

I did not have an answer, and although some people might have opinions, no one has a true scientific understanding of what the future might hold for a generation raised on portable screens.

"We really don't know the full neurological effects of these technologies yet," said Dr. Gary Small, director of the Longevity Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of " iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind." "Children, like adults, vary quite a lot, and some are more sensitive than others to an abundance of screen time."

But Dr. Small says we do know that the brain is highly sensitive to stimuli, like iPads and smartphone screens, and if people spend too much time with one technology, and less time interacting with people like parents at the dinner table, that could hinder the development of certain communications skills.

So will a child who plays with crayons at dinner rather than a coloring application on an iPad be a more socialized person?

Ozlem Ayduk, an associate professor in the Relationships and Social Cognition Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, said children sitting at the dinner table with a print book or crayons were not as engaged with the people around them, either. "There are value-based lessons for children to talk to the people during a meal," she said. "It's not so much about the iPad versus nonelectronics."

Parents who have little choice but to hand over their iPad can at least control what a child does on those devices.

A report published last week by the Millennium Cohort Study, a long-term study group in Britain that has been following 19,000 children born in 2000 and 2001, found that those who watched more than three hours of television, videos or DVDs a day had a higher chance of conduct problems, emotional symptoms and relationship problems by the time they were 7 than children who did not. The study, of a sample of 11,000 children, found that children who played video games - often age-appropriate games - for the same amount of time did not show any signs of negative behavioral changes by the same age.

Which brings us back to the dinner table with my niece and nephew. While they sat happily staring into those shiny screens, they were not engaged in any type of conversation, or staring off into space thinking, as my sister and I did as children when our parents were talking. And that is where the risks are apparent.

"Conversations with each other are the way children learn to have conversations with themselves, and learn how to be alone," said Sherry Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of the book " Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other." "Learning about solitude and being alone is the bedrock of early development, and you don't want your kids to miss out on that because you're pacifying them with a device."

Ms. Turkle has interviewed parents, teenagers and children about the use of gadgets during early development, and says she fears that children who do not learn real interactions, which often have flaws and imperfections, will come to know a world where perfect, shiny screens give them a false sense of intimacy without risk.

And they need to be able to think independently of a device. "They need to be able to explore their imagination. To be able to gather themselves and know who they are. So someday they can form a relationship with another person without a panic of being alone," she said. "If you don't teach your children to be alone, they'll only know how to be lonely."
E-mail: bilton@nytimes.com

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The Child, the Tablet and the Developing Mind

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I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic. We were sitting in a restaurant, trying to have a conversation, but her children, 4-year-old Willow and 7-year-old Luca, would not stop fighting. The arguments - over a fork, or who had more water in a glass - were unrelenting.

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Would you give a tablet to a 2 year old? IF you did what are the consequences?

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How My 2-year Old Son Uses an iPad / Android Device?
- In this article I'll use the word "touch screen" instead of iPad or Android device.

There are lots of discussions going on among teachers about how touch screens revolutionized the way we live and the way we teach. We also discuss how these devices affected our students' and our children's lives. In this blog I had shared some of my teaching experiences with you and this time I'd like to share my experiences as a father.

I see lots of kids (even newborns) around me who play with touch screens as if they are professional gamers. I find this quite interesting because I also see many parents who complain about their kids' addiction to these devices. I know that addiction is a very strong word but usually when parents use this word they don't mean clinical cases. I don't intend to give any advice about clinical situations since I'm not an expert. Instead I'll try to share how me and my wife have designed our kid's interaction with these devices so that they won't bring any harm to his development. But before doing that let me share a video you can find in Youtube.

This video actually summarizes the idea but let me give you a list of ideas and thoughts on this subject. By the way you might find my words a little bit rude or maybe didactic but I can assure you that that's not my intention. This is a very delicate topic for me so sometimes I find it hard to express myself.

1) Since touch screens are very new there is no significant data about their effects on child development. This means none of the ideas (including the ones here) can be considered as solid scientific facts. We have to find a way to analyze the few information we have. This task requires a lot of observation and interviews with other parents whose kids are older than ours.

2) As teachers we need to go through the learning-teaching theories, child development theories etc. we had learnt in university. (If you are not a teacher and haven't studied these theories you may try to find resources from a bookstore.)

3) Every child's development is different than others so comparison of two kids is the most dangerous and harmful thing we can do to our kids. Some people claim that touch screens help their kid's development in a positive way. They simply compare the kids and try show a proof for their claim by asking their kid to do something unexpected in that age. They miss the point that the reason their kid can do it might not be related to touch screen. Maybe he/she is having a faster development in that area compared to others. We can not know that.

4) Thanks to studies on child development we know what our kids should be able to do by the age of 1,1 and a half, 2, ... In every parental book you can find a list showing what your kid can or can't do at that age. But every one of these books warn the parents that time intervals for skills are different according to every child. These lists can help parents to choose proper apps for their kids. If a kid is in a language development phase then an app which focuses on vocabulary skills might ease the kid's job. This also means that if a kid is in a physical development phase then you should get rid of touch screens and go to a park. By the way development doesn't happen in a sequential order but sometimes one item becomes more important than others and I call this situation a particular development phase.

5) "Never leave your kids with touch screens alone." This may sound like an annoying order but this is our motto. Whenever my son starts playing with a touch screen his mother or I stay with him and interact as much as possible. Basically we don't let him isolate himself from the environment. Also we don't let him control the device. All control is on us. We open Guided Access so that he cannot quit or change app.

6) The most important thing about touch screens is that they have an interactive content (mostly). This is the feature that makes them so desirable. This feature also brings the opportunity of learning in high motivation. That's basically what happens when kids start using them. In that sense, parents can use touch screens as enriched teaching materials as long as they observe their kids carefully and follow development phases correctly. Let me give you an example. My son likes peekaboo activities very much. Playing peekaboo games is very important not just because he is having fun and he is happy, it is because his object permanence skills are developing. In order to support this phase I have downloaded only two peekaboo games. Actually one of them is a flashcard game. There are 9 reversed cards on the screen and he has to find the matches. The reason I don't use real cards is this app can present more data to the senses of my kid. When he turns a card by tapping on it the image starts animating and makes real sounds. Although this can not happen with physical cards we don't fully eliminate them. We play this game using real cards as well, especially when we go out. In the second app there is a barn and it's door is closed. My son hears the sound of an animal and when he touches the screen the door opens and the animal appears. In the meantime we hear another kid's voiceÂ saying the name of the animal. While playing this app we imitate the sounds and act like that animal which makes our son laugh a lot. Besides digital activities we also play peekaboo games with real life objects. For example I bring two cups to the table and hide a dried nut under one. After shuffling I ask my son to find the toy. He really enjoys this game because at the end there is a tasty reward.

7) I believe that using a touch screen to calm down a child (in a restaurant, at home, while chatting with other people etc.) is one of the biggest mistake a parent can do. If our son becomes restless then we try to understand the reason. Is he hungry? Is he having a pain? Or is he just bored? When we understand the reason we solve this problem without using an electronic device. By the way in the above video they mention that being able to calm down is a skill that kids should develop themselves but if you do it with a touch screen every single time then they can't develop this skill.

8) My son doesn't know how to make drawings on a touch screen. I hear many people saying that there are amazing drawing apps. I ask them what kind of tools these apps use which do not exist in real life. Well, the answer is none. Drawing apps for kids do not have special tools but even if they have it why do we offer a touch screen instead of paper and crayons? Because it gets messy? Drawing and painting activities play a major role in a child's development. Here is an excerpt from babycenter.com "Drawing with a crayon involves fine motor skills such as grasping and holding, for instance, as well as boosting your child's visual acumen and tapping her imagination." You can read the whole article from .

9) This item will be a little bit fuzzy and maybe not logical but I have to share this. We all know that excessive practice of any sports activity harms the muscles and the body. The same thing happens with our brain. Exhaustion from overwork sometimes happens to all of us. Also we see or hear people who lose their mind health due to many reasons so we have to be careful about keeping our mind healthy. In the sixth item I mentioned that touch screen devices have an interactive content. With a proper guidance these interactive apps can help kids develop some skills which they should have at a later age. The question in my mind is; aren't we forcing our kids' brain a little bit too much? Since kids have an enormous energy we don't easily observe exhaustion but we observe addictive behaviours instead. Some kids can not leave their devices and these kids have something in common; they are very good at on a particular app or skill which their peers are not.

Bottom line is; I'm not against giving these devices to kids. I'm saying that parents should utilize these devices consciously so that they will not harm their kids' development. Also I'd like to add that I'm totally against the following product "apptivity chair" produced by Fisher Price. I'm planning to write an article for it later.

"http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7227/7176869316_190350f293_o.jpg"

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How iPad / Android Device Affects A Child's Development

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How My 2-year Old Son Uses an iPad / Android Device? - In this article I'll use the word "touch screen" instead of iPad or Android device. There are lots of discussions going on among teachers about how touch screens revolutionized the way we live and the way we teach.

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Does multitasking on the computer aid or hinder your work?

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Does multitasking on the computer aid or hinder your work?

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The effects of distraction on students and their peers.

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Laptops have replaced pen and paper for many post-secondary students but a Canadian study suggests using computers during lectures could be hurting their grades and lowering their classmates' marks.

For the study, published earlier this year in the journal Computers & Education, research subjects in two experiments were asked to attend a university-level lecture and then complete a multiple-choice quiz based on what they learned.

In the first experiment, which was designed to gauge how multitasking affects learning, all the participants used laptops to take notes during a lecture on meteorology. But half were also asked to complete a series of unrelated tasks on their computers when they felt they could spare some time. Those tasks - which included online searches for information - were meant to mimic what distracted students might do during class.

In the second experiment, some students were given pencils and paper to take notes during a lecture while others worked on laptops. Researchers wanted to observe if the students taking notes the old-fashioned way would be distracted by having computer screens around them.

Faria Sana, who co-authored the study with fellow doctoral student Tina Weston, said she expected lower test marks for students who were asked to multitask during the experiment, or were seated near other students using laptops. But the distraction effect was stronger than she hypothesized.

"We really tried to make it pretty close to what actually happens in the lectures, we found that lo and behold, the students who multitasked performed much worse on the final test and those who were seated around peers who were multitasking also performed much worse on the final test," said Sana.

"So you might not be multitasking but if you have a clear view of someone else who is multitasking, your performance is still going to be impaired."

The students in the first experiment who were asked to multitask averaged 11 per cent lower on their quiz. The students in the second experiment who were surrounded by laptops scored 17 per cent lower.

"We really didn't think the effects would be this huge," Sana said. "It can change your grade from a B+ to a B-."

Sana also noted that the students who participated in the experiments said they didn't really expect their marks to suffer much from computer use in the classroom.

"At the end we gave a survey to all the students and what we found was that these peers who were seated around multitaskers had no idea they were being distracted, they didn't think the laptops were causing a distraction but based on the scores of their final test, they actually were," she said.

Seeing dozens of laptops in a classroom is now common, Sana said, as is spying some students on social networks, playing games or watching movies instead of paying attention.

While Sana and Weston are not calling for a ban on laptop use in classes, they do hope students consider that goofing off on their computers can affect their peers seating around them.

"A lot of students spend quite a big chunk of time in class doing things that are not related to the academic environment or aren't directly related to the course or the lecture," Sana said.

"We're hoping that based on these results, students will take responsibility for their actions."

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Students' use of laptops in class lowers grades: Canadian study

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Laptops have replaced pen and paper for many post-secondary students but a Canadian study suggests using computers during lectures could be hurting their grades and lowering their classmates' marks. For the study, published earlier this year in the journal Computers & Education, research subjects in two experiments were asked to attend a university-level lecture and then complete a multiple-choice quiz based on what they learned.

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The argument for technology and the changing face of education in classrooms.

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Not long ago, I was horrified to learn children were allowed to use mobile phones in the playground. Now they're actually being encouraged to bring smartphones out in the classroom, not to mention Kindles, iPads, Wiis and hand-held games consoles such as Nintendo DSs.

Even exams are changing out of all recognition. Children will take internet-connected devices into exam halls, meaning no more need for memorisation. "The entire system will change," writes Sugata Mitra, professor of education technology at Newcastle University. "Teachers are intelligent people; they will teach differently. They will insist that you don't memorise, you can look it up on Google."

Is this really a brave new world, or the gateway to indolence, addiction and diminishing social and cognitive skills? Don't children already spend too much time on computers at home? Shouldn't the classroom be a place where they can concentrate on time-honoured disciplines that involve prolonged concentration and rentention of facts?

Moreover, while introducing technology into schools is expensive in the short term, in the long term educationalists warn it may be used as a cost-cutting device. Already, in countries such as Thailand, every child is given an iPad in an attempt to slash the number of teachers employed.

In Thailand, every schoolchild is given a tablet device; worldwide, Apple has sold eight million iPads for educational purposes (AFP/GETTY /CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT)

But my fears, it seems, are those of a Luddite minority. Urged on by manufacturers, schools are wholeheartedly embracing the technological revolution. Aggressive marketing by Apple means that eight million iPads have already been sold for education worldwide; in Britain about 500 schools have provided their pupils with the relevant equipment, while many more are asking parents to provide it.

Recently, the National Union of Teachers said asking parents to buy devices for about £300 was creating a division between better-off and poorer pupils. But slashes in school budgets are making the case for universal provision hard to argue. "It's a daunting prospect for parents, and we're definitely seeing more mums and dads come into store to ask for advice on what to buy for their children to make sure they don't get left behind," says Matt Leeser, head of buying for electricals and home technology at John Lewis. "Today's children are digital natives [born in the internet age] who often know more about the latest tech and gadgets than their parents, so we believe it's important that parents can keep up with them." Technology has taken over every aspect of our lives, so our children have to learn how to master it, if they're to be employable.

Other countries have taken this message to heart. In South Korea, printed textbooks have gone the way of the dinosaurs. In Los Angeles, every schoolchild has been given an iPad. In Holland, 11 informally nicknamed "Steve Jobs" schools, after the founder of Apple, are about to open. In these private institutions, founded by pollster Maurice de Hond, learning is done via iPads with no classrooms, form teachers, formal classes, lesson plans, timetables, parent-teacher meetings, break times, fixed school days or school holidays. Using educational apps, children will study each subject at a pace that suits them, with daily computer tests to assess their level. The theory is that no child will be bored because the class pace is too fast or too slow for them.

So are we on the verge of an educational utopia? No one yet knows, says Dr Andrew Manches, Interaction and Learning Research fellow at Edinburgh University. "Some people are crying it's the end of childhood, in much the same way they said about television and even paper. Others are saying every child needs to know how to use an iPad fluently or they will be left behind. All we do know is that it's happening so fast, it's hard for research into its effects to keep pace."

While educationalists and psychologists try to scrabble together the funds for grants to investigate these changes, software developers are besieging parents with apps that they promise will transform infants into Einsteins. The invention the iPad four years ago has opened up a new, younger target market of preschoolers infatuated by what educational researchers have described as a "rattle on steroids". "Before, you needed to use a mouse, which you couldn't really interact with until you were five or six, but now tiny children can and do use touch screens, and the market was very quick to get in there," says Manches. "But these apps are not necessarily designed by people who understand learning."

Indeed, many apps seem to me no better than gimmicks. Take the one the class at Goffs show me about history, in which you tap on the name of a king or queen to receive a potted biography. Fun, yes, but adding nothing a book couldn't tell you. A division of the Department for Education that rates classroom curriculums has found that much educational software is not an improvement over textbooks. "Introduction of new media in a school curriculum may stimulate students just because of the novelty of the experience," says a group of American academics recently in a paper: "Children, Wired: For Better and For Worse". "However, once the media becomes the norm, such an effect would vanish. Studies need to establish that it is the content of the media that triggers the increase in knowledge." With no official government advice to guide them (one of the coalition Government's first acts was to abolish Becta, the body for establishing technology in schools), schools have to make up the rules as they go along. Most teachers receive no training in how to implement this technology.

(GETTY/CHRISTOPHER FURLONG)

At Goffs, a comprehensive with nearly 1,300 pupils, rated "good" by Ofsted, staff have made various pupils aged between 12 and 15 "digital leaders", their mission being to test various gadgets and apps to separate the genuinely useful from the flashes in the pan.

"We saw what happened with interactive whiteboards; schools adopted them too quickly and teachers didn't know how to use them, they would just stand in front of them in the traditional way, which is pointless," says Furzer.

None the less, teachers everywhere are certain that their duty is to embrace technology. "Children are growing up with this stuff. They use it intuitively, but we have a responsibility to show them how to unlock its potential," says Hilary French, headmistress of Central Newcastle High School and chairman of the Girls' School Association. "Technological devices today are as essential a piece of equipment as a slide rule and a pencil case." Tablets, says French, are used throughout the school, from three-year-olds in the nursery to the sixth form.

"Most of my colleagues have found the use of tablets has just transformed their teaching, especially with students who are struggling. The girls use them to look things up, there's no time wasting finding out stuff. Instead of copying notes from a board, they can just take a photo of it. In PE, they can film movements to analyse them; in music we used sensors attached to an iPad under water to convert the water's movement into musical notes that the girls then played in a concert. It's just incredible." Dorothea Beale, founder of Cheltenham Ladies' College, would be turning in her grave.

Even if this is all little more than fancy packaging, technology still enthuses children like nothing else. "Our most reluctant readers are finishing books for the first time just because they're on Kindles," says Paola Calderaro, Goffs's head of ICT.

Yet this enthusiasm is not universal. In Silicon Valley, executives are shunning wired schools in favour of alternative Waldorf schools - institutions that believe computers inhibit creativity, movement, human interaction and attention spans. "I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school," is one comment from parent Alan Eagle. Eagle works in executive communications at Google.

When asked about his views on education, he reveals his 10-year-old daughter "doesn't know how to use Google", and his 13-year-old son is just learning. Eagle's response to the argument children need to master computer skills early on is crushing. "At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible. There's no reason why kids can't figure it out when they get older." Dr Tom Butler, a senior lecturer in business information systems at University College Cork, is convinced that, far from producing smarter students, technology is having the opposite effect. "For a while, my colleagues in Europe, Australia, the United States and I have all been puzzled by the diminished ability of students to reason, learn and understand," he says.

Dr Butler was alarmed by research that found light emitted from computer screens, including iPads and smartphones, encouraged the brain to remain awake, causing sleep deprivation that affected the brain's ability to lay down short-term memories after a day's study. "The end result is typically an inability to remember and learn," he says. Countless studies support Dr Butler's fears. Researchers warn that the bite-size chunks of information offered by the internet, with constant inducements to click to another page, are reshaping our neural pathways, permanently damaging our abilities to concentrate or to lay down "deep" memories.

Adults' brains are being rewired, so what of children's, which are still developing? Children, after all, already struggle to set priorities and resist impulses.

Back in the classroom, the pupils brush off such concerns. "Computers are part of our everyday lives," says Harry Smith, 13. "At home, I wouldn't know what I would do without my laptop. It would drive me insane. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't use a computer you should be encouraged. Everyone would far rather learn with one of these than watch a teacher."

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Not long ago, I was horrified to learn children were allowed to use mobile phones in the playground. Now they're actually being encouraged to bring smartphones out in the classroom, not to mention Kindles, iPads, Wiis and hand-held games consoles such as Nintendo DSs. Even exams are changing out of all recognition.