Research Post

This week I explored a variety of research statistics about students and their technology use. Due to the pandemic last year and virtual learning, I knew that technology usage had increased in the home but I was most surprised to learn about how much technology time has increased for students ages 0 to 8 years old and the parent's view of technology for this particular group of students.

Technology for young students

As I explored Common Sense Media, they provided a great insight into the media usage of students ages 0 to 8. In the article titled "Teaching Digital Citizens in Today's World", I learned that students ages 0 to 8 have an average screen time of two and a half hours. This was shocking to me! That is such a long time to  spend staring at a screen, especially for young children. I also was shocked to learn that most of the 0 to 8 year olds screen time was devoted to TV or videos (an average of 33%) while 16% was spent on homework. I wonder why the TV or videos was such a big percentage. Hopefully some of the videos were for educational purposes but that is still a lot time to be watching TV. 

Please see the photo below for the data collected on this group of students. 

Image source: "Teaching Digital Citizens in Today's World" (Article by Common Sense Media)

These statistics were particularly important and shocking for me because my first grade students are around the ages of 5 to 8. While technology can be great, it is hard to implement it with young children while also giving them time to socialize with peers and learn valuable life skills of sharing, communicating and interacting with others and their emotions. Especially with the younger students, I worry about them having enough time to practice and learn social emotional skills. Just after the pandemic alone, this year I have so many students who are struggling with being back at school and especially the socialization aspect of school. They also really struggle with understanding their emotions and using tools to calm down and say the problem. I worry that an excess amount of screen time will hurt their social and emotional development even more. 

 

Technology from the parent's perspective

In another article by Common Sense Media, titled "Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight", I got to explore data from the parent's perspective of students ages 0 to 8 years old. This data shows that as the students get older, they have a higher percentage of picking the videos they choose, while the parent's choice and viewing the video with their child goes down. On the contrary, younger students under age 2 have lots of parent supervision and help with picking and co-viewing videos with a smaller chance of the child picking the videos. This is interesting to me because it seems that once the students are able to talk and communicate what videos they want to watch, they have more choice with less parent co-viewing. 

Please see the photo below for the data collected on this group of students. 

Image source: "Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight" (Article by Common Sense Media)

As a first grade teacher with students in the age range of 5 to 8, I am a little concerned with the dip in parent choice of the video and watching videos with their child as the student goes from age 0 to age 8. In my classroom, while students are able to communicate their opinions and choices, they do not always choose appropriate videos for school that also serve an educational purpose. Not all the videos students watch need to be educational or fun, they do need to be previewed before letting the student watch them and they should have some educational value to them. Videos and music are a great way to engage students in their learning, however not all videos are good, educational videos. 

Reflections

Overall, these statistics really opened my eyes to the amount of screen time young students have. Even at the ages of 0 to 8, students are being exposed to technology for a average of two and a half hours a day. That is a very long time for each day for little students! This is important for teacher to note because our students will be coming to us with lots of screen time already incorporated in their day. I believe that education research such as average screen time and technology is important for all educators to explore. Knowing this information is so important because we can use it to help improve our students educational experience and make sure to find time within our day to been screen free and help students learn important social and emotional skills. Technology is wonderful and offers so many great opportunities for our students in moderation. We want to make sure our students have a good technology and real life interaction balance to become the best learners they can be! 

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