Is Technology a Good Thing?

In the past few years, a lot has been reported about the use of digital technology (iPads, smartphones, electronic games) by children at home, as well as in elementary and secondary schools. I’ve recently experienced this with students and have subsequently begun to research it further. Here are a few things I’ve found:

Number one: Regular, everyday use of technology is so new; there is NO long-term research on its effects on human beings. Psychology Today (April 17, 2016) reports “A number of troubling studies connect delayed development in kids with extended exposure to electronic media.” There are also recommendations that NO use of technology be used for children under two because there is some evidence of prefrontal lobe damage to the part of the brain responsible for “decoding and comprehending social interactions.”

In a January 10, 2018, article, “Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Raised their Kids Tech-free – and it Should’ve been a Red Flag,” writer Chris Weller points out that two of the top innovators who gave us this technology (Gates and Jobs) did NOT allow their own children to use it, at least until they were older. Research shows that an eighth-grader has a 27% jump in depression risk with frequent use of social media. Young people using phones for three or more hours a day are “much more likely to be suicidal.” In addition, many of the elite “wealthy tech executives” send their children to low-tech schools that still “use chalkboards and No. 2 pencils.”

I have also seen a report indicating that steps are now being taken to swing Americans back from this electronic addiction which, according to the same article in Psychology Today, tells us that electronic use often causes a pleasurable response, releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine, which mimics “the dangerous cycle psychologists and physicians regularly see in patients with drug and alcohol addictions.”

Number two: An article by Andrew Dillon in Ergonomics reveals that reading from a screen is 20-30% slower than reading from print media. A Canadian survey of over 6,000 students and 302 teachers by Karsenti and Fievez shows that, although electronic media is used to hold e-textbooks and other associated search engines used for research, the number one distraction in the classroom is the iPad (99% for both students and teachers). Over 2,300 students admitted to spending their time playing games on their iPads during class. A surprising finding was that “no student (out of the 6,057 students surveyed) mentioned the fact that the iPad helped them learn more.”

Number three: Research published in the Psychology Today article mentioned above has shown one area in which the iPad does not help at all: in teaching children how to handwrite properly.

Of course, as homeschoolers, many of us have utilized tried-and-true teaching methods with our children; so this information is to help us think twice about the use or overuse of technology in the education of our children. If you are a heavy user of technology in your homeschool, Dr. Prue Salter, Founder of ELES (Enhanced Learning Educational Services) in Australia has a partial solution to the dilemmas presented above: (1) Develop both paper and digital literacy skills; (2) Create opportunities to maintain handwriting skills; and (3) Learn to touch type (as a timesaving skill). She cites a study by Mangen, Walgermo, and Bronnick (2013) that suggests that tactile navigation through paper text (i.e., actually touching the pages) is more significant in learning than previously thought, but the exact mechanism is still unknown.

As a homeschooling mom for 18 years, and having operated a medical/legal transcription service out of my home, I was very careful with the use of technology in my home. We didn’t have a search engine like today’s Google search until my children neared graduation, but we used a computer program to help them learn how to touch type and put together a professional-looking research paper. I absolutely refused to have a game system of any kind in our home because I had seen the turmoil it created in the homes of people I knew (my children didn’t miss it because we’d never had it). We eventually allowed our son to have a flight simulator on the computer, and when we bought LEGO Mindstorms, he used the computer to learn how to program in Visual Basic. He earned his B.S. in Physics and now uses the computer on a daily basis for his employment. But I firmly believe if we had not restricted the use of technology when they were young, my children would be as obsessed with it as the people I see around me on a daily basis. As homeschooling parents, it is my firm belief that we must lead in the responsible use of technology in both education and entertainment.

Ruth Sundeen has a B.S. degree in Biology, with a minor in Chemistry. Home-educating her own two children for 18 years, she decided to include other students in their high school science classes, including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Anatomy & Physiology. She added Physical Science to her portfolio, when she started teaching science in private Christian schools for the past two years; in addition, she tutors college physics and chemistry.

Ruth is passionate about teaching science from a special creation perspective, helping students develop a love of science, a strong grasp of the scientific evidence to support special creation, and the conviction that they can make a difference in the world we live in.

She was awarded the 2017 SchoolhouseTeachers.com Teacher of the Year for her Biology curriculum design. She and her husband, Larry, live in Abita Springs, Louisiana.