The Baltimore Sun published an article today about the need for guidance in screen usage in school. This echoes what Roxana Marachi wrote in a post earlier today about the potential dangers in overexposure to screens. Like Marachi’s post, the Sun article contains numerous references to scientific data.
The National Educational Technology Plan, released just weeks ago by the U.S. Department of Education, encourages more computer use in the classroom. However, it makes no mention of any health risks to students, even though the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office has safety guidelines that limit screen time, as does the American Academy of Pediatrics. The state’s lengthy guiding documents, such as the Maryland Educational Technology Plan, also promote additional computer use at school while failing to mention any health risks to students. Since the health warnings are ignored by the educational leadership at the national level, it’s not surprising that state and local leaders also fail to protect students.
Perform an online search for the phrase “Computer Vision Syndrome” or “digital eye strain” and you will learn how well documented the dangers of screens are: nearsightedness, blurry vision, dry eyes, headaches and neck and shoulder pain. And the way children use screens makes them particularly vulnerable to complications: They stare at them for long periods without taking significant breaks; computer work stations often don’t fit them well; and they don’t complain about blurry vision because they don’t realize it’s a problem that will just get worse.
If your child is having trouble sleeping, school assignments that require computer use in the evening could be the cause. Blue light emissions reduce melatonin, which is needed for sleep. Additional issues arise when a child isn’t rested, including behavioral problems, irritability and the inability to concentrate. A child glued to a computer also isn’t exercising, which contributes to childhood obesity, another major concern of the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Children’s eyes may also absorb more blue light than adults from digital device screens, according to a recent study, putting them at greater risk for premature retinal damage risk……..
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
Oh, well, who you gonna listen to, actual medical professionals like the Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics, or the U.S. Department of Education and the local and state education people?
Children’s health? Who cares about that? The children are just cogs in the testing wheel and consumers of educational technology, after all, meant to make the tech producers and testing and curriculum producers richer. 😦
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We really have run headlong into this pit.
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I am glad to see that there is some publicity about this matter and from credible sources. I think that the supporters of tech will rush in with criticism and that sooner or later the overexposure matter must be addressed. But I also get Zorba’s point about the easy dismissal of this professional wisdom.
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American Academy of Pediatrics-Growing Up Digital: Media Research Symposium.
Click to access digital_media_symposium_proceedings.pdf
The guidance from the AAP is primarily about the immersive media experience in terms of its impact on social relationship, content, and displacement of other activities. Also, impact of screen time on sleep. While the AAP has, to my knowledge, not issued any guidance regarding EM radiation it has frequently advocated for the need to thoroughly study the effects of modern day EM exposure on children and pregnant women. These calls for research have usually focused on mobile phones due to the proximity of the transmitter to the body and the head in particular.
There has been less focus on the EM radiation from other mobile devices, mainly because of the distance (inverse square law), and we are surrounded by many sources of different kinds of EM radiation in addition to wifi. However, current use of wifi is growing rapidly and certainly should be studied for possible health effects.
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The giant Obama Administration-backed sales campaign is working:
“More than half of the nation’s preschool teachers say they have tablet computers in the classroom – nearly double what was reported just two years earlier.
“That’s an enormous jump,” said Ellen Wartella, a professor at Northwestern University and author of a study that surveyed 945 preschool teachers in 2015. “We were shocked by that.”
About 55 percent of preschool teachers reported they have a tablet computer, such as an iPad, in the classroom, Wartella said during a presentation last week in Washington, D.C. Two years earlier just 29 percent of these teachers reported using these devices. Wartella shared some of the findings from the soon-to-be-released 2015 version of the survey during a Northwestern University a panel discussion Tuesday.”
You just know this ends badly. Why do they have to sell everything so hard and go completely off the deep end? Is there some reason it was an emergency to push this so aggressively into schools, and with younger and younger children? It couldn’t be slowly adopted, with some caution and common sense?
They have no evidence is adds any value, yet they’re spending tons of money and time on it.
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The main benefit to such early emphasis on technology, I fear, is to tech companies. Parents and educators should consider potential consequences and should always protect the interests of children. These are unproven waters, and research is just coming out on early exposure to technology. As in most cases the regulation and recommendations are behind the technology, and the current crop of toddlers are guinea pigs. Aside from physical consequences, parents need to consider that since young children learn through their senses, perhaps real experiences with hands on materials and nature might be a better choice for preschoolers and young elementary students.
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Been saying this. Glad others are also decrying electronics. I feel at the mercy of electronics most of the time. The hours I’ve spent not to mention $$$$$ re: electronics make me ill. That’s why I refuse to upgrade unless I am being held hostage by (fill in the blanks).
I use electronics, but I limit myself. Electronics can help, but IS a huge time user-upper, too. Plus, operating systems are lousy and too much SPAM, nasty stuff, and pop up ads. Yuck-O!
And think about the landfills full of electronics. Mother Earth is NOT happy. I don’t blame her.
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I agree. Tech has its benefits, but should be used moderately, not absolutely in schools. Techies will tell you that this digital adoption will save $ (with paper costs) and the environment (with cost to trees). I’m old school and still love the written word in paper/book form.
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Paper literally grows on trees. The heavy metals, plastics, and toxic chemical compounds that go into the making of tech do not grow back. I pay my bills on paper, since having paper records once saved me from having Big Bank steal hundreds of dollars from my account. The companies that bill me constantly beg me to use electronic bill pay, threaten to force me to switch over to online — they say it’s to save trees — yet send plenty of extra paper with my bills to advertise their products. The White House does not care about education, children, or trees. Corporations do not care about education, children, or trees. Billionaires do not care. I am a teacher. I do.
My best and brightest students, mostly children of relatively affluent parents, spanning two decades of tech dispersion, have been the ones denied by their parents access to “smart” phones (an oxymoron). When I worked in the toughest part of South LA, where poverty and low achievement ruled, nearly every student had a cellphone and used it constantly. So much for the so-called technology gap.
And by the way, aren’t the Baltimore Sun and LA Times owned by the same company, Tribune? How about spreading the word about the dangers of tech overuse to the Left Coast, Tribune!
Finally, one word Bill Gates and the armies of privacy invading Big Data miners don’t want to hear: globalization.
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I teach wkly Spanish to five classes (2.5-5) at a chain PreK. 3 yrs ago they asked me to delete the 5-min closing DVD clip because they felt their kids got too much screen time at home as it was– they’d put the brakes on all PC ed programs for the same reason. We get by dandy w/o it, I only mention it to point out, a good PreK director [& franchise owner] can make all the difference, even in a ‘McSchool’ for working-class families, despite pressure from ‘national brand’. This franchise works closely w/parents to get support for common-sense ed practices, rather than blindly following canned curriculum.
It goes w/o saying: my upper-echelon clients like private PreK’s & pharma daycare would not even consider wi-fi internet & risk exposing kids to God-knows-what at www. The only PreK venues I now use even 5-min DVD clips are those where Spanish is a fun after-school enrichment. & we do that for 1/2 or less of the lessons; tots prefer hands-on games for relaxation.
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