SRL Archive - Discussions & Debates

GRANTING teenagers access to computers can actually diminish their reading and maths results, according to a new study.

The Sunday Telegraph reports a survey of more than half a million children reveals technology is counter-productive in improving student achievement.

It found that introducing children to computers from 10 years of age could have a detrimental effect and was associated with "modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student maths and reading test scores".

The study, published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research, flies in the face of popular belief and shows that expanding computer access does not reduce the digital divide.

Study co-author Jacob Vigdor said the findings suggest access to computers can harm children's learning.

"Students who gain access to a home computer between 5th and 8th grade tend to witness a persistent decline in reading and math test scores," he said.

"For school administrators interested in maximising achievement test scores, or reducing racial and socioeconomic disparities in test scores, all evidence suggests that a program of broadening home computer access would be counterproductive."

Researchers analysed administrative data for more than 500,000 Years 5-8 students from North Carolina.

Studying their computer use and test scores, researchers aimed to asses the impact of student home computer use.

Professor Vigdor claims home computer access is damaging because students are easily distracted and end up using their time to socialise and play games.

High-speed internet was also a contributing factor and tempted children to use their computers for recreation.

However, researchers concluded that if parents monitored use and ensured that downtime was minimised, computers could be beneficial.

Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations spokeswoman Sharryn Brownlee said she wasn't concerned with the findings as NSW boasted a strong primary curriculum.

She said it was also important for students to develop their computer literacy skills.

"In the modern work environment, people from all trades and all walks of life have to have some basic technology skills," she said.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/computer-use-has-persistent-negative-impact-on-childs-maths-reading-test-scores/story-e6frfro0-1225902566080

I call bs! I know for a fact 1 + 1 equals 3!

Professor Vigdor claims home computer access is damaging because students are easily distracted and end up using their time to socialise and play games.

Its 2010 and we continue to rediscover people have problems focusing on stuff and/or they have ADD.

A little side story: I have speech incompetencies and I grew up at the ass end of a radical new approach to Language Arts teaching. Basically what this new amazing idea was that people would build up their literacy skills by reading outside of school. Well shocker, most people are in an environment where this becomes really hard. Now a days its all about flicking through the TV stations, Newspapers are slowly growing obsolete. It wasn't until my friend got me addicted to Diablo 2 (god rest ye soul) that my english skills really, really improved. I never used to be good at english, NEVER. In fact I couldn't even spell Mississippi when my dumb ass friends tried to trick you with that in like grade 2 or 3. I never did good on the tests which graded you on these words you should know by X grade. Even worse - I never saw ANY improvement.

Fast forward to today and any class I go into I am the strongest or one of the strongest writers in any class I go into. So much so that people often compliment me on my writing skills.

If it wasn't for computers, I wouldn't have gotten all those A's in calculus. Of course that makes me come off as an elitist faggot, but I'm not actually that good at math. The programming I do just makes me think linearly, which was needed for math (but can't use it with integrals :)).
If it wasn't for that gr 10 computing class, I wouldn't be where I am today. Only the people who play WoW 24/7 get fucked over.

School and intelligence have nothing to do with each other.

When I was a senior in High School they had two different flavors of Calculus. One with graphing calculators and one without.

I took the one without, and got the highest possible score on the AP test at the end of the year. I think most people in my class got the highest score while those in the other class struggled.

In the real-world, if I wanted to be a mathematician or an engineer it might have been more useful to have learned how to use a graphing calculator for all the different calculus operations. But as far as taking the test went, not having that "crutch" seemed to help.

That article is pretty much crap I'd say..

Nowhere is it listed what those people who didn't 'waste time' on the internet were doing, nor exactly what were the 'un-wasteful' activities.

SRL - distraction or not?

~RM

SRL, to me, is mostly a distraction. However, I've learned about as much here as I have in two years of high school. Maybe even more. Actually, yeah, definitely more things that I'll actually need to use. And it's nice to have (mostly) more mature people around than the two "mature" high school kids in the whole school.

researchers aimed to asses

haha.

What if herpaderp perhaps some child used a computer to LEARN?! or study

The main reasons computer use decreases intellectual levels is because most people are stupid to begin with and don't know how to balance school and internet out. Take me for exmaple. I go online almost 12 hrs a day when there's nothing else to do. Yet, I get straight A's at the same time..

From: i luffs yeww
SRL, to me, is mostly a distraction. However, I've learned about as much here as I have in two years of high school. Maybe even more. Actually, yeah, definitely more things that I'll actually need to use. And it's nice to have (mostly) more mature people around than the two "mature" high school kids in the whole school.

@ This ^ and your earlier post "School and intelligence have nothing to do with each other."

SRL can be a distraction if all you do is come here for a forum, but it's almost impossible to be here without learning anything, so I think that if you even put out half the effort here that you would put out in school, it's possible to learn lots of things here.

I have another point, there is real life experience and there is school experience. You can do great at school and excel because the environment is very structured - and most likely encouraging/ should be. In SRL it is a good environment to practice life skills and communication and everything in a real life situation, without all the shit that goes on around in school. But it's the internet, so you can do what you want. Be yourself, or not yourself. See who you want to be, what you want to do, you have the freedom of being able to say peace to the whole place and never deal with it if you mess something up, or being forgiven instantly for really screwing up. This place gives the most life experience for a kid, it's a taste of the real world before uni, that's how I look at it.

I agree, The studies only show that because most 15-20 year olds are bored of school/college and can have a better time on facebook or w/e. When infact make SMS or phone calls free and take away the computer, i think the results would change to mobile phones reduce intelligence. Its about balence which a lot of teenagers don't have.

Keep in mind that the majority of teenage computer users don't use their time programming and learning how to hack video games, but instead spend it updating their twitter and watching cod mw2 montages. The flaw in the study seems to be that the less intellectual people do non-intellectual things with their computer time. However, the intellectual people balance their computer time and use it for intellectual things as well. I sometimes find myself watching crazy videos about our universe or trying to solve one of hobbit's riddles :p and then I go to a friends and they look at lolcats and collegehumor all day.


Moral of story; the computer accelerates your demands. If you are less intellectual, it can help you decrease you're intellect and be amused. If you are intellectual it can facilitate the chase for more information/intelligence. It's a tool, use it as you will.

It's a fail study because what is done on the computer is up to the user.

It's just as biased as the study saying weed makes people stupid. Or any other thing. It has more to do with the user more than anything.

From: Cheesehunk
Moral of story; the computer accelerates your demands. If you are less intellectual, it can help you decrease you're intellect and be amused. If you are intellectual it can facilitate the chase for more information/intelligence. It's a tool, use it as you will.

This is exactly it. It provides easier access to what you can get offline (learning, games, socializing, etc) and so the effects are amplified. 'Technology is the end of the world' a common theme for people to lean any information towards. Remember the GTA debate? This stuff gets rehashed more than terminator movies.

I know I wasted countless hours of school time watching youtube and playing games…

From: 3Garrett3
But it's the internet, so you can do what you want. Be yourself, or not yourself. See who you want to be, what you want to do, you have the freedom of being able to say peace to the whole place and never deal with it if you mess something up, or being forgiven instantly for really screwing up. This place [the internet] gives the most life experience for a kid, it's a taste of the real world before uni, that's how I look at it.

??????

I think the opinions are biased when we look at just the opinions from us, SRL users. We use computers to learn, play, make programs, etc,etc… We use it to a great degree of benefit to both ourselves, and each other.

But lets take a look at other sites, if we asked this @, lets say, kongregate.com or mofunzone.com, opinions may change. Because gr 5 - 8 students just wanna have fun, & they are not fully introduced yet to the full capability of the PC., they would just go play their video games, and chat with friends… with an occasional use for research or other productive activities.

This may be true for the majority of teens on computers, but for us, it's not. We program, code and much more, whereas others just sit there on Facebook (like I am now :p) and Twitter, wathing their lives ebb away in front of them.

From: R1ch
This may be true for the majority of teens on computers, but for us, it's not. We program, code and much more, whereas others just sit there on Facebook (like I am now :p) and Twitter, wathing their lives ebb away in front of them.

You show a good point, but to be honest i noticed that even though scripting is better / more intellectual then 90% of the things i do, I still find my self a bit more stupid after i finish scripting / get off the computer :P.

I would say that I learn just as much information on the computer as that I do at school, and computer use has helped me be able to retain information visually. I often find myself flicking through wikipedia or researching stocks when I'm bored, and without a computer or the internet I would be restricted to what my teachers know..

^Completely off-topic, but…I remember you!

To have something on-topic…Valid point.