Digital Devices

Kindergarten students from low-income households and Black kindergartners are more likely to heavily use technology in later in life according to an analysis of 10,000 students by researchers at Penn State. The findings, that followed youngsters who started Kindergarten in 2010, do not point to potential reasons for these trends, and it is unclear if higher use is harmful, but previous research has documented that low-income families often don’t have access to high quality childcare after school or during the summers and use technology as a babysitter on occasion. According to the findings, Kindergarteners with diagnosed disabilities were more likely to become frequent online gamers but not texters or users of social media such as Snapchat, Twitter or Facebook. Among fifth graders who were heavy users, boys were more likely to gravitate toward video games while girls were more likely to text and engage with social media.

The study does suggest one antidote for parents - reading to your child and encouraging your child to read picture books outside of school might help protect children from becoming heavy device users. Children of all incomes and races who had more exposure to early literacy activities were less likely to become frequent texters or users of social media, the researchers found.

Our ability to recover from this pandemic may very well hinge on whether or not people in all stations of life can connect with each other. This particularly matters for the small- and medium-sized businesses that employ half the people in the world, in addition to approximately one-third of the world's children, whose education has been interrupted. The key to connection is access to broadband, which United Nations Development Programme administrator Achim Steiner aptly calls "the nervous system of today’s new digital economy.”

The pandemic has disrupted parent's work lives, helping some realize that they can be productive while working fewer hours, delegating tasks and making time for personal and family pursuits, all with the blessing of their employers. "Business leaders will have to empower employees that have discovered new mindsets that work better for them -- or risk losing them to companies that do," writes entrepreneur Steve Waters.

The "Let's Learn NYC" is a TV program that aims to help remote students who lack the necessary technology for distance learning by providing lessons, virtual field trips and other educational programming. The lessons and demonstrations shown on the program engage students, and the article cites the case study of 5-year-old Valentin Vivar, who had been feeling disconnected and was struggling with speech therapy, who felt a connection to the NYC teachers on the program and has found a renewed interest in books and vocabulary.

Nickelodeon's network for preschoolers, Noggin, has some of the most popular programs for kids with shows including Paw Patrol and Dora the Explorer, but they have not focused on much beyond the entertainment value of that media. Now, after acquiring Sparkler, an early childhood learning platform, the network is launching a “massive transformation” aimed at infusing its entertainment offerings with more educational content and helping kids’ reach specific learning goals. The shift also includes a focus on encouraging children to engage and participate in the content.

In a move celebrated by privacy advocates, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed a bill into law that prohibits the use of biometric identifying technology -- such as facial recognition software -- in schools. Linnette Attai, founder of PlayWell, a privacy consulting firm, said other states are likely to adopt similar restrictions citing privacy issues and the inaccuracy of the technology in correctly identifying individual girls, women, and members of certain ethnic and racial groups.

Thirty-nine states have reported plans to use federal coronavirus relief funds to bridge the digital divide for the approximately 16 million students -- 30% of K-12 students -- who lack either at-home Internet or devices to help facilitate remote instruction. The fixes can be fairly simple. School-district and municipal IT departments are using technology that has been around for years, such as solar-powered antennas to transmit Wi-Fi, or wireless broadband, closer to more peoples’ homes. With fresh funding comes more elaborate fixes, such as extending a school’s network infrastructure right to students’ doors. What is proving to be the hardest part is determining exactly who needs access. Administrators can narrow down which students are likely to be in need based on the families that qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, and then subsequently survey parents about their Internet needs, but don’t always get a high response rate.

Both students and teachers report that the shift to remote instruction during the coronavirus pandemic has affected their mental health, with teachers who participated in a survey saying they feel anxious and fearful. Rachel Prince, a high-school teacher in Arizona, says virtual instruction began with some level of excitement but shifted to a constant effort to make students feel better. Students on the other hand have reported constant feelings of missing out.

Seemingly innocuous digital tools and features, such as text size and cursor color, can help students learn — or hamper the experience. A built-in Chromebook feature, for example, not only makes the cursor larger, but it also draws a red circle around the object, making it easier to spot helping distracted remote learners. Gendered voices are another example. Having the option to select a particular voice can enable children and teens to choose the one that puts them most at ease. Text to speech tools are built into most devices and include other features such as voice typing and transcription, and Chromebooks have a built-in screen reader that reads aloud full pages or selected text. The tool highlights individual words as well as the paragraphs that contain them. Other features include options to adjust the speech rate and voice. Additional features are also available.

Moon Mark has forged a partnership with Lunar Outpost to send race cars, designed and piloted remotely by high school students, to the moon in 2021. "This is a way to get the young generation involved in discovering new technology, and stretching their minds in a way that's never been done before in history," said McLaren P1 designer Frank Stephenson, who is involved in the project.