We go out to eat or when they visit, out come their cell phones or Ipads. I used to know the color of their eyes, but I rarely see them anymore, since their heads are bent toward their communication systems. I now request that they leave their cell phones in the car so we can visit like we used to do.

So sad.

who are now 1 1/2, 2 years old, and 2 months old.

but they're both busy!

Going to visit the one with 2 kiddies for 2d birthday party this weekend, and to hold the baby sister! Visited the one with 'only' 1, the 1 1/2 year old, yesterday. He likes books, actually it looks like his older cousin does too, so books are my most frequent gift for them.

For the last 50+ years, I have given all the children books for their age group at Christmas time. I like to think that these books opened up a new world for them and helped set a habit of reading.

The grandchildren are prolific readers and have read to their children from the time they were born. One father struggled in school because of dyslexia, before it was diagnosed, and swore his children would learn to love reading. He read to them from the day of birth to the time they could read by themselves.

Enjoy the birthday party and baby.

and have given to them from among their mothers' favorites. It's a delight to hear my daughters say, 'Oh Mom, that was my FAVORITE!'

And in the classroom setting the parents were outstanding, but the minute recess started most parents
would grab for their cell phones and start talking, texting away through the whole recess.
Even in this modern day children learn by example.

Tikki

that's NATURE! We had the same program at my daughters' pre-school, and it was well before the day of cell-phones, thank goodness!

I was the middle one

They also concentrate more with the iPad's than in direct classroom instruction. I really try to make their instructions interesting. But I rarely offer as a reward or free time the iPad's .The paras offer them to them as rewards but I rarely do for the exact reason outlined in this article.

But, it's limitations are legion. For one it's also a huge distraction. Children do better when they have a computer to help with homework with one hugggggggggggggggggge caveat. The time on the computer has to be strictly limited or it becomes more a distraction than a help and grades will actually go down.

No books and very little paper.
He's in 8th grade.

there need to be distinct and explicit limits on the use of the technology, especially with younger kids.

I'm honestly horrified when I visit my sister and her grandchildren are there, to what extent everyone in the family is using a phone or ipad, the TV is on, and no one is talking to each other.

but it's not going to get easier.

It would be okay if they limited it to certain classtimes a week, or even maybe an overnight, but because they're talking about alarms and selfies and the level of funding, I have to guess they gave the computers to the students, rather than to a computer lab.

As everyone's found, when introduced to a computer, some people get totally immersed. I did this too, and I started many years ago (think, the 70's). Totally addicted. At least it's generally interactive, but not, even then, the social experience they need, and it just got worse. You need to learn how to turn this shit off, preferably by being raised by having alternatives (reading, board games, conversation, play). That's today's real problem, IMHO, no one knows how to disconnect.

I'm having shades of deja-vu over the 'new math' we tried to roll out during the space race in the 50's, which was rejected not because it was unsound, but because the teachers can't teach things they themselves don't fully grok.

Now we're having the same problem with Common Core. The changes to the math curriculum are astounding, and fantastic, and of course getting pushback because a lack of teacher and parental understanding.

Passwords and alarms can be addressed easily enough, once and done. Selfies, well, that's a people management problem. Slow connections are immature infrastructure, or bad student behavior.

Yes, they gave the ipads to the kids, directly, in class, rather than a separate lab. My six year old first-grader is using one as well, one for every kid in the class. Lexia, SpellingCity, RAZ-Kids, lots of tools to help the kids learn faster. He's still developing handwriting on-track. The school/curriculum/teachers have to be competent to make this work. (My kid's teacher is.)

however, I was just reading last night about parental experiences with Common Core and I was also immediately reminded of the "new math". My parents didn't get it (I didn't either) - and they had college degrees - and my mother got p.o.'d and taught me "the long way" or whatever - basically, traditional math, so I at least knew one way to do it.

Now, I don't recall exactly the tenets of "New Math" but I get the impression it's the same as "Common Core" (same socially, not technically).

I agree with the article. And, although I won't elaborate, I have a lot more time with this subject than I've acknowledged.

Oh, I mentioned passwords, alarms, and selfies, not as it being a problem, but simply an indicator of why I thought it meant the kids got to bring it home as opposed to being only in class. I didn't (and won't) discuss connection problems, anyway, they're unrelated to the core problem.

Despite my background, I generally discouraged computer use with my son as long as I could pull it off. It fell apart by the time he was a teenager, but at least I tried

playing with an IPAD is much better than playing with lego's.

And always socializing in person is highly over rated.

But then, this is coming from a computer geek who learned to program BASIC back in 1973.
And who now writes programs in Microsoft Visual Studio (I can do both C# and VB.Net)

and I have similar demographics to you (started BASIC 1976, many years doing consumer edutainment titles sold on the shelves, than most people grew up with).

I disagree mainly that "socializing in person is highly over rated". I don't know your specific background, but I'd be reluctant to draw a general conclusion - particularly that one. If anything, we forget how to socialize.

Go to a restaurant and see how many people are staring down at their phones.

Hell, I used to drive my son and his friend(s) around, and no one would talk to each other, even if it was just him and his girlfriend. I eventually realized they were both staring at their phones, and then realized they were texting each other instead of having a conversation.

To be fair, they'd likely have an actual verbal conversation if I wasn't there.

I wouldn't dismiss conversation so casually. If anything, I think we need to reemphasize it.

Adapt the class activities to leverage the technology as a tool, to encourage interaction and cooperative learning.

You can't just throw a learning force-multiplier into the mix and expect the old ways to continue. Learning evolves.

All of them completely ignoring their surroundings and each other in favor of the social media platform du jour.

Disagree.

I'm agreeing with you to an extent, but you seem to require that I agree completely and without reservation. What's up with that?

Every generation, literally every one, engages in new things, new socialization, new technologies, etc, that are always somehow viewed on the whole as 'bad' or 'negative' or a de-humanizing thing.

It's frustrating to me, and I've grown weary of it. Maybe I read too much into your response, but that's what it feels like.

I look at what the kids are doing, and what the schools are trying to adapt to, and I see nothing but unlimited opportunity, but the same old naysayer arguments keep popping up. Maybe you weren't entirely serious. Sorry.

Many paths lead to the same truth. We don't have to follow the same logic to reach compatible conclusions.

It's all remote/virtual? I very much doubt that.

Some of us use it to bring that externality/nature/event to people who do not, or for some reason could not attend in person.

It's all in how you choose to use it. The technology itself presents no threat.

Despite the cutesy "Gotcha!" intent of the first pic you posted, the analogy simply doesn't work.

Don't misunderstand; I don't think I've touched a newspaper three times in the past year except for use as packing material, and I certainly haven't missed it. I simply don't accept the rose-colored notion that children (or adults, for that matter) will gravitate to the collaborative experience in casual use beyond the sharing of Vines and the like.

I'm sure that the collaborative usage, as you describe it, is and will continue to be a factor in the devices' appeal, but it's simply unrealistic to insist that it's the primary use.

I'm not even sure that this is a bad thing, but I've heard your claim from many sources, and it always sounds like someone's trying to sell me something.

at a party. Never. A percentage, yes, but they weren't getting what they wanted from the environment anyway.

I don't view that as a bad thing.

I've seen people getting what they wanted from a party, and it was decidedly unhealthy anyway.


I don't judge 'primary use'. I let the user define it.

More isolation ...not good. On the other hand I'd like to be more isolated from my asshole neighbour.

He was out of toilet paper.

It would have been nice if I was home.