Feb 3rd response

My thoughts on the article entitled Zero to six are as follows:

I do believe that the media plays a significant part in the lives of children.
Based on the statictists of the study and my own personal experience with children it is evident that children at their early stages of life are influenced by the stimuli around them. The study although not conclusive in results, point out that children who have tv's in their home are most likely to watch it at an earlier age, and will probably spend less time reading and playing outside. The results are similar with computers in the home and other media material. It was also noted that other significant factors play a part in their learning,. Such as, parental involvement; the amount of time a parent spends reading to the child and interacting on the computer with them, and the monitored rules and schedules for computer and media use. Babies are like sponges and are naturally interactive learners, learning through responses of diffrent stimuli. I also believe that children growing up in this new digital world, where parents and educational institutions are communitating on higher levels of technology will begin using the computer and other interactive tools earlier and probably become higher learners at an earlier age. I notice this in my children, where they are knowledgable and upto date with the current advances of computers and technology. My children are devoute learners due to my reading to them and the love for books that I have. They grew up around books within our home, my youngest two had more exposure to the current trends of the computer world, because it was then that I brought into using it for myself and it became a required feature in their schools. The children of today are most definetly diffrent thinkers and learners, and I think on certain levels their cognitive and social development has increased due to the advances in technology, specifically computers.

In response to the study of Children On line, I was most intriged by how the study actually painted a clear picture of how a child naturally thinks and learns. It was clearly illustrated in the discussion about the Gathering of The Elves created by the young girl and her friends. Children are naturally social people, and very inquisitive. At the preteen ages on up, children become peer focused, occupied with idenity issues. Whereas, they begin to utilize the virtual aspects of the computer and access interactive links, they naturally create a community of like minded individuals and at the same time for the most part as described in gathering of the Elves learning unconsiously. Why? they are having fun, they are focused, and others are interested in what they are sharing, and as a result, the inate process of learning begins. Collaborating, self study, self motivated research, etc. children are by far natural learners especially when the environment is condusive to learning, and is less restrictive, with high tech opportunities. We as educators need to become more sensitive to this new population of learners filtering into our classes and begin to develop curiculum that will complement these naturally motivated learners. I believe the quote says it all, "Children are learning that to be literate is to have power"