Most of us do not put much thought into reading, but not everybody has this privilege. Dyslexia is a cognitive disability that impacts someone’s abilities to read, write, or spell.[1] Letters that look similar and sound similar—such as n and m, w and m, and p, b, d, and q—are most frequently mixed up. To illustrate this, reading the sentence “Briana went to the park to walk her dog” may be read as “Briana wemt to the dark to malk her bog” for an individual with dyslexia. While some of us may mix these letters up occasionally, individuals with dyslexia chronically mix letters up to the point that it interferes with their daily life.
How common is dyslexia?
The DyslexiaHelp organization at the University of Michigan notes that 7 to 10% of the population have dyslexia. Individuals with dyslexia also represent around 70 to 80% of the population that have reading difficulties.[2] While dyslexia impairs an individual’s ability to read, write, or spell, this impairment does not affect one’s intelligence.
Dyslexia can lead to slow reading, poor language, messy handwriting, and a limited vocabulary. Behavioral issues such as tantrums, crying, and isolation may also manifest due to frustration. With proper treatment, impairment due to dyslexia can be improved. Children are especially adept at responding to treatment due to their remarkable ability to learn and adapt.
Assistive Technology
Assistive technology is a type of device or application designed to ease the symptoms of a disability.[3] In the case of treating symptoms of dyslexia, assistive technology has been refined throughout the years and garnered large satisfaction among users.
Scientists such as Tamik and Latif from the National University of Sciences and Technology are carrying out promising research for the development and accessibility of assistive technology for individuals with dyslexia. Putting the application they developed to the test, they found that their app helps significantly improves the writing for kids with dyslexia.[4] In a study by Draffan and colleagues looking at how assistive technology is used among 455 students with dyslexia, 90% of subjects found it helpful.[5]
Not only can assistive technology make things easier at the moment, but there can also be transfer effects which are benefits generalized to other things. A 2017 study by Lindeblad and colleagues put 35 children with dyslexia in a specialized program utilizing assistive technology applications. A year follow-up indicated that the children’s literacy increased at the same rate as their non-dyslexic peers.[6]
Maximizing Your Child’s Smartphone
Newer smartphones are becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible for a diverse range of users. With smartphones, assistive technology is at our fingertips!
While a smartphone is easily accessible and can aid with alleviating symptoms of dyslexia, we at GKIS recommend that you consult with a school or private disability program prior to app adoption. Specialized programs will not only help you assess the severity of the learning disability, but they often give you access to specially designed tools that are straightforward and multifunctional.
Here are few steps on optimizing your kid’s smartphone experience:
Text-to-Speech
To have your smartphone read to you, simply highlight a word, sentence, or the entire page. To set this up on your iPhone, go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Spoken Content, then turn on the speech selection. For Android phones, download the Android Accessibility Suite by Google LLC, then go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Installed Services, then turn on Select to Speak.
Speech-to-Text
Simply, dictation is defined as translating spoken word into text. While there are specific disability devices that offer this, the latest smartphones are now equipped for dictation. Click here to learn how to use dictation for iPhone. Click here to learn how to use dictation for Android.
Recording
Recording devices have proven as useful aids for individuals with dyslexia. Not only will they be able to reference the class discussion with full detail, but they can also feel at ease now that they can write notes at their own pace. To access the Voice Memos app quickly on iPhone, go to Settings -> Control Center, then click the green plus button to add the shortcut to the Control Center. On Android, the built-in app “Voice Recorder” is located in the App drawer.
Scanning and Reading
Scanning and reading pens are often distributed through disability services. However, many smartphones are now able to do this. With the application Prizmo, you can scan a typed document which will then translate into text. From here, you can use the text-to-speech functions on your smartphone to have it read out loud to you.
Text Display
With an iPhone, you can go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text, and from here, you can turn on Bold Text. From this same page, you can also go to “Larger Text” and play around with the sizes to fit one that works best for your child. On Androids, you can go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Font Size, and play with the options from here.
Note: Due to the wide range of Android devices, the provided Android settings may be accessed differently depending on the version.
The Internet is host to an endless stream of potential sources that can help your child, but it is important to be careful of any potential marketing ploys that are from unverified sources or people without credentials. To help provide your child and yourself with a keen-eye on spotting scams, check out our How to Spot Marketing supplement that is the perfect addition to your free Connected Family Agreement.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Avery Flower for researching assistive technology and dyslexia, and for co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
[1] Azorín, E. I., Martin-Lobo, P., Vergara-Moragues, E., & Calvo, A. (2019). Profile and neuropsychological differences in adolescent students with and without dyslexia. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 51(2), 83–92.
[4] Tariq, R., & Latif, S. (2016). A mobile application to improve learning performance of dyslexic children with writing difficulties. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(4), 151–166.
[5] Draffan, E. A., Evans, D. G., & Blenkhorn, P. (2007). Use of assistive technology by students with dyslexia in post-secondary education. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 2(2), 105–116. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.1080/17483100601178492
[6] Lindeblad, E., Nilsson, S., Gustafson, S., & Svensson, I. (2017). Assistive technology as reading interventions for children with reading impairments with a one-year follow-up. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 12(7), 713–724. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csuci.edu/10.1080/17483107.2016.1253116
Did you know that our activities change how our brains grow? And the way our brains work determines what activities we like to do. In other words, our brain wiring changes over time, and those changes lead us to prefer some tasks over others. These days, we spend more time on our screens than we do outside or face-to-face with other people. That means our brains are wired to function best in the virtual world. Because screens are a relatively new phenomenon in the scope of human history, we don’t know what the long-term outcome of screen use will be on our brains. Child and teen brains are especially vulnerable to rewiring issues because they are already in a massive state of change. Will this information change the way you use your screens?
Brains!
Neurons & Superhighways
Our brains are made up of millions of brain cells, called neurons. Neurons communicate with each other and help us think, move, and even breathe! Neurons are necessary for us to live. The healthier our brains are, the better our lives are.
As we age, our brains are constantly remodeling. At first, our brains use many neurons to complete one task. But with practice, our neurons form superhighways for the most efficient thinking. As we age, fewer neurons can get the same task done that used to take far more neurons. The more primitive pathways that get replaced prune away while the superhighways develop.
Our brain is its biggest when we are 10 years old! Then our gray matter (the brain tissue packed with neurons) decreases from there. At certain ages, some parts of our brain remodel more than others based on the types of learning that we are doing. For example, babies and toddlers are remodeling the brain areas responsible for attaching to others and learning a language. Teen brains are remodeling the brain areas responsible for creating abstract ideas and connecting with their peers.
Brain Thinning from Excessive Screen Use
To build healthy brains, we must take good care of ourselves and get good sleep, nutrition, and exercise. We also need to do a lot of balanced learning off-screen, not just on-screen. Doing different types of learning will build a more capable, healthier brain.
Doing only one type of learning over and over for many hours a day will build a less capable brain than learning a variety of things. In fact, studies are showing that kids who use screens seven hours a day, versus kids who do not, show thinning in many parts of the brain and lower scores on thinking and language tests.[i][ii][iii][iv] The way their brains process information is also negatively affected.[v]
Is multitasking healthy for our brains?
Many of us spend much of our day multitasking, which means going back and forth between different screen tasks and in-real-life tasks. We are doing many (multiple) tasks at the same time – going back and forth between a primary task and an interrupting task. We love to be connected to our screen devices when we are doing in-real-life things like checking our social media during homework or watching a video while at a restaurant. Most of the time that’s fun and works great. But other times our screen devices can reduce the quality of our work.
Many people think that when they are multitasking, their brains can work on everything at the same time as if the brain has a huge mental pipeline where different things flow in and out at once. But the brain can’t do many things at the same time. Instead, we have a single mental pipeline that is built to do only one thing at a time.
When you are multitasking, you end up quickly going back and forth between those tasks rather than doing them at the same time. We call that toggling back and forth. Those activities must take turns using the same brain area. Competition between the same cognitive resources can decrease our energy, happiness, and learning performance.
But it’s not so simple to say that interrupting one task with another is always a problem. Sometimes there are learning benefits to using screens during real-life activities. The challenge is figuring out what screen activities help get the task done and which are distracting us and wearing us out.
Do younger people outsource to their screens better than older people?
Young people who grew up with screens tend to multitask more often and better than older people who did not grow up with screens. With early life practice, they have learned the mental flexibility of digital learning. Screen natives learn differently than screen immigrants.
For example, younger people are better than older people at multitasking.[vi] Using our screens for things like memory, increased access to information, mapping, performing calculations, and creating is called outsourcing. Outsourcing to screens means less need for memory or spatial skills and less cognitive effort.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Well, the answer is complicated. Some types of limited multitasking are healthy for learning. Other types are not so much. Furthermore, we cannot trust our judgment. Though people insist they get more done, better, and faster when multitasking, they are most often wrong.[vii] Multitaskers don’t recognize that juggling tasks cost us more time and results in worse performance, kind of like a drunk driver saying he drives better while under the influence.
The Costs of Multitasking
Performance Decline
Results are consistent across studies that multitasking results in a small but significant decrease in test scores (4-5% decrease). Larger interruptions cause even larger decreases.[xiii][xiv] Perhaps a 5% decline doesn’t seem like much, but it is half a letter grade.
If two tasks require different cognitive resources, like walking and talking, then the performance decline is smaller. If tasks require similar cognitive resources, like talking and texting, which both require language centers, then the deficits are larger.[xv]
In the long term, multitasking (with social media and instant messaging for example) can lead to lower grades and poorer cognitive performance overall, especially in the areas of working memory and attention.[xvi][xvii] Multitaskers tend to have poorer memories because they are getting less memorizing practice.
Time Cost & the Google Effect
Multitasking also costs us extra time. When people are interrupted, it takes an average of 23 minutes, 15 seconds to return to work, often getting distracted by two or more tasks after the interruption.[xi]
When we use the Internet, we are also less likely to remember something we’ve learned if we know it’s published online, a dynamic now called the Google effect.[xii] It’s as if we quit thinking or taking responsibility for learning because we expect our smartphones to have it handled. Why bother to take the effort to remember the date if a press of a button will get the job done?
Brain Drain & Anxiety
Another cost of multitasking with our screens is brain drain. Research has shown that toggling between mental tasks burns the brain’s fuel, oxygenated glucose, at a rate faster than concentrating on a single task.[xx]We think we are saving time and energy by fracturing our attention, but we are actually draining the very energy necessary to do the work and taking more time to do it!
Our screens drain us in other ways too. A 2015 study found that smartphone notifications hijack attention and distract us by launching distracting thoughts whether we’ve checked notifications or not.[viii] Furthermore, when smartphone users are unable to answer a notification, their pulse and blood pressure increase, they feel anxious, and their problem-solving skills decline.[ix] The more attached we are to our phones and the closer they are to us, the more distracted and stressed we are.[x]
Brain overload from multitasking can take a toll on mental health. Factors that make us most vulnerable to rapidly switching tasks are anxious and impulsive personality traits, stress, and too little sleep.[xxi]Without downtime, mental stress and fatigue can lead to poorer learning, irritability, and mood and anxiety disorders, especially for teens.[xxii]
Homework & Multitasking
Kids argue, and rightfully so, that it is impossible to do homework without multitasking on- and offscreen. As they get older, school tasks require the student to look up information for research, communicate with other group members, and track progress across multiple platforms.
Here are some research findings that can help you make better choices while doing schoolwork.
Watching TV or videos while doing schoolwork interferes with performance.
Watching TV and doing homework are both demanding tasks that compete for the same brain areas. Research studies have demonstrated that watching television, or even just having it on in the background, impairs reading performance, [xxiii] memory of homework facts, [xxiv] and even your memory of what you’ve watched on TV. [xxv
How about music and homework?
It was once widely believed that listening to classical music makes you smarter, known as The Mozart Effect. However, this theory has largely been proven to be untrue.
Studying in a quiet environment results in better homework performance than studying with music.[xxvi] Kids tend to think they do better while listening to the music they like and worse while listening to music they don’t like. But performance is poorer in either condition.[xxvii]
However, music does have a positive role in learning if you listen to music you like before homework or during breaks due to a bump in arousal and mood (called the Stephen King Effect).
Is using a laptop during the lecture OK?
College students who do not use any type of technology during class time tend to outperform those students who do use screen technology during the lecture.[xxviii] Researchers explained the results in terms of a bottleneck in attention. Meaning that more goes into the brain than it can handle, so it must slow down to catch up. Using a smartphone decreases a student’s ability to remember lecture information.[xxix] Moreover, laptop use during lectures not only distracts the user but also distracts the student’s neighbors.[xxx]
Supertaskers & Neuroplasticity
Pumping yourself up to learn before homework and relaxing during breaks is a good thing. But distracting yourself during homework with anything that may compete for the same brain resources is a bad thing. But there are exceptions to this rule.
Approximately 2% of the population, called supertaskers, defy statistics and demonstrate an extraordinary ability to screen out distractors when multitasking. It’s as if they have super-enhanced brain skills called synaptic plasticity.[xxxi]
Supertaskers can maintain these exceptional abilities by practicing excellent brain health habits, like good organization and time management, and refueling with emotional and cognitive control strategies that are screen-free like mindfulness, imagery, and meditation.
The Work-Home Boundary
It’s not just kids and teens that are impacted by screen time. Parents also have problems getting off their screens.
Studies have found that the boundaries between work and home have blurred. Overall, our work and school days span more hours and our jobs have become more demanding. This has led to more stress and dissatisfaction and less connection to the things that are meaningful to us.[xviii] We have trained ourselves to self-interrupt, leading to worsened task prioritization and poorer sustained attention overall.[xix]
How can we overcome the depleting effects of multitasking and screen time?
Taking YouTube breaks is not the answer.
Try these things instead:
Focus on one task at a time.
Do your work first, then enjoy fun content as your reward for a job well done.
Batch notifications (turn off notifications, then save them up and go through them all at once every few hours instead of constantly checking).
Take frequent screen-free brain breaks. Don’t go on the screen because you will lose track of time and stay distracted. Instead, let your mind wander or stare off for fifteen minutes every couple of hours.
Sprinkle in brain-healthy activities throughout your day, like yoga, group hikes, and nutritious snack times.
[ii] Kim, S., Baik, S., Park, C., Kim, S., Choi, S. & Kim, S. (2011). Reduced Striatal Dopamine D2 Receptors in People with Internet Addiction. NeuroReport 22.8: 407-11. Web.
[iii] Koepp, M., Gunn, R., Lawrence, A., Cunningham, V., Dagher, A., Jones, T., Brooks, D., Bench, C., & Grasby, P. (1998). Evidence for striatal dopamine release during a video game. Nature 393: 266-268.
[iv] Kühn, S., Romanowski, A., Schilling, C., Lorenz, R., Mörsen, C., Seiferth, N., & Banaschewski, T. (2011). The Neural Basis of Video Gaming. Translational Psychiatry 1: e53.
[v] Dong, G. Hu, Y., & Lin, X. (2013). Reward/punishment sensitivities among internet addicts: Implications for their addictive behaviors. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 46, 139–145.
[vi] Ie, A., Haller, C., Langer, E., & Courvoisier, D. (2012). “Mindful Multitasking: The Relationship between Mindful Flexibility and Media Multitasking.” Computers in Human Behavior 28.4: 1526-532. Web.
[vii] Finley, J., Benjamin, A., & McCarley, J., (2014). “Metacognition of Multitasking: How Well Do We Predict the Costs of Divided Attention?” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20.2: 158-65. Web.
[viii] Ward, A., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. (2017). “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of Oneâs Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2.2: 140-54. Web.
[ix] Clayton, R. (2015). “The Extended ISelf: The Impact of IPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, & Physiology.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 20(2), pp. 119–135., doi:10.1111/jcc4.12109.
[x] Ward, A., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. (2017). “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of Oneâs Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity.” Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2.2: 140-54. Web.
[xi] Sano, A. (20160. “Neurotics Can’t Focus: An in Situ Study of Online Multitasking in the Workplace – MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab, www.media.mit.edu/publications/neurotics-cant-focus-an-in-situ-study-of-online-multitasking-in-the-workplace/.
[xii] Sparrow, B., et al. (2011). “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips.” Science, vol. 333, no. 6043, pp. 776–778., doi:10.1126/science.1207745.
[xiii] Conard, M., & Marsh, R., (2013). “Interest Level Improves Learning but Does Not Moderate the Effects of Interruptions: An Experiment Using Simultaneous Multitasking.” Learning and Individual Differences: n. pag. Web.
[xiv] Wood, E., Zivcakova, L., Gentile, P., Archer, K., De Pasquale, D., & Nosko, A. (2012). “Examining the Impact of Off-task Multi-tasking with Technology on Real-time Classroom Learning.” Computers & Education 58.1: 365-74. Web.
[xv] Conard, M., & Marsh, R., (2013). “Interest Level Improves Learning but Does Not Moderate the Effects of Interruptions: An Experiment Using Simultaneous Multitasking.” Learning and Individual Differences: n. pag. Web.
[xvi] Fein, S., Jones, S., & Gerow, J. (2013). “When It Comes to Facebook There May Be More to Bad Memory than Just Multitasking.” Computers in Human Behavior 29.6: 2179-182. Web.
[xvii] Fox, A., Rosen, J., & Crawford, M. (2009). “Distractions, Distractions: Does Instant Messaging Affect College Students’ Performance on a Concurrent Reading Comprehension Task?” CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(1): 51-53.https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0107
[xviii] Gregoire, C. (2016). “The American Workplace Is Broken. Here’s How We Can Start Fixing It.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Nov. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/american-workplace-broken-stress_us_566b3152e4b011b83a6b42bd.
[xix] Sano, A. (2016). “Email Duration Batching and Self-Interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress – MIT Media Lab.” MIT Media Lab, 17 May 2016, www.media.mit.edu/publications/email-duration-batching-and-self-interruption-patterns-of-email-use-on-productivity-and-stress/.
[xx] Sridharan, D., et al. (2008). “A Critical Role for the Right Fronto-Insular Cortex in Switching between Central-Executive and Default-Mode Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 105, no. 34, pp. 12569–12574., doi:10.1073/pnas.0800005105.
[xxii] Becker, M., Alzahabi, R., & Hopwood, C., (2013). “Media Multitasking Is Associated with Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiety.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 16.2: 132-35. Web.
[xxiii] Lin, L., Robertson, T., & Lee, J. (2009). “Reading Performances Between Novices and Experts in Different Media Multitasking Environments.” Computers in the Schools 26.3: 169-86. Web.
[xxiv] Armstrong, G. Blake, & Chung, L. (2000). “Background Television and Reading Memory in Context: Assessing TV Interference and Facilitative Context Effects on Encoding Versus Retrieval Processes.” Communication Research 27: 327–352.
[xxv] Zhang, W., Jeong, S., & Fishbein, M. (2010). “Situational Factors Competing For Attention: The Interaction Effect of Multitasking and Sexually Explicit Content on TV Recognition.” Journal of Media Psychology 22: 2–13. Web.
[xxvi] Furnham, A., & Bradley, A. (1997). “Music While You Work: The Differential Distraction of Background Music on the Cognitive Test Performance of Introverts and Extraverts.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 11.5: 445-55. Web.
[xxvii] Perham, N., & Vizard, J. (2011), Can preference for background music mediate the irrelevant sound effect? Appl. Cognit. Psychol., 25: 625–631. doi:10.1002/acp.1731
[xxviii] Hembrooke, H., & Gay, G. (2003). “The Laptop and the Lecture: The Effects of Multitasking in Learning Environments.” Journal of Computing in Higher Education 15.1: 46-64. Web.
[xxix] Wood, E., Zivcakova, L, Gentile, P., Archer, K., De Pasquale, D., & Nosko, A. (2012). “Examining the Impact of Off-task Multi-tasking with Technology on Real-time Classroom Learning.” Computers & Education 58.1: 365-74. Web.
[xxx] Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. (2013). “Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers.” Computers & Education 62: 24-31. Web.
[xxxi] Watson, J., & Strayer, D. (2010). “Supertaskers: Profiles in Extraordinary Multitasking Ability.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 17.4: 479-85. Web.
It’s a battle keeping students engaged in education in our screen-soaked world. Kids love learning. But they seem less in love with school and more in love with screen time. How do we reengage our students in school and the love of learning? Have we reached the tipping point where tech in the classroom is necessary for engagement? Or since COVID-19 Stay at Home Orders, have screens isolated kids and made them too fatigued to learn? Screens are great at teaching kids to self-interrupt, leading often report that real-life classrooms turn them off instead of turning them on. Today’s GKIS article highlights the benefit of tech and how gamification is being tested in education.
Traditional Teaching Methods Versus Screen Tech
Traditionally, schools use teacher-led workbook activities, in-class discussions, and textbook-based homework that rely heavily on structured lessons and memorization. Lessons often span longer than 10 minutes. This can be problematic considering the typical adult’s attention span is only 15 minutes.[1]
Screen technology, on the other hand, is fast-moving and interactive and offers the student on-demand selection at the click of a button. The opportunity to self-select content is empowering and gratifying. Teachers can also track the student’s learning process in real time and gradually feed relevant and increasingly challenging content.
The rewarding versatility of technology has led children to immerse themselves in their virtual worlds an average of ten hours a day. With this number of hours on-screen, many kids are creating brain pathways best matched with on-demand screen delivery rather than teacher-facilitated instruction.
Evidence of Disengagement
Even before COVID, a 2014 poll of 825,000 5th-12th grade students found that nearly half of the students surveyed felt disengaged in the learning process. Only 40% of their teachers believed their students were engaged. Reported numbers were even lower (26%) in high-poverty schools.[2] This finding is particularly concerning, considering that a student’s engagement in grade school is correlated with how well they will do in college.[3]
When schoolteacher and gamification enthusiast Scott Hebert asked his students why they didn’t seem to care about the lessons taught in school, they replied, “I don’t get why we need to do this stuff, give us a reason to care.”[4] Without intrinsic interest, meaning the task isn’t naturally motivating, they felt like they had to jump through meaningless hoops to learn.
To be successful, education must speak their language and meet them where they’re at. For most kids, that means reaching them in their virtual worlds. Studies have reported that 90% of students agree using a tablet will change the way they learn in the future, and 56% of high school students would like to use mobile devices in the classroom.[5]
Gamification
Gamification was coined by computer programmer Nick Pelling in 2002. The concept of gamification is to take the natural enjoyments that attract people to technology and inject those into education. In other words, create a more fun humanisticapproach to education, rather than our traditional instruction-led, function-focused approach.[6]
Dr. See is a professor at the University of Hong Kong who teaches human anatomy and medicine. He noticed that video games and education have features that overlap. For example, they both:
require solving mental puzzles,
recalling information,
looking for patterns,
working under pressure,
communicating ideas, and
working within a time limit.
Because his students loved video games, he decided to use gamification within his classroom. He applied puzzles and games to the curriculum, like for the memorization of the names of medications. As a result, his students reported that they were more motivated and learned better.[7] His gamification worked!
Learning through gamification does not mean it is easy. Gamification is engaging because it requires the student to generate the material instead of being instructed to do so. It is not about making school easier. Instead, it allows the student to actively engage in the learning process.[8]
Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivators
We are psychologically motivated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
Intrinsic motivators (things that you enjoy doing that compel you forward) are important for well-being.
The psychological needs that must be met to feel motivated are:
autonomy (working on your own),
competence (being good at it), and
relatedness (feeling connected to what you learn).
Extrinsic motivators are rewards that come from outside. Examples include grades, points, and praise. External rewards may become harmful to our psychological well-being when they’re the only reason for engagement.[9]
For great learning, then, we must avoid rewarding students with points and grades. Instead, we must allow students to have a choice in what they’re learning and a chance to try it on their own and celebrate their efforts. These goals within a classroom can be challenging.
Gamifying Tests
Video games are set up for lots of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The player gets to pick the game they relate to. then they get to play it on their own, simply restarting after they fail. They may lose points. But so what. They can just start over. Nobody is judging them.
Traditional school testing methods do the opposite. Typically, a failing grade on the test is the student’s final act of the lesson. They don’t get a do-over. That means failure has huge consequences and may leave the learner feeling hopeless and demoralized.
Gamifying testing could reverse that process by offering smaller quizzes that the student can retake over and over as they learn the material. Instead of feeling terrible about their first attempt, they can see their points going up and up – just like in a video game.
Starting a student at 100% with nowhere to go but down can lead the student to feel hopeless. According to prospect theory, people have a difficult time choosing activities when they anticipate a loss.
Alternatively, starting at zero and gaining points from there encourages a growth mindset. That means looking forward to learning instead of feeling defeated by it. The student would begin the semester with zero points and as the year progresses, they could earn points as they complete assignments. This would give students a growth mindset for their education!
AltSchool
Educators have tested technology-assisted education models, especially since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. For example, millions of dollars have been invested in AltSchool, a school that promotes a personalized learning platform using technology. In Altschool, students are provided with iPads or laptops and given individualized learning activities. The school encourages students to learn at their own pace, developing the mastery skills needed to learn the subject. The goal is engagement and learning potential.
Outcome studies revealed that students who learned at their own pace felt more competent and autonomous.[10] However, a teacher noticed his students were less connected with each other than before. They were more engaged with the technology than they were with one another. Also, we all remember the Zoom burnout students felt after the COVID epidemic. Losing motivation and connectedness over time may be risks of technologically assisted education.
The need for relatedness and connection is particularly important in learning because others provide feedback and perspective.[11]Authoritative instruction may trigger the reactance theory, which explains how people value autonomy so much they will “react” or do the opposite of what they are told to feel they made their own decision.
Quest to Learn
Another applied experiment for new and creative education is Quest to Learn. This is a gamified high school in Manhattan that was founded in 2009. Many of the classes at the school are not internet-based but instead teach through role-playing. Students act out the responsibilities of a chosen profession, like learning about politics by impersonating a politician.[12] By narrating the character, a student generates the answers needed for complex subjects.[13]
Because screen technology is still new, innovative (new and creative) teaching models and outcome studies are still being developed. Hybrid models (part in-classroom and part on-screen) are also being tested. As tech optimists, we at GKIS look forward to seeing all the cool things coming up in education.
Thanks to Andrew Weissmann for his research for this article. For a glimpse into some of the benefits of video games, check out our GKIS article Is Your Child a “Professional Gamer”?
Works Cited
[1] Usnews.com Kids asked to learn in ways that exceed attention spans by the Hechinger Report
[7] School of Biomedical Sciences sbms.hku.hk Dr. See, Christopher
[8] Christopher See Gamification in Higher Education
[9] Kasser and Ryan (1993) A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals.
[10] Black & Deci, (2000) selfdeterminationtheory.org
[11] The Backlash Against Screen Time at School by Rob Waters
[12] Worldgovernmentsummit.org Gamification and the future of education
If your family looks anything like the average American family, you’re probably on your screens too much and can use some help. We all want our families to be as healthy as possible. Overuse of our devices can have a negative effect, not only on our health, but on our family dynamic. Our gadgets are causing us to sit rather than move, and swipe rather than speak. Cutting back isn’t easy but has huge benefits. How much screen time is too much, and what can our families do to reduce time spent on devices?
Screen Time Guidelines
In Dr. Bennett’s book, Screen Time in the Mean Time: A Parent’s Guide to Get Kids and Teens Internet Safe, she provides recommendations for kids of different ages, toddlers through teens as well as for adults. When asked about time guidelines, she stresses that, although useful as a guide, time limits are less important than the quality and format of viewed content.
Especially for young children, fast-moving, light-flashing content can be overly arousing to the developing nervous system which can lead to stress and effect brain wiring long term. Compulsive and addictive use patterns driven by notifications and rewarding images and sounds can also have detrimental brain and behavior impact. Sexuality and violence are particularly potent to capture our attention, which means lots of exposure to ads and big profit. For children, inappropriate content can lead to stress, anxiety, fear, and depression. She says, for the first time in 23 years of practice, she is seeing young children with panic disorder. She attributes some of these cases to poorly managed screen use.
Dr. Bennett wrote Screen Time in the Mean Time because simple guidelines aren’t enough to protect healthy development and relationships. Each family member has different communication and information access needs. Personalized content and use patterns matter. Rather than set a hard time guideline and leave it at that, she says parents can teach sensible screen programming, choice, and use strategies for smart screen use. Kids need to know why rules exist and be able to negotiate for reasonable access. Just taking screens away overlooks critical learning opportunities. Our screens provide enormous benefits in entertainment, access to information, communication, skill-building, storage, and safety. Knowing how our screen devices affect us and how to manage them are critical first steps to smart screen use.
Risks of Excess Device Use
Recent studies have shown that too much time on your devices can lead to health problems such as:
Obesity
Watching television for more than 1.5 hours per day is a risk factor of obesity for children who are between the ages of 4 and 9. You are more likely to watch more TV when having one in the bedroom. Teens and children are 5 times more likely to be obese if they watch 5 or more hours of TV per day, than those who watch 0-2 hours per day (Why to limit your child’s media use, 2016).
Sleep Problems
A high exposure to screen media and sleeping with a phone in your bedroom puts you at a greater risk for sleep interference. The light that emits from your phone, blue light, is particularly harmful to your child’s sleep quality, because it triggers a dip in your sleep regulating hormone, melatonin. Poor quality of sleep can then lead to memory problems, loss of initiative, an inability to prioritized tasks, mood and anxiety symptoms, and poor academic performance overall (Bennett, 2018; Why to limit your child’s media use, 2016). Without sufficient sleep, the brain is unable to do its housekeeping duties, which includes memory consolidation and removal of toxins, Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to learning deficits, cardiovascular risks, buildup of toxic proteins that can lead to increased risk for Alzheimers, and an impoverished immune system. This is why Dr. Bennett believes that sleep deprivation is the number one risk to mental health today.
Poor Learning and School Performance
Children and teens tend to divide their attention between homework, TV, and smartphones. Dr. Bennett calls this “multitasking.” Multitasking can lead to poor quality work, wasted time, and mental brownout, which is irritability, fatigue, and depression (Bennett, 2018).
Tips on how to reduce screen time:
Be a role model and be consistent.
Achieving lifestyle changes as a family brings comradery, accountability, and a greater chance of success.
Get honest, set a goal, and reach it.
Have a clear vision of what you want your lifestyle to look like and plan the steps to get there. Time management apps are helpful to track and manage. screen use. Bennett’s home staging tips can also be life altering. Starting sooner rather than later will help everyone build positive habit with less resistance. The GKIS Family Living Agreement is a comprehensive and easy0-to-use tool that helps with education, goal setting, and learning family values.
No screens in the bedroom, bathroom, or behind closed doors.
Don’t even use your phone as an alarm clock. If you glance at it during the night, you’ll get distracted by social media and lose critical rejuvenating sleep. This can become a habit and lead to long-term sleep problems. Use a GKIS Family Docking Station to resist temptation.
Build screen-free dinners into the schedule.
Make meal time family time. The dinner table is a great place to bond with your family, catch up on how school or work went, and talk about plans for the week. This is the perfect opportunity to pay compliments and give thanks. Let your family know how grateful you are to have them in your life, it is these precious moments that we let slip by looking at our phones rather than truly engaging in our loved ones.
Modify your phones to be less appealing.
Delete apps. Grayscale. Turn off notifications. Put apps with notifications on a backpage of your smartphone. The world won’t end, you’ll be fine. Making your phone less attractive will cut your screen time and transform your phone from entertainment, to utility; the way it was intended.Cut your social media contacts to Dunbar’s number, 150. Research shows that we have a limited amount of friend slots in our brain, which adds up to about 150. After that, relationship quality deteriorates to acquaintance contact. If you’re hemorrhaging time on relationships that don’t bring something special to your life, trim your friend lists.
Improve the quality of your screen content.
Cut down to one social media app, unfollow fake news sources, and reduce your exposure to ad-rich content like beauty guru videos and celebrity news.
Screen-free times and activities leads to creativity and enriching three-dimensional play.
Bennett practiced #NoTechTuesday and #NoTechThursday with her family. She says these were her favorite days, because her kids played with their pets, built forts, climbed trees, and got creative. Now that her kids are teens, they sometimes elect screen free leisure activities, which she says is a longterm payoff they’ll always value.
Don’t use screens as a punishment or reward.
It’s important that you become your child’s advocate with screen use rather than their punisher. Although it’s easy to use screens as leverage, don’t do it. If they see you as a screen hater, they’ll quit talking to you about their screen activities. Instead, use practical, smaller consequences like 15 minutes earlier bedtime or an extra chore to do. This is especially important with young children.
As with any lifestyle change, time and practice is necessary for success. Trimming screen time may be difficult, especially for teens. They need you to negotiate slow improvements over time rather than demand lots of changes at once. Don’t expect them to agree at first. The benefits will be revealed over time. That is all part of learning healthy habits, which is not an innate skills and is easier with age. Likes and comments are great, but real connections start with true contact and conversation. Thanks to chad Flores for the valuable information in this article. If these tips were helpful, you can find more in Screen Time in the Mean Time: A Parenting Guide to Get Kids and Teens Internet Safe
Do you suffer from digital amnesia? How many phone numbers can you recite offhand? Can you name three movies that are out? Does anybody have paper maps in their cars anymore? Most of us, particularly the digital natives, Google to search out random facts and figures rather than relying on memory. Researchers call this the Google effect, meaning that fewer of us bother to memorize things if we believe they are online.
Google was introduced to the Internet in 1998. It is a search engine that calculates and ranks the web pages that receive the most attention. Google not only serves up delicious content, but it also determines what we see first on our search list. Google works to filter out useless, scam-like, or explicit information and images from our search list.
Websites that rank the highest load quickly, do not use flashy animation, and have a coherent list of relevant search terms. Google weeds through the bad web pages to provide us with the best, which makes the scary world of the Internet a lot safer and easier to navigate. Google provides users with convenience, comfort, and trust.
What is the Google effect?
As Albert Einstein said, “Never memorize what you can look up in books.” Did I remember this line? No, I opened my Google Chrome web browser, proceeded to Google.com, and searched “famous quotes about memory.” We are moving to a future of memory decline and an over-reliance on technology that’s always at our fingertips.
Dr. Maria Wimber, Professor at the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology, said the Google effect “makes us good at remembering where to find a given bit of information but not necessarily what the information was. It is likely to be true that we don’t attempt to store information in our memory to the same degree that we used to because we know the Internet knows everything.”
Betsy Sparrow from Columbia University explained, “Our brains rely on the Internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member, or co-worker. We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.” We are more likely to commit keywords to memory than the facts they lead us to.
How powerful is the Google effect?
It’s been estimated that 90% of us have undergone digital amnesia. Over 70% of parents have not memorized their children’s phone numbers.[3] We are even less likely to remember an experience if we snapped a photo of it.
In her study, Dr. Maria Wimber assigned one group to go around the museum taking pictures, while the other group was told not to take pictures and just to enjoy the experience. Those who took pictures were found to remember significantly fewer details than those who did not use their smartphone.[3] Dr. Wimber elaborated, “One could speculate that this extends to personal memories, as constantly looking at the world through the lens of our smartphone camera may result in us trusting our smartphones to store our memories for us. This way, we pay less attention to life itself and become worse at remembering events from our own lives.”
As a millennial accustomed to heavy smartphone use, I would go as far as to say we rely on the “likes” from our social media posts to determine the worth of an event. If we get lots of likes, we must have had a great time; fewer likes and it was a bust.
Is the Google effect bettering us for the future?
Anthropologist Genevieve Bell thinks that the Google effect is not as detrimental as others think. She reports that technology “helps us live smarter.” Creating good search words is how knowledge is conforming to the technological future. There is such a thing as a good or bad question. If you type in a random mess of words into Google’s search bar, it’s likely you won’t find an answer that fits your needs. But being able to write a short, competent question that produces a concrete answer is a form of intelligence.
Bell gave an example of new parents worried that their child is not sleeping well. Her theory is that a smart parent would be able to comprise all the symptoms into a great Google search, while others might rely on others’ feedback. Google can find legitimate websites to back up the diagnosis of the child, while feedback from friends is just a matter of opinion.
What can you do to optimize Google’s benefits and minimize the risks?
Decide if you’re pro-integrated technology or if the commitment to technology has a negative impact on our future.
Emphasize to your kids that worth is more than skin deep. Provide opportunities for intellectual, spiritual, and character growth. Value substance.
Be a good role model. Watch your GTS ratio.
Educate your children about the risks and benefits of trusting the Internet.
Monitor and limit how often your teens use the Internet when studying with screen time management apps. Encourage them to build the scaffolding for memory with less reliance on Google.
Teach how to balance healthy and fun activities like interacting often with family members face-to-face, riding bikes, or reading books.
Thanks, Wendy Goolsby, CSUCI Intern, for this great article about Google’s effect on our learning. It is because of these factors that I have changed my teaching style at CSUCI. No longer do I give in-class exams that cover several factors at once. I found that my students just procrastinated and crammed, which didn’t lead to quality learning. Now I offer an online timed multiple-choice quiz after each lecture. They are telling me that this forces them to keep current and they’re remembering and applying material better. Even we digital immigrants must adapt. 🙂 For more parenting support on educating about the effects of the Internet, check out the GKIS article Youtube Beauty Gurus Suck Money and Teen Confidence.
We are back to school, mixed feelings and all. On the one hand, I’m sad about losing lazy barefoot jammy mornings and chill flip-flop afternoons. On the other hand, school brings a set schedule and less pressure to entertain bickering kids. Then there’s the fact that we didn’t get in enough after dinner neighborhood walks and forget about homemade picnics. It’s OK though, I’m so buried in permission slips and sports calendars right now I can barely squeeze in a moment for regret anyway. One thing I know, however, is taking a little bit of time out now to implement time- and stress-saving ideas is well worth it. Today’s GetKidsInternetSafe article offers parenting support and organizational strategies that will spark better efficiency and screen safety.
Organization in a busy household is like the creation of an earthquake kit, it only happens after something scares you into it. Maybe it’s the humiliation of the teacher calling you personally to pick up your forgotten child or that 5-tabbed excel spreadsheet from the volleyball coach that reveals every other parent already chose snack bar duty leaving you to choose between Halloween or Thanksgiving weekends. Whatever your inspiration, it’s time to pull it together before chaos takes you and the kids under. Here are some tips I provided to my overwhelmed clients this week. Hope it helps you feel confident in being “good enough” this week.
SORT AND DECLUTTER: OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW
I don’t know about you, but my kids can destroy a room in moments. A sure-fire solution is one hour spent sorting though the dresser and closet to toss or donate old clothes BEFORE the new ones mix in and implementing one-step solutions to laundry. For instance, last fall I bought each child a terry cloth robe to hang by the shower and laid down the law “no more towels.” Admittedly, I still find towels in their rooms on occasion when they fail to return their robes to the hook, but this easy solution has saved me two loads a week of soggy, piled up towels in corners of bedrooms.
SET TIME LIMITS, ROOM-BY-ROOM SCREEN BOUNDARIES, & YOUR GKIS COMMUNITY DOCKING STATION
If you’ve read my article about how teens are self-producing pornography, you know that closed doors, bedrooms, and bathrooms are ready sets for bad screen media choices. Also, screen use in the bedroom often results in late night use and dangerous dips in the sleep regulating hormone, melatonin. Sleep deprived kids are cranky and deprived of the rejuvenating neurological processes necessary for learning.
Implement and enforce set screen times and room rules and set up a GKIS community docking station near mom and dad for adequate nightly supervision. Free apps like Our Pact are amazing tech tools for universally turning off screen media at bedtime to support agreed-upon blackout times. No arguing, no fuss.
SET UP A SHARABLE DIGITAL FAMILY CALENDAR
Too scattered to follow your kids around reminding them of daily events? Set up a shared digital, color-coded calendar for view on their tablets and smartphones. Not only can they visit the calendar to plan their day, but you can also set up automatic reminders that banner across their screen. No more accusations of, “You never told me!”
ELIMINATE RESENTMENT WITH A SIMPLE IN-N-OUT BOX SET
No, I don’t mean double-double animal style cheeseburgers. This is about permission slips, homework due dates, and reminders delivered in a way that doesn’t tank parent-child conversations.
This week I had a tearful teen and an exasperated mom share how frustrated they were because the teen still needs reminders about piano practice and project due dates, but when mom mentions it the result is a lecturing mom, a defiant teen, and lingering resentment.
An easier way to communicate is a GKIS family organization center. If color-coded bins and Pinterest-inspired corkboards are beyond your pay grade, a simple in-out basket set will do. A note that says “Please don’t forget to show me your completed American History essay by tomorrow night 9 pm” in the inbox will be more successful without the dreaded angry spoken “tone.” And when Janie sees the note and then places it in the outbox, mom knows it was seen and acknowledged. No more waiting for that fleeting moment when you pass in the kitchen. The IN-OUT box set takes the worry off your plate and in the hands of your child, where it belongs.
CLEANSE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES & CHAT ABOUT IT
Are you burned out from too many emails and compulsive social media checking? Do something about it. Digitally cleanse! Take unnecessary social media apps off your phone and clean up your buddy lists. Spending time commenting on the profiles of people you never speak to is far less valuable than face-to-face time with your family and friends.
Share your reasons with your kids and engage in a discussion about the pros and cons of social media and gaming. Using it for reasonable entertainment is one thing, but if these digital tasks have become a priority, maybe it’s time to shave off less meaningful screen time. Not only will you love the extra time it brings to you, but you’ll be providing some important digital citizenship education to your kids and enrich that critical parent-child alliance.
By implementing these 5 simple tips, you will free up precious time best used connecting to happy, relaxed kids. Interested in creating a social media footprint that will be beneficial for college and employment opportunities? Stay tuned for next week’s article, The Social Media Resumè, How to Expertly Stylize Your Cyber Footprint to Attract College and Employment Opportunities.
