Are you getting ready for Summer?
PC-Turnoff is! Prior to the Memorial Day weekend, PC-Turnoff sent out materials to a large handful of schools to get the word out before the kids are out for summer vacation.
It's a good opportunity to get the information in front of parents, either via the poster, or sending home copies of the flyer that we have prepared.
If you want to ensure that you get the packet, contact us with your address and we'll send you a packet right away.
Some of the more common questions or comments we hear from people:
Yes and No. Computers are a tool that can be used to benefit your children, but like any tool, their misuse can cause problems also. Let's explore each of those points
As long as your kids are doing something that is educational and stimulates their imagination and makes them think, then the computer would be a better place to sit for a little while. Most TV that kids watch turns off the thinking and creative parts of the brain, while training the brain to work with things that require short attention spans. If you put your child in front of the computer and they play games, jump around the internet aimlessly, or simply use it to chat, they probably aren't any better off.
You're children's development also requires healthy doses of other things besides sitting in front of a screen (whether it be TV, video games, or computer). Things like going outside to play, socializing with family and friends, helping out with things around the house, etc.
If you want your kids to grow up to be a doctor, what would you do to prepare them when their young? Would you put them on your lap and read pathophysiology books to them? If you wanted them to grow up to be a lawyer, would you bring them to the beach or would you bring them into courtrooms to observe cases and read them bedtime stories about tort cases? Of course not.
Yet, millions of parents buy computers for their young kids in anticipation that they'll be getting a jumpstart on their career. ...and often kids soak up the computer, more for it's entertainment properties than it's educational properties, and some parents don't even notice the difference.
If you want your child to grow up to be a brilliant, innovative, creative, happy member of society, it's really important that they be allowed to just be kids, explore all aspects of their world, get their hands on the real world as opposed to the virtual world, research things from books, not just from the Internet, and socialize in groups, face-to-face, not just online.
If you help your kids develop the skills required to learn and problem solve effectively in the real world, they will have no trouble picking up how to use technology in the future.
Some people even suggest that learning today's computer technology may not even be useful by the time your child reaches the workforce, due to the rapid advancements that are being made in computer technology. It may be a whole new world by then.
Yes. They can be used for educational purposes. But they are quickly evolving to be used as an entertainment tool as well. Music, video, games, communications, etc.
What we hope is that your child is going to work on writing a paper, or spend some time researching a project, or use the computer to do something productive and creative with the computer. But with all of the entertainment-based things that can be done on a computer, don't assume that your child is in their room, on the computer, filling their brains with information. The entertainment and communications functions of the Internet and computer can easily distract your child's attention from the beneficial uses of the tool, and can consume hours of your child's attention each day.
Parental involvement is important to ensuring that the computer is used for the reasons that you bought it in the first place.
Absolutely not! We aren't demonizing computers; they are just a tool afterall. What we're trying to focus on, and eliminate is excessive computer use. We think a computer has a place in every home. But you owe it to your kids to be educated on these topics and making good decisions for their future.
Below you'll find some additional links to information that may help you to establish some good computer use rules for your home: Basic guidance for establishing a family computer routine.
Study: Kids' TV, computer habits start early, links to a CNN article on a study that provides a basic introduction to the things that we should be concerned about. In another bit of research, the usefulness of computers in the learning process is questioned: Are computers helpful or hurtful to learning?
It's not just about learning and education. Today's kids get less exercise thanks to the widespread use of computers, video games and TV. Even if your kids aren't overweight and appear to be healthy, read about how an aquaintance of mine witnessed a normal looking teenager who couldn't exert himself, at Yale New Haven Hospital: Even Skinny Kids can be Out of Shape from Overuse of Media.
We also recommend the following places if you want to dig deeper:
Do you know of other resources that are worthwhile? Leave a comment.
