As quickly as the tech companies calculated the possible profits available – if every child in every school had their personal tablet – computers were promoted as the latest, greatest tool for teachers to teach and students to learn. Research has been available for decades showing that a real live person is the best teacher. But, facts and research take a back seat when politicians and corporations are driving the bus headed for more money and power. (“Technology in the classroom is estimated to top $60 billion by 2018”. This doesn’t include the profit from the collection of data that will surely make the $60B look petty.)
Educational researchers have been trying to get state and federal legislators to look at some of the research regarding the use of technology in the classroom. Legislators have the opportunity to safeguard students from the “growing and compelling mountain of clinical and neurological research showing that these devices are harming kids in ways that parents never anticipated.” Specifically, researchers are giving them excerpts from the book, Glow Kids, written by Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D..
This book is certainly recommended reading for anyone who wants to protect children from one of many threats in our society. He discusses the electromagnetic field emitted by screens and cell phones, the psychological damage, the actual brain damage, and the social problems that follow. Not only does he expose numerous dangers, he also gives solutions – even recommendations for those addicted. Parents, grandparents, pastors and others need to be aware of the dangers lurking behind the “glow screen.”
Do you remember when we were warned that we shouldn’t let children watch too much television? The warning signs were: fixed glassy eyes, mouth slightly open, no response when called. Now, all ages are directing their complete attention to that glow screen in their face. But the glow screen affect has gone way beyond that of the television – bad as that has been.
It is no secret that the tech companies are hiring the best and brightest to do brain research in order to construct the phones, the apps, the social sites – everything they create – to get you, the user, hooked – addicted. Addicted? Yes. You only need to read the introduction to Glow Kids to see how insidious the iPad or tablet can be.
The introduction alone is enough to make you question how any legislator, superintendent or teacher could entertain the idea of a computer in the classroom. Here are a few quotes:
“… glowing screens-like those of iPads-are as stimulating to the brain’s pleasure center and as able to increase levels of dopamine … as much as sex does. This brain-orgasm effect is what makes screens so addictive for adults, but even more so for children with still-developing brains ….”
“…(A)n ever-increasing amount of clinical research correlates screen tech with psychiatric disorders like ADHD, addiction, anxiety, depression, increased aggression and even psychosis. … (E)xcessive screen exposure can neurologically damage a young person’s developing brain in the same way that cocaine addiction can.”
“… (A) kid’s brain on tech looks like a brain on drugs.”
“Ironically, while we’ve declared a so-called War on Drugs, we’ve allowed this virtual drug – which … (the) director of neuroscience at UCLA, calls “electronic cocaine”; which an M.D. and PH.D. in neuroscience and head (of) addiction research for the U.S. Navy, calls digital “pharmakeia” (Greek for “drug”); and which Chinese researchers call “electronic heroin” to slip into the homes and classrooms of our youngest and most vulnerable, seemingly oblivious to any negative effects.”
“…China has identified Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) as its number-one health crisis, … and South Korea has opened 400 tech addiction rehab facilities and given every student, teacher and parent a handbook warning them of the potential danger of screen and technology. … (I)n the United States, clueless and sometimes corrupt school bureaucrats are pushing to put glowing tablets- yes, electronic cocaine-into the hands of every kindergartener.”
If we look at reality, we’ll realize that 60, 70, 80 year old people are using computers without having used them in school. Not only are they using them, they used them when there was no hard drive, when they had to program their computers because there were no programs to purchase. Today’s computer is nothing more than ‘monkey-see, monkey-do’. The software you use today will be out-dated tomorrow and you have to re-learn. So, what’s the hurry for a child to learn an out-dated program today when riding bikes and reading books should never be out-dated?
All quotes are from GlowKids.
