Screen Time

05/23/2008

Do not train children to learning by force or harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
Plato

Many members of NAEYC and OMEP-USNC have attended the Film Literacy Festivals held at NAEYC annual conferences since 2004. One of the Festival’s purposes is to help teachers of young children, teacher educators, and parents understand the influence of “screen time” on young children and how to use film appropriately with children.

"Children and Electronic Media" is the topic of the current issue of The Future of Children (Vol. 18, No. 1, Spring 2008) published by The Brookings Institution and Princeton University. The journal can be downloaded from www.futureofchildren.org.

Many educators grew up with Marshall McLuhan’s dictum, “the medium is the message.” Today’s research urges educators to “shift the focus from the medium to the message.” In particular, parents must advocate for better content for media programming designed for children, and “educate themselves about good media use...in a healthful and constructive manner.”

Early educators and parents must pay attention to media technology and to the policies that affect it. This journal announces, “...Societal awareness and use of media-related information and technology and the effect of the policy on media use by children and families are distinct avenues of inquiry that promise to contribute much to the discussion of whether and how media policy can contribute to the positive role of media in the developing child’s life.”

Contributed by Edna Ranck

Exchange Resource on Media and Young Children

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