In the Key Findings of the Generation M2 study, here are a few things that surprised me about the article.
1. Young people increased their media time from 6 hrs and 21 minutes to 7 hrs and 38 minutes during a seven day period in only five years
2. Music usage per day was +47 minutes compared to TV usage per day was +38 minutes.
3. Music (iPod and MP3 players) were used more than cell phones for their mobile media usages.
4. Total media usage by race: Hispanic=13 hours, Blacks=12.59 hours, and Whites=8.36 hours.
These findings were very interesting especially number one. I know that children are so wrapped up in media and technology, but I didn’t think it would as many hours a full time job. It makes me wonder what they would do if they didn’t have technology. What also really shocked me was that music was listened to more than cell phones usage. Overall, young children responses in the study seemed to be accurate because anytime you see a young people in public they all have headphones on or a cell phone in their hands.
As an educator these findings definitely affect our teaching, and it is obvious that we do need to use technology in lessons on a daily basis. Since music is used more than cell phones and TV, I think utilizing it in all subjects is a great tool for students to learn a new or reinforce a concept. As a foreign language teacher I use songs in most of my classes. With my fourth grade classes, I use songs in Spanish for the alphabet, days of the week, months of the years, and numbers. So when they do individual work like their warm up activities or workbook pages, they can recall the words in Spanish by remembering the song.
I was not very surprised by the findings. Students are definitely extremely wrapped up in media use and I also wonder what they'd be doing if they didn't have the technology to take up so much of their time. I agree that some of those media devices could be used in the classroom, like music in the form of learning or reinforcing a concept. I think, however, that overusing it in the classroom could lead to students overusing it at home. Due to the fact that each of us are currently teaching, I do hope that parents are employing some constraints at home in connection with the use of media devices. I was happy to see the data reported in the article in regards to the number of "users." I'm sure you can totally identify those students in your classroom that are "heavy" users compared to those that are "light" users. I think the more restrictions that are employed with media devices, whether at home or at school, regardless of the kind of "user," students will be more well-rounded.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using music to reinforce a concept in the classroom. I observed in a language arts classroom last fall where the teacher put all of the vocabulary words and their definitions to a rap song and the students would sing along and in turn, learn the words and their definitions! I thought this was a really creative way to meet the students half way and use strategies that really appeal to them and their technology/media intake!
ReplyDeleteI agree that music can be used creatively in the classroom, and has been for a long time (and fits with one of Gardner's intelligences). I also think this can easily be separated from the tools used to play music. Singing, singing with others, experiencing music with others, not to mention playing music alone or with others -- these are very different activities that listening to music on an mp3 player through earbuds. Numbers on how kids consume music appear later in the report (p. 28), and regarding this report, music consumption is all via pre-recorded music via electronic players.
ReplyDeleteStill, listening to music isn't a bad thing, I don't think, and I have seen playing background music during some tasks to have a calming and focusing effect on students.
jd