Devices in schools and at home means too much screen time for kids

Merga, M.K. (2015) Devices in schools and at home means too much screen time for kids. The Conversation, 17 August 2015 .

Abstract

Since the 2008 “Digital Education Revolution”, when the government funded laptops for secondary school students, there has been a growing impetus to increase young people’s screen time both in school and for homework at home.

Now that the government funding has ceased, schools are moving toward “Bring Your Own Device” policies so that students can continue to benefit from educative uses of modern computing devices.

Continuing to advance our students’ IT skills is an educational priority. IT skills are one of the key “General Capabilities” in the national curriculum and also appear in the content descriptions for specific subjects. In recent times there has been increasing interest in international comparisons through tests such as the International Computer and Information Literacy Study.

It is likely that school-provided or self-provided device programs greatly increase students’ screen time both at school and at home. This is problematic. At the same time, parents are urged to monitor their adolescents’ screen use in line with Department of Health guidelines due to the potential health risks that can result from heavy usage.

Heavy screen use has been associated with a range of health issues, such as obesity, spinal issues, ocular health problems and sleep disruption.

Item Type:	Non-refereed Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Education
Publisher:	The Conversation Media Group
Copyright:	The Author
Publisher's Website:	http://theconversation.com/au
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/29683

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