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Parents, don't worry... your kids go online to learn from one another!

Research funded by the MacArthur Foundation indicates teenagers in the United States who spend time on social networking web sites are developing social skills that can help them later as adults.

The $3.3 million study included interviewing participants, reading online blogs and diaries, and collecting around 10,500 profiles of young people on Facebook and Neopets.

"It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online," said Mizuko Ito, researcher and lead author of the report.  "There are myths about kids spending time online - that it is dangerous or making them lazy.  But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age."

The "Living and Learning With New Media" report, with research collected from 2005 through last summer, published numerous thoughts about what kids do online, and how it helps them.

Parents often do not understand what their children do online, which has created a fear of the Internet, with misconceptions that it's risky and "an unproductive distraction."  However researchers warn parents they risk eliminating a vital social and recreational activity if they restrict their kids from using social networking sites.

According to the study, young people are "motivated to learn from their peers online," in a location where kids can openly receive feedback from one another.  Furthermore, young people would rather teach and learn from one another online, while having less interaction with adults.

Children also like to interact and learn from people who live in different regions of the country.  Since learning can vary greatly by location, young people often connect online to learn from one another, in a manner that their teachers and adults may not be able to match.

Ito led a team of 28 researchers and collaborators from the University of California, Irvine, University of California, Berkeley, San Jose State University, the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, and other universities.

The study was conducted to help analyze how children use the Internet, and how it helps them learn and interact with one another.

"This study creates a baseline for our understanding of how young people are participating with digital media and what that means for their learning," said Connie Yowell, who is Director of Education for the MacArthur Foundation.  "It concludes that learning today is becoming increasingly peer-based and networked, and this is important to consider as we begin to re-imagine education in the 21st century."

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I grew up
By amanojaku on 11/21/2008 8:47:20 AM , Rating: 4
With overbearing parents, so I appreciate kids who want their space and want to go about life in their own way. As long as they learn to accept adult supervision for the loving, supportive institution it is. Even when I'm beating you. See the smile? It's because I'm doing the right thing. ;-)

The problem is Facebook and MySpace ain't the place to learn about life. Most of those pages are so poorly designed and written that the only lesson learned is what NOT to do. Go outside, play a sport, learn to dance, make out with some cutie. And don't forget to log on occasionally and tell everyone that you're doing just fine in the real world, but you can't get enough of those silly "See how much you're worth!" posts!




RE: I grew up
By xsilver on 11/21/2008 8:58:47 AM , Rating: 3
the problem I see with kids learning from "each other" online is that the other kid may very well not be another kid but instead a pedo/priest/troll etc etc.

Whats worse than a dog chasing its own tail is a dog thats chasing another dogs tail where that other dog has jumped right off the deep end.

With the anonymity of the net, its very easy for regular people to express abnormal and unsocial behaviors online which then lead to kids thinking that this kind of behavior is acceptable in the real world.


RE: I grew up
By devrox on 11/21/2008 9:36:23 AM , Rating: 2
Stereotyping network sites in such a manner is doing precisely what this article is encouraging adults not to do. Sure in an annonymous chat room it's easy to pretend to be something you're not, on Facebook it's not so easy without going to a lot of trouble. People grossly under-estimate your average kids awareness and intelligence I think.

The problem is how people see this type of interaction as somehow taking away from the important experiences of 'real' life, fact is kids and adults are interacting on a daily basis more and with a broader range of people than they ever could as a result of this technology which is only a good thing.

Remember the parents who feared their kids would turn into zombies by watching too much television? I'ts the same tired old argument made by those who don't tend to use or understand the technology.


RE: I grew up
By nosfe on 11/21/2008 9:43:39 AM , Rating: 2
then how come with each generation the kids i'm seeing are more i don't know what the word is, stupid? my head hurts when i hear them talking and i'm not even old, 24yo isn't considered old, right?


RE: I grew up
By devrox on 11/21/2008 9:50:59 AM , Rating: 2
Lol, that's an entirely different problem! Could take a lot of debate. (I'm 24 too, which is the best age to be as we're neither too young or too old!)


RE: I grew up
By nosfe on 11/21/2008 9:56:10 AM , Rating: 2
is it? where did they learn to behave like that? what do they do now that kids didn't do 10 years ago? there are no coincidences, only the illusion of coincidences


RE: I grew up
By FITCamaro on 11/21/2008 10:11:41 AM , Rating: 3
It all comes down to one word:
Parenting

Or a lack thereof today.


RE: I grew up
By ebakke on 11/21/2008 11:19:54 AM , Rating: 2
+8


RE: I grew up
By Noya on 11/21/2008 12:59:55 PM , Rating: 2
For once I agree with you.


RE: I grew up
By Spivonious on 11/21/2008 9:55:38 AM , Rating: 3
Have you met kids that were raised by the TV? They ARE zombies.

It's the same with kids that spend all of their time on Facebook and MySpace. They don't know how to communicate in real life. They'd rather poke someone than call them on the phone. They are terrible public speakers, yet write novels on their blogs.


RE: I grew up
By xsilver on 11/21/2008 10:06:45 AM , Rating: 2
sorry I wasnt intentionally trying to stereotype but I was aware that these social networking sites have actually caused deaths due to fake accounts.

Plus the age bracket you're referring to is much less in danger as your probably able to discern what is legit. The age bracket Im talking about is the pre-teen range where lax parenting combined with the internet as a role model, kids are very gullible/impressionable at this age. I have observed some weird behavior when this happens.

At least with TV you would always know that there were set standards of what can and cant be broadcast - not so with the net.

In best case scenario's good things can always be - but it hardly ever ends up being best case.


RE: I grew up
By Suntan on 11/21/2008 1:00:31 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
The age bracket Im talking about is the pre-teen range where lax parenting combined with...


Sorry, but anything you put at the end of this sentence can be argued as a bad thing. Don't believe, read it again and try these words at the end:

...BB guns
...MTV
...firecrackers
...skateboards
...Pink Floyd

The internet is no different.

-Suntan


RE: I grew up
By ClownsScareMe on 11/21/2008 9:49:26 PM , Rating: 2
I am a teenager and will admit to doing stupid things online, in chat rooms(never on Social networks) say when I was about 10 years old. This was infact mainly do to the fact that in person I was a loser and as I became more social and I guess cooler. Kids were to closeminded at the time to accept me as different than i was in say the 2nd grade.

Now and for many years I have changed to not go online and pretend to be and amazing 15 year old and like 'pick up' girls but now I use the internet to plan events on Facebook or comunicate with my friends through messages. I have overtime learned the advantages of the internet which for me is to read news, communicate and access movies and music.

I do see the internet as potentially dangerous to kids that are not responsible on it. Though the suicides that occur definately are not because of trolls but these kids probably have social issues at school or maybe family issues and had been contemplating death for those reasons rather than what people say to them online.

Basically use the internet responsibly which I believe most people do. Just don't talk to random people directly.... whats the point? Also social networks are definately not dangerous as I know every single person i have friended on Facebook.

quote:
unsocial behaviors online which then lead to kids thinking that this kind of behavior is acceptable in the real world.


This is absolutely false. The reason kids show unsocial behavior online is because they know it is unacceptable in the real world and the only way to express their thoughts is online where there are far less consequences.


Apparently not always
By FITCamaro on 11/21/2008 10:08:40 AM , Rating: 2
RE: Apparently not always
By xti on 11/21/2008 12:04:30 PM , Rating: 2
holy hot topic stores batman...


Also...
By kontorotsui on 11/21/2008 12:30:37 PM , Rating: 2
Also a girlfriend helps a lot.




adapting to change
By Suntan on 11/21/2008 1:11:54 PM , Rating: 2
My mother-in-law is an old-school grade school teacher that is relatively closed-minded to new things and grossly unaware of how computers work, etc.

I tried discussing with her once the idea that a child right now sitting in Minneapolis, MN can play computer games with, while talking to in real time, another child living in places as distant as Texas, Ireland, The Czech Republic, Cambodia, etc. etc. you name it; and how it was infinitely more beneficial than the “pen pals” from the school 20 miles away we would write 2 or 3 letters to over the duration of the 4th grade. Yet I couldn’t get her past the idea that the online universe is nothing but a shady place to be wary of.

In any case, dealing with old people stuck in their mindset is nothing new. Every new generation has to deal with them.

-Suntan




"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates











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