Today, I appeared on News Channel 8’s Let’s Talk Live discussing how technology is impacting this generation of students. Scientists are just beginning to study brain changes by looking at MRIs to determine if constant texting, facebooking, tweeting (you name it!) is changing brains. Don’t panic; the news is mostly good. Take a look at this short video for some highlights.
During the segment, Melanie Hastings and I also talked about the lure of technology. Because of so many distractions, this generation of kids is more distracted than ever, and it’s not by school work. The class of 2011 had the lowest SAT critical reading score (497)ever recorded. Some say it’s because of diversity with more and more kids from all backgrounds taking the test, but I wonder if it’s not more than that. If only the reading portion dropped to it’s lowest levels ever, wouldn’t that point to the fact that our kids aren’t reading for pleasure? Studies show that only about half read for pleasure.
More on how we can help our kids focus in my next blog post…