Excerpt from the Four Corners page:
Why too many young Australians are struggling with literacy in the digital age.
“You see kids fall through the cracks. You see things get worse. And it’s really difficult as a teacher because you want to help everybody.” Teacher
There’s no more precious resource in Australia than our children. Equipping them with the reading and writing skills to face the future is vital, not only for their own success but for the nation’s prosperity.
“Literacy now is more important than ever. If you go back 50 years…if you didn’t have literacy and numeracy levels, you could still get a job. You could still support a family with that job….That era has now gone.” Education Dept Head
Alarmingly, a number of test results and international benchmarks indicate some of our children are slipping behind in the key area of literacy.
“Vocabulary has definitely decreased, and spelling is quite atrocious – small, simple words are really misspelt.” Teacher
On Monday, Four Corners examines the way reading and writing is being taught in our schools to find out what is going wrong.
“We have a situation now where schools basically get to choose their own adventure with respect to how they go about the important business, life-changing business, of teaching children how to read.” Academic
Teachers say they’re seeing children struggle with the study of English well beyond the first year of school.
“Writing’s a real worry. The results have been steadily getting worse – both for boys and for girls – boys are much worse than girls. But the average student is working about 12 months below where they used to be a decade earlier.” Education specialist.
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Teachers and students are also grappling with a growing problem – digital distraction. Today’s school children are the first generation of “digi kids” raised with digital devices from their earliest years. Four Corners investigates the concerns about how technology is impacting on these children.
“Part of the challenge for us as educators is that this is a real-time experiment that’s been conducted on us all.” Education Dept Head
The challenge facing educators is how to fix the problem. Four Corners has travelled around the country to look at how schools are using different methods to catch those who are struggling or have simply switched off.
“We’re flatlining as a nation…we’re not making the progress that we should be making and we need to redouble our efforts.” Education Minister
DigiKids, reported by Louise Milligan, goes to air on Monday 11th November at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 12th November at 1.00pm and Wednesday 13th at 11.20pm. It can also be seen on ABC NEWS channel on Saturday at 8.10pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners
https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/digi-kids/11693706
Also see previous postings on this topic: https://www.emfacts.com/category/the-effects-of-technology-on-children/
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