1.+Introduction+and+Background

//** “ Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks.”— GK Chesterton  **//

The most popular word of the 21st Century seems to be “change”, and it is possible that nothing has changed faster and had more impact on education than technology. The digital transformation is taking children into virtual places, outside of adult supervision, and beyond classroom walls. In the midst of this rapid evolution, can we see how it will affect our children?

The Kaiser Family Foundation study showed over the last 5 years children have increased the amount of time spent viewing and listening to media in TV content, music/audio, video games, and computers (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010, p. 2). The amount of time spent has increased from 6 hours 21 minutes in 2004 to 7 hours 38 minutes in 2009 (Rideout et al., 2010, p. 2). When time is adjusted for the amount of multi-tasking children engage in, the actual media content children consume adds up to 10 hours and 45 minutes (Rideout et al., 2010, p. 2). Kids are always connected. Is this a positive or negative change for our youth?

The purpose of this project is to explore the impact of such increased use of technology on the health and well-being of school aged children. The issue is structured as a group case-study, examining the realities facing students today and recommending directions for the future. Particular emphasis will be made on the trends and patterns of technological growth highlighting both benefits and concerns for students. Serious consideration will be given to the informed opinions and emerging research about the proliferation of technology on students’physical health, cogniton, learning, and neural development, social-emotional skills, and spirituality/sense of self. Technology development will be examined in the context of the leader-follower-situation dynamic. Suggestions will be made for consideration by parents, educators, and community members in building a proactive approach guiding children through this new age of technological enthusiasm. 

**Background**

John Seely Brown is a prominent professor and researcher in the study of organizational changes, especially as they are related to technological innovations. Brown (2009) sees Web 2.0’s interactive capacity as the most important change, as compared to previous media such as radio, TV, and print which could only be received and not altered. His words are in agreement with Curtis Bonk in the belief that even the pace of change is increasing exponentially (2009). Ray Kurzweil’s progressive work explains in detail that the rate of change in technology is doubling every decade (2009, p. 50). This is evidenced further in the 2009 Horizon Report published by New Media in the prediction of coming technological advances such as cloud computing, geo-everything, personal customized web-based environments, semantic-aware applications, and smart objects (p. 4). The Report highlighted trends toward a more collaborative global connectivity which affects all aspects of communication (2009, p. 5). Visualization is becoming more prevalent through such technology as YouTube videos and easy access to graphic images. This is one factor that allows participants to be more active and engaged in learning.

Brown sees the technology revolution as a unique opportunity for change in the deep structure of education leading to environments that “leverage learning to learn”, allowing for all types of learners to succeed (2009, p. 8). Everyone can be a student and a teacher in a community of life-long learning. Yet, there are challenges to be overcome. Formal instruction in new informational and visual literacies is needed. We must retrain K-16 teachers and parents to be innovative and creative with the technology that will reach 21st Century students (Rideout et al., 2010, p. 6). Today’s technologies provide new freedoms to learners to choose what they want to learn about and present multiple perspectives on every issue. It is even more essential now that information seekers learn to read and view the Internet with a critical and inquiring mind. 
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 Evgeny Morozov, an eminent commentator from Belarus, spoke in a TED video about the political impact of newer technologies, pointing out the realities of negative effects of the Internet. Morozov (2009) created a Hierarchy of Cyber Needs (Figure 1) showing the greatest use of technology is for fun, talking and sharing. At this time, learning is represented as a lesser use of technology, followed only by the purpose of advancing causes to large audiences. As technology continues to change at such a rapid pace, it is important to pause periodically to think about where we are headed and what the long-term consequences could be for children. 