20. Video screens: are they changing the way children learn?

(by Patricia Marks Greenfield)

The video screen has become omnipresent in our society. Along with television, action video games are now a mass medium. In a recent survey of children in southern California, conducted by Sarah Rushbrook, 94 per cent said they had played video games either at home or in an arcade*.

When parents and educators worry about the amount of time children spend in front of video screens, they usually focus on the content of particular programs or games.

Traditionally the term "literacy" has been defined as the ability to read and write. Formal education itself grew up around the technology of print. The video screen is helping children develop a new kind of literacy – visual literacy – that they will need to thrive in a technological world.

In television or film, the viewer must mentally integrate diverse camera shots of a screen to construct an image of the whole. This is an element of visual literacy: an understanding of the code by which to interpret links between shots or views.

In an experiment at the University of Rome I compared children's responses to stories presented on television and on radio. The major advantage of television was that the combination of image and word led to better overall memory for information than did word alone. In addition, television led to better memory for action information in particular. On the negative side, television – with its visual images – was less stimulating to the imagination. After watching an incomplete story on TV, children were less likely to add new or original material than after listening to a similar story on the radio. We found that children exerted less mental effort after watching TV than after listening to the radio.

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* an arcade– (зд.) магазин

In sum, the dynamic imagery shared by film and all of the video media produces a number of cognitive benefits: 1) an array of visual literacy skills, 2) better acquisition of information in general and 3) better acquisition of action information in particular. On the negative side, dynamic visual imagery leads to: 1) decreased stimulation of imagination, 2) a decrease in mental effort and 3) a decrease in attention to purely verbal information.

Among educators today, the general philosophy is that we should compensate for the large quantities of television and video games children are exposed to outside school by relying exclusively on other media – notably print – in school.

Each media has its strengths and weaknesses. No medium – not even print – is perfect for education. The implication for education is that each medium should be used to do what it does best. Schools need to learn how to use each medium to its best educational advantage.

Assignments:

1. Translate the text using a dictionary.

2. Give a short summary of the text in English.

21. Curing video addicts*

(From "Newsweek")

Kids used to come home from school, throw their books on the floor and dash out for a few hours of fun. Now they rush home and plop down** in front of the Nintendo home-entertainment system, there to spend time with the Super Mario Bros and other Nintendo characters. Some parents and educators think that time might be better spent in front of an algebra problem. They cite studies*** showing that video-game addicts do less well in school than other students.

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* curing video addicts – лечение видеонаркоманов

** plop down – плюхаться

*** they cite studies– они цитируют исследования

Hoping to capitalize on* growing concern about video-game addiction, an entrepreneur in Dundee, Illinois, had devised a lock that prevents kids from using a Nintendo machine. The product, called Homework First, consists of a simple J-bolt attached to a four-digit combination lock. The lock, which screws into the bottom of the control deck, blocks the chamber into which game cartridges are inserted. Tom Lowe, the inventor of the device, says it requires no tools, takes only seconds to install and does not harm the machine. "Parents need an effective way to control when and how much time their children play video games," says Lowe.

Assignments:

1. Read the article and answer the following questions:

1) What did kids do when they came home from school?

2) How do they spend their leisure now?

3) What do some parents and educators think is better?

4) What major reason do they give speaking against video games?

5) What for has Tom Lowe devised a new device?

2. Speak of the advantages and disadvantages of video games.