Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds -- and What We Can Do About It

(Paperback)

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Though most parents of school-age and even preschool children believe that computers are essential to learning, the truth, according to Jane Healy, is that more important educational priorities are being pushed aside in the rush to buy computers and computer related products. Once a bedazzled enthusiast of educational computing, now a troubled sceptic, Healy spent hundreds of hours talking to school administrators, teachers, parents, and students to provide this balanced and thoughtful evaluation of computers in the school and at home. In FAILURE TO CONNECT, she examines the benefits and drawbacks of computer use for children, arguing that time spent on computers is often time stolen from other developmentally important activities such as reading and creative play. Healy also suggests that most schools overlook the most critical technology component: adequate teacher training. FAILURE TO CONNECT also explores the effects computers have on children's health, brain development, creativity and their social and emotional needs. Based on years of research, FAILURE TO CONNECT is a timely and eye-opening examination of the central questions we must confront as technology increasingly influences the way we educate our children.

Reviews

Dr. Dorothy Rich Founder and President, the Home and School Institute, and author of MegaSkills: Building Children's Achievement for the Information Age Jane Healy knows what she is talking about. I strongly urge all educators, as well as parents, to read this new book now...before it's too late. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention Failure to Connect sounds a wake-up call for teachers and parents who believe that computers alone will solve our educational problems. The bottom line: Adult attention rather than gigabytes is what makes children grow.

Author Bio

Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. is a teacher and educational psychologist who has worked with young people of all ages, from pre-school to graduate school. She has been a classroom teacher, reading and learning specialist, school administrator, and clinician. She is currently a lecturer and consultant, and the author of three books about how children do (and don't) learn, Your Child's Growing Mind, Endangered Minds, and Failure to Connect. She and her work have been featured in national media such as CNN and NPR. She has twice been named "Educator of the Year" by Delta Kappa Gamma, the professional honor society of women educators. Jane and her husband claim they have learned most of what they know from raising three sons and enjoying six grandchildren.