What Teachers Think of Effects of Entertainment Media

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report in Special English. Common Sense Media is a nonprofit group in the United States that studies children's use of media and technology. The group has done a survey asking teachers about the effects of their students' use of entertainment media. "Entertainment media" includes TV shows, music, video games, texting, social networks, apps and other technology that students use for fun. Many teachers said they believe media use has hurt academic performance which in some cases was already weak. Vicky Rideout wrote the report for Common Sense Media. She said nearly four out of 10 teachers said their students were just fair or poor at reading, communication, math, and science. More said their students were only fair at writing. The survey involved 685 teachers from around the country in kindergarten through 12th grade. They included both new and experienced teachers and teachers in high- and low-income areas. Seventy-one percent of the teachers said they believe students' use of entertainment media has reduced their ability to pay attention in class. And almost 60 percent said it has hurt their writing skills. Many teachers said they believe their students' media use has also hurt their social development. They said the biggest problem was that media negatively affected students' ideas about relationships between the sexes and toward parents and teachers. They said media use encourages aggression and anti-social behavior. Teachers who believed media use harms social development were more likely to describe themselves as "uncomfortable" with new technologies. For VOA Learning English, I'm Laurel Bowman. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 17Jan2013)