A new study released on Thursday finds teachers are concerned
that the amount and types of electronic media that children
interact with at home may be harming their performance in the
classroom. Common Sense Media, a think tank focused on
children's media use, polled 685 public and private elementary
and high school classroom teachers on how children's increasing
use of television, video games, texting, social networking,
music and other forms of media is affecting their performance in
school. The study found that 71% of teachers polled said
students' media use hurts their attention spans in school, while
59% said students' use of entertainment media has also harmed
their ability to communicate face to face. A slightly smaller
amount, 58%, said they believe it's had a negative impact on
their writing skills, according to the study conducted by
Knowledge Networks May 5-17. Nearly half of the teachers
surveyed also said their students' use of media at home is
hurting the quality of their homework. "Many teacher