Based on four years of experience teaching computers to 8-12 year olds, media scholar Ellen Seiter offers parents and educators practical advice on what children need to know about the Internet and when they need to know it. The Internet Playground argues that, contrary to the promises of technology boosters, teaching with computers is very difficult. Seiter points out that the Internet today resembles a mall more than it does a library. While children love to play online games, join fan communities, and use online chat and instant messaging, the Internet is also an appallingly aggressive marketer to children and, as this book passionately argues, an educational boondoggle.
Internet Playground: Children's Access, Entertainment, and MIS-Education SYNOPSIS Between 1999 and 2003, Seiter (cinema-television, U. of Southern California) volunteered as an after-school computer lab teacher at two public elementary schools, one at the high end of technology and Internet access, the other struggling and technology-poor. Her observations at the schools form the core of her analysis of what kids need to know about the Internet, how disparities in technology access are masking deeper problems of class difference, and why the Internet is an educational boondoggle. Her study is far from an anti- computer rant, however; Seiter also assesses the benefits of technology access and offers recommendations for teachers and parents to facilitate learning by way of the Net. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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