A recent study conducted by an educational psychologist at Â鶹ֱ²¥ has shown that boys who used email at home were brighter and more popular than those who did not.<\/p>\n
The responses of 95 students – 51 boys and 44 girls – from a Canadian primary school were surveyed and analysed by Curtin School of Education lecturer Dr Genevieve Johnson.<\/p>\n
Dr Johnson, who has completed many studies on how communication technologies affect the development of children, noticed that boys who used email recorded higher levels of self-esteem with peers.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThe findings showed that boys who did not use email had similar levels of self-esteem to boys from earlier generations who did not watch TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink back to when you were a little kid, if one of your friends didn\u2019t have a lunch box with the latest cartoon characters on it \u2013 because they didn\u2019t watch TV \u2013 they were almost socially isolated,\u201d Dr Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when we say that children who use the internet under certain circumstances are more popular \u2013 that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Johnson also noticed that girls were more likely to use email at home, but was aware that girls and boys reported similar usage of email while at school.<\/p>\n
The study showed that the similarity between boys and girls email use suggested internet studies at schools may be closing the technology gender gap.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Dr Johnson believes the attitude from parents and teachers would need to be adjusted in order for students to reap the full benefits of the internet.<\/p>\n
Dr Johnson said parents and teachers have always been cautious of the internet in particular of the effect new communication technologies will have on children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got this impression, especially parents, that the internet, including games is something bad,\u201d Dr Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot say that every single online application is associated with positive developmental outcomes \u2013 but a large number are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whilst some parents show caution when it comes to their children using the internet, Dr Johnson believes it\u2019s detrimental to children\u2019s learning to assume that each site is negative.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny technology is going to have advantages and disadvantages in terms of children\u2019s development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo immediately assume that technologies like texting, the internet, and video games, are a bad thing for children isn\u2019t considering the full picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s much more evidence to suggest that technology can be good for children\u2019s development.\u201d<\/p>\n
The full study can be found at: Johnson, G. M. (2011). Internet activities and developmental predictors: Gender differences among digital natives.\u00a0 Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 10(2), 64-76. Karys Nella, Public Relations, Â鶹ֱ²¥ Dr Genevieve Johnson, Â鶹ֱ²¥ A recent study conducted by an educational psychologist at Â鶹ֱ²¥ has shown that boys who used email at home were brighter and more popular than those who did not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-17821","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","hentry","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":null,"photographer":null,"media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":false,"author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Â鶹ֱ²¥"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17821"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=17821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nContacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Tel: 08 9266 3353, Mobile: 0401 103 018, Email: karys.nella@curtin.edu.au<\/a>
\nWeb: http:\/\/curtin.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Tel: 08 9266 2179, Email: G.Johnson@curtin.edu.au<\/a>
\nWeb: http:\/\/curtin.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"