#00:00:10-3# <Casey> :"So we're here and we go here, cross a little bridge, and then we follow the creek, and then another little bridge and we stay on this side of the creek, and come up, up, up, up-see the waterfall, and then on our way back, we come this way."
#00:00:28-7# <Emma> "See everything else?
#00:00:30-2# <Casey> "Yes."
#00:00:30-8# <Emma> "Okay."
#00:00:32-3# <Casey> "That sound good?"
#00:00:33-0# <Emma> "Yeah."
#00:00:34-5# <Narrator> This is Emma, my 8 year old niece. She loves dancing, softball, and science. And she's the fastest girl in her class.
#00:00:48-8# <Narrator> She's also part of a generation who have only known a world of cell phones, video games, and computers.
#00:00:57-7# <Narrator> The consequences of a technologically based society are hotly debated. Video games, computers, and television are often blamed for the decline in children's participation in outdoor activities. However, I wonder if the it is not the gadgets themselves, rather the way they get used that keeps kids from going outside.
#00:01:17-8# <Narrator> I decided to investigate this topic first hand by exploring how technology comes into play in Emma's life, both at home and at school.
#00:01:29-4# <Narrator> I also wanted to explore how technology and outdoor experiences might peacefully coexist, so we went for a hike with a Flipcam so that Emma could document the things she had found.
#00:01:46-7# <Narrator> Like many children, Emma spends most of her waking hours at school.
#00:01:53-5# <Narrator> I was curious about how much technology gets incorporated into her educational curriculum and whether or not it actually helps her learn more.
#00:02:03-0# <Meggen> We've also been talking about different kinds of lines. Everybody show me a vertical line.
#00:02:08-9# <Meggen> My name is Meggen Devlin. I'm a third grade teacher at Glenvar Elementary.
#00:02:12-0# <Meggen> So we have our acute angles. Who can show me an acute angle?
#00:02:14-5# <Meggen> We use a variety of technology in the classroom. The first thing we use every single day are the Promethean ACT boards. Um, I use them to teach my lessons. I have my notes on that. I have illustrations, pictures of what I'm talking about, but I also have interactive things where the kids are able to sort if we're talking about consumers and producers they're able to sort the consumers and producers. If we're talking about lines of symmetry, they're able to go up to the board and actually draw those lines of symmetry. So its an extremely interactive part of the classroom and again its used on a daily basis. I also use digital cameras a lot so that again they can apply those real world applications to what it is we're learning in the classroom. And along with that we've iPod touches that are new this year that we've been able to practice math skills with, do photo stories with, um, we pull out the flip cams, we're constantly on interactive websites. We type up our papers so we use technology throughout the school year and throughout the school day and just whatever way it fits into the lessons.
#00:03:34-0# <Nick Lux> Technology is changing the way children learn dramatically. It's changing the way that students think in the classroom, it's changing the way that teachers have to interact with those students, it's making content and learning opportunities much more accessible, it's providing students with opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have access to. It's providing opportunities for areas in special education like adaptive assistive technology, resources that are helping all students learn and it's providing information and learning opportunities at the fingertips of the students.
#00:03:37-0# <Lower Thirds Text: Dr. Nick Lux, Assistant Professor of Educational Technology, Montana State University>
#00:04:11-7# <Emma> "Me and Haley found two cubes. This picture is a picture about dice. One is blue and one is green. They are very big.
#00:04:23-9# <Meggen> I would definitely say that the kids get involved and excited about using technology in their lessons. It's something thats just a part of their everyday life. So if you're bringing in technology into the lessons, then you're actually, again, it makes it less scary for them. It's just part of what they do.
#00:04:43-8# <Meggen> "You want to move on the iPods?"
#00:04:44-8# Kids: "Yeah!!"
#00:04:47-1# <Meggen> "Today we have the opportunity to use the iPod touches to actually take pictures of these objects in the real world and then we're going to come back into the classroom and also use those iPod touches to do a photo story and actually have the opportunity to explain what those pictures are. You will use the information you've all learned in class to tell me what you took a picture of and what those pictures are. So I've given…"
#00:05:10-1# <Nick Lux> In terms of the advantages that technology brings to the teaching and learning process, there's a wide body of research out there that speaks to the elements that it can bring. Things like engaging and motivating students more powerfully. Providing them those opportunities to develop deeper, more critical thinking skills. Providing them opportunities that they might otherwise not experience-being able to go on a virtual field trip, being able to look first hand at famous paintings or at data sets collected from researchers around the globe. So it's providing that rich experience, contextualized oftentimes in learning situations, and in a way that makes the learning more accessible for all the students in a classroom.
#00:06:03-1# <Narrator> It was obvious that technology was a big part of Emma's learning experiences at school. However, most of those interactions are highly structured and geared towards a specific learning goal. I was curious to see how her interactions with technology at home were different and whether or not they tended to be purely for entertainment.
#00:06:20-7# <Candace> I'm Candace and I'm Emma's mom. When Emma is not at school, she's here. Usually when they're around the house, they're playing with checkers or cards games or the Wii-she plays a lot. She recently got the computer put in her room. Emma likes to play on the computer. Emma takes dance 3 days a week, sometimes on Saturdays. So she's very active. She likes to play softball. She likes to go hang out with her friends and play things with them, she plays with Barbies, typical girl stuff, likes to do her makeup, her nails and things like that. So she stays very busy. I'd say Emma's definitely a typical 8, 9 year old third grader. She does her school work pretty well. Emma gets pretty good grades-she gets A/B honor roll all the time. She's pretty well rounded I would say.
#00:07:20-9# <Nick Lux> The ways that technology can be used at home in this balanced perspective are making sure that the outcomes, or the goals of the, whatever technology it is that you're using, are connected to learning in some way. Um, and also what's called Screen Time, making sure that your students or your children have a balanced approach even at home. So hopefully this is happening at school and hopefully this balanced approach is happening at home.
#00:07:56-5# <Candace> On the Wii, mostly just for fun. She likes the sports games, um, she'll like the baseball, golf, playground. She likes the Sing It, where she can sing and dance-she has Just Dance, that's one of her favorite ones.
#00:08:09-7# ..when she's on the computer, she's playing games using the "porta portal" that her teacher gives her.
#00:08:16-1# <Emma> Um, you can go to Porta Portal-they have math and everything but I like to do spelling. And it has like words on there that you can spell and stuff.
#00:08:25-4# <Candace> Um, she's practicing her math skills and, you know, using her, um, Crayola- she has the Crayola program that's actually photo editing and coloring pictures and kind of distorting pictures and making backdrops and she likes to design fashion things on the computer.
#00:08:45-9# <Nick Lux> Some of the more promising applications right now for students are, and I don't think we necessarily need to differentiate between younger students and older students, in my opinion what we could call this "blank canvas" software. These are the tools out there that are allowing students to create, um, everything from google docs to the drawing programs that are out there, to the digital storytelling programs that are offered free online like "VoiceThread." These tools are allowing students to engage in research, regardless of how old they are, synthesize and evaluate the information that they pull from that research and combine it together for a product, whether that's, like I said, a digital story, a video they've created, a document they're going to share with their classmates or with peers around the globe. <Stuttering> These programs, these blank canvas programs, simply provide the framework or the infrastructure for the students to do that, and they lend to creativity and exploration. So, that idea of "blank canvas" software certainly is one of the more promising ways in which we're thinking about educational technology in the tools that are being offered out there.
#00:09:57-7# <Narrator> Many people, including myself, believe it is very important for children to have outdoor experiences. There is a growing disconnect children and the natural world, and technology is often seen as the enemy. However, I believe that technology can supplement a child's outdoor experiences, providing more learning opportunities. The more kids know about the world around them, the more they'll care about it. Emma had never seen a large waterfall before, so we decided to hike to one known as The Cascades in Giles County, Virginia.
#00:10:27-0# <Narrator> Emma brought her backpack, a walking stick that she made, and a FlipCam. While we hiked, she kept an eye out for things she thought were interesting.
#00:10:35-2# <Emma> I don't know what this is, but it smells, it's very foamy, and it's white.
#00:10:44-9# <Emma> It looks like it has teeth.
#00:10:46-9# <Deia> You guys learning about producers and decomposers and stuff in school?
#00:10:50-9# <Emma> Yeah.
#00:10:52-6# <Deia> Which one do you think that is?
#00:10:55-2# <Emma> Producer??…..Decomposer?
#00:10:58-0# <Deia> Yeah. Since is this is the dead piece of branch, so this is helping break down the branch and decompose it.
#00:11:06-6# <Deia> What does it turn it into?
#00:11:10-2# <Emma> Humus.
#00:11:11-4# <Deia> Yeah! Good Job.
#00:11:13-2# <Emma> …Or look it up on the computer but it is very red and it lives on a stick just like the white stuff that I just showed you.
#00:11:22-3# <Emma> It's poky too. I don't want to touch it that hard.
#00:11:28-6# <Emma> Pine cone??
#00:11:29-9# <Deia> Kind of.
#00:11:37-4# <Emma> This is the top of a plant.
#00:11:47-2# <Emma> Ugh, and I still can't figure out what that stuff is.
#00:11:49-9# <Emma> It's blue and its not white.
#00:11:55-5# <Emma> This is a worm. He lives right down in that hole. Annnd, he's very round and he has a bunch of dirt on him.
#00:12:07-1# <Emma> That's the dirt that came off of him.
#00:12:53-5# <Casey> So lets look at this one. Next one.
#00:12:57-5# <Coming from Camera> "I don't know what this is, but it smells, it's very foamy, and it's white."
#00:13:06-2# <Emma> I'm going to type in a white Mushroom.
#00:13:08-9# <Casey> Try white, foamy, mushroom
#00:13:21-8# <Emma> Hey, it said white fungus coming from rotten wood!
#00:13:25-4# <Casey> Where is that?
#00:13:26-4# <Emma> Down, right there.
#00:13:29-4# <Casey> Oh yeah. Let's look-Google has…you can look at images. So let's see, it might be a quick way to spot one that looks like ours. You tell me if you see any that looks like….oh!..
#00:13:45-8# <Emma> That looks like it..
#00:13:46-8# <Casey> That looks a little bit like it, doesn't it.
#00:13:49-2# <Casey> We'll look at some others and see. Theres the same photo...
#00:13:55-0# <Emma> There it is!
#00:13:56-2# <Casey> That look like it?
#00:13:57-0# <Emma> Yeah, A lot.
#00:13:58-3# <Casey> A lot?
#00:14:00-3# <Casey> There's the scientific name-that's big and long, but what's this say?
#00:14:05-1# <Emma> Pale Oyster.
#00:14:06-6# <Casey> Pale Oyster. So that's another name for that fungus that we found. So we found it!
#00:14:12-9# <Emma> Yay.
#00:14:13-8# <Casey> So, you going to remember Pale Oyster?
#00:14:16-2# <Emma> Yeah.
#00:14:16-9# <Casey> If you see it again, you think you would know it in the woods? You want to write it down?
#00:14:20-2# <Emma> Yeah.
#00:14:22-9# <TEXT IN UPPER LEFT OF SCREEN> A few months later Emma saw the same fungus on a hike…and she did remember.
#00:14:38-8# <Narrator> When I set out to make this film, I knew I wouldn't get a definitive answer about technology's impact on children's lives. However, after observing Emma and the world around her, one thing was clear-Technology isn't going away. Instead, it is becoming an integral part of life, both at home and at school. Kids are learning how to use technology at a very early age and often have a greater understanding of it than some adults do.
#00:15:04-3# <Emma> …and you should see something that has a little camera. You should click that and then...
#00:15:24-0# <Narrator> Technology will only become a bigger part of our lives and we must prepare children accordingly. However, it is important to maintain a sense of moderation as well, ensuring that children spend just as much time outside as they do inside. As I experienced with Emma, the two worlds can overlap and the result can be a very positive thing.