PRINCIPAL`S MESSAGE

DO AS I DO?

According to a new survey sponsored by Common Sense Media, parents of tweens and teens spend more than nine hours a day on average on screens. More than 80% of that time was for pleasure, not work, with parents watching television, playing video games, social networking, browsing websites, or doing other things on a computer, smartphone or tablet. Yet, 78% of parents felt that they were good role models for their children when it comes to media and technology. When it comes to media multitasking - using more than one screen at a time, such as watching TV while writing a proposal for work on your laptop - about two-thirds of parents said it had no impact on the quality of their work. In a survey of tweens and teens about the same number said that multitasking like texting or watching TV while doing homework didn't affect the quality of their work. While parents want to monitor what their kids are doing online, they overwhelmingly view technology as beneficial when it comes to their children's academic achievements. 94% said technology supports their children's education and school work.

CNN

“Last year, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a study demonstrating that, over the next 30 years, Australia's standing in overall national wealth will fall well behind that of several of our near neighbours who currently are far poorer than we are. If those same neighbours also possess a far more effective standard of education than our own, this would be a powerful predictor of an increasingly difficult and poorer standard of living for our grandchildren. Surely it's well and truly time to wake up and take the remedial action that's so urgently needed.”

Ross Fitzgerald, emeritus professor of history and politics at Griffith University, 8 January 2017