Saturday, January 25, 2014

Digital devices are good for children - closing speeches

Third proposing speech
Dear digital readers, let’s enter into the current world 2.0. :
Have you seen how difficult it is for your grandparents to write an email? This task seems to be so long and tedious. Now look at a “digital native” and this job suddenly becomes child’s play. Mastering digital devices demand specific skills and the sooner your child handles digital devices, the better he masters them, as for learning foreign language. (Continues below.)

by BH

Third proposing Speech

A retina burned, an eardrum was damaged, and families from all over the world collapsed. And this year, as many companies are selling more capable digital devices, our children will suffer silently even more. This situation has to change now. (Continues below.)

by AL

Third proposing speech
Dear digital readers, let’s enter into the current world 2.0. :
Have you seen how difficult it is for your grandparents to write an email? This task seems to be so long and tedious. Now look at a “digital native” and this job suddenly becomes child’s play. Mastering digital devices demand specific skills and the sooner your child handles digital devices, the better he masters them, as for learning foreign language Let’s be honest: our parents spent hours searching the right pages in the right book in the right library to prepare a lecture, now you just Google it and you have access to the same information. You may find incorrect information on the net but once you know it happens and once you master digital devices you can check your data (If you do not know how to do it just Google it). Nowadays people that do not master a computer are the new illiterates of our 2.0 society, and you do not want your child to be that kind of people.

Digital devices lead to a full 360-degree change in the way we learn.

The opposing team criticized the digital gap between poor and wealthy people but in every school or library you have a free access to a computer, so every child has access to high-levels online classes such as MOOC. We think that it better to have one teacher explaining well one subject online and millions of teachers worldwide answering to their students than millions of teachers teaching in class to their children and noone to answer to their question. Why do students are distracted by their smartphones? Because they are annoyed with traditional courses: make them work interactively on their smartphones, many online courses such as the Kahn Academy have already flourished on the net. Their aim is to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere and sp many people are getting at the top of the social ladder thanks to those worldwide shared knowledges.

We can go even further: mixing education and entertainment. As we learn better when we a subject catches our eye major companies such as Axa place their employees into a virtual environment such as video games in order to train their employees and see their reactions and those serious games can be applied to kids. 

Perversity on the net and addiction to digital devices are the major worries of the opposing team.

We have clearly shown, and we continue to hammer that abuses take places with or without internet but we can use the net to track pervert. Besides, every digital device can be tracked online thanks to GPS applications so parents can know precisely where their child is, which is great for their safety. No studies have shown a change in the behaviour of child owning a digital device and addiction are mainly caused by the lack of authority of parents (if it is your case watch a tutorial online explaining how to install a parental control-it is child’s play). The opposing team has been touting that children reproduce what they see on their digital devices: this is wonderful, show them a video explaining how to make a derivative and he will be graduated by the age of 5. Children will not be able to make the difference between virtual and real life? Which implies that they perceive differently the world and that their imagination is really boosted! They could make this fantasised world comes true. Open a Word page and just have a look to the panel of colour proposed: it gives you more possibilities than real life offers to you. Your only restriction is the time you are willing to spend on. This enables us to reject the adverse argument that “Everything is preset on a digital device”: you can create your own virtual-dreamed world as in Minecraft.

Digital devices do not necessarily reduce physical activity: Fitness has never been so much practiced since wiFit was lauched.

Finally, if you find a job offer without saying “Master of pack office is a pre-requisite” leave a comment, otherwise incite your child to master digital devices allowing him to enter into the “generation of coders” that I would call “the angry nerds greneration” because it is clear that this generation is not only consumer of digital content, they are also creators of digital content.

Vote for us!

BH

Third opposing Speech
A retina burned, an eardrum was damaged, and families from all over the world collapsed. And this year, as many companies are selling more capable digital devices, our children will suffer silently even more. This situation has to change now.

Let us first get to see how the debate was led so far. It is interesting to see how the proposers tried to provide us with examples brimful of emotions, sometimes utterly overflowing with burning feelings, only to distract us from the looming danger of digital devices that is taking down our children’s lives. The proposing team indeed has given the example of the ability to connect with a younger family member studying abroad. This has nothing to do with our debate since the real questions we are bringing up here are how often do children use digital devices? When? Class time? Bed time? All the time? What is their impact on their behavior? Our team was definitely to the point when we raised relevant questions about the physical and mental damage that children are exposed to due to the use of digital devices, and we furthered the debate by discussing the society and family problems entailed.

The proposing team proved even to be completely off the mark by quoting the epic rhetorical poetry the commercials are using to make us buy their digital devices. For instance, they said digital devices “stimulate imagination”, “connect people”, “provide new interactive methods for better learning”, and the most epic must be when they said digital devices are a “power endowed to children” that the elderly fear… Our team did a strong effort to bring us back to the reality, the one we are living in, the one where GTA IV kills a grandmother, and World Of Warcraft, without mercy, murders a guy in the prime of his life.

Our team believes in the importance of essential pillars of life. Our team debated and responded well by bringing up questions that really matter, questions of mental and physical health, questions of family stability, and questions of social problems and security of our children.
Dear proposers, dear audience, let me introduce you to Harry. Harry is 9 years old; he was born and raised in the suburbs of London. At a very early age, he got addicted to TV. When he is watching TV, he is not really focusing on the show that is being broadcasted. His gaze, his fixed prolonged look on the screen, his wide bulging eyes, his widened mouth effortlessly allowing saliva to leak and his innocent silence all together make us only feel deep sorrow for him. And in his silence, he seems to be yelling: “Save me!”

A year ago, his parents, believing Harry can show some responsibility, have offered him a smart phone. When he’s using it, as he leans forward, curving his spine, injuring it at an early age, as he nears his nose and eyes to the screen, he is utterly unaware that he is slowly losing one of the greatest assets of mankind, sight. And in his painful moments when he is playing games that smudge and crush his imagination, he is shyly willing to say: “Save me!”

No need to mention here in detail what he is going through since he started using headphones to listen to music.

And when he feels the need to alleviate the pain he’s undergoing, he shouts from the inside: “Save me!”

Unfortunately, most kids today are having the same life as Harry. They seem to have developed an addiction to the digital world, and most parents do not seem to be worried. They find themselves having to face a child that developed emotional and behavioral changes that were generated by the use of digital devices. Does this have to go overboard?

How about Harry? Let us eventually stop turning the back on him, and let us give him the answer he has been waiting for so long: “We will save you!”

AL

12 comments:

  1. I'd like to comment and come back on several arguments BH brought to the table:
    first of all, you praise the speed and ease with wich one can access information: nearly no effort!! with just one click of the mouse, one is satisfied! but how does this affect our attitude and the way we percieve this information. Don't you think, when obtained so easily, the knowledge and information on the net tends to be taken for granted? Don't you think one becomes rather lazy? The critique made of books by Plato can be, I belive, to some extent applied in this debate: one does no longer need to "learn" anything or be cultivated simply because their smartphone can do it for them!! It is sooo much easier and tempting to rely fully on digital devices, isn't it?
    Concerning perversion: you declare it exists with or without the internet, so the latter does not represent a real danger for young users! No one is saying that the web is the cause of this form of violence and sexual abuse, but what is beyond question is that it is a very valuable and useful tool for maniacs, perverts, pedophiles and any many others who do not have their fellowmen's best interest at heart.
    Furthermore, do we really want children's fantasy world to come true? A world where killing one another is common place and made painfully easy?

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  2. Have you even considered that children are bored with traditional courses because of digital devices? Indeed, because everything has been interactive, fast, entertaining ( well at least a bit ), children can't adapt to a classroom where things are different. Digital devices make children unable to adapt to different situations, like "traditional courses" as you call them.

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  3. Thank you to BH for his quotation "Open a Word page and just have a look to the panel of colour proposed: it gives you more possibilities than real life offers to you." That is totally wrong. Yes maybe you can do a lot of things on Minecraft, or another game, and digital devices try to offer you a lot of possibilities, but real life will always give you more. Imagination is more powerful than a word page or than Minecraft. Digital devices offer you a set number of possibilities, there is a limited number of colours on a word page, and there will always be a limit, even if the proposing team does'nt seem to have reached that limit yet ( but maybe it is because they don't have enough imagination of their own to see that they are limited by digital devices ). Imagination is a wondeful thing, and so is real life.

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  4. Tom is 9 years old and plays a lot of video games. His parents have just told him that his grandmother died the day before. What do you think Tom replied? Well this, "oh well she will just start over with three lives again". Sorry if my invented story is a little bit pushed, but that is the kind of things that I imagine would happen if like BH said children can't see the difference between the virtual world and the real world. So does it still sound like a good idea to mix up the two world? Of course not. Children must be able to make the difference between the two worlds, because otherwise they will be disconnected from the real world and the people around them, and that might make situations awkward. And so they might be rejected by others and end up alone and unhappy, and isolate themselves even more in their fantasy world to compensate. That is a vicious circle that has to be stopped, by explaining very clearly to children that the two worlds aren't the same.

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  5. Just how long does it take for you to get cross if an internet page isn't opening? How many long car trips can you achieve without having a music player? How many times did you not use your computer or a mobile phone while you where in a train?
    Those are important questions. Indeed, digital devices are creating a world where everything has to be fast. Children are loosing their ability to wait because of it. That is a problem in class, where lessons have to be always faster and more entertaining. That is a problem in life. Being able to wait is an important quality, because it helps in nearly all situations you can come across. People just can't stand still in a queue anymore, because everything has to be fast. Digital devices are teaching children how not to wait, and that is something bad.

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  6. Yes having an online course has some advantages, you can take it anytime, anywhere, and choose the one you want. But the disadvantages are greater. Indeed, what is important in a lesson is the interaction with the teacher. The proposers might think that the teacher only gives you what books or online courses have to offer, but they actually give you an interactive lesson. They offer more than just a lesson, they give you advice, answer your questions, try to make it clear, look around the room to see if everyone is following, and if not give some examples to help the students. Most of the learning is done in class because of that interaction. Digital devices doesn't make that human link come true.

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  7. CB you say that what is important in a course is the interaction with children which is precisely what we defend. Teachers spend most of their time teaching knowledge to students but they have not time to answer to their questions.what we defend is the inverted classroom : students learn on their own online and before their course and in the classroom they can ask what they have not understood to their teacher, they make some exercices of applications in class and the teacher has just to clarify some points and answer to the questions of his students. You can not have a more interactive class than with this method

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  8. Do not you think that the main problem with a 9 years old child shooting someone is to prevent him from accessing those firearms ? Of course people tend to copy what they see on the internet, such as on TV or in movies. Have we forbidden Scary movie after that a child stabbed a school mate with a mask ? No we just increased regulation. It is precisely the same thing with the Net, it must but regulated and controlled by parents.

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