I believe the book “Remotely controlled” which Bluebell Finn mentioned is by Aric Sigman. He has done a lot of research into the effects of screen time on brain development. I went to a talk by him, and since then we have limited T’s screen time, because I felt the information presented at the talk was very compelling.

My OH spends absolutely ages in front of the computer, so not a good role model for T, and I’m not entirely innocent myself of course! So if T wants more time than I feel is “safe”, I tell him that it can be harmful. As others have said, it does vary a lot. He may have a few weeks where he is into a game on the Lego site and wants to play it every day, then have other times when he forgets about it. We don’t have tv, but we have a computer and screen that we watch dvds and downloaded things on, again that varies.
There is one of those smart boards in T’s classroom (4 - 9 yr olds) and they often watch films and cartoons at school, which I think is unnecessary. I hate the fact that he is watching a screen when it isn’t even anything he would have chosen to watch.

My kids school is still on blackboards( not the white ones but the old fashioned black ones) and they dont have access or use computers at school until the age of 14.(Its a steiner school-think this is probably the way in all steiner schools but might be wrong).Have heard of the smart boards but didnt know what they were and would be really annoyed if my children had one in their class rooms.Im probably a little old fashioned but in my opinion screen time of any sort is not good for the childs developement and kills creativity and imagination.I know from when I use the computer,watch TV come away feeling slightly numb and fuzzy headed even after twenty mins.But Im an adult and feel I can be responsible in the amount I watch/use.Mostly !!But I wouldnt feel alright about this for my children.Luckily there is not a lot of peer pressure at school with this as most children at their school are the same.

I thought SMART boards were simulated white boards.  As far as I can tell, they are a bit like those handheld computers that the delivery man gets you to sign but scaled up.  I am sure that there are loads of funny things you can do with them, but I have never worked out how to use one.

I think working on a PC as part of education can be extremely useful, although it needs to be used properly like any tool.  When Charlie was about 2, he kept asking us to open our mouths and then pointed inside and asked ‘what’s that?’  Obviously, we couldn’t see what he was pointing to so we used to guess (tongue? teeth? molars?).  In the end, we has to look on the internet for an anatomical picture so he could point and I could read the label.  It turned out that he was pointing to our uvulas, and he still gets a kick out of knowing that!

The internet is a huge resource and immensely useful for teaching and broadening experience.  It is also full of repeated misinformation and dodgy adverts.  I don’t see a lot of use in computers apart from that, only death by powerpoint and games where you get to be more powerful than you really are.  I’m not sure where I stand on computed art.  Probably worth exploring as a medium in addition to ‘real’ media, but not as a regular thing.

Sorry, mostly full of opinions and not a lot of information…

The school I used to volunteer at had smart boards - they were just like whiteboards, except that they were able to pull up templates of things like graphs, and lines for handwriting etc. I think they’re fab - saved the teacher and the kids the time it would have taken to draw on those templates. I can’t see why it’s any different to a traditional blackboard, except that they can free up extra time by having templates programmed in.

Angie

The smart boards at dds school have a projector above them attached to a pc, so you see the icons etc from the pc.  So, the use that is made of them depends on the teacher - could be just templates, although still from a screen - could be websites, dvds etc.  I think that’s one of the reasons that we don’t have much screen time - maybe 1/2 to 1hr 3 days a week, maximum (unless someone is ill) - as I know that dd is exposed to it at school and at her friend’s house (the boy next door whom she sees about 3 or 4 times a week) and where they watch the telly / dvds and play ‘Little big planet’ (not sure what this is on, but some games console)

Tanya

So far we haven’t really limited our kids screen time, other than if someone else is using it
We have very basic TV, so the kids programmes are only on at certain times and our kids are only interested in watching some of those.
They also use DP’s ipod touch, well mostly DD1 does, DS will only occasionally use it, similarly he’s less interested in watching TV