The Internet Playground: Children's Access, Entertainment, and Mis-education

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005

HQ784

2004-027257

0-8204-7124-0

The Internet playground; children's access, entertainment, and mis-education.

Seiter, Ellen. (Popular culture and everyday life; v.10)

Peter Lang Publishing Inc, [c]2005

121 p.

$22.92 (pa)

Between 1999 and 2003, Seiter (cinema-television, U. of Southern California) volunteered as an after-school computer lab teacher at two public elementary schools, one at the high end of technology and Internet access, the other struggling and technology-poor. Her observations at the schools form the core of her analysis of what kids need to know about the Internet, how disparities in technology access are masking deeper problems of class difference, and why the Internet is an educational boondoggle. Her study is far from an anti-computer rant, however; Seiter also assesses the benefits of technology access and offers recommendations for teachers and parents to facilitate learning by way of the Net.