Girls and Mothers Lead Way In Tech-Adoption, Learning

A woman using a gadget. Prepare to see more of this sort of thing over the coming years. 

Girls are more likely to have new technologies at home than boys and it is mothers rather than fathers who assist them, according to a new report due to be launched on Thursday. (You can download a copy here.)

The Learning in the Family report found that 94 per cent of the girls said that they used a computer or laptop compared with only 88 per cent of boys.

And 50 per cent of children chose their mothers to help them to use new technologies, versus 22 per cent, which chose their fathers.

The report is based on two online surveys with a sample of 4,606 children aged six to fourteen, going into more depth with a further 2,535 children and interviews with twelve families.

The aim was to assess how parents engage with children learning new technology and how parents could better support their children’s learning. 

Learning in the Family was funded by Becta, commissioned by Intuitive Media Research Services and co-authored by Robert Hart of Intuitive Media and Professor Karen Pine, at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Psychology.  

“What is clear from these results is that mothers are taking the lead,” said Professor Pine. “Overall, mothers are more likely to engage with their children using new technologies especially when it comes to formal learning or research. The mothers were also the most experienced and capable computer and Internet users.”

Another key finding was that 40% of children surveyed wanted to see an improvement in parental involvement and many of the parents interviewed said that they would like to learn more through online courses, through the television or through their local school or college.

Robots: To Be Or Not To Be (Humanoid), That Is The Question

Early last week scientists released research which found that the more human-like features a robot possesses, the more we engage cortical regions associated with mental state attribution/mentalizing in their presence.

In other words, if bots look like humans, smell like humans, and taste like humans, then we think they’re human. (Don’t eat them though, they’re bad for your teeth.) 

So, it was interesting to read the following remark from Christopher Parlitz, one of the scientists behind the Care-O-Bot 3 prototype, which was unveiled a few days ago: