Handbook of Educational Technology and Communications
“Research on Learning from Television”
Barbara Seels, Karen Fullerton, Louis Berry, Laura J. Horn

When researching a massive topic such as television, variables have to be an incredibly nebulous area in which to try and control. Variables were discussed in the section 12.4.4. The variety of variables focused on in this discussion were age, gender, intelligence, home-viewing environment, reading skills, socioeconomic status, type of programming watched, various levels of viewing time, current issues, time, reading imagination, and obesity.

Overall this section of the article was well documented with an incredible number of resources. However, the lack of recent documentation was evident. Only one section, reading, had documentation form 2001. Other than this one, most of the studies sighted were from the 1990’s. One would think there would be research that would be more current from which to draw conclusions.

The conclusion of the research was divided into two categories, the heavy television viewers and the light television viewers. There was no indication of how many hours of television would constitute a heavy or light viewer. The general conclusion was that no matter the intellectual ability of the child, the heavier viewer scored lower in scholastic achievement. However, the results did indicate those children of lower abilities and lower socioeconomic status who had light television viewing habits may increase in their scholastic performance. A case for watching some television? Further research revealed that he kid of television watched was critical to achievement. Viewing informative (Discovery Channel, news, Sesame Street, etc.) had greater impact on the children. Time spent watching soap operas or sitcoms was wasted time. Statistics revealed that in 1999 the typical American child spent an average of 38 hours a week and nearly 5.5 hours a day consuming media (television, computer games, surfing, video gaming, movies, music and print media) outside of school.

The research, old yet still applicable to today’s generation does leave one with questions. What impact will television have on our children. Perhaps they will be better gamers than generations before them, but what physical shape will they be in to complete their tasks? Will imagination become a memory or will it continue to thrive? Future studies may be able to shed light on a new picture of the future generations.