In school there is focus on conceptual learning, subjects such as math, science and english. There is nothing inherently wrong with teaching these things and I’m not advocating we get rid of them by any means. I think what I have begun to observe is how spending so much time in subjects that are conceptual and in experiences that are conceptual or digital can have profoundly negative effects on how we experience the physical world. In today’s world we see that people’s perception of reality is based more on films and video as a point of reference, rather than their own experience in the physical world.
The amount of digital content at our fingertips allows most people to jump into a personna or a reality that is completely foriegn to them and give them a sense that they have experienced it whilst sitting in their own living room.
This sort of consumer level entertainment breeds short attention spans, and very shallow understanding of a topic. Just ask a person to summarize a 15 min long educational video just half an hour after the person has watched it and it will be apparent that although the person seemed to digest and understand the information as they were watching the video, the concepts resonated and made sense, the information was never absorbed on a deeper level.
While one could argue that this has broadened our horizons and bridged gaps between people in vastly differing cultures it is also quite evident that generations of young people look to digital experiences and live vicariously through media platforms rather than taking on the burden of actually having experiences.
So why does this matter, what does it have to do with education?
It matters because of something called somatic tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is embodied rather than something that can be summarized in a lecture. Think of a professional gymnast, fine craftsman, artist or any one else that has a mastery of large and fine motor skills in such a way that can only be acquired through practicing the skill.
So many nuances to that can’t be written about or even filmed but need to be felt.
When I was still in kindergarten we had stations we would rotate through to develop skills like sewing, woodworking, cooking. Now this may seem a bit silly to modern people but they were instrumental in forming the pattern of learning physical skills and tying them together with abstract knowledge.
From the earliest age our hands provide the most information directly to our brain.
I also used to practice Russian cursive and there was a huge emphasis on writing neatly and beautifully. Of course when I was tasked with the exercises as a child I resented the fact that I couldn’t just rush through and write everything as fast as I could. However, the focus on making the correct forms with the letters and paying close attention to having seamless curves gave me an imprint early on of what it means to focus intently on what my body is doing on the fine motor level.
Practice Makes Permanent
Lin, et al. (2017) found that children attending preschool had greater fine motor skills when fewer mobile media time was used
While this study has a small sample size and is quite limited in its scope it still is an important piece of information to help us understand how long term and chronic use of electronics has potentially detrimental effects on fine motor skills. I would also argue that when you can integrate a physical component in a learning environment the learning happens on a deeper level and has more chance being cemented in long term memory.
According to another study.
Effect of Touch Screen Tablet Use on Fine Motor Development of Young Children
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Lin+LY&cauthor_id=28071977
Pretest analysis showed no group differences in motor performance and pinch strength. At posttest, children in the nontouch-screen-tablet group made significantly greater changes in fine motor precision (p < 0.001), fine motor integration (p = 0.008), and manual dexterity (p = 0.003).
In Conclusion:
Using a touch screen tablet extensively might be disadvantageous for the fine motor development of preschool children.
Now these are just a couple of studies on children in the preschool kindergarten age range. While there isn’t a lot of extensive literature on the effects of slowly replacing our analog objects with digital substitutes, I don’t think it is a wild stretch to say that this will greatly impact motor skills well into adulthood, if apps and digital experiences replace what used to be physical activities.
So why is there this focus in early childhood development on motor skill development and then as kids enter into grade school and beyond it is forgotten?
I want to make the case that when we can tie together theoretical knowledge with real world physical examples we not only create a more engaging learning environment but we can shortcut igniting an interest and a passion. When our future generation of kids are sitting in a physics class or biology class, what if instead of daydreaming, they are connecting the dots between an actual experience they had and the classroom material?
Building a simple shelf can ignite the passion for engineering as a student sees the real world example of material rigidity, spans and deflection. The natural beauty and variation of wood species can inspire a young mind to pursue biology. Sharpening a hand tool can inspire one to find out what the difference is between a high carbon steel and a low carbon steel, how heat treating affects metal…. the list goes on.
For our future product designers, engineers, builders, scientists, how much more impactful is it to see how a poorly designed structure breaks, or how certain materials react to stresses than it is to swipe through a few slides or watch a video?
Here is another article highlighting the effects of screen time on hand strength dexterity and overall hand weakness.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/too-much-technology-children-with-weak-hands
In their report, the British health organization told the story of 6-year-old Patrick, a young British boy who entered primary school without the muscle strength in his hands to properly hold a pencil.
His mother, Laura, blames the amount of time she let him use technology for his dilemma.
“In retrospect, I see that I gave Patrick technology to play with, to the virtual exclusion of the more traditional toys,” she told The Guardian. “When he got to school, they contacted me with their concerns. He was gripping his pencil like cavemen held sticks. He just couldn’t hold it in any other way and so couldn’t learn to write because he couldn’t move the pencil with any accuracy.”
Now most of these studies are just looking at the effects of introducing tablets and touch screens in lieu of traditional play methods that kids typically use, but what happens when young adults and primarily boys replace all sorts of skills that require hand strength coordination and dexterity with experiences that take place mostly in the digital world?
Here is also an interesting theory that I have been pondering.
When a person’s main points of reference for an experience arise from film, tv and digital experience I think that directly translates to that person having a representation of reality is not grounded in a tacit knowledge that a person would typically gain if they were to engage in even a simple drawing exercise. Like making a right angle, using a compass and a straight edge.
Let me give an example. For instance, a person can perform a task on the computer and in every software used for drawing or modeling there are guides that aid in the precision of that task. Therefore, as a person becomes accustomed to working in a digital world where objects snap into place, actions and steps can always be undone and redone, the requirement for precise error free motor skills is reduced. The person begins to view precision as something that naturally happens or as something that in and of itself is not a skill but rather achieved through the use of tools.
When I was young, between 6-9, I used to love making and building things. I would play with erector sets, legos, wood, anything I could get my hands on. I used to do a form of bead weaving that required a high degree of patience, fine motor ability and precision for a 7 year old. I would patiently sit and make Indian patterns for tiny beads weaving them back and forth and threading the tiny holes on a needle. I would also meticulously make traditional weapons, studying books to understand how to tie knots and sharpen material. I also learned the right and the wrong way to carve with a pocket knife, cutting my finger and drawing a very good lesson on how a blade actually cuts vs the way I thought it should cut.
Then something interesting happened, the older I got, the less I engaged in any work that required precision and motor control in the real world and dove deeper into work in the digital world. For a good 5-7 years I stopped drawing, cutting, manipulating small objects with my fingers and any activity that required a high degree of focus and precision.
When I went to go build something, I underestimated the amount of slow focus and attention to detail I would need. I was so used to working quickly and efficiently on the computer, flying through editing, drawing and modeling because I was so accustomed to the tools and shortcuts on the computer, I was also much more reliant on the ability to fix or correct anything by a simple cmnd+z or going back in history. I quickly realized that my proficiency on the computer did not translate at all to the physical world and worse, it had made me less patient and more quickly frustrated than I used to be, even as a young child.
I realized that I had lost that ability to be slow, precise and meticulous and had subconsciously taken a work style that worked very well in the digital space and tried to apply it to the physical world. I also noticed that I had a very poor perception of how a material would react to a tool as well.
When I look at wood now I can tell if a piece of wood is so thin it will split if a screw or nail is driven in I can see where the grain swirls and will cause tearout, I have more of an intuitive sense on how much flex a piece of wood will have and what type of construction will give me structural rigidity. Sawing on the waste side of my scribe line vs just on the line. All these skills I’ve worked over the past years to acquire, retraining my brain to take notice of all the details.
Now you may be asking the question, who am I to be talking about this? Well I am no one and everyone at the same time. I am no one special in that I don’t have a simple solution to this problem and I am everyone because this reality permeates in every aspect of our modern lives as people and especially as parents to children who are constantly bombarded by entertainment in digital form
The modern digital landscape to many of us feels ominous even though we may not be able to put our finger on exactly why that. Ten and fifteen second videos that are solely meant to stimulate us in the moment only to be forgotten minutes late. We are glued to the screen watching this reality as if it was more real than what we have in front of us at the moment.
I am left to wonder as the new generation of children are growing up, is the reliance on digital precision and tools diminishing their precision and their elementary understanding of the physical world? Do we have something to learn from our ancestors who used to regard the artisan and the craftsman in the highest regard? Is there a desire amongst people young and old to unplug from the digital landscape and take joy in using their fingers and eyes in a way one simply cant on a computer or phone? I think there is, and I hope to help anyone on their journey if they feel such a desire.