Learning at Home: Families’ Educational Media Use in America

Ever since the dawn of electronic media, educators and children’s advocates have been working to maximize its use as a tool for the social, emotional and cognitive development of children. Each time a new medium is invented – from television to computers to mobile devices – it offers new potential as an educational tool for children.

Today there are more platforms for educational media content than ever before. There are scores of cable channels, hundreds of computer games, thousands of apps, and millions of websites. There are e-readers, tablets, and smartphones; Wiis, X-Boxes, Leapsters, and Gameboys – the list goes on and on. And with young children spending more than two hours a day with these screen media, one question that has never been answered before is: how much of this content is educational?

This study concerns media used in the home. It is the first study we know of to attempt to quantify, on a national level, how much of children’s media time is devoted to educational content, platform by platform, age by age. It also provides a measure of parents’ experiences with the educational media their children use: Which subjects do parents feel their children are learning the most about from media? Which platforms do they perceive as being most effective? The study also explores obstacles to greater use of educational media – what are the reasons some children don’t use educational media? Finally, all of these issues are explored by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status.