In his 1979 book the Ecology of Human development, Urie Bronfenbrenner explained the importance of the various nested systems viz. the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem for the complete development of human being right from the womb up to a fully grown individual.
Contents
The five systems
The microsystem refers to the setting in which the individual behaves at a given point of his life. A set of microsystems within a given period of development constitutes the mesosystem. The exosystem refers to the contexts though not directly involved with the developing individual. For e.g. the office of the child's parent, which has an influence on the child's overall behaviour and development. The macrosystem refers to the culture, government and public policy under which the individual develops. It also influences child's interaction with other levels of systems.
Bronfenbrenner model Source: Santrok 2007
Later he also integrated biology, psychology and behaviour into the model thus labeling it as the bio-ecological model. Conflict or modifications in a layer will have a ripple effect in the other layers. To understand a child’s development then, we must look not only analyse child's immediate environment, but also the interaction with the larger environment as well.
Digital Technology
It is in the above context that this article will look into the role of digital technology and gadgets in the microsystem of child development. Children who depend on technology for play and entertainment grossly limit their creativity and imagination as well as optimal growth of their sensory motor skills. Sedentary bodies bombarded with chaotic sensory stimulation are resulting in delays in attaining developmental milestones, with subsequent impact on basic foundation skills for achieving literacy (3,4), causing France to ban all "Baby TV" (5). (Chris Rowan,2013) Violent content found in media has had such an impact on child aggression that the United States has classified media violence as a public health risk (6,7)(Chris Rowan,2013).Students entering schools struggle with discipline and attention skills required for optimal learning. Thus causing major behaviour management problems for teachers in the classroom.
Demerits
Thus technological advancements has indirectly contributed to physical, psychological and behavioral disorders thereby directly interfering with the microsystem as suggested by Bronfenbrenner's framework.
The three critical factors for healthy, physical and psychological development of a child are movement, touch and connection with other human beings. They are essential sensory inputs that are of utmost importance for a child's development of his motor and attachment systems, deprivation of which causes devastating consequences. Children thus fails to connect with the exo and macrosystems of Bronfenbrenner’s structure thereby being deprived of friends, family, neighbours and attitudes/ideologies of the culture within.
Merits
The article will now explore the positive impacts of digital, educational technology within the framework of Bronfenbrenner's theory.
The evidence from public broadcasting's Ready To Learn initiatives such as when television shows and electronic resources have been carefully designed to incorporate what is known about effective reading instruction, they serve as positive and powerful tools for teaching an learning (Pasnik et al. 2007: Neuman, Newman and Dwyer 2010: Corporation for public broadcasting 2007). The educational content is what matters, not the format in which it is presented. (Wainwright and Linebarger 2006)
The most recent development in this space is social-network major Facebook is planning to offer free education software in US. They claim this allows personalised learning at the individual's own pace.