For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

The coming Zoom fatigue

Jeremy Bailenson, PhD, is Thomas More Storke Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University and Founding Director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. 

After a month of sheltering in place, Zoom is quickly becoming a daily verb in our homes. There is little doubt the software is increasing social connection, helping us endure this crisis and, in some cases, allowing teachers to deliver instruction to their homebound students.

But many of us are experiencing nonverbal overload. Software like Zoom was designed to do online work, and the tools that increase productivity were not designed for social interaction. In a normal workplace, people rarely engage in long bouts of mutual gaze—that is, looking directly into the eyes of one another. With Zoom, a grid of people stare right at you from the screen for the entire meeting. In an experiment at Stanford, we studied the consequences of “constant gaze.” While productivity increases, people report being very uncomfortable getting stared at for an entire meeting. The brain is particularly attentive to faces, and when we see large ones close up, we interpret them as being close by. Our “fight-or-flight” reflex responds. One study we ran with adults at Stanford showed that when people are exposed to large virtual faces that come close to their own, they literally flinch physically. I believe this is part of the reason Zoom is so exhausting: for every minute we are in Zoom, we have staring faces close by. 

Media causes adaptation. Many of us have seen a young child “swipe” at a picture in a magazine expecting it to change. And just this week, one of my daughters asked me why the characters in Cinderella weren’t standing six feet apart from one another. How will Zoom shape how children socialize in their post-pandemic lives?

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

A renewed push to make learners independent

Matthew Kam, PhD, is the lead researcher in Google’s Chromebooks team for families, education, and business strategy. The opinions expressed here are his own.

Students are increasingly turning to online resources and services to fulfill goals ranging from academics and careers to life skills and interests. In the immediate term, school closures due to COVID-19 are accelerating this shift toward online learning. Longer term, the economic slowdown and its impact on public funding require that public schools devise creative ways to achieve cost savings as part of the “new normal.” This will likely include adapting existing curricula to incorporate more online learning experiences and resources that are well designed. Doing so will free up teachers to support more students who are low-achieving or have special needs. 

Research finds that students require skills around “self-regulation” to succeed at online learning. This comprises the attitude that ability can be improved over time, being able to stay focused, the ability to monitor new information for inconsistencies, and knowing when and how to seek help from resources, including online ones. It is precisely this glaring disparity between students in terms of their readiness to learn that determines their lifelong success in an increasingly complex world. Developing the tools, resources, and supports to equip students with self-regulation skills will empower them to be independent learners over their lifetime. And it takes a concerted partnership between educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, technologists, and other supporters to realize this vision. 

Teaching students “to fish for themselves” is an ambitious undertaking. But it is the surest path to closing the achievement gap after COVID-19 is long over. 

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

When liberated, face-to-face will overtake face-to-screen

David Kleeman is Senior Vice President of Global Trends for Dubit, a strategy and research consultancy and digital studio based in Leeds, England. 

On March 31, the New York Times headlined an article “Coronavirus Ended the Screen-Time Debate. Screens Won.” Screens may have won the initial argument, but I suspect the rebuttal is coming.

Dubit has been talking with kids about how they feel under distancing restrictions. Almost unanimously they most miss being with mates, whether on a football field, playground, or simply hanging out. They’re filling their time, often with virtually social games, but longing for social connection.

When COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, I’d wager that we’ll see screens sidelined for a time amid a joyous physical reunion. With luck, patience, and rule-following, that will be early summer, with long days and fair weather. Balls, skateboards and bicycles will emerge from quarantine; kids will play active, social games (ironically including “corona tag”).

This could be a short-term phenomenon, but we can nudge it toward permanence, establishing the balance in kids’ lives that most researchers, advocates, and parents seek.

Seeing their children’s delight in liberation, parents can loosen their tethers and encourage exploration and adventure. For media companies, I have two recommendations:

1. Step back. If your engagement numbers go down, it isn’t personal. Your fans will return. Kids will be exiting a long-term exclusive relationship with technology and need time to stretch. 
2. Be a social igniter. What do you want children to do after turning off their devices? What resources can you embed in your content to spark that—activities to try, things to discover, ideas to share, tools for creativity? 

Like a summer thunderstorm, release from COVID-19 confinement may wash away heat from the “screen time” argument and renew variety and balance in kids’ lives.

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

The same magic of childhood, new delivery

Caroline Hu Flexer is the CEO and co-founder of Khan Academy Kids and Duck Duck Moose.

For the youngest children, social distancing and school closures have taken away the bedrocks of their daily routines. Library story times, circle time with teachers and peers, and playtime with friends have suddenly disappeared from the daily schedule. A child’s cognitive, emotional, and social foundation for life is formed during their first five years, and these experiences are a critical part of that development. This is also when children are most vulnerable to toxic stress. Right now, families are stretched thin as they balance the demands of child care, work, and remote schooling on top of heightened health, financial, and emotional concerns.

Creators and experts in early childhood will invent new experiences to preserve the magic of childhood for young children, so they can continue to learn and play. Great design innovations often occur within significant constraints. School closures have already prompted the reinvention of learning experiences, incorporating play patterns like show and tell, sing-alongs and imaginary play. Technology can be a powerful platform for delivering some of these experiences. But, creators must focus on preserving human connection by empathizing with children about the changes they are experiencing, giving them language to express their feelings, and bringing out joyful moments through physical play.

Creators should do everything they can to develop resources and support parents so that parents can focus on the important work of raising their children. Childhood can be protected during this turbulent time—with joy, imagination, wonder, and a sense of security for young children.

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

ME to WE—and letting boredom nurture tomorrow’s Picasso

Michael Rich, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, practices Adolescent Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, and is Founder and Director of the Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH).

Like 9/11, COVID-19 is an era-defining, paradigm-changing watershed. Unlike 9/11, COVID-19 does not present an enemy we can fight. Coronavirus is opportunistic and indiscriminate, with no nationality, politics, allies, or enemies. We must defend, not with the familiar “us against them” mentality, but by protecting each other to protect ourselves: “us with us.” Technology had allowed us to become complacent and arrogant, to focus on ME. But now we have had to flip the M, transforming ME into WE. Not only must we physically distance ourselves to be more socially connected, protecting others more vulnerable, but “stay at home” orders—with parents and children trying to work, learn, and live together 24/7—have made WE physically concrete.

We have struggled with the constraints and annoyances of forced togetherness, but discovered opportunities to emerge healthier, more empathetic to others, and more mindful of ourselves. Children who saw the Internet as a playground now need it to learn, produce, communicate, and connect—a power tool, not a toy. Parents are understanding that it is not screen time that must be controlled, but content and contexts of our media use. Both are realizing that constant screens exhaust and don’t sustain us, displacing richer experiences of shared meals and laughter, walks in nature, and boredom. Instead of reflexively defaulting to cyber-babble, let’s embrace boredom, let its mild discomfort fuel creativity and imagination. Let’s be grateful to each other for keeping us safe, and respect ourselves enough to spend our time, attention, and affection wisely.

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

Linear institutions challenged by exponential change

Alan Gershenfeld is President of E-Line Media, Co-Founder of Experimental Design and Co-Author of Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution.

The current pandemic has highlighted the tension between exponentially unfolding events and institutions that change at a more linear pace. Educational institutions, often resistant to change, have been both challenged and resourceful when responding to the crisis.

For years, epidemiologists have warned that a global pandemic was inevitable. And yet, few educational institutions were prepared for the dramatic implications. It’s been particularly challenging for public K-12 schools. The sudden shift to online learning has been painful, especially in communities lacking universal broadband and where essential needs provided by schools aren’t widely available.

Schools, along with public, philanthropic, and social service agencies, are shaking loose institutional inertia to help close these gaps with real progress. We need to ensure we hold these gains after the crisis and that our educational institutions are more agile and proactive moving forward.

This won’t be the last crisis. Cascading climate impacts along with our increasing ability to manipulate bits, atoms, and genes will bring new and rapidly unfolding risks (and opportunities). Educational institutions need to be prepared. Understanding accelerating changes, rates of change, and scenario planning is a critical 21st century skill.

This is an opportunity for leaders and students. Imagine if college students, when declaring a major, had to research and assess how their chosen disciplines will be impacted by emerging and transformational changes. Similar explorations could be designed for middle and high school students. We could cultivate a generation not only prepared for possible futures, but also able to proactively shape preferred futures.

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

For Part 2 of our Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Click the thumbnails below to read what they had to say:

• Voices on the Future of Childhood by Lori Takeuchi
• Part 1: One thing that must be done now
• Part 2: What will change as a result of the pandemic
• Part 3: The future of play
• Part 4: The future of digital play
• Part 5: Back to school
• Part 6: Diversity, Belonging, and Racial Justice

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

Better teaching, and rethinking Maslow’s Hierarchy

Warren Buckleitner is Founding Editor of Children’s Technology Review and Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of New Jersey.

I have good news and bad news.

Good news: Better teaching, better learning. It took a microscopic virus to accomplish what years of in-service sessions couldn’t—to move nearly every teacher in the world into distance learning mode in a few weeks. I’m one of those teachers now using tools like Zoom, Canvas, and Google Docs to engage my students in innovative ways, like including their pets in class and taking advantage of the expertise of parents who may have interesting insight on a topic. This new form of remote pedagogy, when mixed with traditional methods, will make back-to-school 2021 better.

Bad news: Coronavirus gives us a stark example of the digital divide. I was prepared for an extended quarantine with my family. My iPad was already loaded with apps for my 18-month-old grandson (his favorites are Sago Mini Forest Flyer and My Very Hungry Caterpillar), and my daughter’s robust cable modem handled the load of four busy professionals. The digital realm is keeping us entertained and connected. We virtually attended a library’s story hour and have been playing Animal Crossing on our Nintendo Switch; our Oculus Quest has been in constant use delivering immersive 360 videos, and my grandson plays hide-and-seek with great-grandma’s nose via Facetime. But we’re lucky ones. His other great-grandma isn’t so digitally adept, making her physical and social isolation especially harsh. And beyond providing community and entertainment, it is crystal clear now that staying connected means staying afloat: without a computer and Wi-Fi, gone are the options for working from home (and continuing to earn a paycheck), ordering groceries, paying bills, and staying in touch with family. This connectivity is a post-pandemic basic need, alongside such things as food, shelter, and safety, per Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer| David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” 

Adults might be less judgy about teen socializing through tech

Mimi Ito, PhD, is the Director of the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine, and Co-Founder of Connected Camps, a non-profit offering online learning and teaching opportunities for young people in all walks of life.

When I was researching the first big wave of teen mobile phone use in Tokyo in the nineties, adults were baffled by the “nagara-zoku” (multitasking tribes). Adults were similarly concerned when social media took off among teens in the US almost a decade later. As esports overtake traditional athletics in viewership, experts have moved swiftly to categorize gaming addiction as a clinical disorder. Adults are often quick to judge young people who favor online over face-to-face conversation.

We discovered that teens found value in texting because they lacked opportunities for private communication in physical spaces. They moved between school, public transportation, and homes—all settings controlled by adults. Texting is a lifeline to private communications with romantic partners and close friends, what researcher Misa Matsuda called their “full-time intimate community.”

Most youth will say they’d rather see friends in person but are limited in their mobility. Even when hanging out with friends at school or in public places, they are not able to have private conversations. Mobile and online communication changed that. People of all ages crave social connection, but teens are often uniquely separated from those whom they care deeply about. COVID-19 has given more people of all ages a window into this experience.

Reporters who once wrote about gaming addiction and the problems with screen time have reversed course in the face of COVID-19. We all look forward to the day when we can visit each other in restaurants, beaches, and homes. When that happens, I hope we don’t lose sympathy for young people who still need their phones and the Internet to stay connected to those who are dear but not near.

See more posts in this series:

Voices on the Future of Childhood

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson

Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

Part 1: One thing that must be done now
Part 2: What will change as a result of the pandemic
Part 3: The future of play
Part 4: The future of digital play
Part 5: Back to School
Part 6: Diversity, Belonging, and Racial Justice

As we hunker down and shelter ourselves in place to confront yet another day of what we hope is a temporary situation, we can’t help but wonder about the future. What will life be like afterwards? What will return to normal and what will be forever changed as a result of the pandemic? And what will the future hold for our children?

The Cooney Center began the exercise of not just wondering, but actively mapping out ideal futures for children and families well before COVID-19 became part of our daily lexicon. In November 2018, we kicked off our Future of Childhood Initiative with a national convening that focused on the potential (and pitfalls) of immersive media use among young children, followed by a January 2019 launch of the Future of Childhood Research Consortium, which aims to outline research agendas around the most urgent issues at the intersection of child development and technology.

Today, the future feels much closer to now than it did when we kicked off the initiative. We believe it’s more urgent than ever to proactively plan for what we want for our children in both the near and longer term.

But where to start? We invited a handful of the Cooney Center’s most trusted advisors to lay out their “aspirational but achievable” (to borrow a phrase from Alan Gershenfeld) visions of the future of childhood and to offer the field some immediate directives to help us get there. The individuals we’ve assembled for this feature, which will roll out over the coming weeks and months, hail from universities, hospitals, media production companies, educational nonprofits, high tech, and public media, with other sectors to come.

Admittedly, the timing of this inquiry—now, in the Spring months of 2020—is somewhat arbitrary, as life even one week (much less one month, or one year) from now may be very different. But part of the exercise is to mark the state of things today for later reflection: a year from now, we should be able to look back to see what progress, if any, we’ve made. In retrospect, some of our experts’ directives and visions may well have missed the mark in light of what would later unfurl. But we may also have the satisfaction of looking back and seeing that some of the stated problems that needed fixing actually got fixed. Or, that someone’s aspirational vision for the future was actually achieved. As such, we have intended this feature to be an exercise in action, creativity, and hope.

Each installment features experts’ responses to a specific question about the immediate or longer-term future of childhood as it relates to COVID-19.

Part 1: One thing that must be done now – April 7, 2020
For Part 1 of this series, we asked experts, “What is one thing you believe must be done now to improve how children and families are faring during the current crisis, specifically as it relates to the media and technology in their lives?”

S. Craig Watkins | Debra Sanchez | Jenny Radesky | Karen Cator | Maria Alvarez
Michael H. Levine | Ralph Smith | Rosemarie Truglio | Vikki Katz

Part 2: What will change as a result of the pandemic – April 14, 2020
For Part 2 of this series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Alan Gershenfeld | Caroline Hu Flexer | David Kleeman | Jeremy Bailenson
Matthew Kam | Michael Rich | Mimi Ito | Warren Buckleitner

Part 3: The Future of Play – May 6, 2020
In this third installment of the series, we asked experts, “How will childhood play change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic?”

Bo Stjerne Thomsen | Helen Hadani | Jill Vialet | Kathy Hirsh-Pasek | Kathryn E. Ringland
Makeda Mays Green | Roger Hart | Ronda Jackson | Rosanna Lopez

Part 4: The Future of Digital Play – May 21, 2020

For the fourth part of this series, we asked experts to focus their predictions on digital play by answering the question, “How will the way children play with digital media change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic?”

J. Alison Bryant | Andrew Przybylski | Jesse Schell | Jordan Shapiro
Juan Rubio | Katie Salen Tekinbaş | Mitchel Resnick | Tami Bhaumik

Part 5: Back to School – June 9, 2020

For Part 5, we asked experts to reflect on the coming school year and to consider the following questions: “What human, organizational, and/or technological infrastructures do we need to put into place to support sustained periods of learning at home and/or more frequent handoffs between teachers and caregivers over the course of the school year?  To what or whom do we need to pay closer attention as we plan for the reopening of schools? What might we be overlooking?”

Akimi Gibson | Elisha Smith Arrillaga | Esther Wojcicki | Gregg Behr
Michelle Ciulla Lipkin | Molly McMahon | Robert Tom Kalinowski | Tom Liam Lynch

Part 6: Diversity, Belonging, and Racial Justice – June 18, 2020

For Part 6 of this series, we turned our attention to race and racism. We asked our experts to share their thoughts on these issues according to the following questions: “What is your vision for the future of childhood? What are you doing in your professional capacity to achieve that vision, and/or who needs to do what to achieve that vision?”

Christy Crawford | Jordan Taitingfong | Mariana Díaz-Wionczek | Martez E. Mott
Pablo Miralles | Rahsaan Harris | Stanley Pierre-Louis | Vicki Ariyasu