
Critical Perspectives on Technology and the Family
Susan K. Walker, Minneapolis, MN
Copyright Year: 2022
ISBN 13: 9781946135926
Publisher: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC
Reviews





The text covers all areas of the subject "Technology and the Family" and provides a clear glossary with contents. Important perspectives often missed by other authors are covered here: parental technology use, impacts on parent-child... read more
The text covers all areas of the subject "Technology and the Family" and provides a clear glossary with contents. Important perspectives often missed by other authors are covered here: parental technology use, impacts on parent-child relationships, and policy.
The content is accurate and well-researched.
With exponential, rapid changes in media technology, it is imperative that a text be up-to-date while providing foundations for evaluating and thinking critically in the future when facing new innovations. This text meets that requirement, and updates can be added with ease.
The text is research-based and fills "the need for our undergraduate students to be prepared for professional and personal life in a digital universe" as stated by Susan Walker in the "about the author" section.
The flow of the textbook is consistent.
The text uses headings and subheadings and can easily be broken into readings or pieced together to focus just on the outcomes for the course the instructor is designing.
The topics are organized in a way that could be course modules.
The text can be navigated with ease.
The text is well-edited with no grammatical errors.
Represents and includes diverse races, ethnicities and backgrounds in phots and in content.
This is a high-quality text that includes every topic you could possibly need when addressing media technology and the family. I will use parts of this text in Family and Community Relations and other Early Childhood Education courses. Each chapter includes "Learning Activities" that can be used for assignments or discussion prompts. They are activities that value critical thinking, personal reflection, and application of learning.
Table of Contents
- Video welcome and book content overview
- About the Book
- About Teaching for Critical Perspectives on Technology and the Family
- With Gratittude
- About the Author (or, the payoff for paying attention)
- Chapter 1: Ten Truths about Technology
- Chapter 2: Ways of Understanding Families and Technology
- Chapter 3: Differences Within and Across Familes' Technology Use
- Chapter 4: Technology Use and Couple Relationships
- Chapter 5: Technology Use and Impacts in Children, Youth and Young Adults
- Chapter 6: Technology Use by Parents
- Chapter 7: Technology’s Influence on Parent-Child Relationships
- Chapter 8: Technology Use for Family Communication and Connectivity
- Chapter 9: What Boundaries? Technology's Role in Work and Family Balance
- Chapter 10: Technology Use in Family Health and Money Management
- Chapter 11: Technology Integration in the Practice of Family Professionals
- Chapter 12: Shifting the Culture: Policy, Practice and Research toward Healthy Family Technology Use
- Readings and Resources to Complement this Book
- 50 Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) by Angelo and Cross
Ancillary Material
About the Book
From the perspective of a long time family practitioner, researcher, and educator, and technology innovator, this textbook offers the first comprehensive view of technology in the family for college students, professionals and the public. Each chapter offers content and a complete reference list, learning activities, ideas for critical blog posting and additional readings. The beginning chapters cover foundational information about our societal use of information and communications technology, family theories and ways of understanding families, and how families differ in their use and access to ICT. The main body of the book (chapters 4-10) covers elements of the family from couple relationships and dating apps, to children’s use and impacts on development from early childhood through young adulthood, use by parents and in the parent-child relationship, shared use by family members, and then topics important to family life: work-family balance and health and financial management and technology. The end of the book pivots to look closely at use by family professionals, the competencies needed to integrate technology into practice, and policy as a proactive and systemic avenue for change. End of book material include an additional reading list and recommended web content, social media and thought leaders. The authors lends her ideas on teaching for critical thinking with an overview at the beginning of the book, and classroom assessment ideas (actually short ways to engage learners in critical thinking activities).
About the Contributors
Author
Susan K. Walker, Family Social Science, University of Minnesota