What do Homework and Zynga have to do with each other?

Two things made the news this week. LA Unified announced a new policy whereby homework can count toward no more than 10% of a student’s grade and social gamer Zynga announced that their IPO is seeking a $20 billion value (that’s “b” for billion). Do these things have anything in common?

LA Unified has many reasons for changing the homework policy and it is right to do so. (Update: the new policy is unfortunately on hold, pending more public discussion.)

It does not mean homework disappears or even that it will be reduced. Certainly it does mean that homework cannot be used as a blunt instrument by teachers, penalizing students for their poor work habits or their poverty. But the primary value of this policy change is that it reflects new educational approaches whereby what is currently being done as homework really should be done at school, and much of what is being done at school should be done as homework.

In other words, homework should be research-based and more free-ranging, relying a lot on the web (if access is available) and reviewing class materials without having to rely so much on parents, so that classroom activities with the teacher can focus instead on written projects and analytical work. The hard stuff should be done at school, not dumped on the backs of parents who aren’t “smarter than a 5th grader” in every subject.

The Zynga news is really about distractions - why they are increasing and whether they prevent homework from getting done. Many parents would rather relax in the evening by playing games like Zynga’s FarmVille or Rovio’s Angry Birds (photo), instead of supervising homework. If that depresses you, it is only going to get worse for families with middle school and high school students, where everyone is in a different room on one electronic device or another - TV, phone, computer, etc. Do you see that trend reversing?

If we reduce the homework load, will kids simply spend more time texting, or on Facebook and social gaming? Perhaps, but the goal here surely is to encourage the kids to multi-task when they are on the web – play some games, yes, but make sure they get their Wikipedia research-gathering and note-taking done too.