A study on the benefits of using streaming video to teach young children has been conducted by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), sponsored by Sesame Street Workshop, Sprint, WestEd, and GoTV Networks. 80 preschoolers had video streamed to their Sprint phones to help them learn the alphabet.
“All participants indicated improvements in children’s knowledge of the ABC alphabet song as well as letters of the alphabet. At the end of the study, every child knew some of the letters, which was not the case in the beginning,” said PBS in a statement. There were some drawbacks to the scheme, including the time required to stream the clips, the drain on the battery and lingering concerns over possible health effects of phone use.