Parent Education Night to explore technology's effects

The Internet, iPods, iPhones, text messaging, video games and other technological wonders may have revolutionized the way people live, but the constant barrage of gizmos and gadgets has also altered our brains, according to a doctor scheduled to speak at Agoura High School this month.

Dr. Gary Small, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and an expert on aging and memory, will be the featured guest at the next Parent Education Night on Tues., Jan. 27. He will discuss how technology has changed the way children think, work and play.

Parents will discover whether they are "digital natives" or "digital immigrants" at the meeting.

Small says that young minds are being affected by constant exposure to technology, which has led to a new "brain gap" between generations. Communication between generations has also changed with the advent of so much technology, Small said.

Small has written more than 500 scientific works and earned many awards and honors, including the Senior Investigator Award from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. He was also named one of the world's top innovators in science and technology by Scientific American magazine.

In the book "IBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," written with his wife, Gigi Voran, Small describes how new technology affects our lives and brains. According to Jodi Regan, the school's ParentFaculty Club Parent Education Night coordinator, Small will discuss his findings at the meeting.

"(Dr. Small) is a very interesting and engaging speaker, and I think parents are going to want to hear what he has to say," Regan said. "He lectures all over the world and has generously agreed to visit our little corner of it."

Parents and their children from all local schools are invited to attend the event, Regan said.

Small is the Parlow-Solomon Professor on Aging for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the university's Center on Aging. He also serves as director of the Memory and Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute.

The program will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at Agoura High School, 28545 W. Driver Ave. in Building G.

The event is free, but reservations are required with an RSVP to AHSParentEd@aol.com.