For many years, the “digital divide” signaled a split between people with access to the internet and those without. The term expressed concerns about those who may fall behind in the highly digitized economy of the 21st century. But with internet service now present in most U.S. homes, the gap has become more nuanced. Today, the question is less about access and more about quality and consistency of connection.

A nationally representative telephone survey of 1,191 families conducted last year by Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Rutgers University revealed that 94% of lower-income parents with children ages 6 to 13 have some kind of internet connection at home. Unfortunately, however, about one in four (23%) families connects only through mobile devices. While increasingly powerful, smartphones and tablets have limited capabilities compared to computers connected to broadband connections.

The Cooney Center is proud to present a series of infographics that highlight the connectivity trends of lower-income families in the United States. “Under-connected in America: Digital Equity Challenges for Lower-Income Families,” illustrates obstacles to high-speed connection and the ways in which reduced internet access hinders learning for children and their parents.

In a world where high-quality internet connection is not a luxury but a utility, these survey findings help to contextualize digital equity in terms of quality, not just access. Join us as we share other lessons from our survey findings over the next few months. (View a Spanish-language version of this infographic here.)

Click to view full infographic.

 Click to view in Spanish.

Save

Save

This post was originally published on The Hechinger Report and appears here with permission.

Photo by Kris Connor, Getty Images

Over the past several years, at the same time that the words “screen time” became shorthand for children zoning out, several researchers and educational experts have been taking an entirely different track.

They have been studying how and at what age children come to learn words, follow stories, and grasp educational concepts that appear in ebooks, videos, and apps.

New experiments on The Adventures of SuperWhy!, Peg+Catand other PBS shows, not to mention decades of studies of Sesame Street, show that young kids actually learn more than peers who do not have access to these research-based educational programs, especially when adults are also engaged around the media.

Those findings became the underpinning of some major news in Ed Tech last week when the American Academy of Pediatrics announced changes to its recommendations on “screen time.” For years the pediatricians’ group has been telling parents to refrain from or sharply limit use of screen media.

In a more nuanced statement, the AAP concluded that well designed media used by parents and children together, could be a tool for social interaction and learning.

The academy didn’t shy away from recommending limits, but it did not prescribe one-size-fits-all edicts either.

The guidance takes a more realistic approach, acknowledging that toddlers may benefit from new technologies such as video chat and that most preschoolers are using tablets and other technology already.

Our hope is that the announcement will help parents feel less guilty and encourage teachers to use new tools more intentionally and productively.

The AAP guidance has huge implications for how we raise children to become literate, productive adults. Today’s preschoolers — the class of 2030 —will still need to be able to read in the traditional sense. But they will also need a new blend of skills — to speak, listen, write, be able to discern an author’s bias, and to look for evidence within books to inform their opinions.

Literacy rates and toddlers’ media use may seem unrelated but they are inextricably tied. The important connections between media and reading must be brought to light in schools, households, and in the public’s imagination.

Once that connection is made, it’s possible to escape the polarized debates between technology as harmful (it’s nothing more than an electronic babysitter!) and technology as savior (apps can fix the reading crisis!).

A decade of studies on audiovisual media with young children have painted a much more complicated and interesting picture. It turns out that the content and context really matter. If the screen is just blaring away with background noise or adult-oriented content, children suffer: ‘always on’ media interferes with conversations with their parents, and even the way they play is disrupted.

On the other hand, children at very young ages can gain important skills in literacy and language development if the content on the screen is designed for learning and if they have a parent or educator who talks with them about what they are doing and seeing.

For the past several years, our organizations have been visiting libraries, early learning centers, and schools around the country to uncover what it takes to help raise strong readers.

We have analyzed the app stores and dug deeply into differences between ebooks and print books. We have interviewed scores of reading experts and developmental scientists.

The conclusion from these years of study points to this third way: Empower parents and educators to see their role as primary, with technology as a powerful complement.

For example, consider the lessons of a program in Milbridge, Maine, that was designed to help Spanish-speaking immigrants create learning environments for their preschoolers.

Using monthly home visits and other methods for engaging families, professionals introduce parents and their children to touchscreen tablets that have been loaded with quality ebooks and games in Spanish and English.

The idea is not to have parents simply hand these devices over to their kids. Instead, the games and ebooks provide examples of hands-on activities that parents can do with their preschoolers in their kitchens and backyards to promote vocabulary and content knowledge in both languages, which helps build a solid foundation for life-long learning.

If recent test scores are a good indicator of how far our nation is falling behind our competitors, rethinking screen time may open the door to new paths for addressing that crisis.

In fact, as the AAP has now hinted, it’s time to abandon the idea of screen time in general.

The lines that used to define “screen time,” “learning time”, or “play time” have become so blurred as to be meaningless. In fact, when people use “screen time” pejoratively, it’s because what they are really worried about is “mindless time” or “sedentary time.”  Those are the capsules of time that need strict limits.

The AAP has helpfully reminded us that the focus must be on howwell we’re using our time and resources with children. As educators and parents we need a new prescription for reading: let’s address how literacy learning can and should be happening regardless of the device.

Today’s children and families experience screens and digital media everywhere. Instead of pushing screens away, it’s time to put them to use in a thoroughly modern way. Doctor’s orders!

Save

Save

Save

During a recent visit to a local public library, a kindergarten class took over the children’s room. Many in the group were already familiar with the space thanks to storytimes and regular visits with family members to check out books or DVDs. For others, this visit was not just fun, but also a vital introduction to the many opportunities that the library offers.

Young students participate in a scavenger hunt during a recent kindergarten class trip. Photo: Homer Public Library

The kindergarteners may have initially come for storytime or a class visit, but the librarian’s not-so-secret plan, and the organization’s mission, is that the library will become an integral part of their lifelong learning well beyond their early years. Public libraries are community spaces rich with resources where all are welcome. They are dynamic organizations that have something to offer the youngest, oldest, and those in between.

Since 2010, when the digital media shift accelerated, whole families have been using the library in different ways. They come to the library not just to check out books for free, but also for access to digital media and learning opportunities. Today, many libraries offer not just the latest bestsellers, but also access to the newest media formats, a wider array of resources, and innovative programs that encourage families to explore and learn something new.

We now live in a time when more and more essential resources for families are found online- homework assignments, grade reports, tax forms, applications for state benefits and jobs, to name a few. Digital access is not a luxury, but a necessity. Many families do not have access to the Internet at home, have limited access via a mobile phone, or lack the know-how to find and use digital resources effectively. For these families, libraries offer an essential service. Public access computers, free wifi, and even makerspaces, provide opportunities for entire families to learn essential digital literacy skills and participate in today’s society.

Children and caregivers participate in a collaborative art piece during storytime. Photo: Homer Public Library

For families who have Internet access at home and even the latest mobile technology, the library has similarly become a beacon in the sea of digital media. The plethora of digital media, both good and bad, is growing exponentially. Even the savviest parent struggles to keep up with the latest research and find high quality media on their own. Librarians, acting as media mentors, share and provide access to information that families can use to find and explore the right media to support their children’s learning. They also evaluate, review, and recommend what’s new and relevant just as they have done for centuries with other formats.

Public libraries are in the business of information equity and help “level the playing field.” Each and every day, librarians help whole families:

• learn how to use the library so they can find what they want to read, watch, or listen to, in the formats they need
• read, talk, play, sing, and write in ways that support their young child’s early literacy
• research topics of interest and necessity
• develop a new skill or find a hobby
• connect with essential community services
• use and troubleshoot problems with their mobile devices, often a lifeline for people with limited resources
• access and navigate the Internet, email, and e-forms
• vote online, or register to vote

Back in the children’s room, the kindergarteners were buzzing with conversation, discovery, and sharing. They enthusiastically helped retell the old tale of The Three Little Pigs using props from the librarian’s “story basket” and then used their refreshed memories of the story to affirm and dispute Jon Sciezka’s version in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs as it was read. They finished the visit by searching for clues in book bins, at computers, and on top of shelves as part of a just-for-fun team scavenger hunt.  As they readied for the short trip back to school, they stacked book after book into the librarian’s arms with requests to hold each and every one until they could return to check it out afterschool or on the weekend with their family. She gladly obliged.

More resources:

• Professional Tools for Libraries Serving Youth (Association for Library Service to Children)
• Giving our Children a Fighting Chance: Poverty, Literacy, and the Development of Information Capital by Donna C. Celano and Susan B. Neuman
• Becoming a Media Mentor: A Guide for Working with Children and Families by Claudia Haines, Cen Campbell and Association for Library Service to Children
• Libraries 2016 by Pew Research Center

Claudia Haines leads storytimes, hosts Maker programs, and gets great media into the hands of kids and teens as the Youth Services Librarian and Media Mentor at the Homer Public Library (Alaska). She is a co-author of the Association for Library Service to Children’s white paper, Media  Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth (2015). She trains other librarians as media mentors and serves on both local and national committees that support families and literacy. She blogs at www.nevershushed.com. @claudiahaines

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

The following is an excerpt from an article originally published on EdCentral.org and appears here with permission.

New job descriptions are born in the wake of new technologies. Now, as humankind absorbs two decades with the web and one decade of touchscreens and on-the-go internet, many new positions are taking shape, one of which could have a significant impact on how children and their families learn: the media mentor.

Why are media mentors so crucial? As parents and educators find themselves awash in new technologies and interactive media, many report feeling overwhelmed and in need of guidance to help them see how to use media in joint learning moments with their children or to navigate the “digital wild west” of the app marketplace. (Hence the title of one of New America’s first reports with the Cooney Center, Pioneering Literacy in the Digital Wild West.) Add to that the complexity of working within multiple disconnected systems of early education and trying to provide support to a growing population of dual language learners, and the enormity of the task becomes clear. As Amaya Garcia (my colleague at New America) and Karen Nemeth write in Donohue’s book, Family Engagement in the Digital Age, mentors are needed to communicate with families who speak different languages, to help families make “wise technology choices for and with their children,” and to help families use new technological tools to strengthen their participation in school and in the community.

Read the full article here. 

Lisa Guernsey is deputy director of the Education Policy program and director of the Learning Technologies project at New America.

Save

Save

Today’s announcement by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the joint statement of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on “media use and young minds” is a timely response to a hot debate in parenting and early childhood circles: When and how often should young children use screens?

For years, the health and child development establishment has advised against exposing toddlers, and babies in particular, to screen media.  But daily life has intervened: America’s preschoolers spend between 3-4 hours a day consuming media, ranging from television (still No. 1) to YouTube, and mobile apps.  Start with the explosion of touchscreen tablets and apps, add a healthy dose of new ‘i-tot’ products now marketed to parents with young kids, and presto — the new media ball game has parents and educators in a tizzy.  We have referred to this phenomenon as the dawn of the Digital Wild West.

Photo by Chris Enns/flickr

The AAP and joint executive agency statements rely heavily on a framework that our colleague Lisa Guernsey at New America has put forth—the importance of the 3 C’s (the Content, Context, and the Child)  to move the conversation forward. It is no longer the case that all screen time is created equal. There is a huge difference between parking a child, unsupervised, in front of a tablet for two hours and engaging in the “serve-and-return” interactions that might accompany a family Facetime session, or a field trip to the park, where a camera records each tantalizing flower, bird, or butterfly.

The AAP and the Obama administration now recognize that media use for toddlers, such as video chat with grandparents, may in fact be beneficial and that well designed media such as Sesame Street and PBS offerings have enduring benefits.  Most parents and educators have already concluded the same—but this validation may help those who have been wrestling with guilt to settle their nerves.  At the same time, what the statement does not do by itself  is to create significant new momentum in pushing the field forward—we need to push both industry and policymaker leaders to have a “new think” about these issues.  There are tens of millions of dollars being spent on apps and educational media every year, for example, but very little progress in improving the reading and math performance of America’s fourth graders.

Recently, the Cooney Center and New America published Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens, a book that delves deeply into a series of solutions that could help our nation rocket forward beyond the tired debate between those who view technology and media as some sort of magic elixir and those who see it as a harmful distraction.  We have created a set of tools for parents, educators, librarians, media developers and policymakers that can be found here. To deploy the modern tools of this generation of technology and media forms, we need policy frameworks like those announced today, for sure. But we also need proactive leadership from our policymakers and professional associations.  We are especially struck by the lack of infrastructure to support low-income digital participation and the lack of professional preparation to train educators, librarians, and others in sensibly deploying today’s digital tools.  We are also disturbed by the lack of attention to America’s diversity in media products, books and digital games.  But, fundamentally, today’s announcement reminds us that we need to support parents and educators to use these new tools more intentionally—because at the end of the day, they are the people who matter most in the lives of our youngest citizens.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s newest Digital Games and Family Life infographic looks at the game genres and titles that kids and their families play. Not surprisingly, there seems to be a generational gap. There is also a curious gender distinction.

Click here to view the full infographic.

When it comes to age, puzzle/strategy games, first person shooters and role-playing games have universal appeal. They seem to be equally popular among parents and their children. I’d like to imagine that it is because families are playing Halo together. That’s the way it works in my house right now. We all visited Microsoft’s Redmond campus last month and after seeing so many Master Chief statues, our family bonding became a nostalgic tribute to a memorable vacation. But even when we are not all on the sofa, gamepads in hand, we still find ways to play together. For example, we are deeply engrossed in the gorgeous puzzler Dots & Co. We play it on our respective devices, competing to see who advances more quickly (I’m winning; level 173). Some types of games cross generational boundaries.

My boys (ages 9 and 11) play a lot more without me than they do with me. Often, they are playing the other categories on this infographic—racing, virtual worlds, fighting, adventure, and especially simulation building games like Minecraft. Those genres seem to appeal disproportionately to younger players. All except that one outlier: brain training/trivia games. Do these games attract adults because there is still a video game stigma? Do adults like to pretend games are work? Do brain trainers feel like a New Year’s resolution, somehow less superficial? Like tech-enabled personal development?

I honestly cannot relate to this phenomenon. Brain trainers puzzle me. I have read so much that debunks their claims; any reputable neuroscientist will tell you there is no documentable proof that these games have real benefits. So I don’t play them (why would I when there are so many titles that are so much more fun).

Still, I acknowledge that all games are doing some sort of “training.” It’s safe to say that whenever anyone is gaming, they are actually learning. At the most basic level, players learn how to navigate their way through the system of the game. They learn when to jump and when to shoot. They master the motions the game requires.

Embedded beneath the simple lessons about how to play the game-at-hand are more complex social, emotional, and cognitive lessons about how to play the game-of-life. For instance, I have talked to lots of successful start-up entrepreneurs who credit a childhood immersed in 1980s Nintendo SNES games for helping them develop what many education writers call character skills. “I learned resilience,” one told me, “Kid Icarus was super hard. But day after day of trying again and again taught me that if I stick to something, eventually I could figure it out. I think Kid Icarus gave me a sense of accomplishment and a healthy relationship to perseverance.” That’s a secret that every gamer knows all to well: you get better at winning by losing…at lot. Games encourage us to see failure as iteration.

Gaming can also influence the way kids will approach their finances when they become adults. For example, hundreds of hours with a simple resource management game, such as Plants vs. Zombies, shape children’s cognitive habits. All that gaming teaches them lessons about assets, liabilities and prioritization. I don’t know exactly which kinds of bonds, mutual funds or savings accounts pea-shooters, puff-shrooms and cabbage-putts correspond to, but I’m fairly certain that my kids learned something about fortifying their position through diversification. Each time they chose plants for their inventory, trial and error taught them how day-to-day choices sway one’s ability to succeed within a complex system. For the record: this is why I hate it when games encourage in-app power-up purchases—the lesson is that instant gratification through consumption, rather than perseverance and planning, leads to success.

Photo via Plants vs. Zombies

Thinking about games in this way should make us concerned about gender distinctions in gaming choices. According to our latest infographic, girls and boys are playing different kinds of games. Of course, that’s okay in itself. All you have to do is spend a few minutes on the App Store to see that pink and blue signifiers have occupied digital retail just as much as they have the racks at Target. Girls can have their cupcakes, dress-up, and Frozen. Boys can have their trucks, guns, and Iron-Man. But ultimately, I wonder whether or not the lessons that are embedded in the games’ mechanics are also divided by gender.

When girls are playing “dress-up” video games—the number four most popular category according to this infographic—are they managing resources or just making things look pretty? I hope it’s not all about aesthetics. We know, without a doubt, that we need to teach lessons in resource management, sustainability, and prudence to all of our children, regardless of their anatomy.

Images from the App Store

Of course, we don’t have enough information here to jump to any conclusions. We desperately need folks to look, in much more detail, at the specific games our children are playing.

Calling all sociologists, cultural studies departments, critical theorists: please do more work on the qualitative distinctions among game titles, the agendas they inadvertently promote, and people who play them. We need to analyze each game’s rhetoric. We need to really understand the games’ rules, the objectives, the way each system operates and the habits of mind that particular kinds of gameplay encourage.

Parents: it’s clear that you aren’t playing most of the game categories. That’s a problem. You don’t really know to what your children are being exposed. Please drop the brain trainers and diversify your gaming choices. Most importantly, start gaming with your kids.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

As part of our Families and Media Project, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted a survey of nearly 700 parents whose 4-13-year old children play video games. We are pleased to present this data as a series of infographics, each featuring a particular facet of video games and family life. Here, we explore the genres and titles of digital games played by children and their parents. Stay tuned for more installments of this series over the next few months.

Click to view full image.

Learn more about the survey and the methodology here.

Save

Save

View all of our resources at tapclickread.org

Over the past several years, New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop have become known for our book Tap, Click, Read and for our joint research and analysis on how digital technologies could be used to improve, instead of impede, early literacy.  Now our two organizations are going a step further: This month we are releasing a toolkit of materials designed to help educators and other leaders put these insights into practice to help children learn to read.  Fourteen research-based resources—including tipsheets, discussion guides, ratings lists, and a quiz—are now downloadable and free for further distribution at TapClickRead.org/Take-Action.

To reach large audiences of educators and community leaders, we have formed partnerships with FirstBook and the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, two organizations that are dedicated to closing literacy divides and ensuring that children in low-income families and high-need schools have access to high-quality teaching and reading materials. We will also be actively promoting these materials in the coming months through Media Literacy Week (Oct 31-Nov 4) and at the annual meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children in Los Angeles in a featured session on November 3.

With the creation and release of these materials, we are trying to “walk the talk.” We recognize that in today’s high-paced world, adults as well as children are learning in multiple ways, and they need easy access to multimedia materials that spark conversation and new ideas. Since the book’s release in October 2015, we have been providing information in as many formats as possible: through the stories and brilliant people we introduce in the chapters of our book, through presentations we have given around the country, through five videos that are freely available on our site, on YouTube, and on Vimeo; through social media conversations at #TapClickRead on Twitter and throughout Facebook; through one-and-two page downloadables (including ratings charts, quizzes, and expert advice); and through discussion guides that are designed to prompt critical thinking by educators and other leaders throughout communities.

Our book and the accompanying resources lay out a vision for building 21^st century ecosystems of learning that combine the best of media and reading. We playfully call this combination “Readialand.”  We believe that Readialand ecosystems can be created in communities around the country through new collaborations between educators, families, and community leaders who recognize that 21^st-century learning has to be human-powered first and tech-assisted second.

• What Educators Can Do—A list of recommendations for updating teaching methods, working with libraries and public media, and more.
• What Parents Can Do—A list of ideas for parents and caregivers, including the importance of listening to and talking with children about the media they use and why.
• How to Use Media to Support Children’s Home Language—Used well, media can spark opportunities for children to converse with their family members at home in their native languages. This helps them build a foundation for learning English too.
• How to Promote Creation and Authorship—Children need to learn what it means to be a creator, not just a consumer, of media. New tools bring this concept to life.
• How to Find Apps for Literacy Learning—Choose wisely. Use app-review sites and advice from literacy experts to find materials that match your students’ needs.
• The Three C’s—Content, context, and the individual child. Become more mindful in using digital technology with young children by taking this quiz.
• A Modern Action Plan for States and Communities—A guide for community and state leaders on how to make progress in solving America’s reading crisis and strengthening family-centered approaches that will endure over time.
• 12 Actions to Take Now—A one-page list of “must-dos” for community leaders, district administrators, and policymakers to break out of the literacy crisis and bring opportunities to all children.
• What Developers Can Do—Media and technology developers can become a key part of creating ecosystems of learning by partnering with educators and recognizing the needs of today’s diverse families.

We have also produced five discussion guides to accompany short videos that could be used to spark dialogue in community workshops or professional learning community meetings:

Comienza en Casa: Helping immigrant families prepare their children for kindergarten.

• Video vignette (5:15 minutes)
• Discussion guide

Tutormate: Matching community volunteers with first-grade students for weekly reading sessions.

• Video vignette (4:18 minutes)
• Discussion guide

Parents And Children Together (PACT): Encouraging parents to read with their children using e-books and text messages.

• Video vignette (5:05 minutes)
• Discussion guide

Play and Learning Strategies (PALS): Helping parents see how to create language-rich moments with their children.

• Video vignette (5:37 minutes)
• Discussion guide

Univision and Too Small to Fail: Spreading messages about the importance of talking, singing, and reading with young children.

• Video vignette (4:06 minutes)
• Discussion guide

Funding from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative made it possible for us to do the lion’s share of writing and researching the book, producing the videos, and creating and distributing the toolkit comprised of these 9 downloadable resources and 5 discussion guides. The idea for this project was sparked by the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. We are grateful to the Pritzker Children’s Initiative and CGLR for their support. All royalties from sales of Tap, Click, Read are invested back into the education research programs at our two institutions, New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, and all materials on the TapClickRead.org website are openly licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.

Buy the book now on Amazon.com.

Save

Save

Save

Save