MindShift – Deborah Farmer Kris
The digital landscape of American childhood is in flux, according to surveys: Most children under the age of 8 now have access to mobile devices in their homes. In the last five years, children have spent less time watching television, but more time tapping on tablets and smartphones. And recently the American Academy of Pediatrics has softened its zero-screentime recommendation for children under 2.
Given the increased access to digital media, there’s a greater opportunity to pay closer attention to how children use devices and ways that parents and educators can use media as a tool to help children learn, according to Lisa Guernsey and Michael Levine, authors of “Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens.”
From Literacy to Literacies
What does it mean to be literate in a world where screens are ubiquitous? Literacy traditionally includes reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. But children growing up in a “world of information overload” must acquire strong media and critical literacy skills, argueGuernsey of New America and Levine of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. Kids need to be able to “read” and analyze information presented in a variety of formats — from videos to images to multimedia texts. In short, says Guernsey, children not only need to learn “how to decode the letters and words they read, but also to gain an understanding of what goes into creating information and stories of all kinds.”
For young children, media literacy can start as simply as discussing the concept of authorship. Guernsey recommends pointing out authors’ and illustrators’ names during on and offline reading time.
“Even preschoolers can grasp what it means to be an author or creator, especially when they themselves are given opportunities to dictate captions under photographs or create their own books using software [or] paper and crayons,” says Guernsey. “The more they learn about authorship, the more keenly they can start to understand information behind why books, games or videos were created.”
Critical literacy involves helping children hone their observational skills. Reading aloud offers rich opportunities to lay this groundwork, says Guernsey. Parents can pause in a story to ask, “What do you think will happen next?” and then “How do you know?” Questions like these challenge children to analyze the pictures and text they encounter — a technique that can also be used when watching media together.
The Three C’s of a Balanced Media Diet
Guernsey and Levine do not advocate putting babies in front of a screen, but neither do they espouse shielding children from all screentime. They argue that when families can actively engage around media, including digital media, the discussions and conversations that are sparked from those shared experiences can lead to meaningful learning outcomes.
Parents sometimes feel guilty about letting their kids watch TV or use electronic devices, but Guernsey says that this is counterproductive: “Feeling guilty shuts down conversation and leads parents to hide their questions about what movies to watch, what apps to download or what to do about bedtime.” Instead, she says, “we should be helping parents seek high-quality content that is designed for learning.”
To help parents make smarter choices about the media they use with children, Guernsey advocates “The Three C’s”: the content, the context and the individual child.
by MindMake via MindMake Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment