iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

I am passionate about showing kids how to use social media for good. And I am passionate about helping kindness go viral. When I see negative behaviour sifting to the surface, my instinct is to not engage, not perpetuate it further, and to combat negativity with positivity. But although that is my first instinct, I know there is definitely a need to help our students (and adults) become critical observers of how human behaviour unfolds both in person and on social media.

Sometimes we see in-person hate magnified and perpetuated by further negativity in the form of finger-pointing, making assumptions. This only serves to amplify further distrust and hate.

One such example happened last weekend and truthfully, I have been mulling over the event and this post ever since. I am talking about the incident which occurred on Saturday, January 19th whereby a Native American elder was mocked by a mob of teens at a rally in Washington, D.C., and the counter-narratives that present an alternative scenario. There is no doubt that the smirk on the face of the young boy was one of disrespect, but there is much more to the story than we originally thought in the first moments the video hit social media. The incident provides a good opportunity for a critical/media/information literacy lesson as well as conversation starter for students to reflect on issues of inequality and social justice and the role social media plays in amplifying hate, distrust and misinformation.

Chances are, your students would have seen the posts and/or the video, so it is also one they may pay attention to because it’s “real” and hits many curriculum expectations (reading, writing, oral communication, media)

Analyze the text (article, tweet, blogpost, video) using this criteria:

It's no secret that tweens and teens spend a lot of time with media. But what about their parents? For the first time in a Common Sense Census, we put the spotlight on parents to understand how they manage their kids' -- and their own -- media use.

This national report is based on surveys from more than 1,700 parents of children age 8 to 18, who share candidly about their own media use and their perceptions of their kids' engagement with media and technology.

The findings create a comprehensive picture of parent strategies for mediating, monitoring, and managing media issues for their children. Results show that parents actively keep tabs on tech use at home and are supportive of the positive benefits of media in their kids' lives. The study provides insight into how families can use media in healthy ways and how parents can be good digital role models for their kids. Watch our video below and see our blog post for highlights.

This week UNESCO launched a framework illustrating its Five Laws of Media and Information Literacy (MIL).
This global strategy marries the large, but often separated, disciplines of information literacy and media literacy and creates a common vocabulary for folks in multiple areas of knowledge to engage in conversation. It also positions these critical literacies as a combined set of competencies–knowledge, skills and attitudes–central for living and working in our world today.

This morning, George Couros shared a post, “Not as much as you Pretend” in which he talks about perceived barriers vs actual barriers. He says, “Too often we create something in our heads as a barrier.”

Reading it prompted me to realize that I had been working on my own post about my similar thinking on the topic  (in draft for 4 weeks because unfortunately my cognitive abilities are not quite back to normal!)

The findings in the report, Common Sense Consensus: Plugged in Parents of Teens & Tweens surprised me a little, but also support the notion that we sometimes perceive barriers which may not necessarily exist and that parents are far more supportive of technology-enabled learning than we think.

It is one of the first reports I have seen which focuses on the habits of parent social media use (if I am mistaken, please share in the comments!). The report is based on a nationally representative survey of 1,786 parents of children age 8 to 18 living in the United States and was conducted from July 8, 2016, to July 25, 2016. It seeks to answer these questions: