Education 2.0 & 3.0

The research paints a murky picture, but perpetual hand-wringing says plenty about adult biases.

"While social media can help people feel less alone, using it to evaluate symptoms has several downsides ..."

Along with countless other sobering repercussions, COVID-19 jeopardizes kids’ physical activity at a time when the emotional benefits that exercise provides are sorely needed. With school closures, suspension of team practices and the imperative to stay home and away from others, children and teenagers (and their agitated parents) will have to find other ways to keep moving. This is especially important now, as a global pandemic with potentially catastrophic repercussions has a way of igniting fear.

Common Sense Media's latest census reveals the shifting nature of kids' online experiences. Advice from Common Sense Media editors.

AIM HIGH! Tips can help teens tweens, and adults enjoy a better life.

If you have a teen or tween, you have likely heard of Tik Tok, which is actually an app called Music.ly reinvented. If you are a teacher, check out my  Music.ly post (about possible applications in the classroom which are relevant for Tik Tok) which I wrote when it was first popular a few years ago.

I first learned about Tik Tok’s popularity when my daughter would have her friends over and spend HOURS rehearsing and recording dance numbers. I have to say I loved it! She would often complain about how some of her friends just hang out on their phones when they come over, and this hanging out on the phone is entirely different.

Like any social media site, there is potential for awesome as well as potential for danger and so the platform in and of itself is not EVIL. Over the past few months I have been talking to parents, and 9 and 10 year olds have discovered the app and are pressuring their parents to get it.

This summer, a new California law goes into effect, aimed at supporting media literacy in my home state's school systems. Effective July 1, the statute requires the state Department of Education to provide online resources on media literacy for use by school districts. And some U.S. senators have reportedly floated similar legislation at the national level. These efforts can't come soon enough, given how fast unreliable and provocative online information is dividing the country and challenging the very stability of our democracy.

Laws can only go so far, however. We need to get teachers and parents involved in grassroots efforts to promote media literacy at all levels of education. If you have a high school student in your household as I do, it's time to talk with other parents, reach out to the social studies department, and get organized. If you are a teacher, you should either embrace whatever proactive measures your students' parents want to make or be the first to encourage such a coalition. We need leadership on both sides.

In decades past, students needed little more than paper, pencils, and time to get their schoolwork done. For the vast majority of students, that's no longer the case. Most schoolwork these days necessitates a computer and an internet connection, and that includes work to be done at home. One federal survey found that 70 percent of American teachers  assign homework that needs to be done online; 90 percent of high schoolers say they have to do internet-based homework at least a few times a month. Nearly half of all students say they get such assignments daily or almost daily.

The class focuses on things teens can do to feel happier — making social connections, maintaining a sense of free time and being more "other" oriented.

As physical distancing becomes a feature of students' everyday lives, social media has emerged as an important outlet for them to stay connected with friends and family. At the same time, not all students have access to the support they need to learn how to use social media in a way that's healthy. And for students from lower-income families, online negative experiences are more likely to spill over into their offline lives. Yet, having a conversation with young people about how they use social media can be a daunting task.

To prepare young people for the real-life digital dilemmas they will face on social media, Common Sense Education and a group of researchers at the Cornell Social Media Lab co-developed Social Media TestDrive. This online simulation allows middle school students a chance to explore a social media interface without actually having to create a social media account.

On math worksheets, numbers are usually neat and tidy. In the real world, not so much. Whether it’s polling data, analysis of investment options or calculations for timed traffic lights, real-world math can be messy. “If you give those kinds of numbers in homework you’re a mean teacher,” said teacher Victor Hernández. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to worry about that complaint much. Hernández works at Science Leadership Academy, a public magnet school in Philadelphia, where students gather and apply real data to hands-on projects throughout the curriculum. In January, Hernández and two colleagues shared some of the benefits of project-based learning with math teachers attending EduCon 2020, SLA’s annual school innovation conference.

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• Anxiety about the effects of social media on young people has risen to such an extreme that giving children smartphones is sometimes equated to handing them a gram of cocaine. The reality is much less alarming.

• A close look at social media use shows that most young texters and Instagrammers are fine. Heavy use can lead to problems, but many early studies and news headlines have overstated dangers and omitted context.

• Researchers are now examining these diverging viewpoints, looking for nuance and developing better methods for measuring whether social media and related technologies have any meaningful impact on mental health."

Playtime. Downtime. Family time.

According to Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, these three factors — or PDF as she calls them — protect kids against a host of negative outcomes, strengthen resilience, and bolster students’ mental wellness and academic engagement. 

"The patterns of daily life in the U.S. and around the world have been forever altered by the ubiquity of mobile technology. To truly understand the impact of technology on family relationships, we need to dig deeper into the media habits and attitudes of parents and teens worldwide.

The New Normal: Parents, Teens, Screens, and Sleep in the United States

The latest addition to the New Normal research series explores how smartphones and other mobile devices have changed families' morning and evening routines and in-person relationships. For the first time, parents and teens reveal their habits around screens and sleep, from where they keep phones at night to how often digital notifications wake them up (and why). Take a look at the infographic for a summary of how devices affect daily life for parents and teens today."

Look up from this screen right now. Take a look around. On a bus. In a cafe. Even at a stoplight. Chances are, most of the other people in your line of sight are staring at their phones or other devices. And if they don't happen to have one out, it is certainly tucked away in a pocket or bag.

But are we truly addicted to technology? And what about our kids? It's a scary question, and a big one for scientists right now. Still, while the debate rages on, some doctors and technologists are focusing on solutions.

"There is a fairly even split in the scientific community about whether 'tech addiction' is a real thing," says Dr. Michael Bishop. He runs Summerland, which he calls "a summer camp for screen overuse," for teens.

Simone’s always making things to bring her fun ideas and crazy plans to life.  Why not send candy to the whole school by drones, or 3-D print your science assignment? When Simone and her friends, Type-A musician and star student Lana, uber-energetic gaming enthusiast Bevan, and class cutup Jackson, ‘King Of The Meme’—aren’t hanging out in Rowat High School’s MakerSpace, they’re in constant contact on their video chat, ‘Konnect’, in a never-ending group hang. Together, they solve high school problems, make each other laugh – and crack the Emerald Code!

Rather than bombard teens with fancy pens and motivational reading, direct them to a comfort zone: the Internet. These sites are great resources for future storytellers.