Embracing Quality Media Usage

Potential for developing problematic media habits is a growing concern for young people as the human costs of being always connected are becoming better understood. Laurel Felt and Michael Robb offer strategies for encouraging balanced and thoughtful engagement.

‘Problematic media use’ is a term that describes dysfunctional ways of engaging with media and encompasses many related terms, including Internet addiction, technology addiction, Internet gaming disorder, and others. Media users’ problematic relationships with media and devices, such as smartphones, could be characterised as compulsive, obsessive, or unhealthy.

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      string(5793) "into a destructive preoccupation.9According to Baumeister and colleagues, self-regulation is like a muscle: Exercising it makes it stronger.10 Therefore, exercising self-regulation can improve self-regulation. Some research supports this, finding that strengthening self-regulation helped adolescents with media addiction.11 A balanced approach provides opportunities to exercise self regulation, enhance social competence, and combat loneliness, each of which makes individuals less likely to use media pathologically.12 Balance does not mean eliminating media use and it doesn’t necessarily mean reducing media use. Balance is about respecting quality of life, both online and offline. Research on strategies to mitigate problematic use is limited, but there are several promising approaches to developing a more balanced digital lifestyle. A balanced approach includes: Fostering awareness of media and self Embracing quality media usageSelective single-tasking Carving out times and places to disconnectNurturing relationships and face-to-face conversation Fostering Awareness of Media and SelfKnowledge can be a powerful tool. Gaining awareness of your media habits by, for example, downloading a media-usage app on your phone ‘will give you a baseline and provide some insights into where you spend most of your time’.13 The logic for tracking one’s media use is similar to that of using a pedometer, keeping a food log, or wearing an activity tracker such as a Fitbit: It can help people to be more intentional in their behaviours. Increasing awareness of both behavioural patterns and important goals can positively impact behavioural intentions and behaviour.14For example, after observing minimal productivity during a late-night homework session, a teen might try to do homework immediately before dinner. Similarly, a student could reflect on her productivity when her phone is next to her and when her phone is in another room, then decide whether or how to adjust her homework habits. Experimenting with new ways of doing things and resisting the temptation of old habits requires people to exercise self-regulation, which, as mentioned above, takes practice. Embracing Quality Media Usage It is important to note that media and technology are not a monolith. Time spent with media is often less important than the content that is used or viewed. Gardner and Davis point out that technology can be especially beneficial when used to form deeper relationships, to allow for creativity and exploration, and to explore identity.15 There is a difference between spending hours using technology to create digital worlds, hone photography or music skills, or engage in meaningful discussions of important issues (the authors refer to this as ‘app-enabling’) and being a passive consumer of content, or using tech as a way to distance oneself from social relationships (‘app-dependence’). A healthy digital lifestyle could and should include thoughtful and intentional uses of technology. Also, since one of adolescents’ major developmental tasks is to individuate from their parents, gaining peer group approval and spending time with friends is even more essential.16 Many youth lack the means to spend as much face-to-face time with their friends as they would desire (or even need). They may lack access to public transit, cars, or the money to pay for fares or gasoline. They may lack time due to after-school activities, homework, or household chores. In all of these cases, media solve the problem—they help youth connect to one another, bridging distance and time.17 Youth can learn some social skills from interacting in mediated contexts. Indeed, some social skills exclusively apply to mediated contexts (such as ‘netiquette’). Youth also can build meaningful friendships with peers they meet online and use mediated communication to deepen relationships with peers they meet offline.18 Therefore, going online can be a means to enhance social competence and combat loneliness. Selective Single-Tasking Once multitasking becomes a habit, doing one thing at a time, or ‘single-tasking’, can be difficult. People can facilitate their transitions from frequently multitasking to more judiciously multitasking by employing some aids. For example, to decrease interruptions, people can adjust the settings on their phones and computers to prohibit push notifications (e.g., pop-ups, sounds, and/or vibrations that signal ‘news’). If they do choose to keep these notifications on, people can assign discrete sounds to various types of correspondence. A chime, for example, might announce an incoming text from a family member, while a buzz might indicate an update to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. People can decide whether to check their phones based on the type of sound instead of responding to every alert. During key times when people know they need to focus, they might benefit from using software designed to limit distractions. Various software can ‘pause’ incoming email, send ‘away messages’ to would-be correspondents, prevent Internet access, and block specified websites. Users can practice media-related discipline by setting personal boundaries. 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Digital Learning

Countering the Dark Side of Tech: Encouraging Healthy Media Habits

6 Nov 2018

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      string(5755) "Using social media in the classroom is for many is a new frontier for learning. For most teachers the learning takes place in the classroom, and occasionally with homework, at home. However, if you think about the spaces the learners inhabit regularly, the classroom and home fall into third place compared to the virtual spaces online.Many of these spaces are the ones occupied by social media. This comes in several forms, and for most teachers the training provided is out of date. Does your school ban Facebook? That may be the case… but in honesty most of  the pupils we teach have long since migrated to other forms of social media not inhabited by their parents. Buckle up – there are myriad types of social media that teachers need to understand. Every teacher needs to be a teacher of e-safety – believe it or not, in the new computing curriculum your ICT teachers don’t have a lot of time devoted to this. Using social media responsibly, is the job of every teacher in the school to role model. Alongside this is the challenge of embracing using social media to take the learning to the spaces pupils already inhabit. Ask yourself – are your students more likely to check their email for a assignment notification, or are the more likely to  respond to a tweet or Tumblr notification?Integrating social media into the schoolThe use of social media in school is two-fold. The first is about creating a climate where children are being taught to use social media safely, and in a way where their teachers can role model it’s effective and positive use. Initially the most important thing is to make sure you have an effective usage policy in place, and that this is widely shared with staff and students. This needs to clearly address the responsibilities that the school has in terms  of keeping learners safe, but also stipulates the ways in which learners must conform to rules when using IT in the school environment. These can be easily adapted to include the use of social media by pupils, and can be signed at the beginning of the year. This might sound insignificant, but when dealing with those who have broken the rules, having the right policies in place will help appropriate sanctions to be applied. When applying sanctions, it must be considered that using technology is nothing particularly new. So, for example, iMessaging in class is the digital equivalent of passing notes. Teachers need to be empowered to tell students when technology should be used, and feel confident in asking them to put it away when they ask. If there is any misbehaviour, the teachers should imply equivalent sanctions to similar fractions of the rules that take place without the use of technology. Some of this will of course take time for teachers to acclimatise too, but some simple behaviour management techniques, such as occasionally teaching from the back of the room, will quickly help you see any students who are off task and using technology. Deal with this on the spot if you can. There should be consequences for breaking the rules in a classroom. Teachers are more than used to dealing with rule-breakers, and just because this involves the use of technology makes it no different. Empower staff to know how to deal with infractions, and have a clear chain of command of how to escalate or query any issues that may occur. In my school we have a detention system, but we have found that a lunchtime session based around e-safety is more productive in terms of the impact it has on students.Teachers, SLT, Governors and parents need to work together to best equip those in school to deal with social media in a safe way. This should be done through PSHE, but also in tutor group time. Teacher cross-subjects should always work when using social media to ensure that their use is within the lines agreed by the school – this is not a case of asking for forgiveness rather than permission. Work with your SLT and teaching staff to ensure that the aims of using social media are transparent, as well as agreed by the school.For many this can be a big step. Many schools are reluctant to actively use social media. This is a real shame as they are missing out on chances to connect with other schools, parents and the wider world. There is no ignoring the increased use of schools and departments of twitter in this respect, and there are some excellent examples of good practice and the sharing of ideas. The perils lie in having a social media profile on a platform, such as twitter, which is not regularly updated or ignores messages. You need to be certain that anyone running a school or department account updates it regularly, and is aware of basic e-safety, for example of twitter, not following individual students as this is when direct messaging (private messaging) can occur, which could potentially be problematic. The advantages of using social media as a school far outweigh the negatives. For those schools who are tentative, they could try setting up a twitter account that tweets from the RSS feed of the school news website. It is worth having a positive presence online, which will help to reach out, not only to current parents, but also to those considering your school.Useful examplesFacebook is a social media platform that has been much demonised in the education sector. However, following the work of the Education Foundation, many teachers are now using it to lead lessons, such as setting up private class groups, and public groups which use Facebook as a free VLE as a response to budget cuts. There is no right way. Many working"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Snapchat, selfies, and teaching

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5615) "52Vol 4.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningCPDProfessional learning communities generate the continuous learning cultureneeded by schools in the 21st century. And they can make a real difference.Where they persistently focus on improving learning and teaching, theyimprove teachers’ practice and students’ learning. Professional learningcommunities are groups of teachers or school leaders, or even whole schools or groupsof schools – also known as learning networks or networked learning communities. Theyoperate within and across boundaries. They are driven by finding and learning newand better ways to help them enhance learning opportunities and outcomes for allstudents.i They approach this through mutually supportive, collaborative enquiry andlearning experiences. In essence, they are voracious social learners.I have become interested in learning conversations through studying andEmbracing thepower of talkingHow can we harness people’s natural desire to collaborateinto learning power? Louise Stoll argues that learningconversations are the key to building a professional learningcommunity.53Vol 4.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningCPDsupporting the development of professional learning communities and learningnetworks, and following related interests in designing and evaluating leadershiplearning, and finding ways to help educators and policy makers learn from andmake use of research findings. All of my work has focused on how people learn andchange when they are together. So social learning comes into play, and one of thekey means you have to communicate with each other is through conversation. In thisarticle, I unpack learning conversations. But before I describe what I mean by learningconversations, I will look at why social learning is important.Why social learning?Intelligence isn’t just an individual concept. Thinking interdependently, being able towork and learn well with other people and learning from and with others is a habit ofan intelligent mind9. Learning with and from others isn’t just enjoyable; it’s a naturalway to learn. Most people don’t need persuading that connecting is central to theirlives. Social networking is now a norm for many of us. An increasing number of readersof this paper will have ‘grown up digital’16; in other words, “digital technology is nomore intimidating than a VCR or toaster”. The Net Generation are natural collaborators,staying in touch on smartphones wherever they are. As employees, Don Tapscott andcolleagues’ research found, Net Geners want to work hand-in-hand with colleagues tocreate better goods and services, design products, influence decisions and improvework processes. However, although social-networking sites help people to connect,they don’t produce collective intelligence8. So, how can the energy of people’s naturaldesire to collaborate best be harnessed into learning power – collaborating withothers, learning with and from them, to achieve both personal and collective goals?Many avenues are available to choose to suit different purposes, for example, peercoaching, action learning sets, collaborative forms of enquiry, reading groups, onlinecommunities, going on learning walks and reviews in each others’ schools, to name afew. Conversation is critical to all of these – it’s the means by which connections aremade in these activities.Learning conversationsWhen I refer to learning conversations, I am thinking of them as the way that educatorsmake meaning together and jointly come up with new insights and knowledge thatlead to intentional change to enhance their practice and student learning. Exploringnew ideas and evidence, participants offer diverse perspectives, challenge each otherin respectful ways, and are open to being honest and pushing themselves to reflectdeeply in ways that challenge their thinking.These are features I consider characteristic of high quality learning conversationsbetween adults.54Vol 4.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comLeadingLearningCPD Purpose and processFocus on evidence and/or ideas – Learning conversations are focused. The specificfocus may reflect one of two important perspectives. The first is informed by evidence:the conversation’s focus arises out of evidence from practice or about strong practice.For example, discussing research on learner engagement or examining evidenceand thinking what it means in a particular context. The second reflects ideas aboutinnovation and transformation where, for example, the conversation explores creativeways to engage learners and extend learning. Some conversations weave these twoperspectives together. Both require all those participating in the conversation to becommitted to the focus.Experience and external knowledge/theory – Access to outside expertise deepenslearning conversations. Syntheses of evidence on professional learning that makesa difference to teachers’ practice and students’ learning emphasise the importanceof involving external expertise2. Whether delivered personally, through writing, orvia other media, independent ideas are injected to stimulate reflection, challengethe status quo and extend thinking. Such ideas can help promote greater depth inconversations. Combining people’s own, and often tacit, knowledge with outsideknowledge stimulates valuable new knowledge and helps groups come up withinnovative solutions to problems.Protocols and tools – Learning conversations can often be framed more clearlywhen supported by frameworks and guidelines that help"
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Leadership

Embracing the power of talking

30 Oct 2012

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      string(307) "How will UK schools and colleges take advantage of their early lead in IP video adoption over the next few years? Here, Frank Crouwel, an expert in network video and digital video surveillance, discusses the thorny issue of IP camera technology to reduce vandalism, theft, safeguard pupils and stamp out ..."
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      string(313) "How will UK schools and colleges take advantage of their early lead in IP video adoption over the next few years? Here, Frank Crouwel, an expert in network video and digital video surveillance, discusses the thorny issue of IP camera technology to reduce vandalism, theft, safeguard pupils and stamp out bullying."
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      string(5617) "This month’s FeaturesVideo usage trendsin educationHow will UK schools and colleges take advantage of theirearly lead in IP video adoption over the next few years?Here, Frank Crouwel, an expert in network video anddigital video surveillance, discusses the thorny issue of IPcamera technology to reduce vandalism, theft, safeguardpupils and stamp out bullying.The Blair-led Government unveiled the largest UK schools spendingprogramme for 50 years back in 2004. The unprecedented £55bn investmentprogramme, which was called Building Schools for the Future (BSF), led to theconstruction of more than 70 new schools, and the extension and rebuildingof many more.It also triggered a colossal investment in ICT equipment across UK state schools. Annualinvestment rose from £683m in 1996/7, the year before New Labour came to power, to over£5bn per annum at its peak. Spending on ICT equipment was supported by a specific annualgrant which in 2007-8 alone was £113,000 per secondary school and £34,000 per primaryschool.This unprecedented upgrade and expansion programme also led to an IT boom in thesector. One bi-product was that schools became early adopters of IP camera technology.You only have to look at many of the earlier installations of camera systems to see how newschools, colleges and academies were embracing the next generation of IP-based surveillanceahead of most other sectors.At this point, the primary focus of systems was to reduce vandalism and stamp out bullyingas well as safeguarding pupils.  It was also deployed to prevent theft; and help investigatedamage to school buildings and incidents on school grounds. The new cameras were used toidentify suspects as well as saving time and manpower following the reporting of an incident.Initially, cameras were confined to entrances, corridors, stairwells, ICT rooms, outdoor playareas and school perimeters.  http://www.teachingtimes.comThis month’s FeaturesStudent and staffprotection in abusecasesIn our experience, we beganto see cameras being fitted intoclassrooms and interview roomsonly in the last few years to protectteachers from pupil accusationsof abuse. In these incidents, it isoften the pupil’s word against theteacher’s and sadly, all too often,teachers have been suspended (pending investigation) unnecessarily.The Government’s own figures, based on a census survey and qualitative study by LocalAuthority Designated Officers (LADOs) in 2011 (www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183532/DFE-RR192.pdf), found that 25 per cent of reportedcases of abuse were found to be ‘unsubstantiated’ and 19 per cent were proved ‘unfounded’. Atotal of 2,827 abuse claims were reported to LADO that year. The question is how many moreclaims would be proved ‘unfounded’ within minutes of the claims being made, if appropriatevideo infrastructure had been in place and could be called upon by head teachers? Indeed howmany of these claims would never reach LADO, thereby saving valuable public resources?Teacher trainingThere are other, more positive, reasons to bring cameras into the classroom and interviewrooms. Classroom-based video systems are increasingly being used as a teacher trainingtool, enabling teachers to review themselves and receive constructive guidance from teachertrainers. They can spot areas for improvement during review sessions and identify specificchildren that show signs of struggling to cope with a lesson, topic or subject.More recently still, we have seen a fresh wave of investment in schools and college asvideo cameras begin to be seen as the enabling device for a new breed of more interactivedistance learning courses for those fitting their learning around a full or part-time job or forthose unable to make it into school for some other reason: www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/GIA-Elearning-market-will-be-worth-107bn-by-2015-newsitems-801299148.aspxE-learning is booming globally so that according to Global Industry Analysts, the marketwill be worth £67.5bn by 2015. And it is being extended further onto smart phones and tabletsas ‘m-learning’ takes hold also. We firmly believe that the following factors are at work whichwill see the e-learning boom continue long into the future:As people’s lives have become increasingly busy, the flexibility offered by  e-learningcourses often becomes the only option for people to find the time to do a course orcontinue further studies.Employer training budget constraints continuing which leads to natural use of e-learning toplug the face to face training gaps.Increasing focus on life-long learning  as people navigate many more types of jobs overelongated careers today: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299486/Your-working-life-laid-bare-Six-jobs-12-pay-rises-125-days-sick–office-romance.html.Quality, availability and favourable pricing of the enabling technologies – broadband,PCs, mobile devices, video infrastructures.So will UK schools, colleges and universities, many of which were early adopters of IP videotechnology, start to review their use of video in view of the massive potential that it now offersthem?The change will take time and needs to be well thought out. But the case for using network-based video systems to support teacher training, e-learning and CMS upgrades (and moreapplications besides) is now firmly on department heads’ and head teachers’ agendas.  TheUK education sector is now in a great position to take advantage of its early adoption of IPvideo systems to support future operational improvements and growth plans.Frank Crouwel,"
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Digital Learning

Video usage trends in education

28 Feb 2014