Creative Teaching & Learning

Media spies

We’re constantly bombarded with media images, but can children able to evaluate them critically? Kym Stewart shares the ‘media spies’ topic she has used with two classes in Canada – to help children uncover what advertisers are really saying.

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TheNightingale Hospital, located in central London, has treated children as young as 12 years old for ‘technologyaddiction’. PAARS, a charity from North London has seen a marked rise in the number of children becoming‘addicted’ to electronic devices, such as tablets, games consoles and phones. As a result, they have seen a suddenincrease in the number of children verbally abusing, or even physically hitting them, when they take devicesaway from them, or turn the internet off to prevent usage.Furthermore, starting at a screen, such as an electronic device, can arguably have adverse effects on thebrain and concentration. Technology has a profound impact on the way young children think and feel, and sincetechnology is full of stimuli and often requires paying attention to a number of things at the same time. Childrenwho spend the majority of their childhood online tend to have less of an ability to focus than youngsters whouse technology minimally. 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Digital Learning

Fears Of Tech Addiction In Children Living Digital Childhood

14 Sep 2017

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However, there is a relatively simple and tested solution at hand and that is to use light bulbs to transmit data through LiFi.WiFi is coming under pressureWiFi has transformed the way we use devices in all aspects of life, reducing the need for wired-in computers and opening the way to a new generation of portable laptops, smartphones and tablet devices.The figures for the growth in mobile data use are staggering. In 2016, mobile data traffic grew by 63 per cent and 60 per cent of total mobile data traffic was offloaded onto the fixed network through WiFi or femtocell, according to CISCO Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2016-2021 White Paper. It is forecast that by 2020 there will be 20 billion devices wirelessly connected to the internet. Almost 80 per cent of the wireless data is being consumed by bandwidth-hungry video for entertainment, video streaming and virtual and augmented reality.However, the ability to access data, information and entertainment on the move through WiFi has devoured vast swathes of the available radio frequency spectrum on which it relies.This looming spectrum crunch means that we must find an alternative to ensure wireless communications can not only continue to meet current requirements but, more importantly, the expected rise in demand in the future.Wireless communications in educationSchools are a prime example of how wireless communication has been transformational. Two decades ago, pupils used computers in dedicated IT suites, but in the modern school, functioning without wireless is not an option. While there is still a place for the wired-in computer, wireless-enabled devices offer greater versatility through the multi-purpose use of classrooms.In addition to the substantial online educational resources—videos, e-books, podcasts and more—blended learning now offers the opportunity to use digital media alongside traditional teaching methods to provide students with a more personalised learning environment through independent online study and curriculum delivery via a digital platform. The development of virtual reality and artificial intelligence offers further enhancement for education. Virtual reality can enable a student to travel to different continents or time periods and experience different cultures or eras from their desks, while artificial intelligence can be used to help predict a student’s individual learning needs. All of this relies on an increasing number of wireless-enabled devices—from laptops or tablets for students to interactive whiteboards, VR headsets and TVs—with an internet connection offering high bandwidth and low latency.There is also the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) for devices that form part of the wider school environment, such as heating systems controlled by temperature sensors, occupancy sensing for recording attendances and video surveillance monitoring that utilises AI/machine learning to enhance security. All of these devices are connected via the internet.‘We are pleased to support a Scottish-born company whose complementary, emerging technology has the potential to transform delivery of wireless broadband communications. The pilot trial in Kyle Academy represents a potentially very valuable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of evolving 5G technologies’Paul Wheelhouse, MSP Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands.LiFi: the solution from the ceilingIt is against this background that schools need to start exploring options to provide greater bandwidth—while ensuring low latency and security—to be able to cater for, and benefit from, the growing number of devices and digital tools as well as cope with sudden spikes in usage when an entire class streams a video. The solution to this can be found in the classroom ceiling—adapting existing lighting systems for LiFi to provide the next generation of high-speed wireless internet connectivity.I coined the term ‘LiFi’ in a TedGlobal Talk in 2011, and demonstrated the transmission of a video by an ordinary LED light installed in a desk lamp. To expedite the commercialisation and widespread adoption of LiFi, in 2012, I co-founded pureLiFi as a spin out from the University of Edinburgh. But while we believe we have provided pioneering contributions to the field of optical wireless communications by introducing LiFi as wireless networking solution, we are not alone in appreciating its value: an increasing number of organisations—including blue-chip organisations—have invested in LiFi, with companies such as O2 recently announcing that they are exploring LiFi as a means of future-proofing its network as it paves the way for 5G in the UK.The principle of using light to transmit data is well established, from the TV remote to the lasers that send data down fibre optic cables. However, LiFi enables a fibre-like experience in free space, providing almost unlimited wireless data rates. My group at the University of Edinburgh has"
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Digital Learning

Riding the Light Improving Bandwidth with LiFi

8 Aug 2019

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e-Learning Update issue 62"
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The BBC claim in threeyears, £31.4m of their budget will be spent online, to appeal to younger generations that are becoming more“tech savvy”, in order to combat competition from American broadcasters such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.MORE…EXPLORING PLAY AND CREATIVITY IN PRE-SCHOOLERS’ USE OF APPS http://www.teachingtimes.comhttp://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/fears-of-tech-addiction-in-kids-living-digital-childhoodhttp://www.techandplay.org/reports/TAP_Final_Report.pdfhttp://static.lgfl.net/LgflNet/downloads/online-safety/LGfL-OS-Reports-Safe-Online-in-2017-Summer.pdf"
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Digital Learning

Over 80% Of London Key Stage 2 Pupils Lack Knowledge To Search For Information Safely Online

14 Sep 2017

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Leadership Briefing 5.10 (58)"
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      string(5183) "ResourceCHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND GAMES AND SONGS IN THE NEW MEDIA AGEOriginal DocumentChildren’s Playground Games And Songs In The New Media Age. Traditional children’s games such as Tag and “Ipi–dipi-dation” are thriving in 21st century school playgrounds, according to this new research by the Institute of Education, the University of East London and the University of Sheffield. It shows that, rather than dying out as some fear, children’s play is in robust health.KeywordsChildren’s games, school playgrounds, youngsters, role playing, physical activitySummaryTraditional children’s games such as Tag and “Ipi–dipi-dation” are thriving in 21st century school playgrounds, according to this new research by the Institute of Education, the University of East London and the University of Sheffield. It shows that, rather than dying out as some fear, children’s play is in robust health.Launched by former Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, the findings and outcomes of this two-year project, Children’s Playground Games and Songs in the New Media Age, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), counteract the widely held belief that the media is destroying the imaginative play of children.By observing play over two years in playgrounds in Sheffield and London, researchers have found that games consoles, pop music and television actually enrich children’s pretend play; adding topical themes to fantasy scenarios as youngsters incorporate their favourite characters, reality TV stars, pop songs and dance moves into their make-believe worlds.Today’s children act out the Jeremy Kyle Show, or Britain’s Got Talent, as well as engaging in play based on computer games, in which scenarios of combat, stealthy hunting, fantasy weapons and warriors, and computer consoles feature. Other media sources include contemporary pop stars such as Beyonce, musicals such as Mamma Mia and High School Musical, adventure films and novels such as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, computer game characters such as Mario, and manga-styled animations such as Ben 10.The project has shown how childhood is changing in a new media age. But today’s children have to manage an increasingly complex world of technology and information and the project has shown how these aspects of their lives are crucially important for their social, emotional and cultural development. The playground provides an important space for children to engage with how their culture is changing in a digital age.Key Themes:· The inventiveness of children in creating their own games out of a bewildering variety of resources is clear; the negotiation of social roles through play is clear; the irreverence, defiant irrationality, and energy of playground culture is clear. At the same time, it would be a sentimental overstatement to say that children are completely in control of their own play. Many of the resources they inherit, for example, come from adult culture.· The agency of children is further complicated by an apparent opposition between notions of childhood as a state of being between infancy and adolescence, and a state of becoming, whose condition is essentially developmental. From these two perspectives, their play can either be seen as a self-sufficient culture, serving functions similar to those of adult culture; or as a rehearsal for and preparation for adulthood.· Street play has declined considerably, and playgrounds, whether school or public, have increased in importance as sites for play. In general, then, sites for play over the last century have become increasingly urban, constrained, planned, regulated and overseen. The general motive for this is the protection of children, firstly, and the designed provision for play, secondly.· Children’s media cultures are considerably richer than they were when the Opies’ research was conducted. The research reveals extensive access to television, DVDs, radio, communication technologies, a variety of computer game consoles, and increasingly mobile phones.· Both contexts of play – physical outdoor play and media-based play – attract perennial adult concerns. The campaigners for children’s singing games in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century sought to document and reintroduce traditional games into schools, fearful that the twin dangers of industrialisation and urbanization were killing them off (Roud, 2010). Public debates about play in our own time also deplore the apparent decline of physical play, of the ‘traditional’ lore of the playground, and make media-based play the scapegoat. In fact, all the substantial research of the last fifty years into playground games, from the Opies onwards, shows that they are alive and well, and that they happily co-exist with media-based play, the two informing each other. This research confirms this picture.ActionNotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Imaginative MindsDate CreatedMarch 2011Enquiries to:raspal.chima@yahoo.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of 1©Birmingham City Council"
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Leadership

Children’s Playground Games And Songs In The New Media Age

16 Mar 2011