Play with Learning

Public education in America

Interesting infographic from OnlineUniversities.com about the state of public education in the USA.

Will the same happen in the UK?

Via: Online Universities Blog

Open data explained

This is a great animation from Inventorium describing how we can share and use government collected data. (Mild warning: you might find the narrator’s pronunciation of ‘data’ a bit irritating)

Childhood & Family articles

Special needs students and their teachers are the victims of a “muddled” approach to schooling, says Leicester Uni http://j.mp/qB5qcd

Socioeconomic status as child dictates response to stress as adult according to University of Minnesota http://j.mp/qDZRZ8

Parents are forgetting how to play with their children, study shows – article from The Guardian last year http://j.mp/jdoiSR

Teenage web habits: slaves to social networking but not so keen on apps, according to article in Guardian http://bit.ly/qiXS0f

Infants Learn To Transfer Knowledge By 16 Months, OSU Study Finds http://j.mp/lPOAsG

Surprisingly useful advice from Vodafone Digital Parenting Magazine http://j.mp/lhRvrM via @darrenbristow

Supportive home learning experiences in the early years boost low-income children’s readiness for school. From NYU. http://j.mp/j3JmWs

Being born & raised in a city is associated with greater lifetime risk for anxiety & mood disorder. From Nature. http://j.mp/jrjGpu

The quality of preschoolers’ social interactions is influenced by the ethnicity of the playmate. From Montreal Uni. http://j.mp/m8AxNQ

Parents prefer media content ratings system in national study led by Iowa State Uni http://j.mp/jS7Psd

How parents communicate with teenagers on mobiles gives insight into relationship according to study http://j.mp/mrfR5l

New study suggests that kids who eat sweets are *less* overweight than those that don’t. http://j.mp/lUbKlO

Informal daycare may harm kids’ cognitive development, Chicago Uni study finds http://j.mp/jLBYP7 (pdf)

One-Fifth of Grandparents Use Social Networks [STUDY] from @mashable http://j.mp/jjiX1i

Teens still learning to plan ahead from Child Development journal http://j.mp/kzyUhz

Youth cybercrime linked to friends’ influence from Michigan State University http://j.mp/iBAKm3

Psychology & Neuroscience articles

NCSU research: Study Shows Sports Can Help Communities Recover From Disaster http://j.mp/o0bzkz

Distract Yourself or Think It Over? Two Ways to Deal with Negative Emotions from Association for Psychological Science http://j.mp/l37Fnm

Too much choice is a bad thing – Journal of Public Economics http://j.mp/kJXbgT

Snooze you win? It’s true according to Stanford reseasrch http://j.mp/iCsjtQ

The sharing of stories or information may be driven in part by arousal according to new study. http://j.mp/jCeDqH

Text message support for smokers doubles quit rates. From the Lancet. http://j.mp/k9CmP7

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs key to wellbeing but order unimportant – University of Illinois http://j.mp/lfSR5O

Practising a little can make lasting impact on brain according to study from McMaster Uni. http://j.mp/kTz1Dz

Being born & raised in a city is associated with greater lifetime risk for anxiety & mood disorder. From Nature. http://j.mp/jrjGpu

Multi-tasking not all it’s “cracked up” to be? Stanford Study shows? bit.ly/16ko3N

Learning Styles: The Cognitive Side of Content by Johnny Holland http://j.mp/izrUDk

Teens still learning to plan ahead from Child Development journal http://j.mp/kzyUhz

Youth cybercrime linked to friends’ influence from Michigan State University http://j.mp/iBAKm3

Psychology & neuroscience articles

A selection of the articles thatI’ve seen about psychology and neuroscience recently:

Morality

Changes in brain circuitry play role in moral sensitivity as people grow up – UChicago News http://j.mp/ih8rrU

Violent video games reduce brain response to violence and increase aggression according to Uni Missouri http://j.mp/j7jSPs

Relationships

Don’t Believe Facebook; You Only Have 150 Friends : NPR http://j.mp/ljMBjP

The way Facebook changes relationships by Benjamin Cohen from C4 news http://j.mp/k0T0re

Happiness

Autonomy, not money, makes us happy according to APA study http://j.mp/liSDNx

Income Disparity Makes People Unhappy – Association for Psychological Science http://j.mp/mTEDxF

Lack of relationships, education top list of common American regrets according to Illinois study http://j.mp/k5kZUm

According to research from Ohio, young adults get self-esteem boost from debt http://j.mp/lr3s30

Expertise

Expertise insulates against bias. Research from Virginia http://j.mp/jLZ8NS

Viewers Look To TV Characters To Advise How To Talk About Sexual Health. Research from Ohio http://j.mp/itDcsG

Miscellany

7 things not to forget about change http://j.mp/iuxvuH

Psychology & neuroscience: are we in a golden age or victims of neuromania? http://ow.ly/5nBrn

Testing Improves Memory from Association for Psychological Science http://j.mp/lrPY1p

Childhood articles

Some of the articles about children and childhood that I’ve seen in the last few weeks:

Parents & preschool

Wanted: More Playful Parents http://j.mp/mII7ph

Supportive home learning experiences in the early years boost low-income children’s readiness for school. From NYU. http://j.mp/j3JmWs

Parents prefer media content ratings system in national study led by Iowa State Uni http://j.mp/jS7Psd

Usage

Coney center reports on children and media: joanganzcooneycenter.org/Reports.html

Young adults struggle with online political participation. From Penn State U http://j.mp/mTGyLk

According to research from Ohio, young adults get self-esteem boost from debt http://j.mp/lr3s30

Good youth programs help teens learn to think strategically according to study at Illinois http://j.mp/mEATwz

Suffering

Social media articles

Some articles about social media from the last couple of weeks:

Online relationships

Don’t Believe Facebook; You Only Have 150 Friends : NPR http://j.mp/ljMBjP

The way Facebook changes relationships by Benjamin Cohen from C4 news http://j.mp/k0T0re

Dangers of social groupthink: A case study in Enterprise 2.0, Social CRM and Social Business | CustomerThink http://j.mp/lPberE

Disconnecting

6 reasons not to have a Facebook page http://j.mp/inmuw5

Take a holiday from your networks http://gu.com/p/2pact/ip

Disconnecting in a too-connected world – BusinessWeek http://j.mp/lWT1uN

Facebook’s face recognition technology (and how to turn it off): http://bbc.in/iSSRjC

Authorship

Don’t Be a Weiner (or a Loser): Think Before You Post from Retrevo http://j.mp/mtwLZL

Digital authorship, computers and writing http://j.mp/lMdonc

Independent Author Sells 1 Million Ebooks via Amazon http://t.co/eNCyGeO

Anonymization remains strong tool for protecting privacy according to Canadian research. http://j.mp/m6Fygq

Learning

7 objections to social media in learning (and answers) from Donald Clark http://j.mp/kponiI

How social media and game mechanics can motivate students – http://on.mash.to/ieEOyQ

TED launches new platform for TEDx talks – beautiful way to discover the world’s top thinkers http://j.mp/my9gAn

Usage

Facebook Sees Big Traffic Drops in US and Canada as It Nears 700 Million Users Worldwide http://j.mp/k6LSOV

Interesting tool from RAND to use social media to collect and analyse expert opinion http://j.mp/m9JKsy

Online crime and sexual partner surveys ‘biased’ from BBC News http://j.mp/mxdIQd

Iceland’s Citizens Are Writing Its New Constitution Online from Popular Science http://j.mp/kb2MLw

So much for digital democracy: New Berkeley study finds elite viewpoints dominate online content http://j.mp/jaw6vm

Social justice articles

Some of the articles about social justice that I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks:

Not quite one person, one vote. Stanford paper on democratic discrepancies http://j.mp/kNIRg6

So much for digital democracy: New Berkeley study finds elite viewpoints dominate online contenthttp://j.mp/jaw6vm

Prisoners give their time back to community in pioneering project http://tiny.cc/hu2d3

Death by Poverty? The effect of wealth and education on mortality. Study by Mailman School http://j.mp/jiAGoT

UK pupils ‘held back by poverty’ tiny.ly/U4v6

Income Disparity Makes People Unhappy – Association for Psychological Science http://j.mp/mTEDxF

Lifelong gap in health between rich and poor set by age 20 according to study by McGill Uni http://j.mp/kMymHF

Underage gaming

18 game

I received this note from a friend recently, I wanted to share it and my reply because I think this is an important issue for parents and children.

“A lot of children in my son’s class are playing games well above their age, specifically call of duty. My son is 9. He was shown it on a play date and doesn’t like it and has no interest in playing it so we are pleased about that. Unfortunately there is a lot of cod [call of duty] talk in class because a lot of parents seem unconcerned about their children playing 18 rated games. We have mentioned it to school and they are concerned.

My question is should we be concerned about 9 yr olds playing 18 games?”

should we be concerned about 9 yr olds playing 18 games?

I think it’s right to be concerned about the underage use of games like Call of Duty (COD).  Increasingly parents are succumbing to perceived peer pressure and allowing their children to play these games because ‘all their friends are.’ I know lots of parents that have decided it’s okay.

I think there are a number of reasons to be concerned.  It’s not just the gratuitous violence that risks becoming normalised, COD and alike are riddled with bad language, sex and other adult themes.

It’s odd that many of us regulate our children’s access to TV but feel that the violence presented in games is somehow different and therefore harmless.  But visual realism in these games is increasing.  What’s more, it’s participatory.  COD Black Ops has a gruesome torture scene, Modern Warfare 2 has terrorists murdering innocent civillians in an airport, and the player can join in.   Computer games present violence in the same manner that porn shows sex – entirely casual and inconsequential.  I can’t imagine many of us would be comfortable with our children watching 18 certificate films but the content in video games is basically the same.

Killing is the point of these games – it is relentless and mindless.  But that might not be an issue to those of us who know better.  There is no evidence to suggest that playing violent video games makes well-adjusted players more violent in the long term but there is ample research that shows a rise in aggression and drop in empathy immediately after playing.  Current studies suggest that violent games can exacerbate underlying psychosis, that is, if you have a tendency to be violent, first person shooters will make it worse.  Thankfully most of us aren’t psychopaths and by our early-mid twenties most of us have settled into our skins.  Young people are still ‘solidifying.’

Children mimic behaviour that they perceive as ‘grown-up’ – they are building their life experience – however unpalatable, the characters in these games are role models.  While this effect may not extend to actually being physically violent, it may well increase bad and aggressive language, the acceptance of racial and sexual stereotypes and the believe that such conduct is not just normal but desirable.  With a natural paucity of real life experience, children use whatever they can to build their world view.

There is another worry.  Between the ages of 10 and 13, the brain undergoes massive development.  It is similar to the changes that take place when children are toddlers, defined as the Terrible Twos/ Threes.  As the brain finishes its development, pre-teens reflect and adopt dominant environmental conditions, just as babies do.  The exposure to external influences literally sets the mental pattern for how we think, what we consider normal behaviour and starts our moral and ethical system of beliefs.  These things aren’t set in stone but undoing them can be hard and painful for all concerned.

If you are an adult with a wealth of life experience, established relationships and a stable brain then putting these games into context isn’t too hard.  It simply isn’t the same for children.

The ‘Safer Children in a Digital World‘ report by Tanya Byron is particularly helpful read.

What are your thoughts?

——–

Postscript – if you haven’t played COD Black Ops and want to see its ’10 Goriest Moments’ there’s a video on YouTube.  Two points: total gameplay might last 30 hours so keep the events in this 3 minute video in perspective.  Secondly, it is genuinely gruesome – you’ve been warned.

What is school for?

hand up

I was party to a fascinating discussion with colleagues from the RSA yesterday about the nature of education: asking the basic question – what’s the point of school? Catalysed by the change in UK government, there seems to be a battle between the idea of school being a place for ‘transferring a body of knowledge’ and education as an ‘interactive process of developing skills.’ Proponents of ‘traditional methods’ cite the high academic achievements of Singapore and alike as demonstration of the strengths of rote-learning. Ken Robinson and others argue we need a paradigm shift in education; that the existing system of industrial education (based on deductive reasoning and a knowledge of the classics) is ill-suited to the needs of the twenty-first century.

Knowledge without skills is pointless and skills without knowledge are useless.

Personally, I think that’s a false dichotomy: knowledge without skills is pointless and skills without knowledge are useless. For me, they are both essential elements of learning. Still, something is clearly going awry with the current system. Very few people seem to be happy with the outcomes of a childhood spent in formal education – employers claim graduates, let alone school leavers, lack core competencies and the population generally appears to believe that learning stops at the school gate.

Although most people’s experience of schools seems positive during their primary years (5-ish to 11) for many, secondary education doesn’t just strip fun and satisfaction from learning but sucks the very life out of it. I suspect that, because of the curse of competitive league tables, young people are being taught to pass exams rather than think. The deficit model of highlighting what isn’t known removes the possibility that learning could be enlightening and rewarding in any other way than acquiring a paper certificate.

School is where we’re taught what we can’t do

There’s clearly a need to have a standardised measure of ability to help identify strengths and weaknesses. However, I think that as a society we are suffering the consequences of School, and the exam-system foisted upon it, being the place where we’re taught what we can’t do.

Maybe initiatives like the RSA’s Opening Minds which place competencies at the centre of curriculum and help smooth the transition from primary (theme-based) to secondary (subject-based) education are part of the answer. At least as crucial as bridging the transition between Year 6 and Year 7 is a change in attitude that dissolves the boundaries of learning and dismantles the idea that learning is confined to formal education environments. One might argue that the key to a satisfying life (and all the wellbeing and economic benefits that that creates) is the development of a mentality that embraces constant and continual learning; that school’s greatest legacy, therefore, is providing us with the ability to think for ourselves.