As a former newspaper journalist I can’t help but feel torn over this homework task – on the one hand it’s great to see that schools still support the printed word and want primary aged learners to develop information gathering and presentation skills from traditional news sources.

On the other, I can help but gasp at the idea of buying a newspaper simply to cut out a story for school when I now get 100% of my news from online sources, scouring online news websites, Google News and Twitter updates for the latest information on developing stories.

Thinking back to the Christchurch earthquake last month it was more insightful to follow posts against the #eqnz hashtag than it was to wait for website updates – real time news was being made by witnesses on the ground.

The web killed my local newspaper

In the US it’s now a fact that more Americans get their news online than buy printed papers:

46% of people now say they get their news online at least three times a week, surpassing newspapers (40%) for the first time

This State of the Media report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism would seem to confirm the trends we now see in young children in full-time education – screen based activities are often more appealing than traditional classroom activities and “children have more access to all kinds of digital media, and are spending more time during the day with them than ever before.”

The quote is from a new report entitled Always Connected: The new digitial media habits of young children published by The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and is well worth a read.

As a parent I’m not recommending that NZ children emulate their American equivalents and spend about 5.5 hours each day using media. All I would say is that maybe it’s time to abandon newspapers and teach information gathering skills in a digital environment instead?

They don’t of course quite phrase it that way, but reading between the lines and scientific jargon the research undertaken at Montreal University seems to back up a similar New Zealand study on the issue.

The conclusion – there are:

links between watching too much TV in childhood and later problems, including obesity, high cholesterol, poor fitness, smoking, short attention span, poor concentration – and lower rates of school and university qualifications.

Does this mean exposure to screen based media is bad in general? It would appear not – the article goes on to suggest that “under-2s should not watch any television and that older children should view no more than two hours a day”.

Does it give forward thinking educators reason to be concerned if teachers are increasingly making use of computers and other modern screen-based technology in the classroom?

Working – as I do – at a pro-technology organisation I would argue no – moderate use of any new technology is surely the best way to introduce students to the benefits of new developments in education and also in the working world.

I can remember the first time I used a green screen Amstrad ‘computer’ at University (many years after my first exposure to BBC Bs, ZX Spectrums and Commodore 64s) and was told that this was how modern newspapers were created.

The move away from lead blocks may have enraged the printing unions but learning how things are done ‘at work’ equipped me with a valuable skill that made me employable.

Embracing opportunities to experience technology and learn how it works should surely be viewed as a positive step in education – where sensible safeguards have been implemented on both health (run round the playground 10 times afterwards) and safety (don’t reveal personal information online) grounds.

As an example, watch this video below showing how a 2 and a half year old uses the iPad to consume media – just remember that as with your passion for Moro Golds, moderation is the key to a healthy and happy life.*

*Have no fear, I will not shortly be issuing a new personal development book available at most good booksellers.

To cut a short article shorter. The finding is that the programme of iKeepSafe resources delivered in classrooms by DAREofficers improves understanding of the ‘three keeps’ of internet safety. As an aside, this was the first time I’d come accross iKeepSafe’s three keeps concept (keep safe, keep away, and keep telling).

For those of you into that sort of thing, the full report is here.

I’m not surprised that the findings are positive. The ‘lesson’ is close to best practice as we are coming to understand it. There are four identifiable components contributing to its success.

1) The iKeepSafe resources are fun and engaging. Kids will watch the movies. They provide a great centerpiece to build learning around.

2) The lesson is delivered by an expert. Young people will listen to advice from somebody they believe is an expert.  That’s a lot easier at 6 years old than at 16. At 6, almost all children believe adults are experts at everything. By 16, no adult knows nothing.

3) The partcipant children are guided in discussion – as opposed to presented content. This style of lesson gives children the opportunity to discover concepts and evolve their thinking. Its a better style of teaching. Teachers know this already.

4) The lesson is delivered in a classroom. Here’s a news flash. It turns out that the classroom is a good place to explore and learn new concepts. Kids don’t learn much in assemblies – which is why schools don’t teach in them.  Computer based training can teach some things well (look at the success of  mathleticsfor example) but not all things. The reason that cybersafety education based in a classroom facilitated by an expert works  is because its a model of education that works! 

We shouldn’t be banging out our messages in assemblies – nor should we try and rely on websites to deliver cybersafety education. If we’re educating children, then we should use models of education that we know work with children.

Of course the reasearch shows an improvement in identifying strategies to deal with cyber issues. It doesn’t tell us that they will employ them. However, knowing the strategies is one step closer to being able to implement them. One stat really jumped out at me - the research showed the children who recognised they should tell an adult about another child being cyberbullied rose 77%.  We know that appropriate peer intervention is critical in bullying. That’s why its a key theme of NetSafe’s ‘At A Distance’ video (which you can view here ).