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| -Using geography to help kids understand location beyond memorizing the names and places of regions. “Geography lessons can offer opportunities for kids to establish a sense of place. Let young people know where they are, and let them discover how their location relates to people  in other parts of the world.” Pg. 8  -Using technology to give kids a place to creatively express their ideas outside of rigid structures and forms. “Digital play should always encourage kids to perceive the technologies of a connected world as instruments they can command—not boxes which distribute content to be consumed, or rigid systems that confine the shape of their communications.” Pg. 11  -Taking advantage of technology to explore diversity to acknowledge and celebrate differences. “Teachers can encourage real connections through Empatico, GlobalSchoolsNet.org, PenPal Schools, or iEARN, which connect classrooms around the world to work on  projects together. Check out Global Nomads  for a terrific selection of ready-made lesson plans and curricula on topics like “facing difference,” “gender equality,” and “one world, many stories.” Pg. 14  -Using technology to see the same world within different perspectives. “Global citizens should be able to imagine the world through another set of eyes. They must acknowledge other perspectives, other ways of being in the world. With guidance, mentorship, and a playful attitude, kids can learn to think about what it would be like to jump into another game avatar.” Pg. 17
| I feel like the author really wanted to appeal to kids by providing different examples that were educational but interesting to them. For instance, their suggestion to use Google Sketch to allow kids to creatively express themselves was amazing because kids will probably be really excited to produce these forms of art in a way that there are no rules and I think that’ll allow them to be more open and thorough with their identities.
| Something I didn’t necessarily agree with was how heavily they emphasized the use of technology. I think it’s a great tool to take advantage of but I also want to remind myself that not every student has access to technology. Obviously there are local libraries with computers but that limits the ability for the students to practice using these devices outside of school. It also provides a space for other students to point out the differences in access to technology and make other students feel insecure about their inability to afford things. I obviously want kids to have fun in relation to academics, but I want them to learn organically and on equal playing field.

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Background: Digital Technologies and Learning Ecologies & Study Overview

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Background: Digital Technologies and Learning Ecologies & Study Overview

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“The main driver of development is not the technological tool at hand but the unique configurations of activities, material resources, relationships, culturally grounded practices, and the interactions that emerge from them across settings… this view also highlights the active role of both children and adults in creating learning opportunities, often based on their interests and cultural histories” (19).

- Study based on idea that young children learn before school from all kinds of content, technology/media can extend interest-driven learning with information/activities accessible

- Study explored how families (kids age 4-8) use digital media as resource for learning and how that relates to family values, needs, expertise, or beliefs about benefits of media for learning/development

- Two main groups studied (low-income, mostly Spanish-Speaking & English-speaking, higher income) because most past research based on mainstream/middle-class

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Findings: Join Media Engagement, Media as Resource for Sense-Making

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Findings: Join Media Engagement, Media as Resource for Sense-Making

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“The notion of ‘joint media engagement’ focuses our attention on family practices that include media as a resource for sense-making and creativity. To address our two research questions, we highlight four interrelated ways that media came to be a learning resource among families and make links to how these were connected with family needs and forms of expertise. These include (a) curation of media, (b) interest-driven searches and linked activities, (c) content creation and co-play, and (d) “conversational anchoring”, when technology was used intentionally to help ground referents in conversation, often resulting in unplanned teaching-learning interactions” (21).

- Found these practices were interdependent

- Curation of Media: parents did so by intentionally selecting media content for children; styles varied even among families of similar income or education; factors included parent expertise with media, belief of its value, concerns about negative effects

- Use of media in Spanish to reinforce children’s heritage language and in English to expose children to English, sometimes parents co-engaged/learned with

- Parents professional background influenced approach

- Some placed trust in traditional media, “do as the Romans do” – trust other caretakers or friends’ parents to curate

- Interest-Driven Searches: find info related to interests and use video learning resources

- Contributed to “islands of expertise”

- Sometimes extended interests together, extended exploration and activity

- Sometimes bridged interests between home and school

- Conversational Anchoring: using as tool to get info (visual or text) in the moment

- Content Creation and Co-Play: producing video and/or watching themselves, photos, media production (talk shows)

- I see this as related to standards: talk shows mimic genre (TV presenters), integrate local and global concerns/details, though no clear audience in example listed

- Some families less enthusiastic, restricted, let older children build and create but younger children just watch process

- Some parents played games with kids – “sustained joint attention”; learning relationally

- Transfer skills from digital to analog (indicates learning – I see as related to standards)

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“Parents vary in their approaches to media for their children, and struggle to find resources. We found variability in parents’ enthusiasm for using media for their children’s learning that was tied to parents’ perception of whether it could advance learning as opposed to being just a source of entertainment. This continuum ranged from a stance we might call resistant or hesitant, to extreme enthusiasm” (32).

- One end of continuum: felt media not productive use of time or felt uninformed about how it could support learning – result: not proactive about finding high-quality content

- Ranged from little attention to content of media to heavily resticted

- Other end of continuum: more openness/enthusiasm, still felt a lot they didn’t know such as how to find best content

- Enthusiastic parents used in many ways: active curation of media – interest-drive searches/deepening knowledge together; expose to English languge or connect to heritage language; conversational anchoring: illustrate/expand on ideas using variety of representation, collaborative learning

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“Media programs that are not necessarily designed as “educational” can give rise to learning interactions and activities” (34).

- Opportunities to produce instead of just consume

- Creates confidence/technical expertise

- Share themes from lives and connect to school

- Express own voices and share

- Media production can be modeled by parents and interest inspired by parents

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·      Children and parents can learn with technology as a team to capitalize on one another’s skills

“Parents, children, and siblings supplement each other’s capabilities (and sometimes compensate for each other’s limitations). For example, parents with less education and lower incomes tend to help their children less, but to depend on their children more. “ (p. 28)

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•	Dependent on level of parent education, many parents have asked their kids for help with technology and vice versa  “The trend is the opposite of that observed with children helping parents: that is, the parents with the highest education are the most likely to help their children. Among those with a college degree, nine out of ten (90%) say that they have helped their child with technology, compared with 68% of those without a high school diploma.“ (p. 30)

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•	Dependent on level of parent education, many parents have asked their kids for help with technology and vice versa  “The trend is the opposite of that observed with children helping parents: that is, the parents with the highest education are the most likely to help their children. Among those with a college degree, nine out of ten (90%) say that they have helped their child with technology, compared with 68% of those without a high school diploma.“ (p. 30)

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•	Unsurprisingly, Black and Latinx families have disproportionate access to and comfort with being online.   “About eighteen months ago, the family got its first computer and Internet access. Her mother, Angelica, signed up for the Internet Essentials program offered through Cynthia’s school, which provides them broadband Internet service for $9.95 per month. In order to afford the Internet, the family had to cancel its cable service.” (p. 34)

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•	Unsurprisingly, Black and Latinx families have disproportionate access to and comfort with being online.   “About eighteen months ago, the family got its first computer and Internet access. Her mother, Angelica, signed up for the Internet Essentials program offered through Cynthia’s school, which provides them broadband Internet service for $9.95 per month. In order to afford the Internet, the family had to cancel its cable service.” (p. 34)

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•	Opinions about the effectiveness of technology in the classroom depend on frequency of access and use.“But parents’ views on classroom technology use do relate to their own level of education; nearly a quarter (23%) of parents who did not complete high school think that using technology hurts children’s education, compared with just 11% of parents who graduated from college. We also found that English-speaking Hispanics are much more likely to say that using technology improves the quality of children’s education than are Spanish-speaking parents (90% vs. 72%).” (p. 36). 

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•	Opinions about the effectiveness of technology in the classroom depend on frequency of access and use.“But parents’ views on classroom technology use do relate to their own level of education; nearly a quarter (23%) of parents who did not complete high school think that using technology hurts children’s education, compared with just 11% of parents who graduated from college. We also found that English-speaking Hispanics are much more likely to say that using technology improves the quality of children’s education than are Spanish-speaking parents (90% vs. 72%).” (p. 36). 

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Not really a disagreement but rather more of a question. When the article says that

“those whose children should benefit most from self-paced or personalized instruction: that is, children who begin formal schooling speaking a language other than English.” (p. 38).

What does that mean those children “should” benefit? Why? That seems pretty paternalistic.