- 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

- 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)

- 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

- 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 

“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)

 

“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.