s

Slides Available Thursday: bit.ly/mcgillparent

May 1st Location = Stewart Bio S1-3 1205 Dr Penfield Ave

HELPING YOUR CHILD NAVIGATE AND LEARN ONLINE IN A TIME OF FACEBOOK AND FAKE NEWS

Dr. Adam Dubé McGill University

“I SAW AN INFANT,

ZELDA, USE THE YOUTUBE

APP ON AN IPHONE”

How is this possible?

THE CHANGING ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN CHILDREN’S LIVES

PARENTS WANT TO KNOW

➤What technologies and issues are parents concerned about?

PARENTS MAY LIKE TO KNOW

➤What recent technologies and issues should parents be aware of?

PARENTS MAY LIKE TO KNOW

➤ With all the misinformation on the internet, can and should our children learn online?

➤ How can children avoid bad ‘influencers’ on the internet?

LEARNING ONLINE IN A

TIME OF FAKE NEWS

SOCIAL MEDIA

•Becoming the primary destination for current news and knowledge search

•People born post 1980 rely on Facebook for news at the same rate that previous generations rely on TV.

23 MILLION

Monthly Facebook Users in Canada

FAKE NEWS

BIASED NEWS

• 31% of Baby Boomers on Facebook say the posts they see are mostly or always in line with their own views,

• Gen Xers = 21%

• Millennials = 18%

• PEOPLE are more likely to share fake news than real news.

• BOTS share fake and real news at the same rate.

• SINGLE successful share results in the propagation of fake news

• Telling students about the potential of fake news may stop them from sharing it.

Vosoughi et al (2018);Aymanns, Foerster Georg, (2017)

• Social Media will continue to be used as a source of news.

• Has negative consequences for political and social discourse with potentially serious outcomes already occurring.

• Anti-vaccination, climate science

Climate-Change ‘Debate’ on Twitter

Williams et al., (2015)

Man-made

Natural

Parents have to model and teach children responsible use of social

media

Digital Literacy

Digital Citizenship

HOW TO CONNECT TO, EVALUATE, AND SHARE NEWS ONLINE RESPONSIBLY

CONNECTING

Problems: Social media creates echo-chambers:

- Human Cause: Follow people and information sources we like

- Technology Cause: Are served information sources based on who we follow and what we like

CONNECTING

Solutions: Actively seek out alternative points of view

- Follow people and sources who disagree with you.

- Use ‘private mode’ or blank accounts when searching for news/information.

• Problems:

• Social media/internet contains misleading information

• The mind = lazy

• Use shortcuts instead of evaluating

• People can’t remember where they learned something.

• Just know they know it.

• Evaluating is hard:

• Computers = 63% accuracy

• People = 54%

Rubin, Conroy, & Chen 2015

EVALUATE

Rubin, undark.org/article/education-and-automation-tools-for-navigating-a-sea-of-fake-news/

• Solutions:

• Accept that social media/internet contains misleading information

• Know that we are lazy and fight it

• Don’t just read headlines, check the source

• Know that we are poor source monitors:

• Don’t allow garbage information in

• Recognize you need help: Fake News Tests

• Need evaluation strategies

• Computer aided evaluation

• CRAAP

EVALUATE

EVALUATION STRATEGIES

• Computer Aided: • Snopes • Politifact • factscan.ca

• Have to trust the tool • Most tools are U.S.A

focused

• No personal evaluation

EVALUATION STRATEGIES

➤CURRENCY

➤Is it up to date?

➤RELEVANCE

➤Was it meant to inform your topic?

➤AUTHORITY

➤Who is the author and are they qualified?

➤Website & writer

➤ACCURACY

➤Where is the evidence? Do others agree?

➤PURPOSE

➤Why did the author write it? berkeleycitycollege.libguides.com/c.php?g=618757&p=4306201

MODELLING GOOD BEHAVIOUR

➤ During family meals, talk about the news of the day.

➤ Talk about if you agree or disagree with it and why?

➤Evidence

➤Did they provide evidence and did it convince you?

➤Author

➤Is the author/website an expert or reliable?

➤Target

➤Who is the target audience? Why did the author write it?

SHARING: DON’T BE THE

PROBLEMYou would not spread

rumours IRL

HOW CAN CHILDREN AVOID BAD ‘INFLUENCERS’ ON THE INTERNET?

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER =User on social media who has established credibility in a specific industry, who has access to a large audience, and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach.

King: 24million Challenges & Tutorials

Singh: 20million Forbes Top Entertainment Influencer

‘Ninja’: $250,000/m Let’s Plays

INFLUENCER = MODEL

MODELLING

➤Most human behaviour is learned by watching others = modelling.

➤Infants can learn how to perform a behaviour by seeing it once.

STRONG MODELS

• We like watching some models more than others.

• Nurturing

• Powerful

• Consistent

INFLUENCERS = MODELS

➤Nurturing = Speak to their audience

➤Powerful = Have millions of followers, very talented, payed a lot of money

➤Consistent = Are building a brand

BAD MODELSInfluencers are not regulated

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT?

➤ For children:

➤ Create a family YouTube account

➤ Enable ‘Restricted Mode’

➤ Use the YouTube Kids app

➤ Have your child ‘subscribe’ to the channels they like

➤ Watch some sample videos

➤ Do a search on the influencer/channel

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT?

➤ For adolescents:

➤ Ask them who they follow online

➤ Discuss with them how influencers make money.

➤ Ads:

➤ On T.V - ads between the content

➤ On Social Media - ads = content

➤ Views:

➤ More ppl watching = more $$

➤ Ask why the influencer made the video

TAKE HOMESocial media is not going away

The key is informed use

PARENTS WANT TO

KNOWFacebook Survey

“-Cousin, Mother of Four,

Farmer, & Teacher

It is hard to know what to do with technology for kids. Ours use technology, iPads, computers etc… I have personally seen a correlation between poor behaviour and too much screen time in our kids. We are trying to teach the older two to recognize when they have had enough. What things would you suggest in teaching kids regulation with technology - as I think I suck at it myself?

SCREEN TIME

➤ How much is recommended?

➤ Why limit screen time?

➤ Is all screen time bad?

➤ How to regulate screen time.

➤ Online resources.

SCREEN TIME: HOW MUCH?

➤ Up until 2016, American Academy of Paediatrics recommended:

➤ No more than 2hrs of screen time a day for children over the age of 2

➤ NO screen time for children under two. ➤ Screen time = any screen (TV, phone, iPad), any content.

WHY LIMIT SCREEN TIME?

➤ Symbolic reasoning

➤ Children have difficulty making sense of information they see on screens. ➤ Depends on the age of the child.

➤ Depends on what is on the screen.

➤ Displacement

➤ Time on screen = time away from other, better activities. ➤ Assumes that time with screens is time that WOULD be

better spent.

SYMBOLIC REASONING

➤ The ability to understand that what is on the screen represents something in the real world.

➤ Symbolic reasoning is said to occur when you can transfer knowledge learned on a screen to the real world.

Does this child understand that the piano they see on this iPad represents the keys of a real piano? Could they play the piano after using this app?

VIDEO DEFICIT EFFECT

Children younger than 30 months are unlikely to learn words from educational TV.

Have lower vocabulary than kids who do not watch EdTV.

WHAT CAUSES THE VIDEO DEFICIT EFFECT?

➤ Symbolic reasoning

➤ Can’t connect the pictures and words they see and hear on TV to objects in the real world.

➤ Lack of joint attention

➤ Infants learn best from other people.

➤ Parents and siblings direct infants attention to relevant information.

➤ Makes infants look at objects while hearing what the object is called.

IS ALL SCREEN TIME BAD?

➤ If infants have difficulty learning from TV, does that mean they have difficulty learning from ALL SCREENS?

➤ Can counter the video deficit effect in 2 ways:

➤ Para-social relationships

➤ Interactivity

➤ What about video chat?

PARA-SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPSIf infant is watching a familiar character, they learn more.

INTERACTIVITYCombination of touch, pictures, & sounds can act like joint

attention

VIDEO CHATResearch shows that most parents & grandparents use

video chat to communicate with kids/grandkids. Do children understand video chat?

Meaningful, imagined display of affection. Like blowing a kiss.

DISPLACEMENT

➤ Time spent on screens is time not spent:

➤ Being physically active

➤ Link between obesity and amount of screen time in excess of 2hr daily limit.

➤ Partially due to advertising.

http://appcensus.mobi

DISPLACEMENT

➤ Time spent on screens is time not spent:

➤ Interacting with others

➤ Other people are children’s greatest source of knowledge.

➤ Heavy parent use associated with fewer parent-child interactions and may be associated with more parent-child conflict.

WHAT IS BEING

DISPLACED?If they are not on the iPad then what will being doing, really?

SCREEN TIME: HOW MUCH?

➤ Current recommendation, American Academy of Paediatrics recommended:

➤ No more than 2hrs of non-educational screen time a day.

➤ No screen time for children under 2, except for video chat.

HOW TO REGULATE SCREEN TIME

HOW TO REGULATE SCREEN TIME

HOW TO REGULATE SCREEN TIME

“-Friend, Mother of Two,

Scientist, & Podcast Fanatic

Does it cause shorter attention spans? Many teachers say children can't listen in class due to games being so flashy and exciting—that the classroom can't keep up. Or children don't know how to be "bored" anymore, to sit and daydream because boredom is filled with technology!

ARE SCREENS

AFFECTING OUR BRAINS?

DOES IT DECREASE ATTENTION SPAN?

➤ We see children and teenagers having difficulty paying attention in class, sitting through a movie, or holding a conversation.

➤ They are on their phones or tablets all the time.

➤ Are these devices the problem?

➤ Research does not paint this picture.

Preschoolers Self-Control was higher after playing an iPad game than playing with a toy.

TABLETS, TEENS, & MIND WANDERING

Using devices mindlessly increases mind wandering

TURN ON TUNE IN

GET SUPPORTTeens use devices to connect

to support networks, in & outside the home

IPADS & SLEEP

➤ A rather consistent finding is that using iPads and cellphones can affect our sleep.

➤ This may happen for two reasons:

➤ Blue light emitted from device messes with our sleep cycle

➤ Use night mode.

➤ Apps keeping our minds active.

➤ Do we want to stop this?

IPADS & SLEEP

➤AAP recommends:

➤No screen use 90 minutes prior to bedtime. ➤ Is reading ok?

➤No connected devices in the bedroom: charge them in a central location.

“-Sister, Mother of Two,

Early Childhood Educator & Daycare Operator

Many parents avoid using educational games for learning due to judgment from other parents / lack of understanding. I have yet to let William play games or anything on our phone . . .due to me not knowing many great learning apps or how

to find good apps.What kind of games are beneficial for children?

OVER 170,000 Educational apps in the app store

!

FEWER THAN 40%Consult learning experts

! "

FEWER THAN 30%State their curriculum content in the description

" #

FEWER THAN 6%Of Apple’s top apps are expert approved

50% OF PARENTS Want help finding good apps

HOW TO SPOT A GOOD APP

Engaging

Active

Identifiable learning goal

Meaningful

Social

E-AIMS

ENGAGINGBut not distracting

ENGAGINGBut not distracting

ENGAGING NOT DISTRACTING

➤Try the app ➤Tap around the screen ➤Ask yourself, are my taps distracting?

ACTIVE: MINDS-ON LEARNERS

Not passive minds-off observers

TAPPING DOES NOT EQUAL THINKING

➤Tapping to simply progress the story or create an animation is minds-off.

➤Tapping that reflects a purposeful decision is minds-on.

IDENTIFIABLE LEARNING GOAL

➤ What is this app trying to teach me?

➤ Try the app

➤ Read the description

➤ If it is not clear, delete it.

IDENTIFIABLE LEARNING GOAL

➤ What is this app trying to teach me?

➤ Try the app

➤ Read the description

➤ If it is not clear, delete it.

MEANINGFULPersonally relevant: builds on existing interests

MEANINGFUL APPS

➤You know your child. ➤Look for educational apps that connect to

their experience and interests. ➤Not only will they find them more

engaging. ➤They will learn more.

SOCIALPlay together-learn together

APPS AS CONVERSATION

STARTERS From the screen to the living

room

HOW TO SPOT A GOOD APP

➤Read the description ➤Play it ➤Does it contain the E-AIMS?

➤If not, it counts against screen time. ➤Does not make it bad.

How much technology is too much?

Is technology affecting our brains?

How do I find good educational games?

How to use social media responsibly?

TABLETS

HELPING YOUR CHILD NAVIGATE AND LEARN ONLINE IN A TIME OF FACEBOOK AND FAKE NEWS

Dr. Adam Dubé McGill University

s

Slides Available Thursday: bit.ly/mcgillparent

May 1st Location = Stewart Bio S1-3 1205 Dr Penfield Ave