Screen and Media - Kids Media Cultures - Report Example

Screen and media Generally, literacy is the ability to write, read and think about written words. It also involves the ability of one to understand different communication types, such as maps, pictures, body language and video among other media (Fisch, Lesh, Motoki, Crespo, & Melfi 2010). Children use media such as DVDs, CDs, television and the internet for entertainment and education. Other media used by children include books, films and radio. All these media can be used constructively to for the development of literacy in children. There are many ways through which media culture and media play can enhance literacy development in children. These means include cross-platform learning, employing better methods of production, increasing comprehension, and repetition, considering the characteristics of the targeted children, transfer of learning and co-viewing and mediation by parents. Media should be more educational in content for it to contribute to literacy development in 5-10 year olds. Content in any type of media is very important to children who need to sharpen their cognitive skills and improve on their levels of literacy and academic achievement. Exposure to media such as video and television at the age of five and onwards with programs appropriate to age enhances cognitive and academic development (Fisch, Lesh, Motoki, Crespo & Melfi 2009). On the other hand exposure to entertainment alone and violent content causes low academic progress and cognitive development. Parents and those producing media for children need to take steps to increase the positive effects obtained from media and reduce the negative effects. Research in children media should be the foundation for those producing children media to improve on literacy and learning. Parents should go for age appropriate content that is educational and well designed and read or view the content with children to ensure that the positive effects from media are obtained at their maximum (Troseth & DeLoache 1998). Media Use and literacy Many authors have discovered that literacy and academic achievement go hand in hand with early exposure to media such as television education programs (Buckingham 2007). One study revealed that watching education programs at 5 years of age resulted in higher grades in mathematics, English, and science. In a different study reported that television and video watching contributed to literacy depending on its content. For example, the research found that programs such as Dora the explorer were associated with expressive language and vocabulary while another program called teletubbies negatively affected language, vocabulary and general literacy. Children between five and ten years learn a lot from video. Viewing or reading material with educational content has both social and academic benefits. On the other hand, watching other content types could have opposite results (Fisch 2004). Cross-platform learning For media to be educative to children, projects should go across more than one media platform. For example, a TV series that is educational in nature can come with a related website, a live show or museum exhibit and outreach materials. Producers use multiple platforms for increased benefits for children literacy development over the ones obtained from a single medium. Increased value for cross platform learning results from repeated exposure, encounter by children of the same concept in different contexts and the application of content obtained from one medium to a different medium. An example could be a child who applies mathematical content gained from a particular TV series to help in playing a mathematical game online (Buckingham 2007). The result could be a richer and better involvement with the other medium. In order for children to get all the benefits from cross-cultural platforms learning, producers should carefully align educational media content across platforms. Designers should ensure that the content of the game or narrative is in a way that encourages the children involved with it to make connections. It is also possible to combine different media whereby the narrative and explanations on video, participation via interactive games as well as the in-person assistance present in hands on media can be put together in a single experience. An example is an interactive game where the hint button brings up a video clip having explanations (Troseth & DeLoache 1998). Use of better production techniques to enhance literacy Those involved in the production of educational media for children do many things to increase the benefit of media to children literacy. One way of making media more beneficial to learning children between 5 and 10 years is to make the media content in a way that it can attract the attention of children. Children may not easily learn from educational media content that they do not pay attention to. Researchers have come up with ways through which they can maximize the attention that children give to any media program or content (Fisch et al, 2009). Some of these techniques include the content itself, sound effects and camera techniques. Producers can increase the attention of children to television by maximizing comprehensibility. At the age of five years children have already mastered the formal media features that are used to guide their attention. These are the characteristics that may be described with the least reference to content. Examples of formal features include camera pans, sound effects and cuts between shots (Skouteris & Kelly 2006). Comprehension The same way children are unable to learn from content that they don’t pay attention to, they also cannot learn from content if they do not understand it. A researcher called Fisch (2010) distinguished between the narrative content of a program, its informative programs, its content and story. He puts emphasis on the 2 types of content for cognitive skills required for processing the program. In order to maximize cognitive resources that children can access for processing content with educational value, Fisch (2010) is of the opinion that producers of various media should incorporate educational content to the highest levels and make it central to the story in the media program. For instance, the characters in the story may be made to solve a particular problem as they advance to subsequent chapters. In such a manner both educational and narrative resources can use the same resources instead of being in competition for them. Fisch’s findings were based on educational television alone but they can also be applied to interactive and educational media (Skouteris and Kelly 2006). Repetition Media is a powerful tool for education because through it, it is easy to repeat content. When episodes are literally repeated, it increases the possibility of children comprehending and learning whatever is there in the media. Repeating episodes in whatever content or media gives the brain of the child time to process and understand the finer details of that episode. In the process the child can be able to improve his cognitive and literacy skills as his brain meets the same information for a number of times. In a study done on school children aged 6 and 9 years watching a television program, those who watch an episode once every day and those who watched once per week showed a difference (Fisch et al 2010). There was high and constant attention to the episode viewed daily coupled with comprehension for the content in the program because of repeated exposure. With episode repetition, there was increased interaction with content especially in the participation of the audience. Other studies have also reported similar such benefits resulting from literal repetition. The study also found out that the transfer of learning from particular examples featured in the program to various problems having similar solutions went higher with repetition. Viewer Characteristics Based on some studies done on the effects of media, different characteristics of viewers among them intelligence and others such as gender and socio-economic status alter the effects that media has on academic achievement, learning and literacy. Literacy in children can be enhanced through the maximization of the educational value of media programs by producers working hard to incorporate in the above characteristics as they do the design of the programs. For instance, different co-relational studies showed that girls may experience a bigger negative impact from too much watching of television than boys. The same may happen for those children whose intelligence in higher (Attewell & Battle 1999). Other studies show that watching television, internet and video programs can have varied effects on children coming from different economic and social backgrounds. In particular, watching television causes higher academic achievement for children staying in homes that have lower income, while those children in homes that have higher income show lower academic achievement. A longitudinal study seeking to analyze different types of content revealed that the positive relationship between the exposures that children get to education programs when five years of age and literacy achievement in later life was stronger by far for boys. On the other hand, negative relationship between violent programs and achievement at a later date was very strong in the case of girls (Fisch 2009). Transfer of Learning It is always important that children should learn particular information from media designed for education purposes. However, most educational media seek to teach children how to apply their lessons to problems in real life. Transfer learning can be enhanced by media program designers when they repeat particular educational; messages in a given episode as it progresses (Skouteris & Kelly 2006). They should also ensure that there is variation in the contexts that surround each particular presentation. Children should therefore apply what they learn in media to normal life. An example could be a program on television whose setting is a fantasy world. At age five to 10, researchers have discovered that children can be able to do transfer learning. This is in relation to interactive media and television. Researchers show that giving the same lesson, for example a particular strategy for solving a problem many times by applying different examples, has the capacity to make the mental representation of a child for that strategy more flexible. As a result, it increases the ability of a child to select and apply in an accurate manner, the strategy to different situations in real life (Fisch 2000). Parental Co-viewing and Mediation Caregivers, guardians, parents and other relations have a huge role to play in maximizing the effect that educational media has on the learning of children (Fisch et al 2000). Adults can increase program effectiveness by co-viewing and in the process drawing attention to the critical aspects of a particular program and extending the lessons present in the program. Some researchers have even found out that co-viewing with a caregiver, parent or any adult could raise the level of learning from educational media programs especially when the adult mediates by clearly drawing attention to particular aspects and by asking questions and answering them. Even though studies may not reveal any benefits for co-viewing by adults, there is no clear evidence to link co-viewing with negative effects. There are mixed findings when it comes to interactive media (Fisch et al 2009). Even though getting lessons through educational software could be increased with feedback or extended lessons from adults, adults should give children the freedom to control the interactive activities on their own so that they can sustain their interest in whatever they are involved in. mediation and co-viewing initiatives by adults could have a positive effect on literacy skills obtained from educational media. Most research done on educational media has been focused on home use (Attewell & Battle 1999). However there is a possibility that media can be applied to improve literacy skills in children within the confines of the classroom. Media could be more useful if educational programs on media such as television for example, are incorporated in to the curriculum taught in school. Although analysts have so far not found evidence to the effect that the cognitive skills and language of children can benefit from co-viewing, the findings showed some hope. The obvious benefits from mediation by adults could open a new area for extending some of the lessons children get from educational media (Attewell & Battle 1999). Conclusions In conclusion, this essay has investigated how media culture and media play constitute to literacy development in children between 5 and 10 years old. Many studies link the use of media to development of cognitive skills and achievement of academic and literacy skills. Some studies have even reported that content is more critical as a mediating factor than all the others. There are several things that media culture and media can have in order to improve literacy in children. These things include cross-platform learning, use of better techniques for media production, increasing comprehension, ensuring that children understand through repetition of episodes, transfer of learning and co-viewing and parental mediation in programs. Most of the research findings on educational media are about television. However, they also apply to other media. Children at the age of 5 and over learn a lot from educational media which has been found to help them gain literacy and academic achievements for the time they watch and in later years. Generally, media culture and media play are very instrumental in helping children to improve in literacy. However, this should be done with emphasis on content and parental guidance and mediation. More research is necessary to find out how particular types of both new and old media improve literacy in children of particular ages. Based on the information discussed in this essay, co viewing and cross platform learning should be investigated for specific details on how it improves literacy. References Attewell, P. and Battle, J. (1999). “Home Computers and School Performance,” The Information Society 15:1–10. Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology: Children Learning in the age of Digital Culture. Wiley.   Fisch, S.M. (2000). “A Capacity Model of Children’s Comprehension of Educational Content on Television,” Media Psychology 2 : 63–91. Fisch, S.M., Lesh, R., Motoki, E., Crespo, S., & Melfi, V. (2009). Cross-platform learning: How do children learn from multiple media? In Blumberg, F.C. (Ed.) Learning by playing: Frontiers of video gaming in education. New York: Oxford University Press. Fisch, S.M., Lesh, R., Motoki, E., Crespo, S., & Melfi, V. (2010). Children’s learning from multiple media in informal mathematics education. Teaneck, NJ: MediaKidz Research & Consulting (with Indiana University/PRISM Learning and Michigan State University). Shalom M. Fisch (2004). Children’s Learning from Educational Television: Sesame Street and Beyond. Routledge. Skouteris, H. and Kelly, L. (2006). “Repeated-Viewing and Co-Viewing of an Animated Video: An Examination of Factors that Impact on Young Children’s Comprehension of Video Content,” Australian Journal of Early Childhood 31: 22–30. Troseth, G. and DeLoache, J. (1998). “The Medium Can Obscure the Message: Understanding the Relation between Video and Reality,” Child Development 69: 950–65.Media and Young Children’s Learning. Read More

In a different study reported that television and video watching contributed to literacy depending on its content. For example, the research found that programs such as Dora the explorer were associated with expressive language and vocabulary while another program called teletubbies negatively affected language, vocabulary and general literacy. Children between five and ten years learn a lot from video. Viewing or reading material with educational content has both social and academic benefits.

On the other hand, watching other content types could have opposite results (Fisch 2004). Cross-platform learning For media to be educative to children, projects should go across more than one media platform. For example, a TV series that is educational in nature can come with a related website, a live show or museum exhibit and outreach materials. Producers use multiple platforms for increased benefits for children literacy development over the ones obtained from a single medium. Increased value for cross platform learning results from repeated exposure, encounter by children of the same concept in different contexts and the application of content obtained from one medium to a different medium.

An example could be a child who applies mathematical content gained from a particular TV series to help in playing a mathematical game online (Buckingham 2007). The result could be a richer and better involvement with the other medium. In order for children to get all the benefits from cross-cultural platforms learning, producers should carefully align educational media content across platforms. Designers should ensure that the content of the game or narrative is in a way that encourages the children involved with it to make connections.

It is also possible to combine different media whereby the narrative and explanations on video, participation via interactive games as well as the in-person assistance present in hands on media can be put together in a single experience. An example is an interactive game where the hint button brings up a video clip having explanations (Troseth & DeLoache 1998). Use of better production techniques to enhance literacy Those involved in the production of educational media for children do many things to increase the benefit of media to children literacy.

One way of making media more beneficial to learning children between 5 and 10 years is to make the media content in a way that it can attract the attention of children. Children may not easily learn from educational media content that they do not pay attention to. Researchers have come up with ways through which they can maximize the attention that children give to any media program or content (Fisch et al, 2009). Some of these techniques include the content itself, sound effects and camera techniques.

Producers can increase the attention of children to television by maximizing comprehensibility. At the age of five years children have already mastered the formal media features that are used to guide their attention. These are the characteristics that may be described with the least reference to content. Examples of formal features include camera pans, sound effects and cuts between shots (Skouteris & Kelly 2006). Comprehension The same way children are unable to learn from content that they don’t pay attention to, they also cannot learn from content if they do not understand it.

A researcher called Fisch (2010) distinguished between the narrative content of a program, its informative programs, its content and story. He puts emphasis on the 2 types of content for cognitive skills required for processing the program. In order to maximize cognitive resources that children can access for processing content with educational value, Fisch (2010) is of the opinion that producers of various media should incorporate educational content to the highest levels and make it central to the story in the media program.

For instance, the characters in the story may be made to solve a particular problem as they advance to subsequent chapters.

Read More