Media and the ClassroomW200 IUPUI Fall 08

Amber Jarvis

ContentsTrends in Media Use by Donald F. Roberts and Ulla G. Foehr

Trends slide 1

Trends slide 2

Trends slide 3

Children’s Media Policy by Amy B. JordanChildren’s Media slide 1

Children’s Media slide 2

Children’s Media slide 3

Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement by Marie Evans Schmidt and Elizabeth A. Vandewater

Media and Attention slide 1

Media and Attention slide 2

Media and Attention slide 3

Conclusion Slide

Citation Slide

Trends in Media Use by Donald F. Roberts and Ulla G. Foehr

The average American eight- to eighteen-year-old [reports] more than six hours of daily media use [per day].

There is a new term emerging known as “media multitasking” which is the use of media such as a television and online chat at the same time. This results in the overload of media on students.

Student’s are reporting more media use than sleep, with the largest reports being among African Americans.

Donald Roberts and Ulla Foehr examined how media use and exposure vary within demographic factors such as economic status, age, and race.

Trends in Media Use Race and ethnicity are related to differences in media exposure among older youth. African American and Hispanic youths report more overall media exposure than whites (total daily media exposure is 10:10, 8:52, and 7:58 for African Americans, Hispanics, and whites, respectively).

The Chart to below was taken directly from the article.

My thoughts about Trends in Media Use

Students are bombarded with media everywhere. It is the job of an educator to use media positively and teach students the proper use of media.

Time management of media in the classroom is key to it’s success as an academic resource. However a fine line must be walked as not to over use media.

As Roberts and Foehr conclude in their report scrutiny in media usage must be intense, especially in the classroom setting. The use of protection and blocking programs is crucial in and educational setting.

With the creation of the World Wide Web came a commonly unsupervised wealth of information, which can distract students from true learning.

Children’s Media Policy by Amy B. Jordan

This article addressed the importance of balance in media between healthy development of American children and the consequences of excessive and age-inappropriate media exposure.

Regulation in media has become a sticky subject, as it often steps closely to the toes of freedom of speech. This is why it is so important that educators and schools use blocking programs.

Jordan explains the uses of “Self-Regulation” which includes the rating systems of movies. This allows individuals to make their own decision on what is appropriate for themselves or their child.

“Movie ratings came first, in 1968, after dramatic social upheavals, including the sexual revolution, Vietnam War protests, and assassinations of U.S. public figures, led policymakers and the larger public to scrutinize the contribution of media to the problems of the culture.”

Federal Children’s Media Policies included in Jordan’s Article

Policy title Source Selected Action

Children’s Television Act of 1990

Passed by Congress Implemented by the FCC

Mandates educational television for children on commercial broadcast stations.

Three-Hour Rule (1997) FCC processing guideline MM Docket No. 93-48

Provides guidelines for allowable air times, length, on-air identification.

Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act (2006)

Passed by Congress Implemented by the FCC

Stations may be penalized $325,000 for airing “patently offensive” content (sexual or excretory words) between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (1998).

Implemented by the FTC

Requires operators of websites heavily used by children under age thirteen to obtain verifiable parental consent.

My thoughts about Media Policy

Amy B. Jordan made it very clear how government policies helped protect and benefit children.

The policies on the previous slide highlight the actions I believed were relevant to educational use of media.

The most interesting point made in the article was how policies are becoming so hard to enforce due to the growing portability of Media (i.e.- ipods, handheld video games and TV's, and cell phones).

Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement

by Marie Evans Schmidt and Elizabeth A. Vandewater

“Marie Evans Schmidt and Elizabeth Vandewater review research on links between various types of electronic media and the cognitive skills of school-aged children and adolescents.”

The key findings were that :There is a small negative link between the total hours a child spends viewing TV and that child’s academic achievement.

Research results showed that moderate TV viewing—one to ten hours a week—was positively associated with achievement (compared with no television at all), whereas heavier viewing—more than eleven hours a week—was negatively linked with achievement (-.09). Numerous correlational studies, with large samples, have found similar small negative effects of total time spent watching TV on achievement.(This is a paraphrased portion of Schmidt and Vandewater’s findings)

Findings show that video games can actually enhance visual spatial skills, such as visual tracking, mental rotation, and target localization.

Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement

An analysis of more than 1 million students by Micha Razel suggests that the optimal number of hours of TV viewed daily decreases as children get older.

A nine-year-old is suggested to view two hours a day, whereas for a seventeen-year-old the optimal amounts is half an hour.

IQ was found to play a large role in the association between TV watching and achievement; students with lower IQ scores watch more television, on average than those with a higher IQ.

In one experiment, eighth graders who watched a film that used repeated zooms achieved higher scores on a search task that required them to find details in a complex display. In fact, for eighth graders who earned low scores on a pre-test of the search task, viewing the film improved scores more than practicing the search task itself. (This experiment was conducted byGavriel Salomon and evaluated in the article.)

My thoughts about Media and Attention, Cognition, and School

Achievement The research presented in this article shows the positive use of media and its effects when used in the optimum amounts for certain ages.

Educationally, this article made good suggestions on what media helped students form problem solving and critical thinking abilities.

However, it was also pointed out that studies have shown that media education is not reliable for the student in all subject areas. Some things like reading and writing still need to be taught on a personal level.

Media can be used in the classroom in positive ways, but educators must be aware of the media which they select to use. As explained throughout much of the final source many different medias are used to a better advantage in different cognitive areas of learning.

It is important that educators abide by and understand the policies of media usage and become aware of their school’s or organization’s policies of media usage.

As an educator know what your class is doing with media, encourage learning, but do not cross over the line of appropriate media usage for your students.

Conclusion Media in the Classroom

Citation of Articles

Roberts, Donald F.; Foehr, Ulla G. (2008). Trends in Media Use. Future of Children, v18 n1 p11-37.(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ795858).

Jordan, Amy B. (2008). Children's Media Policy. Future of Children, v18 n1 p235-253. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ795865).

Schmidt, Marie Evans; Vandewater, Elizabeth A. (2008).Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement. Future of Children, v18 n1 p63-85. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ795860).