July, 2014
Best apps for schools: what do teachers want?
As part of our ongoing work to develop criteria for assessing the quality of children’s digital books and apps, we ran a number of workshops with teachers in local schools and asked them about what they think a good digital book or app should look like and contain. Some of these teachers had never used iPads […]
Evaluating Educational Value of Children’s Television and Media
‘Grandpa in my Pocket’ is a live action drama for young children aged 4 – 6 yrs. First produced in 2008 with subsequent series in 2009, 2010 and 2013 the programme was created by Adastra Creative for CBeebies, and also has a website, several games and a theatre production. Screened in over 104 countries, winning […]
Media Studies and the reform of qualifications
There is a long history of teaching about media in the British education system. The earliest publications and teaching materials in the field date back more than 80 years, and since the 1960s a great many teachers have used film, television and digital media in their work. Teaching about media has long been a core […]
Storytelling 2.0: a new era in storytelling for, and with, children
I have a special interest in the flows of stories across media, and in particular into digital media. Here I briefly describe a recent research study in cross-media for children, and point towards areas of change in the children’s media landscape that are worth of further investigation. Children nowadays can access stories in a multitude […]
Six questions that parents ask about children and digital media
The Children’s Media Foundation recently asked me and my colleague, Jonathan Hancock, to write a research-informed and parent-friendly guide to some of the questions that are asked about children’s uses of digital media. The questions covered by the review are: 1) Are screen-based media ‘bad’ for my children? 2) Will playing violent video games make […]
