Monday, November 21, 2011
Arcade Improv: Humans Pretending to Be Videogames
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/11/arcade-improv/all/1
Monday, November 14, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
JGC - Final Discussion and Outcomes
Priorities for Stakeholders
+ Standard networking behaviors of young children (< 12, 7-14?)
- Longitudinal studies of development over time.
Mechanisms for Collaborations
Practice
Word/findings need to reach the actual producers, assistants, designers, APs ; often delivered to higher managers who aren't actually creating the content.
Policy
Go to liberman, Markey, Rockefeller to champion children's media
Family Online Safety Institute
MacArthur DC Arm
Good journalism is convincing. Give stuff staffers can take home. Need to cross party lines. Convince people slowly over time. Keep close eye on legislative review cycles.
JGC - Carloz Dominguez - Cisco Ambassador, Tech 'nowist'
Surviving, Leading and Thriving in our New World.
- The network effect - he predicts there will be more change in the next 3 years than has happened in the previous 25.
- There has been a role reversal. Consumers now drive the Innovation circle.
- There is an uneven mix of what technology and media consumers use vs what companies will allow them.
- There used to be separate infrastructures for different technologies. Now it's combined - one medium to transmit and receive different types of media and information.
- Movement of consumer consumption to consumer creators.
Examples of change in power
- Arab Spring
- FB movement against FARC
New internet inhabitants
- a tree that has 3000 twitter followers
- a cow transmit 200 mb of info to the net
- a shoe is now connected
- an asthma inhaler is cross-referenced with environmental weather data (gov.data)
- Proteus chip transmits data from your stomach
- sensors on trash study - tracked trash traffic moving around the country! sensor tech is fascinating.
Net Generation
100% digital 100% of the time.
- average # text messages sent by teens every month - 3200
- extremely young iPad users.
- young users expect touch screen / gestural use. we need to adapt to meet this.
- mobility is king
- laptop is still seen as most important device, but the smart device is trending up.
- 33% of companies block facebook, not thinking that people can simply access FB on their mobile devices.
Implications on Business
IBM CEO survey findings:
- all organizations are experiencing significant upheaval. CEO's said it was structurally different, more complex, unstable.
- currently experience a very high level of complexity. All agree it will only continue to rise.
- more than half of CEOs surveyed thought they were not prepared for this complexity.
- all expect continued disruption of one form or other.
In the study, CEOs think the best qualities of a CEOs to be able to adapt..
- creativity
- integrity
- global thinking
- influence
What are characteristics of successful companies?
- adaptability
- adapting to environment
- empowering employees
- fiscal responsibility
- leveraging technology
- customer contribution and feedback
- focus on innovation, experimentation
- communication
- diversity
- understanding future trends
STRATEGIES
- Must be responsive to change.
- Must build a culture of change.
- How do we encourage kids to learn to embrace and adapt change
- Importance of visual interaction and face to face communicatoin (though this comment is also cisco selling their product!)
Cisco Show and Share - allows creation of content, it transcodes to all platforms. Includes auto tagging to make video searchable.
twitter.com/carlosdominguez
- The network effect - he predicts there will be more change in the next 3 years than has happened in the previous 25.
- There has been a role reversal. Consumers now drive the Innovation circle.
- There is an uneven mix of what technology and media consumers use vs what companies will allow them.
- There used to be separate infrastructures for different technologies. Now it's combined - one medium to transmit and receive different types of media and information.
- Movement of consumer consumption to consumer creators.
Examples of change in power
- Arab Spring
- FB movement against FARC
New internet inhabitants
- a tree that has 3000 twitter followers
- a cow transmit 200 mb of info to the net
- a shoe is now connected
- an asthma inhaler is cross-referenced with environmental weather data (gov.data)
- Proteus chip transmits data from your stomach
- sensors on trash study - tracked trash traffic moving around the country! sensor tech is fascinating.
Net Generation
100% digital 100% of the time.
- average # text messages sent by teens every month - 3200
- extremely young iPad users.
- young users expect touch screen / gestural use. we need to adapt to meet this.
- mobility is king
- laptop is still seen as most important device, but the smart device is trending up.
- 33% of companies block facebook, not thinking that people can simply access FB on their mobile devices.
Implications on Business
IBM CEO survey findings:
- all organizations are experiencing significant upheaval. CEO's said it was structurally different, more complex, unstable.
- currently experience a very high level of complexity. All agree it will only continue to rise.
- more than half of CEOs surveyed thought they were not prepared for this complexity.
- all expect continued disruption of one form or other.
In the study, CEOs think the best qualities of a CEOs to be able to adapt..
- creativity
- integrity
- global thinking
- influence
What are characteristics of successful companies?
- adaptability
- adapting to environment
- empowering employees
- fiscal responsibility
- leveraging technology
- customer contribution and feedback
- focus on innovation, experimentation
- communication
- diversity
- understanding future trends
STRATEGIES
- Must be responsive to change.
- Must build a culture of change.
- How do we encourage kids to learn to embrace and adapt change
- Importance of visual interaction and face to face communicatoin (though this comment is also cisco selling their product!)
Cisco Show and Share - allows creation of content, it transcodes to all platforms. Includes auto tagging to make video searchable.
twitter.com/carlosdominguez
JGC - Risks and Benefits
The pros and cons of mediated forms of engagement:
- How and to what effect do children's embodied / material interactions interplay with their virtual / mediated ones?
- What are some of the cognitive, emotional, social, and physical impacts of mediated engagement on the developing child?
Kaveri Subrahmanyam
Cal State Uni / Childrens Digital Media Center LA
- Looks at informal uses of media, in school, at home etc.
- Her question she is thinking about - do learning effects in informal spaces transfer to formal settings? For example, informal writing often takes place online, yet school assessments are usually pen and paper. How does that effect learning?
- Looking at multitasking on the computer. Showing trends that when kids are multitasking with social media they are actually doing a better job in reading comprehension than single tasks conditions.
- Multi tasking and executive skills in adolescents - sexuality, media, identity. How kids are utilizing online interactions in social spaces to further core developmental tasks. For example, social networking tasks study.
LynnSchofield Clark
Uni of Denver
- Media use and family - family apprehension around media.
- Currently interested in the participation gap. Finished writing a book manuscript called ' Parenting in the Digital Age'. Had send first chapter to the book to an acquaintance, a college professor - it was how middle income and low income families negotiate media use in households.
He told about a lower income kid who got on very well with his mother - played first person shooter with his mother and often shot his mother! Healthy way to express relationship, and frustrations. He took this story to middle class parents at a group, and they freaked out, they immediately related it to violence, when we should be looking at it differently.
- The 'risk society' and the rise of an increasing marketplace that fragments our networks.
- Risk in relation to 'courage' - how do parents see themselves as courageous - being uncertain about technology is not necessarily a negative thing, but instead a moment of opportunity to connect and learn with their children? How to change the discourse in this direction.
Sara Grimes
Uni of Toronto
- Background in political economy version of cultural studies. Childrens cultural text, artifacts, implementation and management.
- had done work on virtual worlds for kids and the rules around them. how terms of service conflict with game designers
- risk aversion strategies surrounding privacy.
- opportunities afforded in restricted spaces - articulating children's rights, freedom of expression etc. Possibility of these sites to contribute to democratization of mass culture to allow kids to share culture at a grand scale.
- Impotus currently to bring kids into a public domain to allow for creation, but terms of service, COPPA etc doesn't help with this. How do we come up with better practices to find the best practices that respect kids cultural rights but still be safe
Danah Boyd
Microsoft Research
- Ethnographic work, question assumptions about frames that cultural work does with regards to kids and technology.
- Look at what is happening in the space of bullying. Interesting takeaway - kids understand bullying. Things and labels like 'drama, punking, gaming' assumes and puts people in roles of victim vs purpetrator when often the labels are not that distinct - don't just lump it into the frame of bullying.
- digital is not actually the space where most of the bullying happens, it just makes it more VISIBLE to adults than ever before.
Other thing she is working on is human trafficking and sex crimes against children. She wants to challenge the notion that parents are not always good actors. Often it's the kid running away from a parent due to abuse, or a parent pimping a kid out.
COPPA - quantative survey work - result of most general purpose sites excluding kids under 13. A huge chunk of these sites including skype, gmail, FB, etc parents want the kids to have access so they can talk to family members - parents end up helping kids circumvent age restrictions. FTC has made it clear the innovation for the under 13 market has become non-existent because of COPPA.
Sandra Calvert
Georgetown Uni
- currently focusing on how very young children learn to read a screen.
- obesity crisis.
Both of these lines of work makes her interested in the role of characters in childrens media. Relationships that children form with these characters including STEM with Elmo. Started doing social networking studies after seeing college students were not listening to the class but having fun on FB. So did a FB study.
1. they mainly learn. Not always creating, instead mostly lurking and watching. The 'like' button is a great idea because at least lurkers can give themselves a little 'trace' identity to show they are browsing.
2. They talk - still one to one communication with friends.
3. Not doing so well in class. Get online first thing, check out FB. Number of friends is phenomenal - many have 1000 'friends'.
Technology is changing but issues are not. Was interested in identity and gender. Boys play more, girls talk more. Ways they interacted was very strained in study when they were interacting on a virtual world.
Christine Greenhow
Uni of Maryland
- focuses on older kids - interested in child to teen connections. Should not look at divisions between younger kids and older kids, but convergent mediated behavior and how older kids influence younger kids.
- Wants to bridge the gap between educators and education. Wanting to change the old 'push' of information in education. How are kids using social network sites? Are there things that are of value that educators should identify as learning value?
- Is there social capital in these networks? How to approach social capital at a younger age? How to induct kids into a community of practice?
- how does our definition of literacy need to change?
- Worked on prototype social networking app 'hotdish' - will kids interested in environmental science go to this online space and become civically engaged? This is about taking learning outside of schools into the communities. Studies found this prototype education did help in informal learning.
DISCUSSION
'being alone together' - more privileged families believe in following the roles. Lower status incomes don't trust the rules and tend to be more flexible.
Going Solo by Eric Kleinenburg - more parents are living alone than ever before. More kids have their own bedroom than ever before. They have so much more solo time in the home that social media is seen as a way that they are able to connect - it clearly displays the desire for connection and how technology allows for adaption.
Family involvement - discussion that Facebook changed the way kids and parents involve in social networks.
Lower economic schools example in NYC - found there weren't many computers in schools, but it's actually that the kids do have the latest devices, it's just figuring out the way to use it. Teacher has no control over these devices, communication, and often students. If the device is taken away, often the parent complains. An early popular device was the sidekick, which was very community driven. now you see high end devices such as androids, which are not as collaborative but more consumptive devices.
- How and to what effect do children's embodied / material interactions interplay with their virtual / mediated ones?
- What are some of the cognitive, emotional, social, and physical impacts of mediated engagement on the developing child?
Kaveri Subrahmanyam
Cal State Uni / Childrens Digital Media Center LA
- Looks at informal uses of media, in school, at home etc.
- Her question she is thinking about - do learning effects in informal spaces transfer to formal settings? For example, informal writing often takes place online, yet school assessments are usually pen and paper. How does that effect learning?
- Looking at multitasking on the computer. Showing trends that when kids are multitasking with social media they are actually doing a better job in reading comprehension than single tasks conditions.
- Multi tasking and executive skills in adolescents - sexuality, media, identity. How kids are utilizing online interactions in social spaces to further core developmental tasks. For example, social networking tasks study.
LynnSchofield Clark
Uni of Denver
- Media use and family - family apprehension around media.
- Currently interested in the participation gap. Finished writing a book manuscript called ' Parenting in the Digital Age'. Had send first chapter to the book to an acquaintance, a college professor - it was how middle income and low income families negotiate media use in households.
He told about a lower income kid who got on very well with his mother - played first person shooter with his mother and often shot his mother! Healthy way to express relationship, and frustrations. He took this story to middle class parents at a group, and they freaked out, they immediately related it to violence, when we should be looking at it differently.
- The 'risk society' and the rise of an increasing marketplace that fragments our networks.
- Risk in relation to 'courage' - how do parents see themselves as courageous - being uncertain about technology is not necessarily a negative thing, but instead a moment of opportunity to connect and learn with their children? How to change the discourse in this direction.
Sara Grimes
Uni of Toronto
- Background in political economy version of cultural studies. Childrens cultural text, artifacts, implementation and management.
- had done work on virtual worlds for kids and the rules around them. how terms of service conflict with game designers
- risk aversion strategies surrounding privacy.
- opportunities afforded in restricted spaces - articulating children's rights, freedom of expression etc. Possibility of these sites to contribute to democratization of mass culture to allow kids to share culture at a grand scale.
- Impotus currently to bring kids into a public domain to allow for creation, but terms of service, COPPA etc doesn't help with this. How do we come up with better practices to find the best practices that respect kids cultural rights but still be safe
Danah Boyd
Microsoft Research
- Ethnographic work, question assumptions about frames that cultural work does with regards to kids and technology.
- Look at what is happening in the space of bullying. Interesting takeaway - kids understand bullying. Things and labels like 'drama, punking, gaming' assumes and puts people in roles of victim vs purpetrator when often the labels are not that distinct - don't just lump it into the frame of bullying.
- digital is not actually the space where most of the bullying happens, it just makes it more VISIBLE to adults than ever before.
Other thing she is working on is human trafficking and sex crimes against children. She wants to challenge the notion that parents are not always good actors. Often it's the kid running away from a parent due to abuse, or a parent pimping a kid out.
COPPA - quantative survey work - result of most general purpose sites excluding kids under 13. A huge chunk of these sites including skype, gmail, FB, etc parents want the kids to have access so they can talk to family members - parents end up helping kids circumvent age restrictions. FTC has made it clear the innovation for the under 13 market has become non-existent because of COPPA.
Sandra Calvert
Georgetown Uni
- currently focusing on how very young children learn to read a screen.
- obesity crisis.
Both of these lines of work makes her interested in the role of characters in childrens media. Relationships that children form with these characters including STEM with Elmo. Started doing social networking studies after seeing college students were not listening to the class but having fun on FB. So did a FB study.
1. they mainly learn. Not always creating, instead mostly lurking and watching. The 'like' button is a great idea because at least lurkers can give themselves a little 'trace' identity to show they are browsing.
2. They talk - still one to one communication with friends.
3. Not doing so well in class. Get online first thing, check out FB. Number of friends is phenomenal - many have 1000 'friends'.
Technology is changing but issues are not. Was interested in identity and gender. Boys play more, girls talk more. Ways they interacted was very strained in study when they were interacting on a virtual world.
Christine Greenhow
Uni of Maryland
- focuses on older kids - interested in child to teen connections. Should not look at divisions between younger kids and older kids, but convergent mediated behavior and how older kids influence younger kids.
- Wants to bridge the gap between educators and education. Wanting to change the old 'push' of information in education. How are kids using social network sites? Are there things that are of value that educators should identify as learning value?
- Is there social capital in these networks? How to approach social capital at a younger age? How to induct kids into a community of practice?
- how does our definition of literacy need to change?
- Worked on prototype social networking app 'hotdish' - will kids interested in environmental science go to this online space and become civically engaged? This is about taking learning outside of schools into the communities. Studies found this prototype education did help in informal learning.
DISCUSSION
'being alone together' - more privileged families believe in following the roles. Lower status incomes don't trust the rules and tend to be more flexible.
Going Solo by Eric Kleinenburg - more parents are living alone than ever before. More kids have their own bedroom than ever before. They have so much more solo time in the home that social media is seen as a way that they are able to connect - it clearly displays the desire for connection and how technology allows for adaption.
Family involvement - discussion that Facebook changed the way kids and parents involve in social networks.
Lower economic schools example in NYC - found there weren't many computers in schools, but it's actually that the kids do have the latest devices, it's just figuring out the way to use it. Teacher has no control over these devices, communication, and often students. If the device is taken away, often the parent complains. An early popular device was the sidekick, which was very community driven. now you see high end devices such as androids, which are not as collaborative but more consumptive devices.
JGC - Equity
Equity - contexts and conditions under which engagement does and should take place.
In what ways can online communities and social networks be accessible and or equitable alternate environments for children who lack social / material supports?
In what ways do online communities and social networks widen divides or close doors to children? what might be done to prevent this?
Christo Sims - U Berkley, DML Hub
Recommend start with existing structures of privilege, then look at how do power dynamics affect kids online use in social media.
don't start with the notion of 'whatever middle class boys are doing everyone should be doing'
Martha Hadley - working with RTL group
Interest in activity theory. Works with kids 2-8.
Going into low income community daycare centers. Bring technology or work with the tech there. In thinking of equity, has come to think of it of more of a complicated idea than just 'who has what technology'.
Think of it in terms of knowledge rather than access - observes transition around 7-8 as kids begin to meet social media, often through family and parents (eg facebook sites) which are particularly prevalent amongst low income communities, or when sharing media with families far and wide. This gives them a very strong entry point into this type of media use, and technical literacy.
Also discusses issues around gender differences - the ways of engaging online, and the kinds of interactive worlds girls and boys tend to use.
In what ways can online communities and social networks be accessible and or equitable alternate environments for children who lack social / material supports?
In what ways do online communities and social networks widen divides or close doors to children? what might be done to prevent this?
Christo Sims - U Berkley, DML Hub
Recommend start with existing structures of privilege, then look at how do power dynamics affect kids online use in social media.
don't start with the notion of 'whatever middle class boys are doing everyone should be doing'
Martha Hadley - working with RTL group
Interest in activity theory. Works with kids 2-8.
Going into low income community daycare centers. Bring technology or work with the tech there. In thinking of equity, has come to think of it of more of a complicated idea than just 'who has what technology'.
Think of it in terms of knowledge rather than access - observes transition around 7-8 as kids begin to meet social media, often through family and parents (eg facebook sites) which are particularly prevalent amongst low income communities, or when sharing media with families far and wide. This gives them a very strong entry point into this type of media use, and technical literacy.
Also discusses issues around gender differences - the ways of engaging online, and the kinds of interactive worlds girls and boys tend to use.
They saw panel of kids 2-8 over a period of months, talking to them, then began to introduce sites, games such as littlebigplanet, apps, etc. What they ended up seeing a fantastic conversion of the things boys and girls like to do.
Deborah Fields
Uni Penn
Interest in spaces between schools and homes etc. Kids identity between different spaces. Looking at the 10% kids who embrace this technology - but what about the kids who are NOT online, or do not actively participate? What are the differences in participation between local and online, and also how gender becomes a bit more neutral online.
Thinks about local participation as an entry to online participation. Big barrier to that first step of participation (eg lurking!). eg. sitting with a child as they join a network, they generally want to 'friend' the people first immediately around them (eg sitting next to them)
eg. Scratch project - and the power of online 'value' - allowing constructive engagement and social collaboration - putting a part of who they are, what they're good at into a social media setting, and finding from others the 'value' they see in that.
Cultures and gender differences - Scratch has a higher participation of girls programming games than other sites that do this.
Akili Lee
Digital Youth Network
Developing a framework on how to build digital literacy with kids, leveraging social networking from the ground up. Using a tool really helps define how the use of the tool looks, articulating the affordances of the tool and how it's designed. eg - started off on a small charter school. 6-8 grade programming. One kid and his friend were the experts in the school when it came to video production. THe workshop had showcase opportunities. Show off drafts of work. Recognize kids don't just want to create for sake of creating, but share with a group they already have some capital with.
Another kid had done some work with video, but not as experienced. Once the first kid left school, this became a motivator for the second kid to increase his skills and become the 'expert' in the school - really motivated him to push himself and become the best he could be.
How do these spaces become healthy critique spaces? Observing this really created feedback for Akili on how to appropriate these tools online to extend what they know on the ground? Design of tools can increase effectiveness.
Mary Anne Petrillo
Cisco Systems
Background in marketing and creative design. Working with education technologies for 15 years. Before that working on technologies with neuroscientists. Has been with Cisco 4 years ago.
Makes big investments in non-profits to help these big conversations along. A big section of this is Cisco Networking Academy http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/index.html
A blended learning model. Is embedded into institutions rather than sold a licensing.
DISCUSSION:
Inequity busters - nonconformers
- tech busters, hackers, finding ways to do things when we don't really want them to do this!
- but this is not necessarily a bad thing -they're not accepting the norm. They're thinking beyond what is in front of them. How to harness and empower these people in a meaningful rather than disruptive way? How to engage in this when it's against social norms, and 'rules' - how to normalize some practices but keeping others clear as deviant?
- technical and thinking skills that go into being a non-conformist?
- eg pro-am communities, disconnect between success in school and success in digital environment.
- need to consider 'rules' - we teach kids rules but don't necessarily teach them to think for themselves. Used examples of a Japanese school area during the earthquake - one school had taught safety guidelines, but also taught them to think for themselves - they were guided to the safety spot, but the school group analyzed, discussed and decided it was after all not safe and found another area to shelter. This saved their lives.
- topic of participation but keep in mind importance of 'listening' - how do we think of the term of participation as listening and collaboration. In terms of marketing and metrics, listening as part of participation is not necessarily a metric they study.
JGC - Interaction and Simulation
Discussion about the transfer problem in simulation. Think of it in terms of 'when do you introduce simulation' - for example do we introduce simulations early on, eg in science, OR do we give them real world experience (eg the stress of mixing two dangerous chemicals together) then introduce simulation? That way it might be more impactful.
For younger kids, the virtual world is the REAL world. In that case, you can't really say, 'virtual' and 'real'.
aka - based on age, simulation has a different role.
Sometimes the most simple simulation might be better than something that is more graphically real.
What is Play for young kids and the meaning of social interaction?
For younger kids the role of an imaginary friend can be very self serving. Also can depend on environment - eg at a preschool there might be different environments that encourage different play - (whatever you want, or more restricted, taking turns).
- study of the idea of 'friendships' - it's the quality of friendship that needs to be seen as important rather than the 'number'
- younger kids, they see one or two people such as parents that can fulfill all their needs. As you get older, they identify friends for different purposes.
For younger kids, the virtual world is the REAL world. In that case, you can't really say, 'virtual' and 'real'.
aka - based on age, simulation has a different role.
Sometimes the most simple simulation might be better than something that is more graphically real.
What is Play for young kids and the meaning of social interaction?
For younger kids the role of an imaginary friend can be very self serving. Also can depend on environment - eg at a preschool there might be different environments that encourage different play - (whatever you want, or more restricted, taking turns).
- study of the idea of 'friendships' - it's the quality of friendship that needs to be seen as important rather than the 'number'
- younger kids, they see one or two people such as parents that can fulfill all their needs. As you get older, they identify friends for different purposes.
JGC - Meaningful Engagement: What's going on in today's social networks
What's going on in today's social networks and online communities for young children:
- what social structures and dynamics prevail in today's online communities and social networks?
- In what ways do these structures and dynamics affect peer and/or parent interactions?
- What are the affordances of online communities and social networks for discovery, learning, and development?
- young kids - can they make a disctinction between a real and virtual environment? Sandra Okita from Columbia Uni - doing a study with robots vs humans -- around 3 years old where they consider the worlds the same. this changes around 5 years.
- Andres Monroy Hernandez - build Scratch at MIT, now at Microsoft research. One thing consistent on Scratch community is idea of kids building other kids works, kids collaboration. The basic building block is the idea of building from scratch, and also building (remixes) of existing work. Around 30% are remixes. While kid's don't care about intellectual property, they're very proud of their work and get very upset if they feel content is simply taken or stolen. How to solve this is a question they have. For example, give automatic contribution to original people's work. But original users actually wanted personal attribution - eg personal 'thank you to ____ for creating _____ originally" - so remixing is not just about building about existing work, but collaborating, acknowledging, etc.
Some kids have built 'companies' on Scratch - decide to create a project collaboratively through remixing. eg. a girl from russia who is good at drawing posted drawings to the site, uploaded to for people, ended up creating a 'company' with a girl from UK - then everyone wanted to be in the 'company' so they decided to open for applications. That's how companies started on scratch!
Kate Crawford from UNSW - new study where they replicated the EU kids study - the AU kids online study. Had a smaller sample of 400. Aged 9-16 conducted 6 months after the most recent 25 nation study in Europe. Interesting points:
- Aussie kids are amongst the youngest users amongst 25 countries compared.
- very high for mobile access, handheld devices.
- average use about an hour a day, and they're feeling guilty about it! 55% said they were spending more time online, and had tried unsuccessfully to spend less time online.
- top activities - still school work then videos, then games, then emailing, then social networking (around 63%) but 29% of 9 and 10 year olds are using social network sites. When it is 11-12 year olds, 59% have a profile. What does this mean in terms of regulation in terms of under 13 and privacy - also it's the start of secondary school that seems to act as a 'trigger'.
- more kids are using private settings.
- relationship between parents and kids - strong connective tissue - 2/3 of parents said they were talking regularly with kids about their internet use, with particular focus on younger girls and older boys.
- majority of kid enjoyed these discussions, but 48% said this was kind of limiting to their ability to create online.
Read more at
Kati London - Zynga
- used to work at area code - a cross media company that was platform agnostic - involved real world systems coming to life through game play (eg data on sharks that can be utilized on a site or game)
- worked on a 9-15 year old MMO game called 'Code of Everand' - kids 9-11 about road safety - were the highest percentage of kids getting injured or killed when crossing the street. Notion of 'road safety' considered a bit babyish for this age group.
- children in this world were called 'path finders' - they had to work together to navigate landscape to keep other people safe. Mechanics of play required route planning, etc, but the core game behaviour itself was using behaviour of crossing the street - using looking left and right mechanisms, using traps and spells to mitigate dangers, and get rewarded by 'crossing' over the path to the next level. s
Read more at http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?TRID=964
- what social structures and dynamics prevail in today's online communities and social networks?
- In what ways do these structures and dynamics affect peer and/or parent interactions?
- What are the affordances of online communities and social networks for discovery, learning, and development?
- young kids - can they make a disctinction between a real and virtual environment? Sandra Okita from Columbia Uni - doing a study with robots vs humans -- around 3 years old where they consider the worlds the same. this changes around 5 years.
- Andres Monroy Hernandez - build Scratch at MIT, now at Microsoft research. One thing consistent on Scratch community is idea of kids building other kids works, kids collaboration. The basic building block is the idea of building from scratch, and also building (remixes) of existing work. Around 30% are remixes. While kid's don't care about intellectual property, they're very proud of their work and get very upset if they feel content is simply taken or stolen. How to solve this is a question they have. For example, give automatic contribution to original people's work. But original users actually wanted personal attribution - eg personal 'thank you to ____ for creating _____ originally" - so remixing is not just about building about existing work, but collaborating, acknowledging, etc.
Some kids have built 'companies' on Scratch - decide to create a project collaboratively through remixing. eg. a girl from russia who is good at drawing posted drawings to the site, uploaded to for people, ended up creating a 'company' with a girl from UK - then everyone wanted to be in the 'company' so they decided to open for applications. That's how companies started on scratch!
Kate Crawford from UNSW - new study where they replicated the EU kids study - the AU kids online study. Had a smaller sample of 400. Aged 9-16 conducted 6 months after the most recent 25 nation study in Europe. Interesting points:
- Aussie kids are amongst the youngest users amongst 25 countries compared.
- very high for mobile access, handheld devices.
- average use about an hour a day, and they're feeling guilty about it! 55% said they were spending more time online, and had tried unsuccessfully to spend less time online.
- top activities - still school work then videos, then games, then emailing, then social networking (around 63%) but 29% of 9 and 10 year olds are using social network sites. When it is 11-12 year olds, 59% have a profile. What does this mean in terms of regulation in terms of under 13 and privacy - also it's the start of secondary school that seems to act as a 'trigger'.
- more kids are using private settings.
- relationship between parents and kids - strong connective tissue - 2/3 of parents said they were talking regularly with kids about their internet use, with particular focus on younger girls and older boys.
- majority of kid enjoyed these discussions, but 48% said this was kind of limiting to their ability to create online.
Read more at
Kati London - Zynga
- used to work at area code - a cross media company that was platform agnostic - involved real world systems coming to life through game play (eg data on sharks that can be utilized on a site or game)
- worked on a 9-15 year old MMO game called 'Code of Everand' - kids 9-11 about road safety - were the highest percentage of kids getting injured or killed when crossing the street. Notion of 'road safety' considered a bit babyish for this age group.
- children in this world were called 'path finders' - they had to work together to navigate landscape to keep other people safe. Mechanics of play required route planning, etc, but the core game behaviour itself was using behaviour of crossing the street - using looking left and right mechanisms, using traps and spells to mitigate dangers, and get rewarded by 'crossing' over the path to the next level. s
Read more at http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?TRID=964
JGC - definition of social networking
Discussion about the definition of what is a Social Networking Site (SNS) and how we need to merge the differences in platforms.
Steer away from trying to define tools and technology and focus on patterns and practices. For example, what are the patterns of pre-schoolers in how they use games, sites etc. What distinct patterns begin to emerge when looking at these behaviors across different technologies?
JGC paper writers want to still include tools and technologies - but need to be careful if we define a technology in a paper it might be obsolete in a few years.
Regardless of technology and social network - what are the developmental needs of children at these ages. Eg identity construction at different age groups. What's really important to preK? an 8 year old in terms of identity? How are 'friendship' patterns and kinds of interactions you see with boys and girls different, for example? What sort of needs are children going to bring in terms of the self?
A new paper released on digital use for young kids:
http://www.parentinginthedigitalage.com/2011/10/new-research-from-common-sense-media-media-use-0-8-years-of-age/
Steer away from trying to define tools and technology and focus on patterns and practices. For example, what are the patterns of pre-schoolers in how they use games, sites etc. What distinct patterns begin to emerge when looking at these behaviors across different technologies?
JGC paper writers want to still include tools and technologies - but need to be careful if we define a technology in a paper it might be obsolete in a few years.
Regardless of technology and social network - what are the developmental needs of children at these ages. Eg identity construction at different age groups. What's really important to preK? an 8 year old in terms of identity? How are 'friendship' patterns and kinds of interactions you see with boys and girls different, for example? What sort of needs are children going to bring in terms of the self?
A new paper released on digital use for young kids:
http://www.parentinginthedigitalage.com/2011/10/new-research-from-common-sense-media-media-use-0-8-years-of-age/
JGC - Networked Participation Workshop Summary
Hi all,
I'm currently attending a day long workshop set up with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center - the workshop has brought together about 15 experts in social media and networking for kids (lots of professors and brainiacs here, I'm feeling like a dork) - I'll post some interesting thoughts on this blog that I think you'll find interesting.
Aim: to better understand ways in which social networking technologies mediate kids (below age 12) socializing and providing opportunities or limitations for participation.
- They found there's not that much research out there for kids under 12.
- What types of platforms, venues and activities are being researched? What are not?
- Need to push debates beyond the same old issues.
- Need to broaden the scope when it comes to who and what we talk about when it comes to kids and social networking.
Starting points for defining social network in this discussion:
- a public or semi public profile within the system
- a list of other users with whom connections are shared eg friends
- the ability to view others list of connections (tempered by new affordances, privacy settings, child-centric design.)
- distinction between 'friendship-driven and interest driven genres of participation which correspond to different genres of youth culture, social network structure etc.
Age
- There was a lot of focus on young adults, teens and tweens. There's very little data on kids under 12, in particular kids under 9. However recent studies that hav included younger kids identify online social networking activities among children as young as 8 years. Use among this group varies significantly by age as well as by country, cultural context etc.
Digital Divides
- Issues remain, although inequality must move beyond simple questions of 'access' or 'use' / 'non-use'. Think about what kinds of participation, types of activities and under what conditions.
Broadening Platforms
- include platform systems (eg. LittleBigPlanet, Nintendo 3DS)
- need to think beyond traditional ways of learning. social networking is a key platform.
Discourses
- kids and social networking attracts alot of negative attention.
- must examine risk, controversy.
- What's not being discussed when the discussion is framed in the terms of privacy, copyright, safety?
I'm currently attending a day long workshop set up with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center - the workshop has brought together about 15 experts in social media and networking for kids (lots of professors and brainiacs here, I'm feeling like a dork) - I'll post some interesting thoughts on this blog that I think you'll find interesting.
Aim: to better understand ways in which social networking technologies mediate kids (below age 12) socializing and providing opportunities or limitations for participation.
- They found there's not that much research out there for kids under 12.
- What types of platforms, venues and activities are being researched? What are not?
- Need to push debates beyond the same old issues.
- Need to broaden the scope when it comes to who and what we talk about when it comes to kids and social networking.
Starting points for defining social network in this discussion:
- a public or semi public profile within the system
- a list of other users with whom connections are shared eg friends
- the ability to view others list of connections (tempered by new affordances, privacy settings, child-centric design.)
- distinction between 'friendship-driven and interest driven genres of participation which correspond to different genres of youth culture, social network structure etc.
Age
- There was a lot of focus on young adults, teens and tweens. There's very little data on kids under 12, in particular kids under 9. However recent studies that hav included younger kids identify online social networking activities among children as young as 8 years. Use among this group varies significantly by age as well as by country, cultural context etc.
Digital Divides
- Issues remain, although inequality must move beyond simple questions of 'access' or 'use' / 'non-use'. Think about what kinds of participation, types of activities and under what conditions.
Broadening Platforms
- include platform systems (eg. LittleBigPlanet, Nintendo 3DS)
- need to think beyond traditional ways of learning. social networking is a key platform.
Discourses
- kids and social networking attracts alot of negative attention.
- must examine risk, controversy.
- What's not being discussed when the discussion is framed in the terms of privacy, copyright, safety?
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