The theme of balancing screen time is a reoccurring theme for me. Today is was mentioned in class. This is a very important issue. I feel that this conversation has to be had in every school because I have had relationships with teachers and parents who are worried about the child’s amount of screen time. I think they have to be reminded and reassured that first, computers are not replacing teachers, but enabling more learning to happen in a variety of different ways that can suit the unique needs of many children. Using digital technologies allows for more relationships and communication to happen as long as the students know how to use it are given clear guidelines. Yes after school students should doing something physically active, but the reality is, this is not happening with out more support and guidance from the parents. It is better for everyone if the child who goes home to an empty house with nothing to do, does something meaningful on the computer rather than sitting mindlessly at a game.
That leads me to my future vision project. The questions about my project continue to burst out of my head! I have been looking at more ways to include a place for student made ebooks to be stored and viewed. I really want to draw students to the website. I have worked closely with students in grade two and three who don’t have access to any books in their home!!! Their family doesn’t go to the public library leaving them limited to the few books they take home from the library or a few books that I give them to take. From my research I have discovered there are not free ebooks available online which are low level and high interest for my struggling readers. I want ebooks to be available for these students when they are at home alone with nothing else to do but be at the computer. The students will be drawn to their books because the reading level will be at a lower level since the books are made by students in different grade levels.
The participants going to the website are teachers and students. The learners are the teachers and learners. Kate has been working diligently at creating a useful website for teachers. I have been concentrating on ways to attract the student audience. The design has to be basic and very visual with only a few words leading students to the ebooks. These kids are not going to spend patience are desire to read the website. They have one reason to be there and that is to read a book that their friend made or a student they connected with from another school. This of course will lead them to opening up other books.
To create awareness for teachers I have to begin face to face. I have to connect with the teachers I know. These are teachers I work with, or have a relationship with from other schools. I also need to use twitter to connect and spread the word. I guess I can’t put off using twitter any longer!!
I think the issue of children’s screen time / activity balance is a huge concern and so it should be! We are all facing the challenge of how we conduct our affairs when our worklike is largely carried out on a screen. How are we balancing the time we are sitting with being active? I adopted two shelter dogs a few years ago because my work was all screen related and I was having a hard time dragging myself away. Now I walk at least 1 – 2 hours a day in all weather. I still spend a lot of time on a computer screen, but I balance it with time outside, appreciating the seasons, the dogs, and my neighbourhood. The problem of isolation is a big one. We can use our digital technologies to build connections when we would otherwise be lonely. That doesn’t mean our entire social life is conducted through screens. These are great ideas, Tess. I wonder what it would be like to have age level and grade level books written by kids for kids. They could be published online in the form of blogs – the blog is the format for the book.