Not too young to learn about the news: Best formats to educate about journalism in digital platforms
Keywords
News media literacy
Educative games
Children Participatory design
Best practices
Publication details
| Year: | 2021 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijcci.2020.100218 |
| Issued: | 2021 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 27 |
| Start Page: | 1 |
| End Page: | 9 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Campos I. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction |
| Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
| Topics: | Learning; Literacy and skills |
| Sample: | A sample of convenience of 20 females and 30 males (n=50)composed the final survey sample: 21 were second graders, 15 third graders and 14 fourth graders. Participants had between six and ten years old. This institution has been well placed in national school rankings. Most participating children came from well-placed economic households, where most parents hold at least aBA degree. |
| Implications For Educators About: | School innovation |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | High-quality content online for children and young people; Other |
| Other PolicyMaker Implication: | Opportunities of the use of technology in the classroom |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Industry |
Abstract
The educative game market is on the rise. However, research about digital resources that go beyond the common core standards, like games on news education, is still lacking. We already know that there are several advantages of the use of games to teach journalism students. Less is known about the use of similar games to teach children.
This paper helps educators and game developers improving digital platforms to extend news literacy education among children, by providing a list of 11 best formats to include in the design of such platforms. This study is the culmination of wider research that, using a mixed methods approach, included a formative evaluation of games available in the market, the creation of a new prototype, its piloting and its testing among a group of 50 children.
Outcome
"This study is the culmination of a wider research that started by a participatory exploratory study with children, a market assessment, the creation and piloting of a prototype. Based on the results of this study, and articulating those with the results of our previous studies, we have discussed a list of 11 formats that may help improve digital environments that propose to educate about the news. This study helps fill in the gap in the literature about news literacy education for elementary school children by providing concrete guidance to educators and game developers. In short, this is what we have learned:
•Digital simulations provide a rich environment to educate children about the news.
•Hosting the right equilibrium between fun and learn in a digital platform to educate about the news is key for children’s engagement and success with the learning experience.
•Children appreciate the use of real elements (stories and/or images and/or human discussions) to learn about the news. After all, journalism is about representing reality.
•Young children may learn concrete skills more rapidly, but they are also interested in discussing more complex abstract concepts, when learning about the news.
•The additional human-to-human contact should not be neglected when using digital platforms to educate children about the news.
•Digital platforms about the news should present a feature that allows starting the educative process from the learner’s interest" (Campos, I., 2021: 8).