Exposure to educational television has been shown to have positive effects on the social, intellectual, and educational development of children. Is it possible to find truly educational content on broadcast television? Articles below deal with 1) television broadcasters' obligation to provide educational programming for children, 2) efforts to shield children from indecenct programming, 3) advertising aimed at children and 4) children and violence.
Children and Media
How School Districts Are Outsmarting a Microbe
Confronting the unprecedented challenge of lengthy school closures because of coronavirus, the nation’s roughly 13,000 public school districts are scrambling to cope. Almost no district was truly ready to plunge into remote learning full time and with no end in sight. There is no one-size-fits-all remedy and no must-have suite of digital learning tools. Leaders have largely had to find their own way, spurring a hodgepodge of local innovations.
Our most vulnerable students need learning, internet now
Although the city of San Jose has neither authority nor budgetary responsibility over our 19 school districts, the city has a moral responsibility to support their critical work. Among the city’s many educational initiatives, it committed to close the digital divide in San Jose by launching the Digital Inclusion Partnership last year, to build digital skills and expand broadband access.
What the FCC Should Do Now to Support America and Our Learners
Here are five ideas about what the Federal Communications Commission can do, right now, to keep us as a country moving forward:
COVID-19 and the Distance Learning Gap
As schools across the country transition to distance learning due to the COVID-19 crisis, a new Connected Communities and Inclusive Growth (CCIG) report documents the extent of the distance learning gap in Los Angeles County. The distance learning gap refers to the gap between students living in households with high-speed Internet and a desktop or laptop computer, and those without these essential resources for effective distance learning. Among the key findings are:
Coronavirus for kids without internet: Quarantined worksheets, learning in parking lots
In the Symmes Valley Local School District in Lawrence County, in southern Ohio, Superintendent Darrell Humphreys estimates that less than 15% of his 800 students have “good internet,” capable of streaming video. The rural district has Wi-Fi in its two-building campus, when it’s open. But within a 30-minute drive there is no McDonald’s or other fast-food place that has an internet hot spot. In fact, “a large part of the district doesn’t even have cellphone service,” Humphreys said. Instead, assignment packets, about 20 pages each, have been mailed to each student’s home.
Seeking Your Help in Learning More About What Works in Distance Education: A Rapid Evidence Synthesis
The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences is announcing its first-ever cooperative rapid evidence synthesis. Here is what we have in mind:
Impact of Digital Skills Among Teens
4-H and Microsoft released a report that captures how much broadband can mean to youth and their communities. The report is based on a survey of more than 1,500 teens, ages 13 to 19, that was conducted in November 2019.
FCC Provides TV Stations Flexibility to Air Local Community Events, Like Religious Services
The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau issued a temporary, limited waiver to TV broadcasters to enable them to more easily air live and taped same-day local content, like religious services, during time slots regularly dedicated to children's programming
Campaign aims to get students connected
Common Sense Media is urging Congress to use the next round of coronavirus relief legislation to make sure all US students can connect to the internet. The campaign, dubbed "Connect All Students," comes as a poll from the group and SurveyMonkey finds that teens are worried they'll fall behind in school due to the pandemic. More than half of students whose in-person classes have been canceled worried about not being able to keep up with schoolwork and extracurricular activities.