Extending boundaries – Empowering individuals
Extending boundaries – Empowering individuals
Editors Michaela Glöckler MD (original German), Richard Brinton (English edition), 2019,
ISBN 978-0952836414, paperback, sewn binding, 160 pages, colour illustrations. £10
This book provides valuable information for how to integrate digital media into children’s education and upbringing in an age-appropriate manner — and explains how inappropriate use can present significant dangers and risks for the child’s physiological and well as emotional and psychological development. It is now more relevant than ever in a post Covid-lockdown time where screen use has significantly increased.
Easily readable, very informative, the book is laid out in a very accessible way, packed full of colourful illustrations, photos and charts to demonstrate issues raised, along with suggestions for further reading material. It is being offered at a low price to make it affordable for as many as possible, considering the great importance of the issue for bringing up our children in a healthy manner, in a world highly dominated by digital technology.
“No school, early years setting or parental book-shelf should be without it – a must-buy for anyone and everyone concerned about these technologies, and what they’re doing to our humanity.”
Dr R. House
“It is the paradox of our digital future: brain development needs time and skilful play, work and action within the real world throughout the first 15 to 16 years. The result is the faculty of self control and self thinking, which is fundamental for media competence. The authors of this book, all specialists, offer practical advice for age appropriate brain stimulation, encouraging teachers and parents to find ways to protect their children from the unnecessary and damaging too early use of electronic devices. They give advice for helping children develop their unique creativity and to learn how to learn out of their own initiative.”
Dr Michaela Glöckler, Paediatrician
The book is available to order from your local bookstore and from many online sources, where used books are also available. To order a new book online, support our small independent online retailer which InterActions partners with by clicking here or on the link below.
https://www.wynstonespress.com/Growing-up-Healthy-in-a-World-of-Digital-Media.html
For book stores: Wynstones Press are also distributors; if you are a bookshop you can receive the books from them at wholesaler rate. Bookshops may also order through Gardners.
A number of the people and organisations who were behind the book, Growing up Healthy in a World of Digital Media, came together to make a short and very informative 20 minute film, summarising a number of key elements in the book. A must for all educators and parents!!
Preface to the original German edition
Preface to this edition
Introduction
1. Why this guide?
1.1 Media education aligned with childhood development
1.2 Strengthen your child’s experiences in the real world!
1.3 How we as parents provide guidance
2. Protecting children from mobile electromagnetic (EM) radiation – from the beginning! What we should take seriously
2.1 The biological effects of mobile radiation
2.2 Precautions and recommendations
3. Early childhood (0–3 years) Without screen media and without irradiating children’s toys!
3.1 What do young children need for their healthy development?
3.2 Screen media has a different effect on children
3.3 Tips for responsible media education during early childhood
4. Preschool age (4–6 years) Real world experience and movement – as much as possible!
4.1 What do children need for their healthy development?
4.2 This is the effect of screen media at nursery school age
4.3 Tips for responsible media education at nursery school age
5. The first years of school (6–9 years) Supervise and limit the use of screen media!
5.1 Developmental steps in the primary school years
5.2 Psychologists and paediatricians describe the fundamental needs of children
5.3 Tips for responsible media education at primary school age
6. From childhood to adolescence (10–16 years) On the path to media maturity
6.1 What do pubescent children need for their healthy development?
6.2 The impact of screen media
6.3 Tips for growing into mature and healthy media usage
6.4 Tips for long-term learning with new media
6.5 Security software and technical support
7. The dangers of using digital media
7.1 Stress associated with social media
7.2 Excessive media use and the dangers of addiction
7.3 Careless approach to private information
7.4 Cyber bullying and internet harassment
7.5 Sites on the net which are unsuitable for adolescents
8. Internet and the law – information for parents
8.1 The right of informational self-determination
8.2 Internet criminal law and the Youth Protection Act
8.3 Copyright law
8.4 Purchase agreements and liability in the internet
8.5 Legal obligations of parents, for example with WhatsApp
Bibliography and References
Partners/Sponsors
Acknowledgments
The book itself is packed with information and further resources. Nevertheless a couple are noted below. You are welcome to contact us if you have further resources for adding to the section below.
Physician Delaney Ruston became also a filmmaker over her concern for the health issues associated with children, teenagers and digital technology. Her group has produced three films on the subject, which can be hired out for showing at schools or other groups. All are worthwhile, but the first is excellent both for:
a) the medical and psychological background behind the serious concerns that increasing numbers of doctors, educators and parents are having about the addictive effects of screen use on young people (and adults!), and importantly:
b) practical considerations for working with your children and pupils and positive and effective ways for tackling these issues.
Their website alone contains an enormous amount of resources for parents and educators.
Website link for more information on the films and for numerous resources: https://www.screenagersmovie.com
Watch the official “SCREENAGERS Movie Trailer” from lisa tabb on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/215750447
or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LQx2X0BXgZg
The following is an informative short 7 minute program aired on PBS TV in the USA on Dr Delaney Ruston and her film Screenagers. In it Dr Ruston explores the medical reasons for the addictive effects on children and how this can help in searching for solutions for a way forward:
Apart from the above links and information, also useful for schools, the following link is specifically oriented towards schools and PTFA groups who may be working to clarify mobile (cell) phone policies in schools, demonstrating how an “Away for the day” policy can be best for all concerned, with even the majority of pupils agreeing! It shows how, if the courage and wherewithal are there for actually carrying out a mobile-free policy, the acceptance by pupils follows…
An example of (mostly positive!) pupil reactions to the ban of mobile phones in French schools is shown in the following short video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=540749333114771
Also for schools, the ELIANT “Position Paper on Digital Media in Childhood and Education” may be useful as background information for policies; it can be accessed at the following link:
https://eliant.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/June_2019_ENG_Long.pdf
Over five years ago, ELIANT produced several short two-minute video clips to promote the EU international petition that they were co-sponsoring for the promotion of free choice for schools for having digital-free settings in nurseries and primary schools. Even private schools were being threatened with mandatory state-enforced measures for the introduction of computers to small children. Partly as a result of their petition, this was not enforced in private schools, though state schools still had the trend for more and more. Below are the links for the three short YouTube clips. The links given at the end for the petition no longer work, as the petition is past, but all the information given is naturally still relevant.
First clip: “ELIANT Petition Video: The process of a healthy brain development”: https://youtu.be/79rOnh6aLxo
Second clip: “The impact of technologies on children’s social life | ELIANT’s Petition Video II”: https://youtu.be/SgSL5Mb2FTs
Third clip: “The importance of human focused education | ELIANT Video III”: https://youtu.be/3ECkjn6wRcY
Jonathan Haidt, author of the just recently published ‘The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness‘, in this short video speaks about his book and how smart phones are making our kids more anxious and… less smart!