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A Tale of Two Research Studies – Contradictory Evidence

August 18, 2019 by Erica Hargreave Leave a Comment

A recent assignment for my Master of Educational Technology in ETEC 500 – Research Methodologies in Education had me examining two contradictory research studies to explore how they could come up with such different findings. For me, this shone a spotlight on why it is so very important to teach media literacy, critical thinking, research skills, the scientific method and proper scientific inquiry (as oppose to science as rote learning, which too often happens), and data analysis.

Photo care of Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash.
Photo care of Brett Jordan via Unsplash

In the media that we consume, we see a lot of articles and statements with bold claims that contradict each other. As a scientist, I am all too aware of how data can be manipulated to seemingly support one claim or another out of bias or at times for more nefarious reasons involving things like politics and finances. Since I have been studying educational technologies, one such topic of contradiction in research studies has been the impact of screen time on children. This is further aggravated by media outlets utilizing the research to create sensationalized headlines, often that misrepresents the data.

Recently I read one such article by Andrew Przybylski and Amy Orben in The Guardian, We’re told that too much screen time hurts our kids. Where’s the evidence? At the time of reading this, I found myself questioning the validity of the questions that were asked of the teens around their social media use, in the collection of data. I also found the title of the article to be misleading, as it mentions screen time use, yet the study focuses on social media use. While you are on your screen when using social media, screen time is a much broader topic to social media use.

My niece’s screen use for the day.

Pondering this article, made me think that perhaps we are missing the important questions here. Screen based technologies are becoming more and more an important part of our lives, and as such part of our schooling, so rather than the extreme viewpoints of ‘screen based technologies are our salvation’ or ‘screen based technologies breed evil’, the questions I wish to ask are around healthy use of those screen based technologies to find the balance both in the classroom and outside of it. While I work on screen based technologies and create both screen based stories and edtech, it is important to me that I do so in a way that is healthy for my audience and my students. I know that for myself, personally, too much of certain types of screen use gives me headaches and can make me feel anxious. Video games were like this for me as a kid, and as I had a slightly addictive nature with them, is why I now avoid them. I also know that when dealing with a concussion, I’ve had to be very careful with my screen time, as too much screen time aggravates the concussion symptoms. This is something that I wrote about in this article on Researching Optimal Screen Time Limits for Classroom Activities for Different Screen Based Activities.

Screens, screens, and more screens, whichever way you look.
Photo care of Constellate via Unsplash.

From the list of research studies that I compiled in the aforementioned article, I looked for two articles with bolder statements in their titles that appeared to contradict one another. The contradictory articles I selected were ‘Everything in Moderation: Moderate Use of Screens Unassociated with Child Behaviour Problems‘ by Christopher J Ferguson in Psychiatric Quarterly (December 2017) and ‘Screen Time is Associated with Depression and Anxiety in Canadian Youth‘ by Danijela Maras, Martine F. Flament, Nicole Obeid, Marisa Murray, Annick Buchholz, Katherine A. Henderson, and Gary Goldfield in Preventative Medicine (April 2015).

‘Everything in Moderation: Moderate Use of Screens Unassociated with Child Behaviour Problems’ by Christopher J Ferguson takes a representative correlational sample of youth from the State of Florida and assessed them for links between screen time and risky behavioral outcomes. Risky behavioral outcomes in terms of this study were classified as delinquency, risky behaviors, sexual behaviors, substance abuse, reduced grades or mental health problems. In reading this study and comparing it to Maras et al (2015)’s study, my interests were specifically in regards to correlations between screen time and mental health problems. The conclusions made in this study were that “use of screens that was moderately high, in excess of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ former recommendations of limiting screen time per day to 2 hours, but not excessive, was not associated with delinquency, risky behaviors, sexual behaviors, substance abuse, reduced grades or mental health problems. Even excessive screen use was only weakly associated with negative outcomes related to delinquency, grades and depression only, and at levels unlikely to be practically significant.”

Photo care of Tom Sodoge via Unsplash.

The research study ‘Screen Time is Associated with Depression and Anxiety in Canadian Youth’ by researchers Danijela Maras, Martine F. Flament, Nicole Obeid, Marisa Murray, Annick Buchholz, Katherine A. Henderson, and Gary Goldfield, “examined the relationships between screen time and symptoms of depression and anxiety in a large community sample of Ottawa youth.” The conclusions drawn from this study are that “screen time may represent a risk factor or marker of anxiety and depression in adolescents”, and that “future research is needed to determine if reducing screen time aids the prevention and treatment of these psychiatric disorders in youth.”

Similarities that exist in both studies include the age of youth – 12 -18 in Ferguson (2017) and 11 – 20 in Maras et al (2015), large sample sizes – 6089 in Ferguson (2017) and 2482 in Maras et al (2015), and school based parent and student opt-in surveys. Difference include the communities the studies were conducted in – Florida in Ferguson (2017) and Ottawa in Maras et al (2015), the types of questions asked on the surveys, different intent between the studies – examining risky behaviour in Ferguson (2017) and examining mental wellbeing in Maras et al (2015), and the delineation of the types of screen based activities in the screen based portion of the questionnaire.

A wee drama queen in my life, hamming it up for the camera, as she laments hitting her screen time limits for the day.

There are many things that could cause the different findings in these two studies. Included in this could be external social and cultural differences that were not measured in the two different communities in which the studies were conducted that might be impacting student responses, the difference in the questions posed in the two different communities, bias of the researchers impacting the interpretation of the data collected, and the different intent in designing the two different studies with the intent of Ferguson (2017) examining risky behaviours and the intent of Maras et al (2015) examining mental wellbeing. In examining the two studies, I suspect the most likely cause for the contradictory findings between the two studies with regards to collecting data around depression is in the questions asked in the surveys with regards to depression. In Ferguson (2017) the scale used consisted of three items related to depressive symptoms. An example of one item was “During the past 12 months, did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing some usual activities?” Whereas in (Maras et al, 2015) they used a pre-established and tested questionnaire, the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), consisting of 27 items reflecting cognitive, affective, and behavioural signs of depression (Kovacs, 1992). Similarly for anxiety, they used the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, which is a 10-item, self-reporting scale that is a short and efficient global measure of anxiety symptoms (March et al, 1999). Having spent the past 6-years having to fill out such surveys regularly during treatments, post two car accidents, depression is complex and multilayered and requires more than 3 questions to assess. Assessing depression as “During the past 12 months, did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing some usual activities?” is more of an extreme scenario, and misses many other indicators of depression.

As such, after examining these two studies, I am more apt to give the data in Maras et al (2015) more credence. The only way, however, to scientifically test whether the difference in the two reports were based on the manner in which depression is being tested is to replicate the studies in the different communities. Using Ferguson’s scale, what results would be found in Ottawa? Using Maras et al’s questionnaire, what results would be found in Florida?

Have you discovered contradictory studies in your research? What were the potential causes of this?


Works Cited

Ferguson, C. J. (2017). Everything in moderation: moderate use of screens unassociated with child behavior problems. Psychiatric quarterly, 88(4), 797-805.

Hargreave, E. (2019, July 26). Researching Optimal Screen Time Limits for Classroom Activities for Different Screen Based Activities [Web log post]. Retrieved August 16, 2019, from https://ericahargreave.com/2019/07/researching-optimal-screen-time-limits-for-classroom-activities-for-different-screen-based-activities/

Kovacs, M. (1992). Children’s depression inventory: Manual(p. Q8). North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems.

Maras, D., Flament, M. F., Murray, M., Buchholz, A., Henderson, K. A., Obeid, N., & Goldfield, G. S. (2015). Screen time is associated with depression and anxiety in Canadian youth. Preventive, 73, 133-138.

March, J. S., Sullivan, K., & Parker, J. (1999). Test-retest reliability of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children. Journal of anxiety disorders, 13(4), 349-358.

Przybylski, A., & Orben, A. (2019, July 7). We’re told that too much screen time hurts our kids. Where’s the evidence? The Guardian. Retrieved August 16, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/07/too-much-screen-time-hurts-kids-where-is-evidence?

Filed Under: Blog, EdTech, ETEC 500, Master's Work, Research Tagged With: educational technology, ETEC 500, Master of Educational Technology, screen time

Researching Optimal Screen Time Limits for Classroom Activities for Different Screen Based Activities

July 26, 2019 by Erica Hargreave 3 Comments

As a part of ETEC 500: Research Methodology in Education for my Master of Educational Teachnology, I was asked to experiment with using a citation manager to compile a list of research studies that are relevant to my research area of interest.

Research Areas of Interest of Erica Hargreave in July of 2019.
My Erica Hargreave’s Research Areas of Interest in July 2019

For those of you that read my post entitled ‘An Introduction to ETEC 500: Research Methodology in Education, and my Current Research Interests‘, you will remember that my research areas of interest are many and are quite broad. As such I decided to define my search to address an area that has been concerning me from a design perspective around an upcoming educational storytelling piece that my team and I at Ahimsa Media are developing. To explore history immersively around World War II, both in places where history took place and to take that back into classrooms, we are looking at educational technology solutions in AR and VR. As these will create better learning experiences if the users are comfortable in the space, I have been concerned over VR motion sickness and have been attending talks for over a year now, including medical ones, asking questions with regards to ideal times spent in these virtual spaces to limit the likelihood of negative health impacts on the user, like VR motion sickness. Subjectively with the sample size of me, along with anecdotal conversations I have had with people working with virtual reality, it would seem that elements like higher quality filming and the comfort and ease of use of the headset all help in limiting VR motion sickness. But in terms of optimal time limits in the virtual space to limit the impact of those experiences on users and how this differs between age groups and people with different health issues, due to how quickly virtual reality technology has been changing researcher and practitioners still do not have any significant data on this. While this is something that I am continuing to keep a close eye on, so that when creating our storytelling pieces we are creating pieces that are comfortable for the user, it did bring up broader questions for me about screen time in education.

Children in Virtual Reality
Photo care of the stem.T4L project, via Unsplash. 

Often what we read in the media, with regards to screen time and youth, are extreme pieces of woe, warning people of screen time perils, or the polar opposite of that, presenting the warnings as the subjective ramblings of people afraid of technological advancements. My own personal believes, from my own experiences of at times excessive screen use, is everything in moderation. Screen based technologies are a part of our lives now, and they come with both positive and negative outcomes. As educators, I feel that one of our roles now is to teach healthy use of those screen based technologies – whether our student is 3 years old, a twenty-something, or over the age of seventy. In order to do that, we also need to gain understanding of optimal screen times for different screen based activities ourselves – whether working on the computer, gaming, watching a video, experiencing a virtual environment …etc. As a classroom teacher, how should I break up the day / activities, so as to not cause adverse health impacts on my students and to teach them to diversify their activities to break up their screen time? What if the classes are intensives on working with screen based technologies – how do I keep student wellbeing top of mind, and teach them healthy screen time skills at the same time? In my case, many of my classes are online, so are entirely screen based – are there ways that I can help remind my students to take digital breaks within that?

Child gaming.
Photograph by Alex Haney, via Unsplash.

These many questions, lead to the query for my research investigation, which is on the ‘Optimal Screen Time Limits for Classroom Activities for Different Screen Based Activities’. As you will see below, most of the research studies I found were driven by health professionals, rather than educators. To focus my findings, I excluded studies that were focused on obesity or violence. A lot of research studies I compiled explore screen time and health and wellbeing, as you will see from the screen shot of the research list that I compiled in Mendeley (the citation manager that I chose to use).

A small tease to the research I have been compiling into optimal screen times.

102 papers is A LOT, so I organized the research findings into a number of folders, and focused on the ones that I thought most likely to show evidence of optimal screen times before we spark adverse symptoms in our students from too much screen time. Below is the reference list of research studies, that will hopefully help to answer my query of ‘Optimal Screen Time Limits for Classroom Activities for Different Screen Based Activities’.

>> Reference List of Research Studies for Investigating Optimal Screen Time Limits for Classroom Activities as Created by Erica HargreaveDownload

REFERENCE LIST (compiled by Erica Hargreave)

Exploring Query on:

Optimal Screen Time Limits for Classroom Activities for Different Screen Based Activities

Screen time and young children: Promoting health and development in a digital world. (2018). Paediatrics & Child Health, 23(1), 83–83. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxx197

Atkin, A. J., Sharp, S. J., Corder, K., & Van Sluijs, E. M. F. (2014). Prevalence and correlates of screen time in youth: An international perspective. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.07.043

Babic, M. J., Morgan, P. J., Plotnikoff, R. C., Lonsdale, C., Eather, N., Skinner, G., … Lubans, D. R. (2015). Rationale and study protocol for “Switch-off 4 Healthy Minds” (S4HM): A cluster randomized controlled trial to reduce recreational screen time in adolescents. Contemporary Clinical Trials. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2014.12.001

Babic, M. J., Smith, J. J., Morgan, P. J., Eather, N., Plotnikoff, R. C., & Lubans, D. R. (2017). Longitudinal associations between changes in screen-time and mental health outcomes in adolescents. Mental Health and Physical Activity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2017.04.001

Babic, M. J., Smith, J. J., Morgan, P. J., Lonsdale, C., Plotnikoff, R. C., Eather, N., … Lubans, D. R. (2016). Intervention to reduce recreational screen-time in adolescents: Outcomes and mediators from the ‘Switch-Off 4 Healthy Minds’ (S4HM) cluster randomized controlled trial. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.07.014

Blinka, L., Ška?upová, K., Šev?íková, A., Wölfling, K., Müller, K. W., & Dreier, M. (2014). Excessive internet use in European adolescents: What determines differences in severity? International Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0635-x

Brindova, D., Pavelka, J., Šev?ikova, A., Žežula, I., van Dijk, J. P., Reijneveld, S. A., … Madarasova Geckova, A. (2014). How parents can affect excessive spending of time on screen-based activities. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 1261. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1261

Brindova, D., Veselska, Z. D., Klein, D., Hamrik, Z., Sigmundova, D., van Dijk, J. P., … Geckova, A. M. (2014). Is the association between screen-based behaviour and health complaints among adolescents moderated by physical activity? International Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0627-x

Busch, V., Manders, L. A., & De Leeuw, J. R. J. (2013). Screen time associated with health behaviors and outcomes in adolescents. American Journal of Health Behavior. https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.37.6.11

Domingues-Montanari, S. (2017). Clinical and psychological effects of excessive screen time on children. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.13462

Duch, H., Fisher, E. M., Ensari, I., & Harrington, A. Screen time use in children under 3 years old: A systematic review of correlates. , 10 § (2013).

Ferguson, C. J. (2017). Everything in Moderation: Moderate Use of Screens Unassociated with Child Behavior Problems. Psychiatric Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-016-9486-3

Fitzpatrick, C., Burkhalter, R., & Asbridge, M. (2019). Adolescent media use and its association to wellbeing in a Canadian national sample. Preventive Medicine Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.100867

Friedrich, R. R., Polet, J. P., Schuch, I., & Wagner, M. B. (2014). Effect of intervention programs in schools to reduce screen time: A meta-analysis. Jornal de Pediatria. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2014.01.003

Grøntved, A., Singhammer, J., Froberg, K., Møller, N. C., Pan, A., Pfeiffer, K. A., & Kristensen, P. L. (2015). A prospective study of screen time in adolescence and depression symptoms in young adulthood. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.08.009

Guernsey, L. (n.d.). Into The Minds Of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children From Birth To Age Five. Retrieved from www.naeyc.org

Hamer, M., Stamatakis, E., & Mishra, G. D. (2010). Television- and Screen-Based Activity and Mental Well-Being in Adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2009.12.030

Herman, K. M., Hopman, W. M., & Sabiston, C. M. (2015). Physical activity, screen time and self-rated health and mental health in Canadian adolescents. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.01.030

Hinkley, T., Salmon, J., Okely, A. D., & Crawford, D. (2013). The correlates of preschoolers’ compliance with screen recommendations exist across multiple domains. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2013.05.020

Iannotti, R. J., Kogan, M. D., Janssen, I., & Boyce, W. F. (2009). Patterns of Adolescent Physical Activity, Screen-Based Media Use, and Positive and Negative Health Indicators in the U.S. and Canada. Journal of Adolescent Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.10.142

Jongenelis, M. I., Scully, M., Morley, B., Pratt, I. S., & Slevin, T. (2018). Physical activity and screen-based recreation: Prevalences and trends over time among adolescents and barriers to recommended engagement. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.10.006

Keane, E., Kelly, C., Molcho, M., & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2017). Physical activity, screen time and the risk of subjective health complaints in school-aged children. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.12.011

Kremer, P., Elshaug, C., Leslie, E., Toumbourou, J. W., Patton, G. C., & Williams, J. (2014). Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2013.03.012

Lissak, G. (2018). Adverse physiological and psychological effects of screen time on children and adolescents: Literature review and case study. Environmental Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.015

Madhav, K. C., Sherchand, S. P., & Sherchan, S. (2017). Association between screen time and depression among US adults. Preventive Medicine Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2017.08.005

Maniccia, D. M., Davison, K. K., Marshall, S. J., Manganello, J. A., & Dennison, B. A. (2011). A Meta-analysis of Interventions That Target Children’s Screen Time for Reduction. PEDIATRICS. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-2353

Maras, D., Flament, M. F., Murray, M., Buchholz, A., Henderson, K. A., Obeid, N., & Goldfield, G. S. (2015). Screen time is associated with depression and anxiety in Canadian youth. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.01.029

Marques, A., Calmeiro, L., Loureiro, N., Frasquilho, D., & de Matos, M. G. (2015). Health complaints among adolescents: Associations with more screen-based behaviours and less physical activity. Journal of Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.07.018

Martin, K. (2011). Electronic Overload: The Impact of Excessive Screen Use on Child and Adolescent Health and Wellbeing.

Ponti, M. (2019). Digital media: Promoting healthy screen use in school-aged children and adolescents. Retrieved from Canadian Paediatric Society website:  https://www.cps.ca/en/documents/position/digital-media

Ponti, M., Bélanger, S., Grimes, R., Heard, J., Johnson, M., Moreau, E., … Williams, R. (2017). Screen time and young children: Promoting health and development in a digital world. Paediatrics & Child Health, 22(8), 461–468. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxx123

Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2017). A Large-Scale Test of the Goldilocks Hypothesis: Quantifying the Relations Between Digital-Screen Use and the Mental Well-Being of Adolescents. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616678438

Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2019). Digital Screen Time Limits and Young Children’s Psychological Well-Being: Evidence From a Population-Based Study. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13007

Ralph, R., & Petrina, S. (2018). Social Learning with Mobile Devices in Preschool Classrooms. European Journal of STEM Education, 3(3). https://doi:10.20897/ejsteme/3872

Radesky, J. S., Schumacher, J., & Zuckerman, B. (2014). Mobile and interactive media use by young children: The good, the bad and the unknown | EurekAlert! Science News. Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2014-2251

Ramirez, E. R., Norman, G. J., Rosenberg, D. E., Kerr, J., Saelens, B. E., Durant, N., & Sallis, J. F. (2011). Adolescent screen time and rules to limit screen time in the home. Journal of Adolescent Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.07.013

Ramsey Buchanan, L., Rooks-Peck, C. R., Finnie, R. K. C., Wethington, H. R., Jacob, V., Fulton, J. E., … Glanz, K. (2016). Reducing Recreational Sedentary Screen Time: A Community Guide Systematic Review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2015.09.030

Saunders, T. J., & Vallance, J. K. (2017). Screen Time and Health Indicators Among Children and Youth: Current Evidence, Limitations and Future Directions. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-016-0289-3

Schaan, C. W., Cureau, F. V., Sbaraini, M., Sparrenberger, K., Kohl, H. W., & Schaan, B. D. (2019). Prevalence of excessive screen time and TV viewing among Brazilian adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Jornal de Pediatria. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2018.04.011

Shiue, I. (2015). Duration of daily TV/screen watching with cardiovascular, respiratory, mental and psychiatric health: Scottish Health Survey, 2012-2013. International Journal of Cardiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2015.03.259

Smith, L., Louw, Q., Crous, L., & Grimmer-Somers, K. (2009). Prevalence of neck pain and headaches: Impact of computer use and other associative factors. Cephalalgia. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2982.2008.01714.x

Swartz, M. K. (2017). Taking Another Look at Screen Time for Young Children. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2017.01.006

Taehtinen, R. E., Sigfusdottir, I. D., Helgason, A. R., & Kristjansson, A. L. (2014). Electronic screen use and selected somatic symptoms in 10-12 year old children. Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.017

Torsheim, T., Eriksson, L., Schnohr, C. W., Hansen, F., Bjarnason, T., & Välimaa, R. (2010). Screen-based activities and physical complaints among adolescents from the Nordic countries. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-324

Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population- based study. Preventive Medicine Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.003

Wahi, G., Parkin, P. C., Beyene, J., Uleryk, E. M., & Birken, C. S. (2011). Effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing screen time in children: A systematic review and meta- analysis of randomized controlled trials. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.122

Wang, C., Li, K., Kim, M., Lee, S., & Seo, D. C. (2019). Association between psychological distress and elevated use of electronic devices among U.S. adolescents: Results from the youth risk behavior surveillance 2009-2017. Addictive Behaviors. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.10.037

Zhao, J., Zhang, Y., Jiang, F., Ip, P., Ho, F. K. W., Zhang, Y., & Huang, H. (2018). Excessive Screen Time and Psychosocial Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Body Mass Index, Sleep Duration, and Parent-Child Interaction. Journal of Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.06.029

Zink, J., Belcher, B. R., Kechter, A., Stone, M. D., & Leventhal, A. M. (2019). Reciprocal associations between screen time and emotional disorder symptoms during adolescence. Preventive Medicine Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.01.014

If you have a research study that you think I should add to this list, please add it in the comments below. I would also love to hear in the comments below, if you have ways to maintain healthy screen time limits, either in your classroom or within your life and work.

Oh, and if you would like any of the lists of research studies that I have begun to compiled please shoot me an email via my ‘Contact Page‘.

Filed Under: Blog, EdTech, ETEC 500, Master's Work, Research Tagged With: educational technology, ETEC 500, Master of Educational Technology, screen time, virtual reality, VR

An Introduction to ETEC 500: Research Methodology in Education, and my Current Research Interests

July 15, 2019 by Erica Hargreave 1 Comment

I am busy at the moment working on a Master of Educational Technology (MET) at UBC, with a focus towards using what I learn through this Master’s towards our team’s storytelling, my speaking, and the teaching I do – both online and offline. With this there are four core courses to the Master’s:

  • ETEC 500: Research Methodology in Education
  • ETEC 510: Design of Technology-Supported Learning Environments
  • ETEC 511: Foundations of Educational Technology
  • ETEC 512: Applications of Learning Theories to Instruction
Master of Educational Technology at UBC

Over the next few weeks, I will be blogging here about my thoughts and reflections with regards to the various things that I am learning about as I work through the ETEC 500 course content.

My hopes for this course?

writing
Photo care of fotografierende, via Unsplash.

Ultimately, I am hoping ETEC 500 helps me to better organize my thoughts and academic writing for the ETEC 580 projects that I intend to do throughout my MET Program. Also I am hoping that it will be a good reminder to me of what is expected in terms of academic writing.

The latter is also a fear of mine, as the reason I was able to figure out how utilize the digital sphere to tell stories in different ways, allowing the community to feel a part of those stories and create storyworlds, is that I let go of the conventional rules of mainstream media and approached the space in a creatively scientific manner. This meant following my intuition, whilst constantly experimenting and applying the scientific method to the things my team and I try. As I write this, I think, maybe I don’t need to be so worried about that in a course that explores research, but then the reason why I do is that my perception of academic writing has always been one of formality and rigid rules, even though when I look at it, it is research and scientific inquiry that has allowed my creative career to blossom. Something to mull over, I guess, as dive further into this course.

Research Interests

One of the first things we’ve been asked to do in this course, is to create a concept map to explore research areas of interest to us. I first did this a year ago, before I had to hit pause on the course due to a concussion.

In looking back, here were my research interests a year ago:

Research Interests in June of 2018

The process of creating this concept map and thinking about it, very much helped me solidify the directions of my research interests, and encouraged me to act on them to further my team’s work with StoryToGo and our web series, to start speaking more internationally again, and to ease back into my Master’s course work through ETEC 580 projects.

Sustainable Funding Research

In looking at this, I decided to start with ‘exploring different funding models, ideally that would allow content to reach communities world wide and be free to watch and utilize in the classroom.’ The question of sustainable funding is an important one for myself and my team at Ahimsa Media in funding our web series and other educational storytelling projects. It is also an area that we hope to be able to demonstrate to our media students at BCIT, as well as the broader storytelling community, that there is an alternative to the coveted broadcast contract, and that broadcast contracts are not a mark of merit or success for your ideas and creations. There are alternatives to creating and to financial success in creating.

Given that I decided to focus my first ETEC 580 project on ‘Sustainable Funding Models for Free and Open Educational Resources and Educational Based Storytelling Projects’ and interview a number of educational based storytelling creators on the funding models behind their projects. With this, as I was already going to be in Europe in April to speak in Switzerland, I pitched 4 talks to the OER19 Conference in Galway, Ireland to use as a deadline for getting much of this research done. In pitching these talks, as I like working with others, I invited both my colleague Lori Yearwood and my past BCIT student and fellow MET student Mary McDonald to be a part of the talks and the research with me. All four talks were accepted, but due to scheduling difficulties we only ended up giving 3 of the talks:

  • Open Educational Resource Funding Models and Case Studies (a research talk given by Mary McDonald and I, with Lori Yearwood’s help on the research)
  • Finding Funding and Building Sustainability Around Arts and Environmental Storytelling (a workshop given by Mary McDonald and I)
  • A Tale of Resilience: Turning ‘Nos’ Into an Internationally Award Winning Web Series – Naturally Ours: A Case Study (a case study shared by Lori Yearwood and I)
Our workshop at 0ER19, on Finding Funding and Building Sustainability Around Arts and Environmental Storytelling.
Mary and I presenting our workshop on ‘Finding Funding and Building Sustainability Around Arts and Environmental Storytelling’.

OER19 was a great experience, and we greatly benefited from the advice that our ETEC 580 Supervisor and eCampus Ontario CEO David Porter gave us into the various groups of thought in the open education community. While this conference introduced us to the interesting and creative work that people from around the world are doing in education, and more specifically around open education, the most beneficial part for me was meeting the people there, and beginning to build relationships with people whose work I now follow. Many of those individuals I have David Porter and MET Alumna and Faculty-wide Programs Instructional Specialist Yvonne Dawydiak to thank for introducing us to leading up to the conference (and the fact that MET Alumna Danielle Dubien decided to become our conference wing woman, certainly did not hurt either).

Participants at OER19 in Galway, Ireland.
Just a few of the many wonderful characters at OER19 in Galway, Ireland.

We’ve really enjoyed the research and interviews we’ve done as a part of this ETEC 580 project, and as one of Lori’s and my goals with StoryToGo has been to provide useful case studies for other storytellers and educators, we will likely continue to add to these case studies over time. Recently, we have designed a new site for StoryToGo to house these case studies on sustainable funding, and Mary has posted the first four case studies based on interviews she conducted. In the coming weeks, you will find additional case studies on the site, from interviews that Lori and I conducted, and we will be releasing the interviews themselves, vlogcast-style to a new YouTube Channel that we are building for StoryToGo.

StoryToGo.ca
StoryToGo.ca, sporting it’s new party dress.

From this research, we also identified a problem within the Open Educational Community, that we pitched and has been accepted to the OE Global 2019 Conference. The action lab that we pitch is Lori’s idea and is entitled ‘Drawing Eyes and Building Awareness Around OERs’. You can read the abstract below:

While the Open Educational Resource (OER) community does a wonderful job of engaging with one another online, open educational resources are difficult to find, much of the conversation and resource building is limited to academia, and the broader educational and content creation communities are unaware of OERs and the OER community. For OERS to become more mainstream, we need to engage educators and content creators beyond academia in the conversation.  We need to stop limiting our conversation to educational silos defined by what type of institution or organization that we work within. In addition, we need to make OERs easier to find. While there are some wonderful initiatives happening to aggregate and spread OER content, like the OER World Map and Open Education Week, we need to look at ways to increase the conversation around OERs in an ongoing manner throughout the year, in conversations with the broader educational and content creation communities. By improving the visibility to platforms that are aggregating OERs and broadening the conversation around OERs into expanding network of educators, we make OERs easier to find, and hopefully encourage a broader group of educators and content creators to contribute OERs to OER aggregators.

Our goal in this session is to come together to start planning ways to bring OERs into broader conversations amongst educators and content creators.

XR (VR, AR, MR) Research

Virtual Reality - Image care of Samuel Zellar, via Unsplash.
Image care of Samuel Zellar, via Unsplash.

As I have been working on the above research, I have also been slowly easing into my next ETEC 580, which I am using to help answer questions and design our approach on how best to structure some educational storytelling pieces around World War II that will help to better connect school children with the DDay Landings at Juno Beach and the Normandy Campaign. We’ve been looking to AR, VR, and web series to find creative solutions for this, with artifacts designed for family audiences that we could leave throughout the Maple Leaf Trails in Normandy, as well as storytelling pieces that could transport Canadian school children from their classrooms through time and space to Normandy, both in present day and to the Spring / Summer of 1944. In approaching this, I have begun by gently (given the concussion) immersing myself in and exploring XR (AR, VR, and MR). Part of this was attending last summer’s MET Summer Institute, EDUC 490V: VR Viewpoints on a New Medium and various XR events in the community when possible, focusing some of our ETEC 580 Sustainable Funding interviews on educational XR projects, doing some on the ground research in Normandy (in between talks in Ireland and Switzerland), and using our travel journalism work to explore a few educational XR experiences (to see what we like and don’t like about some of things that currently exist, and use those experiences to help to further shape the direction of the AR and VR experiences that we are looking to create).

Testing out the Mixed Reality Experience at Tremona-Castello Archaeological Park in Ticino, Switzerland.
Testing out the Mixed Reality Experience at Tremona-Castello Archaeological Park in Ticino, Switzerland.

Now, as I mentioned above, it helps my team and I in our work to create deadlines, usually in the form of something public that we are working towards. Thus, I also pitched and had accepted a research talk at the OE Global 2019 Conference on the XR research I have been doing around educational and storytelling XR projects. The talk is entitled ‘Challenges and Solutions to Creating Accessible OERs with AR, VR, and MR’. You can read the abstract below:

Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) are exciting technologies to explore in finding new ways to bring history, stories, science and the arts to life in a way that entertains, engages and ultimately educates students.  While newer and sexier, these technologies are not the solution to every project. You must first ask yourself why AR, VR or MR?  What problem would these technologies solve for you? Would another medium be more effective in reaching your goals?  If AR, VR, or MR is the right fit for your project, then what are the AR, VR, or MR challenges  in addressing the needs of your project – looking at everything from connectivity, to ease of use, to comfort, to hardware, to funding …etc?  

To aid in answering these questions, we explore case studies from a number of organizations, around the world, using AR, VR, and MR as educational solutions.  In the process we will examine the challenges and successes that they have had with these technologies.  Additionally, we will explore their decisions in making their creations open, free, or restricted, and why.

My plan is to use presenting this research as Stage 1 for my next ETEC 580 project, with Stage 2 being to properly write up our own AR and VR solutions for the WWII project for grant applications.

In re-approaching this course, a year later, I decided to create a fresh concept map on my research interests, in order to reflect on where I am at with all of this at the moment. You can see my current research interests below:

Research Interests in July 2019.
Research Interests in July 2019.

Thanks for joining me on this journey into research methodologies in education and research for the sake of my own interests. Please share any thoughts or research interests of your own that you may have, in the comments below.

Filed Under: Blog, EdTech, ETEC 500, Master's Work, Research Tagged With: edtech, educational technology, ETEC 500, Master of Educational Technology, Open Education, sustainable funding, XR

Pokemon Go: Teaching Your Kids to Use Pokemon Go Safely

July 27, 2016 by Erica Hargreave 1 Comment

Pokemon spotted at the at Mei Foo Skatepark.
Pokemon spotted at the at Mei Foo Skatepark, by Warren RM Stuart.

Love it or hate it – if you have school age kids, you can’t simply ignore the Pokemon Go App, hope it goes away or hope that your kids don’t discover it.  The fact of the matter, even if your kids don’t have a smartphone or tablet, they’ve probably already been playing Pokemon Go with their friends on their devices.  So just like having that dreaded sex talk with your kids, I’d advice not hiding the smartphone or tablet, hoping that they don’t try it.  Have the Pokemon Go safety talk with them before it’s too late.

Pokemon Go hunter in Japan.
Photo of a Pokemon Go hunter in Japan, care of Nagi Usano.

If you think, “not my kid – they won’t play – I’ve told them not to”, think again. A friend and I were chatting about this the other day on the phone.  She’d told her teens the app was dangerous and had them delete it from their phones; then as we were talking, she saw them wandering up the road, staring into their phones, oblivious to the rest of their surroundings.  They are good kids and are smart, but friends had been playing it at the beach, earlier in the day, and they were hooked again – “what harm could it do?” So my friend hopped off the phone with me, to sit down with them and have ‘the talk’.

Pokemon spotted by by Charlie Boy Criscola.
Pokemon spotted by by Charlie Boy Criscola.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against the Pokemon Go App – it kind of opens up a world of magic, which I love, but I’d love to see it kept in the realm of good magic, as oppose to opening up to tragedy and horrors, which often go hand in hand with good magic in the storybook realm.  In that bent, it is good to understand the potential dangers associated with the Pokeman Go App, so that you can advice your kids (and yourselves) on how to stay safe while you have fun playing. Here is a great video on just that, that the Miami PD recently shared: Social Media 101:Pokemon Go.  Do give it a watch.

Here are a few tips to keep your kids (and yourself) safe while playing Pokemon Go:

Hunting for Pokemon.
Photo care of Angie Six.

  • Stay aware of your surroundings.
    • Predators have been known to hangout at Pokemon Go hotspots, watching for the unsuspecting players.
    • Watch where you are going, so you don’t put yourself in harm’s way – like in traffic.
  •  Don’t meet up with strangers to hunt Pokemon, especially at night.

  • Hunt Pokemon with a friend (that you actually know from the real world – not just online), rather than on your own.
    • Watch out for each other’s safety.
    • Just because someone approaches you that is also playing the game, does not mean that they are safe. Listen to your spidey senses and use the usual cautions that you would with a stranger.
  • Put the game away while riding a bike, roller blades, a skateboard or driving a car.
  • Respect private property.
    • A virtual critter inside someone’s home or someone else’s land does not give you the right to enter, and by doing so you could put yourself in danger or at risk of criminal charges.

On the note of respect, also remind your kids to be respectful of the places they are in.  Just as you should respect other people’s property, it is also important to respect memorial sites.  They are plenty of other places to hunt Pokemon, without disturbing a sacred place and upsetting others.  (I suspect with how the app works, Pokemon are only showing up in those places, as they are geolocating where you are, and popping Pokemon up nearby. If you leave this area be, those Pokemon will pop up in more respectful place instead.)

A couple of kids making new Pokemon friends with their Dad.
A couple of kids making new Pokemon friends with their Dad. Photo by Andrés Alvarez.

Now go have fun hunting Pokemon with your kids, and teach them how to be safe and respectful about it in the process.

Digitally yours,

Erica

Filed Under: Activities, Blog, EdTech, News, Stories Tagged With: AR, edtech, gaming

History & Technology Merge with the Fairmont Château Laurier’s History App

August 28, 2013 by Erica Hargreave 1 Comment

I am a bit of a history buff!  One of my secret desires is to one day write a historic thriller.

For that reason, one of my favourite past times in a new place is actually taking a historic tour of the place I am staying in.  I can almost hear as I say this, the cringing of some of those I’ve travelled with, who find hotel tours to be a sales / marketing pitch, and while some can be, others can be the most magnificent journeys back in history.  As I write this, I am remembering a glorious afternoon in Memphis spent with the Assistant Duckmaster & Hotel Historian at the Peabody, Doug Weatherford. I really could not have asked for a more delightful way to have spent the afternoon, then walking back in Memphis history with Doug.  In fact, this visit was one of the highlights of trip to Memphis, better than my tour of Gibson Guitars, better than my visit to Stax Records, and WAY better than the circus that was Graceland. At any rate, I will write more about my adventure back in time with Doug another day on Roamancing. Today, I want to to put my tech specs on in combination with my historian hat, as I take you further North to the Fairmont Château Laurier.

Fairmont Château Laurier in Ottawa
Fairmont Château Laurier, an Ottawa hotel rich in history.

This past spring on a visit to Ottawa, I was fortunate enough to stay at the Fairmont Château Laurier, a hotel steeped in history, a history I wanted to learn more about. Rather than give me an actual tour, the hotel asked me if I could try out their new interactive history tour.  Being a bit of a tech nerd, and loving seeing and experiencing examples of technology being used to educate and tell story, I readily agreed.

Right now the Fairmont Château Laurier’s history tour is available on iPads and tablets, although I rather hope that it will at some point be available on other devices, like smart phones. Anybody with an iPad or tablet can take the tour for free, whether they are a guest or not, they just need to download the Fairmont Château Laurier History App (from the links I’ve provided in this paragraph).  If you don’t have an iPad or tablet, but are fortunate enough to be a guest of the Fairmont Château Laurier, you can borrow an iPad for the tour from the front desk.

Fairmont Château Laurier History App
Beginning my walk back in history at the Château Laurier.

Once begun this digital tour takes visitors to the Fairmont Château Laurier on a walking tour, starting in the hotel’s lobby. It provides an informative and interesting narrative, including historic photos, as it walks you through various rooms of the hotel, intertwining history with the current space visitors see before their eyes.

Fairmont Château Laurier History App
Discovering fascinating past visitors to the Château Laurier.

Fairmont Château Laurier History App
Wandering through the historic halls of the Château Laurier.

So my take on the experience?  I very much enjoyed it, as it gave me context to the space I was walking through (oh, if the walls could only talk), and snippets of history I’d been hearing about (like, did you now there is an historic connection between the Château Laurier and the Titanic?). It also got me to explore deeper into the hotel, right into the depths of the basement.  I only wish that I’d taken this tour at the beginning of our stay, rather than at the end, as it would have ensured that I made it down to the basement for a dip in that fabulous art deco pool, and would have enriched my stay so much more, with the stories of the history that surrounded me.

Now does this compare to the kind of tour that a Hotel Historian and Storyteller, like the Peabody’s Doug Weatherford gave me?  No, but afternoons such as that one are special, to be cherished, that cannot happen all the time due to scheduling and the likes. There are after all only so many Historians and Storytellers, like Doug Weatherford around, and they can’t be scheduled around the clock to suit visitor’s schedules. Catering to visitor’s schedules and the access to historic imagery are what made this technology driven digital walk back in time such a win in my mind. The weary traveller could even take the tour digitally from the awfully comfy Fairmont Château Laurier bed, as a form of a bed time story, or the uber organized traveller could watch in prep for their stay, even on-route to Ottawa on the plane or train. I, however, think it is enjoyed best as a leisurely stroll through the Fairmont Château Laurier’s historic halls.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Activities, Blog, EdTech, News, Opinions, Random Thoughts, Stories Tagged With: AR, Ottawa, storytelling

Managing the Social Networking Feed for an Event? Check Your Ego at the Door.

October 30, 2012 by Erica Hargreave Leave a Comment

Effectively managing social media for another (whether individual, brand, traditional media or conference) means checking your ego and personal biases at the door, and being true to the client’s community, voice and needs.  It’s about them and their community, not about you.  If you do things untoward or disrespectful to their community when representing them, it reflects poorly on them, and ultimately on you.  This is never more true then in the case of a conference or festival, as conferences and festivals are all about community. As such you want to use an event’s social feeds to be supportive of that community, especially if you want the community to support the event in return, through sharing and using the event’s hashtag.

A twitterfall from a past conference, where all tweets with the event hashtag showed up in the stream.

I was recently reminded of this at a recent conference.  The conference had a hashtag, and tweets using the hashtag were shared in a live twitter stream or were they?  Tweeting from 3 different handles, it didn’t take me long to realize that only my own personal tweets were being shared in the live twitter stream, while those of my company and one of our characters were not.  Since these tweets were live I looked to see if either the company or the character had said something that could be construed as offensive.  They had not.  In fact, typically at a conference, our company tweets most of the ideas being shared from the company feed, our personal opinions from our personal feeds, and items of a lighter nature from our storytelling characters.  I could understand our one characters’ tweets being edited out of the feed, as she has a reputation for being racy, but our company’s tweets that were the tamest of the lot?  Our company, I might add, that had been supportive of the particular conference for a number of years.

In pondering this oddity, I discovered we were not alone. Others were discovering that the twitter stream was selective about what was being shared too.  Given a good reason for this, like keeping the tweets focused on the business side of the conference, this would have been understandable, but then why were our company’s tweets not being included?  As best as anybody could tell, it came down to reducing exposure to a potential competitor for those managing the feed. Their company’s tweets showed in the live twitter stream, but not those of any company that potentially competed with them in the market.  The result?  Many at the conference that noticed this were left with a bad taste in their mouth.  A Social Networking FAIL for sure, at a conference that was suppose to be helping people to move forward in the transmedia space and demonstrate positive examples for them.

Filed Under: Blog, EdTech, Opinions Tagged With: building community, social media, social responsibility

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