| CODE | TEM5012 | ||||||
| TITLE | The Digital Child | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Technology and Entrepreneurship Education | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Children are growing in up in a world where the Internet, mobile phones, tablets are features of daily life. As the pervasiveness of the Internet of things and artificial intelligence continues, a technology infused reality has become the norm for a lot of children. Children are at times labeled as digital natives giving the impression that they are born with an innate competence with digital media. This description ignores the increasingly complex demands that children have to negotiate and the learning that this requires. The rise in the use of digital platforms and the advent of mobile media has led to deeply entangled social and personal lives. Society has adopted a participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006) were the roles of producer and consumer are becoming more blurry. Participatory culture is not the exclusive domain of adults. Children too are active producers in digital platforms and can be found sharing and discussing their creations in online affinity spaces (Gee, 2004). Online participation is not without risks, whilst children not connected to the digital world are being left behind. In this study-unit students will examine the role of digitalisation in children's development and experience, and will discuss such issues as digital competences and digital communication including media and technology, cyber bullying, internet addiction and online safety, with a particular focus on children's and young people's voice Study-Unit Aims: - To familiarise with technologies children encounter at home and school; - To examine the data on who is being left behind and what it means to be unconnected in a digital world; - To explore different digital platforms where children are digital producers; - To discuss digital competencies that children are acquiring through their digital interactions; - To reflect on the risks and harms of life online, including the internet’s impact on children’s right to privacy and expression; - To familIarise the students with the risks and harms of life online, including the internet’s impact on children’s right to privacy and expression and cyberbullying. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Describe the range of digital technologies used by children; - Identify and appraise digital competencies acquired by children through digital interactions; - List the main concerns that have been raised about harmful effects of digital technologies on children's development; - Evaluate arguments for and against digital technologies being beneficial for children's development; - Understand how technology can enhance children’s cognitive and social development and develop 21st century learning competences; - Synthesize ways in which children can be helped to benefit from engaging with the digital world and to avoid the risks; - Define cyberbullying and synthesize strategies that can help minimize cyberbullying. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate a critical appraisal of how digital technologies affects the childhood experience; - Apply their knowledge of the role of digital technology in the lives of children in their practice, including how technology may benefit children's development and learning as well as the issues of online safety involved; - Appraise the 21st century skills used during the creation of digital artifacts by children. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Thomson, R., Berriman, L., & Bragg, S. (2018). Researching everyday childhoods: Time, technology and documentation in a digital age. Bloomsbury Publishing. Supplementary Readings: - Barassi, V. (2020). Child Data Citizen: How Tech Companies Are Profiling Us from Before Birth. MIT Press. - Keeley, B., & Little, C. (2017). The State of the Worlds Children 2017: Children in a Digital World. UNICEF. 3 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/sowc2017/ - Green, L., Holloway, D., Stevenson, K., Leaver, T., & Haddon, L. (Eds.). (2020). The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Children. Routledge. - Siyahhan, S., & Gee, E. (2018). Families at play: Connecting and learning through video games. MIT Press. - Campbell, M., & Bauman, S. (Eds.). (2018). Reducing cyberbullying in schools: International evidence-based best practices. Academic Press. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Leonard Busuttil |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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