Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 6
Posts 1 - 6

Ban mobile phones in schools to protect pupils' mental health

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 26.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, childhood, school, smartphone, threat
Summary | According to Shannon Turner, schools should ban smartphones to protect their pupils. Screens and social media can have a negative impact on children's health, which is why some schools have already put in place new rules (e.g. give children 6 hours of digital-free time).
Image Description | Photograph of two pupils in a classroom; one of them is showing her friend a smartphone and the other is giggling.
Image Tags | female(s), school, smartphone

Could Steiner schools have a point on children, tablets and tech?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 14.6.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | digitized education, school, technology-free
Summary | The Iona school in Nottingham is a more "traditional" school; pupils don’t work on tablets or computers, and in the classroom you can see the old-fashioned blackboard. The school curriculum is based on the 19th century philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Some critics say that the fact that those children don't use screens at school will be disadvantage for them later. When they leave school, they'll be part of a digital world which includes technology. They need to be prepared for that.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman and children kneading dough, man drawing on a blackboard, two boys on a tree, and two children making arts and crafts.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Facebook’s censorship of Aboriginal bodies raises troubling ideas of ‘decency’

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | censorship, diversity, Facebook, gender, law
Summary | Facebook does not mind showing Kim Kardashian’s cleavage, but it didn't allow images of topless Aboriginal women. Major social network platforms are led by capitalism, and although they claim they want to create global and equal platforms, not all stories are treated the same way. As a result, On Facebook, images of famous women naked are okay whereas images of other women around the world are deemed “inappropriate”.
Image Description | Photograph of four Aboriginal women
Image Tags | female(s)

Using technology to bridge the learning gap across Africa

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 4.4.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | digitized education, school
Summary | Digital access in African schools is important; it has the potential to expand and improve the education of millions of African children. However, the question is how to implement digital access in schools. Several initiatives such as One Laptop Per Child have failed. There are a few programs/approaches that might work: Kio Kit, Eneza, Quick Do Book Box.
Image Description | Photograph of four African kids from behind and a school teacher.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

2016: the year Facebook became the bad guy

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 12.12.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, Facebook, fake news, law, threat
Summary | 2016 has been a bad year for Facebook. Many scandals surrounded the company. It became clear that Facebook is now longer just an advertizing machine with access to almost 2 billion people world-wide but that it also curates what news media most of these people perceive - whether Facebook wants to accept this or not. They no longer just have to deal with sensoring nudity and human rights violations content but also fake news. While Zuckerberg denies that the fake news bubbles have influenced the presidential elections, his company at the same time makes tons of money selling exactly this persuasive power to advertisers.
Image Description | The Facebook reaction emojis and dislike (thumb-down) emojis, glasses in front of like buttons, and a man holding a smartphone with the Facebook logo in the background.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, logo, male(s), smartphone

Sugata Mitra – the professor with his head in the cloud

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 7.6.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, digitized education, research/study, school
Summary | Professor Sugata Mitra's educational methods have not always been well received because they are not "traditional". Mitra predicts that the internet will be everywhere and in our heads, and that traditional examinations will disappear. It will be difficult to ban the use of internet in exams, for instance. People will be even more dependent on their phones; they will need it for skills such as reading. Mitra's method is called Sole (self-organised learning environment). Children need to collaborate in small groups and do research on computers. The method proved successful, but more research is needed.
Image Description | Series of three photograph; Mitra holding a book, Mitra interacting with four pupils on a computer, and portrait of Ivan Illich.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, male(s)

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