💉More Than Robots #36 / December 2020

Hello,

"I feel so privileged, I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends after being on my own for most of the year” - Margaret Keenen

This edition got delayed in the Christmas mail.
Whether December marks the end of the beginning, the start of the second half, or an intermission in an infinite loop, only time will tell. But as William Shakespeare said, "It's the start of changing our lives and our lifestyle." So here are a few things to help with the changes and some bright lights for a new year.

📆 More Than Robots Meet-Up - February

The next meet up is planned for Friday 19th February - via Zoom.
If you would like to share a project or update please let me know as soon as possible as spaces are limited.
Registration will open in the new year.

📖 Research

The Digital Divide: Closing the achievement gap in the connected classroom / The Centre for Education and Youth
1% of primary state schools provide devices that their pupils can take home, compared to 38% of private primary schools

Children's and young people's digital skills: a systematic evidence review / Yskills
'When parents practise restrictive mediation, this is linked to lower digital skills for their children, while enabling mediation is generally linked to better digital skills, although some studies found no relationship'

VoCO (Verification of Children Online) Phase 2 report / GCHQ / DCMS / HO
'Children’s internet safety relies upon the existence of trusted relationships between online platforms, children and digital parents'

Report on children with disabilities in the digital environment / Council of Europe
'‘My brother… knows my code; he just grabs my cell phone, goes to WhatsApp and reads the chat history. That’s so annoying.’ / Further analysis and discussion

#CovidUnder19 : Life Under Coronavirus / Terre des Hommes
56% of children said they got to talk to their friends less than they would like. 38% don’t think their government is listening to children when making decisions about Covid-19 / Also: Growing Up Under Covid

Review into bias in algorithmic decision-making / Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
'It is difficult to map how widespread algorithmic decision-making is in local government' /Also: The Whiteness of AI

📎 Resources

Legends Family Adventure / Google and Parent Zone
Fun cartoon series for the whole family to learn about online safety - created by Aardman studios

Act Early / Counter Terrorism Policing
Information, advice and examples for anyone concerned about a family member or friend

Hear me / BBC Young Reporter
Living in lockdown - 'hear from five young people who've been recording viral voice notes about their lives' - Also WadupWadup

An experiment about how we view history / The pudding
An interactive game showing how images shape our understanding

Global Protection Online Network / Marie Collins Foundation
'A global online community of child protection practitioners, policy makers and academics eager to share the very latest research'

How to write alt text for memes / Veroniiiica
'Don’t be afraid to share what the joke is'

🗳 Take Part

Free Play in a Digital World - A Public Call for Consultation  / Feb 21

💬 Inspiration and opinion

From Wifi Connections to Human Connections​
'Shifting the conversation away from technology and toward human connection enabled practitioners to explore how to access these moments again with the young people they worked with'

If We Go Digital Will We Still Achieve Our Mission?
'We never abandoned our values of fun, interaction, innovation, high quality, equality, professionalism or being restorative.  Finding ways of doing this over Zoom brings out the creative in everyone'

The Modern World Has Finally Become Too Complex for Any of Us to Understand
'The global supply chains, with their mega-scale engineering projects and infrastructures, exist primarily because global wealth inequality makes it cheap to have stuff made in certain countries'

Why we love to play pretend in front of scenic backdrops
'The performative backgrounds of social media are not so distant from 19th-century studio backdrops'


...and finally
If 2020 has felt a little too real you could try the very unreal future - luckily there will still be cats and resistance