Designing Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development: From Playpen to Playground

With the advent of the digital age, research on the psychological impact of youth engagement with technology has surged. New technologies have often taken the blame for promoting negative (and potentially dangerous) youth experiences, such as cyber-bullying, sexual predation, privacy invasion, addiction to videogames, and exposure to violence. For many children and adolescents, however, digital media and technology provide positive ways to express identity, communicate with peers, and engage in civic activities across communities. Based on over a decade and a half of research, Designing Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development aims to guide readers in the design of digital technologies to promote positive behaviors in children and teenagers. Highlighting the positive impact of new technologies in various domains across the developmental span, from early childhood to late adolescence, the book explores how young people are using technology today, how these experiences influence different age groups and domains, and how mastering technological literacy can lead to confidence, competence, and developmental growth. Following this exploration, the author presents her own theoretical framework (coined Positive Technological Development, or PTD) for designing and evaluating programs to support children and teenager's positive uses of technology. Each chapter is supplemented with vignettes describing, from a developmental perspective, the diverse experiences of today's youth with current technology. Case studies are then presented that illustrate how PTD has effectively informed the design of educational programs. Offering a fresh perspective that bridges digital media and youth development models, this book will be an important resource for educators, policy makers, mental health professionals, as well as researchers interested in child development, psychology and learning technologies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: The digital landscapes for youth Overview Chapter 1: Digital playgrounds v. virtual playpens in early childhood Chapter 2: Multimedia parks v. virtual malls in the elementary years Chapter 3: Wireless hangouts v. a palace in time during high school Summary Part II: A framework for designing digital landscapes for personal development Overview Chapter 4: Creating digital content to promote competence Chapter 5: Creativity to build confidence Chapter 6: Choices of conduct to develop character traits Chapter 7: Communication for promoting connections Chapter 8: Collaboration to form caring networks Chapter 9: Community building as contribution Summary Part III: Plotting learning trajectories through design Overview Chapter 10: Programs and policies Chapter 11: From developing curriculum to designing experiences Chapter 12: Case studies Case Study 1: Robotic playgrounds in early childhood Case Study 2: Virtual worlds for medically ill pediatric patients Case Study 3: A college campus for the future Conclusion References

About the Author :
Marin Umaschi Bers, PhD is Associate Professor at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development and Adjunct Professor in the Computer Science Department at Tufts University, where she heads the interdisciplinary Developmental Technologies (DevTech) research group.

Review :
"Designing Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development will become part of a new and necessary conversation - one that does not ask 'is digital technology good for children and teens?' but 'how can we make it so?'"-- Sherry Turkle, Ph.D., Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, Director of MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, and author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other "Preparing students for the workplace. Helping students acquire new skills. Making the learning process more efficient. That's how most people think about the role of new technologies in education. Marina Bers brings a refreshingly different perspective. Through a well-balanced mixture of insightful theory and compelling examples, Bers describes how new technologies, if appropriately designed, can help young people develop new ways of thinking about themselves, their place in the world, and their relationships with others. A century ago, John Dewey argued that education should help students learn not just how to make a living but how to make a life. Read this book to see how new technologies can help fulfill Dewey's vision." -- Mitchel Resnick, Ph.D., LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and Academic Head, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab "To this neo-Luddite, Marina Bers' book is an eye-opening introduction to the technological opportunities from which a new generation of children are benefitting. Bers makes a powerful and convincing case that appropriate access to technology not only teaches cognitive and technological skills but can play a central role in promoting positive development, beginning in early childhood. Educators, developmentalists, and parents will be similarly engaged, enthralled, and informed by the evidence that creative exploring using new media plays a central role in psychosocial and intellectual development."-- Michael E. Lamb, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge "This book describes how to inculcate core skills children need for our innovation-based economy and turbulent world: creativity, caring, collaboration, and contribution." -- Christopher Dede, Ed.D., Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard Graduate School of Education