Creative Communities - BC Library Conference 2015

Evidence-based library practice is not so simple when the research is just emerging. For years we’ve advised families to limit children’s screen time, based on guidelines rooted in television research. Today’s touchscreen devices provide very different opportunities for families. These devices are so new, we don’t yet have a body of research to support best practices, leaving families with conflicting messages about appropriate media use.  At VPL, we developed programs about using touchscreen apps to support children in developing early literacy skills, and in creating, interacting, and learning. Apps for Your Little Ones and Apps for Your School-Age Kid are programs for parents and caregivers focusing on how to use apps. Instead of a list of recommended apps, we walk parents through the practical aspects of sharing or encouraging positive app use. We talk about apps in the context of family activities - how they can be tools for early literacy and facilitate creativity. We show how apps can have a role in talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing with children, and how apps can give older children opportunities to create, socialise, and discover. We will describe the rational, content, and practical aspects of these programs, our experiences delivering them to different communities, and the lessons we learned. We will demo some of the apps we explored with our parents. We will give you the materials to take and adapt this program for your community. Let’s look beyond outdated media guidelines and ask how our families are really using technology.