Parent Engagement on a National Scale: A Portrait of Common Sense

• In Event: Learning From Educational Media at Home: Principles and Practices for Working With Families

Abstract

Objective
This presentation will provide a portrait of practice, describing Common Sense, an independent nonprofit that reaches close to 40 million homes and 90,000 schools in the United States (as well as millions internationally) with ratings and reviews of thousands of media and technology titles, as well as wraparound educational materials for families and educators with the mission of helping them harness the potential of media for children’s learning and life.

Perspective
Young people spend more time with media and technology than almost any other activity (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010), products purporting to be educational proliferate at a dizzying pace, technology has aged down to the youngest children (Common Sense Media, 2013), and children's learning opportunities come as much from out-of-school and home contexts as they do from formal schools. There is a large body of research documenting the benefits of appropriate "parental mediation of media", which includes both curatorial and media literacy components (see for example Center for Media Literacy, 2015; Christakis et al, 2013). Until Common Sense was founded over a decade ago, parents could only rely on industry-backed rating agencies for information on how to curate their children’s media/technology diets, and both parents and teachers had very little experience regarding how to equip a newly digital generation with the skills to be smart, kind, and safe online. Common Sense curates media for age/grade and learning potential, and provides guidance (parent advice, K-12 digital citizenship curriculum, teacher professional development, school-based parent engagement programs). We do this through our own channels (websites, mobile apps, regional education sites), and through multiple distribution partners. Our work is guided by a whole-community, ecological approach to child learning and development, and to media literacy. We say we like to help identify high quality educational media tools, but also foster skills that enable parents, educators -- and ultimately, children -- make the best of them.

Methods and Data Sources
We rely on multiple sources of data for this presentation, including the organization’s knowledge base, several national surveys with parents and educators, including Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America 2013, and insights based on parent feedback from thousands of users of our content.

Results
The portrait will document the research and development process underlying Common Sense's work, including identification of "pain points" around media and technology expressed by parents and educators, data on children’s media use, and the consequent methods used by Common Sense to reach and engage parents directly and through educators.

Significance
In the rush to produce educational media and technologies for learning, too often parents are an afterthought, or seen as targets for marketing to facilitate product sales. In reality, parents are critical players in children’s learning about, with, and through media – and as a field we need to engage them more deeply for any sustained success.

Authors

• Seeta Pai, Harvard University

• Kelly Mendoza, Common Sense

• Erin Wilkey Oh, Common Sense