Richard Godwin, writing for the todays edition of The Times, introduced me to yet another conundrum for the digital age, the phenomenon of Unboxing:  YouTube: why kids become glued to inane amateur videos. Aside from horror stories of Youtube collecting data on children in violation of online privacy legislation, unsuitable material, how algorithms determine what children are watching, it refers specifically to toy unboxing. The first unboxing video appeared in 2006 and by January 2019, the term unboxing videos yielded over 144 million results. To illustrate just how influential unboxing has become, Nickelodeon has capitalised on the popularity of Youtube and Ryan ToysReview with an unboxing series starring YouTube mega-star Ryan Kaji, called Ryan’s Mystery Playdate.

You can see the evolution of Ryan’s World, from unsophisticated product unboxing to educational videos, to a live-action series on Nick Jr.

The current trend of Toy Unboxing, in which children watch other children unpacking new toys and showing the viewer how they work and if they work, has been referred to as  ‘toddler crack’ (Kollmeyer, 2015). Professors Stuart Cunningham and David Craid of the Queensland University of Technology defuse the panicked reaction to this push for consumerism in their article, Toy unboxing: It’s a thing; it’s lucrative but sensitive: research.

“Child advocates regard all unboxing, even non-branded videos, unequivocally as marketing and discount the possibility that these videos may also be instructional, educational or simply communicative, fostering peer-to-peer interactions between child creators and viewers” (Craig & Cunningham). This phenomenon is  hotly debated and has implications for digital literacy practices, particularly now that children are increasingly online. One explanation for the popularity of such videos is that successful children’s media is often relatively uncomplicated and presents “a familiar context with situations that they recognise, that happen close to their own home … that feature other toddlers and preschoolers” (Valkenburg & Piotrowski, p.57). The potential educational value of the youth-produced video phenomenon and “how children’s media use can play a role in predicting their development” is discussed in, Plugged in: how media attract and affect youth.

References:

Craig, D., & Cunningham, S. (2017). Toy unboxing: living in a(n unregulated) material world. Media International Australia, 163(1), 77–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X17693700

Kollmeyer, B. (2015).  Ready to be hypnotized by ‘toddler crack’? MediaWatch.com. Available at: http://www.marketwatch.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/story/ready-to-get-hypnotized-by-toddler-crack-2015-04-07 (accessed 29 July 2016).

Jackie Marsh, J. (2016) ‘Unboxing’ videos: co-construction of the child as cyberflâneur. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37:3, 369-380, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2015.1041457

Valkenburg, P. M. & Piotrowski, J. Taylor. (2017). Plugged in: how media attract and affect youth.  New Haven: Yale University Press.

I recently read the acceptance speech given by Holly Godfree from ACT, when she accepted the Australian Teacher Librarian Award – 2019.  Many things Holly said rang a bell with me but one thing in particular stuck with me,” Doing our jobs well is advocacy. You create a positive ripple effect through every student, teacher, parent and principal that you help” (ASLA, 2019).

Coming into this course, my first in the Master of Education program, I first had to find my direction. I had worked as an EFL teacher in adult education for many years and had once upon a time been a librarian, but I was not a teacher librarian and I actually had very little idea of what that entailed. Both the concepts and pedagogical terminology were unfamiliar to me. Had you asked me, I would have confused literary learning with literacy learning (I now know better).  ETL402 has been a steep learning curve in fitting my prior knowledge into the framework of the modern library professional.  As time went on however, I discovered that my years of practical experience had in fact given me some skills in evaluating literature in terms of its literary role in teaching literacy skills. Having taught for many years, I could envisage practical ways in which literature could be incorporated into the curriculum, and had in fact been doing so, without labeling it a literary response strategy.  The scaffolding I have acquired will improve my ability to “select and use resources,” (ASLA, 2014) and increase my “knowledge of current pedagogy” (ASLA, 2004), significantly informing my future practice.

Investigating the incorporation of literature across the curriculum and literary learning has shown me that a diverse range of media, from graphic picture books to interactive enhanced ebooks, contributes significantly to literacy skills which are needed in all subjects, not just the language arts (Norris, 2003) and that librarians/TLs play a vital role in broadening the horizons of educators who do not typically regard literature as a teaching resource (Lance & Schwarz, 2010). In recent discussions with teachers and librarians, barriers to collaboration due to time pressure, scheduling issues and taxing workloads were cited as reasons why teachers, particularly in the curriculum areas covered by my two assessments, history and science, do not typically utilize literature in the curriculum or adopt literary response strategies to enhance learning and my subsequent readings have confirmed this (Hanrahan, (2009). However, teachers need to better prepare themselves to support students learning (Siegel, 2010). There has been a pedagogical shift towards multi-modality and many children are already “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001), possessing a multi-modal literacy toolkit their teachers just don’t have (Ito et al., 2008).

I have been introduced to the myriad of types and genres of literature available to the 21^st century reader and educator, from the traditional children’s books, to ever evolving multi-modal digital resources and seen how to apply a range of literary strategies which will significantly impact learning across the curriculum (Lance & Kachel, 2018).This course has redefined my understanding of the role of the teacher librarian (TL) which has become collaborative, interactive, and proactive; they have become curriculum leaders, information specialists and information services managers (ASLA, 2004).  More than anything, they are advocates for literacy learning (Merga, 2019). If we are to help students understand society, we have to challenge them to question what is presented as knowledge and examine ways of knowing.

References

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2004). Library standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.aspx

Australian School Library Association 2014, Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the proficient career stage, Australian School Library Association, Canberra, ACT

Retrieved from:

https://asla.org.au/resources/Documents/Website%20Documents/evidence_guide_prof.pdf

Godfree, Holly. (2019). ASLA XXVII Conference, National Library of Australian, Canberra, ACT on April 15, 2019. Retrieved from https://asla.org.au/tl_award_2019

Hanrahan, M. (2009). Bridging the Literacy Gap: Teaching the Skills of Reading and Writing as They Apply in School Science. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 5(3), 289-304.

Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., Boyd, D., Herr‐Stephenson, B., & Lange, P.G., et al. (2008). Living and learning with new media: Summary of findings from the Digital Youth Project. Chicago: The MacArthur Foundation.

Lance, K.C., Kachel, D.E. (2018) Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(7), pp. 15-20 DOI: 10.1177/0031721718767854

Lance, K. C., Rodney, M. J., & Schwarz, B. (2010). Collaboration works-when it happens! The Idaho school library impact study. Teacher Librarian, 37(5), 30–36.

Merga M.K. (2019) School Librarians Are Educators Too. In: Librarians in Schools as Literacy Educators. London: Palgrave Macmillan.  https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1007/978-3-030-21025-0_1

Norris, S. P., & Phillips, L. M. (2003). How literacy in its fundamental sense is central to scientific literacy. Science Education, 87(2), 224-240. DOI: 10.1002/sce.10066

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Horizon, 9(5), 1–6. doi:10.1108/10748120110424816.

Siegel, M. (2012). New Times for Multimodality? Confronting the accountability culture. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literature, 55(8), 671-680.

doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1002/JAAL.00082