Center on Media and Child Health

Research Toolbox: Google Alerts Made Easy

Google Alerts are an easy away to get regular updates about something that interests you, including research topics. This is a great way to be on top of relevant news, topics, and research. Google Alerts will send you an email whenever something is indexed by Google on the topics or keywords that you selected.

You can use Google Alerts to:

• Get the latest news about research topics, new published studies,reports, or work by a particular author/organization.
• Find out what is being said about a company or product.
• Monitor a developing news story.
• Keep up to date on a competitor or industry.
• Get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team.
• Find out if your name or organization has been cited in the press.

Here's how it works:

• You enter a query that you're interested in (content of the search). For example, "media violence” or "children and television.” To get more accurate results, you will want to utilize some of the Advanced Search options (+, -, "", or, not) or Search Operators (link:, site:) to narrow down the search. You can create up to 1000 alerts!
• Select the type of information to search: from everything to news, blogs, etc.
• How often the alert should be sent: as-it-happens, once a day or once a week.
• Email length: how many results would you like to see.
• Enter your email address: you do not have to have or use a Gmail account
• If there are new results, Google Alerts sends them to you in an email.

Do you use Google Alerts? Tell us why and your most interesting search tips!

Research Toolbox: Text Messaging Tools

According to Nielsen, American teenagers are sending over 3,000 text messages a month and Short Message Service (SMS) texting has developed as a language suited to the need of sending short, quick messages.

Here are a few tools to help you understand this new language and its abbreviations:

• AIM Dictionary 

This website offers a short guide understanding online chat acronyms, text messages & smiley faces.

• A Guide to Understanding Text Messaging Abbreviations

A guide produced by Mathews County Public Schools to introduce some of the most common used abbreviations.

• Lingo 2 Word

This website offers a neat translating tool and dictionary of text message abbreviations.

• TextED

TextED.ca is an innovative and interactive website designed to teach teens to be safe, responsible and respectful users of texting technologies.

• Web Wasp

This website provides lots of unusual SMS abbreviations, including European slang.

• Webopedia

This website offers a  short guide to understanding online chat acronyms, text messages & smiley faces.

Recent Questions on Ask the Mediatrician

If you haven't checked out Ask the Mediatrician lately, head on over to see these and other recent questions from parents and answers from Dr. Michael Rich, Director of CMCH:

• My son wants Call of Duty, but how do these games affect teen boys?
• Will my preschooler fall behind if she doesn't learn how to use the computer?
• Does multitasking with media distract kids from homework?

If you know of a website whose audience could benefit from the free Ask the Mediatrician service, send the webmaster these simple steps to add an Ask the Mediatrician button like the one below!

"Can an iPhone be good for your 3 year old?" Discussion

Earlier this month, Dr. Michael Rich, Director of CMCH, was quoted in an article titled "Why an iPhone Could Actually Be Good for your 3-year-old." Writer Neil Swidey explores what benefits may come from letting preschoolers play with iPhones and the apps that are being made specifically for their age group. 

Last week, the Elliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at nearby Tufts University organized a brown bag lunch for faculty, grad students, and others to come discuss the article.  One of the goals of the session was to come up with potential questions and topics for further exploration by the research community.  Here is a summary of the panelists' ideas from what turned out to be a very lively discussion:

Professor Richard Lerner wondered if we are destroying the integrity of the established developmental sequence by always trying to "hurry-up" childhood learning.

Professor Marina Bers was very interested in how apps could be designed specifically to optimize children's learning instead of trying to evaluate whether what's currently offered is beneficial.

Professor Ann Easterbrooks thinks that we need to find out if kids are able to receive the  things they need to thrive through the use of smartphones. 

Writer Neil Swidey pondered the "video deficit" (it takes kids a lot longer to learn something from a video than for them to learn something from a person).  He wonders if smartphones are an "in-between" way of delivering instruction that would decrease the amount of time it takes to learn from a video because smartphones allow for interaction.

So graduate students -- if you don't have a dissertation topic yet and the deadline is approaching, you might consider some of these questions.  We need you and other researchers to generate answers so that society can continue to use technology in ways that optimize children's learning and development.  

For those who attended, we encourage you to check out our free resources at www.cmch.tv/interact for ways to keep up with news and research on media and child health. 

Research Toolbox: New Journal on Emerging Media and Learning

Check out this new journal published by the MIT Press:

The International Journal of Learning and Media focus on emerging forms of media and learning and provides an international forum for scholars, researchers and practitioners to explore the relationship between emerging forms of media and learning, in a variety of forms and settings.

The first issue is now available online for free. Some of the topics in that issue include:

• Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter
• Games and Learning: What's the Connection?
• A Developmental Lens for Designing Virtual Worlds for Children and Youth