BARBARA.de: Dear Patricia, what do you think children and young people have learned from the Corona crisis?
Patricia Cammarata: They have certainly learned to independently gather information from various sources and to actively ask if there are gaps. However, the younger the children, the more support they will need. With our teenage child, I had the impression that it learned everything that you normally only learn after school, such as organizing yourself, meeting deadlines, advantages and disadvantages of teamwork.
What negative effects could there be?
There are children who do not live in privileged families, who accompany them and take good care of everything. But that's not the reality of life for all children. That means: Due to the absence of school, some children, for example, the regular eating away. That's a catastrophe. There are also families who cannot afford the digital devices (or not in number and timeliness). These children are then dependent on education and class groups. There are also older children who had to take care of their younger siblings because the parents had to go to work outside the home. It also hit hard. In many families, the tension was so great that domestic violence has increased. That is also a big problem. The children have lost their places of protection due to the blocking of contacts.
Where do you see dangers in the currently higher media consumption?
I currently see no dangers at all that have to do with increased media consumption. The dangers are the same even outside of corona times: If children are on the net unaccompanied and unenlightened, this can be problematic. This is irrespective of whether you are on the net for 20 or 120 minutes. Certainly some will have to get used to their leisure time. Perhaps this was somewhat monothematic due to the contact block. But you just have to look into the happy children's faces when they were allowed to go back to the playground after the contact block or when they finally saw their friends. Then you lose the fear that you are interested in nothing more than digital media.
What opportunities do you see for everyday school life after Corona?
Based on our experience, I don't see many opportunities, because I assume that everything will be reset to "before Chorona". A real chance could be that the way of working shifts more from dull frontal teaching to more open small project work. The children finally learned how to independently develop areas of knowledge.
How can parents get fit if they are not familiar with the media?
There are many ways. You can listen to podcasts regularly (nur30min.de or http://medially.podigee.io), you can subscribe to newsletters on sites such as Show or Good Growing Up with Media, or you can read some of the topics and use e.g. the Elternguide.online or books like my "Thirty minutes, but then it's over!". Unfortunately, it doesn't work without work.
Patricia Cammarata has been online as "dasnuf" since 1997. She is an author, speaker and podcaster. Patricia Cammarata has a soft spot for digital topics and writes for the parenting guide "SCHAU HIN!", The "Let's talk" series, which makes parents fit in digital media.
There are even more helpful tips and tricks for children and digital media in their current guide "Thirty minutes, but then it's over" and also in her podcast "Just 30 Minutes".