In 2006 there was an online national survey on media uses by pre-teens and teenagers in Portugal, with 1353 participants (ages from 9 to 18 years old), integrated on the E-Generation project (part of the World Internet Project).
Playing games in mobile phones was one of the features with significant results: 27,4% mentioned this as a regular activity.
The results revealed some differences related with:
» gender - 31,9% boys; 21,3% girls
» age - 44,2% 9/12 years; 34,1% 13/15 years; 20,0% 16/18 years
I believe that the gender bias is an i
ssue that still needs more in depth research. Kirsten Drotner wrote in Leisure Is Hard Work: Digital Practices and Future Competencies: “While this promotion is understandable in terms of the tremendous impact of the games industry on contemporary media output, much less is made of the fact that gaming remains the most gendered media practice amongst young people. Some researchers have claimed that girls’ relative lack of interest in gaming can be overcome by designing different types of games that fit girls’ genre preferences for relationships over action and construction over combat.”
Cardoso, C., Espanha, R. & Lapa, T. (2007). E-Generation: Os Usos de Media pelas Crianças e Jovens em Portugal. Lisboa: CIES/ISCTE – Centro de Investigação e Estudos. Available at: http://www.cies.iscte.pt/publicacoes/ficha.jsp?pkid=1515&a=1215379771608
Drotner, K. (2008). Leisure Is Hard Work: Digital Practices and Future Competencies. In David Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital Media (pp. 167–184). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Available at: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.167
Pictures: young boy sitting in a restaurant, playing a game on a mobile phone.
Context
This blog is part of the research project of the Master in eLearning System Management in the Faculdade de Ciêcnias Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.
The area of the research project is: Youth, Mobile phones and School.
Research project abstract
This research project focuses on the use of mobile phones in education (Mobile Learning).
The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the features that young people already use in their mobile phones and to propose educational applications based on them. The proposed educational applications will take into account the possibility of implementation with the mobile phones models that they have and without additional costs borne by young people (or those responsible for their education).
Gender issues will be considered when analyzing the relationship of young people with mobile phones.
Specific objectives:
□ Characterize the use of mobile phones by youngsters of the 7th, 8th and 9th grades of a school in the city of Setubal, Portugal
□ Identify the features used in mobile phones
□ Analyze problem-solving group strategies, using the mobile phone as a resource
□ Explore ways to use mobile phones in curriculum contexts
Methodology
The fieldwork will be based on focus groups and experimental sessions.
Students will be design partners of the experimental sessions.
More details available in "Methodology".
Supervisors
PhD Irene Tomé
PhD Maria Cristina Gomes
Time period
From September 08 to February 09
Blog tools
The Blogger Mobile from Google makes it easy to post from anywhere.
To post I will use: a computer (direct posting in the blog), mail (with different devices, including mobile phone) and picture blogging (with the Sony Ericsson mobile phone K530i).
Blog purposes
To register in my daily context (educational psychologist working in a high school) all the situations and ideas that I come across regarding how people use the mobile phone, with special focus in youth.
Share reflections and thoughts related with the research project.
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