Unwrapping the unboxing craze

What is this new phenomenon of ‘unboxing’? How can we explain its increasing popularity? Guest blogger Jackie Marsh explores the attraction of ‘unboxing’ videos on social media, in an attempt to understand more fully contemporary childhoods. Jackie is Professor of Education in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, UK. She is interested in the relationship between childhood cultures, play and literacy in the digital age

Using Augmented and virtual Reality in the Early Childhood Curriculum

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have much to offer the early childhood classroom. AR apps enable virtual objects and artefacts to be layered over the physical environment, whilst VR fully immerses the user in a virtual world. In this document, we explore some of the research undertaken by researchers in the DigiitEY Cost Action, and examine the ways in which AR and VR might be used in early years classrooms. Marsh and Yamada-Rice (in press), drawing on their studies of children’s use of AR and VR apps (Marsh et al., 2015; Yamada-Rice et al., 2017), outlined five key principles which should underpin the use of AR and VR in the classroom. These are discussed throughout this document

The MakEY Project : An introduction

Peer reviewe

Maker Literacies and Maker Citizenship in the MakEY (Makerspaces in the Early Years) Project

In this paper, the potential relationship between creative citizenship and what may be termed ‘maker literacies’ is examined in the light of emergent findings from an international project on the use of makerspaces in early childhood, “MakEY” (see http://makeyproject.eu). The paper outlines the concept of creative citizenship and considers the notion of maker literacies before moving on to examine how maker literacies might be developed in early-years curricula in ways that foster civic engagement. Three vignettes are offered of makerspaces in early-years settings and a museum in Finland, Norway, and the UK. The activities outlined in the vignettes might be conceived of as ‘maker citizenship’, a concept which draws together understandings of making, digital literacies, and citizenship. The paper considers the implications of this analysis for future research and practice.Peer reviewe

Making the Moomins : A Finnish/English Adventure

This chapter outlines a cross-cultural project in which children in a primary school in England exchanged information and shared their maker work with children in an Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) center in Helsinki. The work was focused on the Moomins, characters in a set of books written by the Swedish-speaking Finnish writer Tove Jansson. The English children participated in a range of maker activities in which they used a range of both non-digital and digital resources and tools to engage with the Moomin stories. The chapter outlines the skills and knowledge developed in these activities, mapped to the three-dimensional (3-D) model of literacy developed by Green (1988) and informed by Colvert's (2015) work on mixed-reality design. These maker literacies, it is argued, should be valued alongside the traditional literacy practices in which the children also engaged. The chapter outlines the value of makerspaces for schools, and also emphasizes the value of international projects that provide opportunities for cross-cultural exchange.Peer reviewe

Designing connected play: Perspectives from combining industry and academic know-how. In: Chaudron S., Di Gioia R., Gemo M., Holloway D., Marsh J., Mascheroni G., Peter J., Yamada-Rice D. Kaleidoscope on the Internet of Toys - Safety, security, privacy and societal insights, EUR 28397 EN, doi:10.2788/05383

Academics, designers and producers tend to consider the evolving Internet of Toys (IoToys) from within their individual disciplines. On the one hand, academics bring a long history of researching and theorizing play and communication practices to the task of considering young children’s use of connected toys. On the other hand, designers and producers of connected toys have detailed understanding of the possibilities and affordances of technology, as well as the technical mechanics involved in toy production. In other words, they know what it is possible to make, and what it is not possible to make. Industry also has an eye on trends in digital toy production and content, and how these are likely to evolve. This is because the digital play industry track data on technology usage and media consumption, and so on. These are things that academics are often a step behind in understanding because of a tendency to consider children’s use of an end product. However, my work across academia and the commercial toy and digital content industry has taught me that the amount of expertise companies have of child development and theories around play and communication practices is extremely varied and start-up companies in particular have little resource to conduct in-house research. This means that some connected toys are not as well made for young users as they could be. However, these crossovers have also taught me that sometimes academics call for changes to designs that are not easily possible or commercially viable. Therefore, regular collaboration between academia and industry would aid production of the best possible connected toys and content for young children

Factors affecting transfusion requirement after hip fracture: Can we reduce the need for blood?

© 2014 Association médicale canadienne. Background: Hip fractures are common injuries that result in blood loss and frequently require the transfusion of blood products. We sought to identify risk factors leading to increased blood transfusion in patients presenting with hip fractures, especially those factors that are modifiable. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the cases of all patients who had fixation of their hip fractures between October 2005 and February 2010. The need for transfusion was correlated with potential risk factors, including age, sex, preoperative hemoglobin, fracture type, fixation method and more. Results: A total of 835 patients had fixation of their hip fractures during the study period; 631 met the inclusion criteria and 249 of them (39.5%) were transfused. We found an association between need for blood transfusion and female sex (p = 0.018), lower preoperative hemoglobin (p \u3c 0.001), fracture type (p \u3c 0.001) and fixation method (p \u3c 0.001). Compared with femoral neck fractures, there was a 2.37 times greater risk of blood transfusion in patients with intertrochanteric fractures (p \u3c 0.001) and a 4.03 times greater risk in those with subtrochanteric fractures (p \u3c 0.001). Dynamic hip screw (DHS) fixation decreased the risk of transfusion by about half compared with intramedullary nail or hemiarthroplasty. We found no association with age, delay to operation (p = 0.17) or duration of surgery (p = 0.30). Conclusion: The only modifiable risk factor identified was fixation method. When considering blood transfusion requirements in isolation, we suggest a potential benefit in using a DHS for intertrochanteric and femoral neck fractures amenable to DHS fixation