Carl Franzen
April 19, 2012, 2:24 PM

An upcoming digital watch that connects to and displays information from smartphones, as well as its own custom applications, has raised $5 million in online donations in less than two weeks on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, setting a new all-time funding record for the website. It still has nearly a month left to collect funds.

In that time, the Pebble e-paper watch has gone from an esoteric idea initially rejected by venture capitalists to a nearly legendary underdog Silicon Valley success story, prompting comparisons between the devices creator, Eric Migicovsky, and late Apple founder Steve Jobs.

But Migicovsky, a 25-year-old native of Vancouver, British Columbia, now based in Palo Alto, California, brushes off such comparisons.

Its an honour but Im not sure if its valid, Migicovsky wrote to TPM in an email. Were just starting out. Well see where it goes.

In fact, the runaway success of the Pebble e-paper watch may say as much about where the consumer electronics industry is headed as it does about Migicovskys Apple-like attention to product design.

Consumers, large companies and industry analysts alike have recently expressed a growing interest in wearable computing devices, or wearables, as they are referred to by industry insiders.

The New York Times on Tuesday highlighted a report from market research firm Forrester which projected that wearables will move mainstream once they get serious investment from the big five platforms Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook.

The analyst behind the Forrester report advised companies to experiment with wearables now, especially if youre in an industry that will be disrupted by wearables, including apparel, software, media, gaming, and commerce.

Already, some are: Google in early April revealed Project Glass, prototypes of high-tech glasses the company plans to make, which rely on a technology called augmented reality, the layering of digital information from Google Web services in relevant areas of the users view of the real world, giving them real-time map directions as they walk or online product comparisons as they shop, for example.

Other companies, including hit videogame developing firm Valve and sunglasses maker Oakley are reportedly pursuing similar high-tech glasses projects.

The difference between all of these projects and Migicovskys watch is that the Pebble e-paper actually has a firm release date: September 2012, giving his small team of nine employees just five months to finish testing and begin manufacturing the watch for distribution to the upwards of 40,000 orders that have paid for it in advance on Kickstarter. The watch will eventually retail online for over $150.

The Pebble will be part of an ecosystem of wearable computing devices, Migicovsky predicts, ones that will revolve around and use the computing power of the smartphone. Migicovsky doesnt think that such devices will interfere with one another or compete for a users attention, but rather, ideally, support and supplement one another.

The Pebble watch is also already competing in a very real market-based sense with another smartphone-connecting watch from Sony, the Android-only SmartWatch, which will ship in May but is available for pre-order for $149.

The two devices share some similarities in form and function. Both connect to Android smartphones wirelessly using Bluetooth, and both display selected data from a users phone in real time on their faces, including incoming texts, calendar alerts, emails, Facebook and Twitter messages, caller ID and more.

But unlike Sonys watch, the Pebble watch will also support the iPhone, and its display is monochromatic, relying on e-paper technology, supposedly making it easier to read in direct sunlight, similar to the e-ink found on the displays of Amazons Kindle e-readers, but with a much faster refresh rate.

The screen is mindblowing, Migicovsky told TPM in a phone interview. The blacks are so black that they almost dissolve the boundary of where the screen ends and the case begins.

For the truly tech-oriented user, the phone promises an even more dynamic experience.

You can download apps, customize your watch face and basically invent a watch thats never been built before and cant be, mechanically, Migicovsky said.

Migicovsky further teased all kinds of cool partnerships, with large companies would be announced on the Pebble Kickstarter page beginning May 2, but declined to say in advance which companies.

But its worth noting the Palo Alto area where Pebble is based, is also home to Facebook and Hewlett-Packard, to name a few.

Migicovsky has good cause to be proud of his product: The Pebble is a labor of love that stretches back four years to 2008, when Migicovsky founded Allerta, the company that would become Pebble Technologies, as an engineering student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Migicovsky received his bachelors degree in engineering systems design a year later.

Allertas first product, released in 2009, was another phone-connecting watch called the imPulse, but it was designed solely for BlackBerry devices and lacks the attractive e-paper display of the new Pebble watch. But Migicovsky thinks much has changed since then, not only within his company, but the industry itself.

Four years ago, smartphones didnt really exist in a big way, Migicovsky said, Can you really imagine life without them now? Now that theyre here, you will see alot of wearable stuff coming down the pipelines.

Thats one decent answer to the question of what comes after Facebook.

Every day, social consumers share – for free! – the kinds of data that companies pay market researchers a lot of money to help them gather.

By monitoring and analyzing the information visitors and customers share via social media, brands can learn how to improve their products, sell more of them and create better customer experiences.

Bazaarvoice has recently done a macro-level analysis of customer input by listening in on 11+ million consumer conversations worldwide. Their new report yields some interesting trend information and gives solid recommendations for retailers looking to leverage social insights. Report excerpts plus an accompanying infographic are provided below.

What Can You Learn from 11 Million Data Points?

Insights from Bazaarvoice’s Conversation Index, Volume 3 report analyzes data from 11+ million pieces of content generated by users on its clients’ sites during the past six months. 5 key insights and related recommendations include:

1 | Sharing is Caring

• 12% of consumer product reviews include suggestions.
• Nearly 80% of the suggestions focus on product attributes like color, size or style + product experience improvements.
• Only 14.5% of suggestions point out real flaws

Recommendations

• Escalate product issues for rapid response.
• Develop scalable systems to notify contributors when their feedback has been implemented.
• Mine onsite search terms shoppers use to prioritize site architecture and navigation improvements.
• Identify pivot language – words or phrases that marks a transition in tone or sentiment – in feature or product discussions that tell you a suggestion is coming. The most common pivot words in the Bazaarvoice study were: “however,” “wish,” and “although.”

2 | In-store Shoppers Are Less Happy

• In-store shoppers of all ages are less satisfied with their purchases than online shoppers. (see infographic below)
• Half of consumers who give online feedback bought the product in a store versus online. Yet, only 45% of the in-store buyers received an email asking them to review their purchases, versus 80% of online shoppers.

Recommendations

• Assume that in-store shoppers want to engage with other shoppers and your brand about the things they buy.
• Bring the best of online shopping (easy research, consumer opinions, and product comparisons) into the store. Simply offering free WiFi can help.
• Go further by allowing shoppers to see an augmented reality display when holding their smart phones up to products on your shelves, including related social content or the highest-rated products in each aisle.

3 | Mobile Shoppers are Night Owls

• Half of all mobile browsing and buying takes place after normal business hours. (see infographic below)

Recommendations

• Optimize for iPad and mobile to engage and convert nighttime shoppers
• Be there when your customers want to interact with your brand. Just like physical stores require a staff of knowledgeable people to help customers, online presences must also be staffed 24/7.

4 | Social Shoppers Spend More

• Visits to a brand’s site directly from Facebook make up less than 1% of its total site traffic.
• Visitors from social sites are up to 60% less likely to buy, which may mean they are at earlier stages in the decision process.
• But visitors from social networks who make a purchase, spend more money than shoppers who come via Google.
• Shoppers from Twitter have the highest average order value – $121.33 – of all shoppers who visit directly from Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
• Twitter users spend 18% more than Facebook users, on average.

Recommendations

• Know your platform: Facebook visitors choose engagement over shopping, so don’t focus all your energy on making your Facebook page purely transactional.
• Design social features into your site that make it easy for visitors to log in to site features with their social credentials and post and share content without leaving the site.

5 | Users Can Help You Help Other Users

• If one person has a question about a product, others probably do too. (see infographic below)
• Visitors misspell brand and product names and terms, sometimes finding what they’re looking for within the (also misspelled) contributions of other users.

Recommendations

• Update product descriptions to answer recurring questions.
• Add videos and step-by-step instructions to fill in gaps early in the shopping process, turning shoppers into buyers.
• Resist the urge to correct spelling and other errors in user generated content. The lack of perfection will ring truer to other consumers.

Social Data Is Great For Building Loyalty

Consumers are telling you – right now – what to change. Listen to and act on their feedback to create customers for life. As Bazaarvoice reminds us, “It’s hard to imagine a better way to earn loyalty than to bake [customer] suggestions into the products you create and sell.” And, don’t forget to measure your social media efforts so you really understand how social consumers are driving sales and other business objectives.

How does your brand use social data to create happy customers?Infographic

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Sears has launched SearsLocalAd.com, which provides North Carolina customers with access to hundreds of additional local deals beyond the weekly Sears print circular or sears.com. The online shopping portal is dedicated to local customers, allowing them to shop smarter by previewing new local deals updated every week, and includes enhancements for Sears’ SHOP YOUR WAY REWARDS(SM) members.

“SearsLocalAd.com gives our North Carolina customers unprecedented access and power,” said Imran Jooma, senior vice president & president, online, marketing, financial services and pricing business units at Sears Holdings. “We know how savvy our customers are when it comes to finding the best deals. Giving our customers new services and conveniences like a real-time window into the selection and savings specific to their nearby store is a great example of how the future of integrated shopping is here today at Sears.”

Localization is pre-selected based on the shopper’s location and can be easily changed to another store within the experience. Shoppers can search their nearest Sears store and browse deals by department, brand or price point, quickly filtering to find offers of interest. SearsLocalAd.com helps shoppers ensure products are available before they go to the store. The site features not only hundreds of additional deals, but shows in real time how many items are currently in stock at the chosen location.

North Carolina residents can enjoy new tools such as ratings, reviews and product comparisons to shop with confidence–and for added convenience, customers can create lists that they can print for in-store shopping, send to their mobile devices, and share with family and friends via email, shopyourway, Facebook or Twitter.

Even greater savings advantages are available to members of Sears’ SHOP YOUR WAY REWARDS. Members get additional savings on SearsLocalAd.com offers, and bonus members can earn bonus points. Plus, SHOP YOUR WAY REWARDS members can preview upcoming sales before the print circular is released and receive personalized deals from their local store by email based on recent searches and site activity.

For more information on the service and to view the latest deals, visit the new local ad experience today at
www.searslocalad.com .

About Sears Holdings Corporation

Sears Holdings Corporation is one of the nation’s largest broadline retailers with over 4,000 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada. Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, consumer electronics and automotive repair and maintenance. Sears Holdings is the 2011 ENERGY STAR® Retail Partner of the Year. Key proprietary brands include Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard, and a broad apparel offering, including such well-known labels as Lands’ End, Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer, as well as the Apostrophe and Covington brands. It also has the Country Living collection, which is offered by Sears and Kmart. We are the nation’s largest provider of home services, with more than 11 million service calls made annually. Sears Holdings Corporation operates through its subsidiaries, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corporation. For more information, visit Sears Holdings’ website at
www.searsholdings.com . |Twitter: @searsholdings | |Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/SHCCareers

Contact:
Brian Hanover Morgan Calef
Sears Holdings Euro RSCG Worldwide PR
847-286-6080 212-367-6949
brian.hanover@searshc.com morgan.calef@eurorscg.com

SOURCE Sears Holdings Corporation

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

I think that the disc lives for five or ten years from now, said Spector, speaking to VideoGamer.com during a recent visit to London.

I dont have a crystal ball, but thats my hunch. My hunch is that there will be another generation of consoles that will require physical media, maybe not exclusively like with Xbox LIVE, you can download old games. I think it will be more of a hybrid, digital and disc. Which is kind of where we position ourselves, to be a hybrid.

As that transition takes time some people will do both, some people will do one or the other. And we want to be able to facilitate both.

GameFly recently soft-launched in the UK, having bought Direct2Drive from IGN at the end of last year. The firm now offers digital downloads for over 230 games, and plans to offer over 1000 titles by Christmas.

At present Spector says there are no plans to emulate GameFlys US rental service, which sends out physical games in a similar manner to LoveFilm. GameFly may eventually sell game discs over here, however.

Either way, Spector maintains that it will take time for gamers to let go of hard media:

It never happens overnight. People like to think that it does, and they like to write about that its going to happen overnight but it never does. The music business in the States, when Gamefly started, was a $20bn a year business, physical CD sales. Now its and $7bn or $8bn business. So its definitely come down, but it hasnt gone away.

Certainly the technology is there to make it go away, but consumers behaviour hasnt changed 100 per cent yet. I think it takes a couple of generations to happen: My daughters are 9 and 12 theyve never bought a CD, and they probably never will. But theyre 9 and 12, right? Theyre not 25, 30, 44. So things take time.

GameFlys new client app is available here.

76ers coach Doug Collins says his team needs to be intent on winning its series tonight rather than relaxing because it holds a 3-1 advantage.

Whats inside the MIT Media Lab? This slideshow will offer you a sampling of the wide array of projects being pursued, from robotics to new man-machine interfaces.

The Augmented Product Counter project, seen here, is an example of how different computer interfaces open up new possibilities for augmented reality applications. Inside the lamp is a computer and camera that detects a persons motions, allowing a person to tap a table to pull up menus and photos. There is a retail application of the technology where a person can see information about different products. Because theres a camera, when a person picks up an object, the computer can display additional information, such as reviews or product comparisons.

The win makes it three in a row for the Irish, and tomorrow theyll get another shot at top-seeded Allentown (who downed Nottingham 21-1 on Thursday) in the tournament quarterfinals. The Irish will travel to play the Redbirds, a team that they lost to 13-12 just two short weeks ago.

One of the central figures for Notre Dame on offense was senior attack player Emily Bowers, who scored the 200th goal of her career in the second half helping the Irish get past a pesky Raiders team.

We kept the 200th goal stuff on the down low, said Bowers, who finished the game with four goals and a pair of assists. That means that I got a lot of help from my team to be able to score that many goals.

And Dina (Cifelli), shes my girl because she always helps with her assists; shes my feeder and shes the one that got me the ball on my 200th.

Today we knew coming in what it was going to take to win. Coach (Julie Mazer) goes over what we need to win and we knew we had to try and limit what (Kate) Weeks could do out there.

This was a complete team effort. Were coming off beating Hopewell (17-8) and it was the first game that we really played together.

This is our third win in a row, and its all teamwork and were so excited. Our coach said that were finally meshing together.

Now, I think were ready to make a comeback when we play Allentown.

Both teams matched goal for goal in the first half, but it was Francesca Bellos goal with 43 second left in the half that gave the Raiders an 8-7 advantage at intermission.

Brooke Gallagher started the second-half scoring with her fifth goal, followed by a Kate Weeks goal putting Hun ahead for the last time.

Notre Dame ended the one-goal seesawing with goals by Cifelli, Bowers and another by Gallagher staking the Irish to an 11-9 lead with 16:10 left.

Weeks and teammate Bello did their best to keep the Raiders in the game, but after another Weeks goal, Bowers scored her milestone goal.

Bello tallied to draw Hun within one again, but another run by the Irish put the game away. Gallagher, Bowers, Cifelli and Kim King found the net for a 16-11 lead.

Both teams matched goal pretty much through most of the game until they took that 11-9 lead, and from there it seemed like we just couldnt catch up to them, said Hun coach Beth Loffredo.

Theres not a whole lot to say except we just didnt get it together and we didnt have enough time to come back at the end.

Notre Dames Mazer knew stopping or trying to limit high-scoring and Boston College-bound Weeks (6 goals, 2 assists) would be key for the Irish to advance.

We figured if we possessed the ball that would limit the time she (Weeks) could have the ball; shes just a very talented player.

I think this was one of our most physical games and I knew Hun was a good team. But we made good decisions with the ball and we limited our turnovers in the second half after turning it over eight times. Emily getting her 200th was special, and Brooke (Gallagher) has been playing great of late. Shes getting a lot of goals off of transition and shes making great use of her speed to score for us.

Our offense is working really well together right now and theyre starting to really mesh as a unit. And our defense did a great job today, we came up with some big turnovers and (goalie) Molly (Damm) played amazing today.

I told the girls that if they wanted another shot at Allentown that theyd have to win today. Well, now we get to play em again and our girls are excited about it.

NOTRE DAME 16, HUN 13
Notre Dame (5-7) 7 916
Hun (5-6) 8 513
Goals ND: B. Gallagher 6, Bowers 4, Cifelli 2, King 2, Henig 2; H: Weeks 6, Bello 3, Dwyer 2, Albanese, Schade; Assists ND: Boland 2, Cifelli 3, Bowers, B. Gallagher, M. Gallagher 2, Henig 2, King 2; H: Weeks 2, Bello, Dwyer.
Saves ND: Damm 8; H: Perasso 4, Kane 3.

Issuers of over-the-counter derivatives relating to the wholesale price of electricity could have easier financial requirements if the proposals in ASICs new Consultation Paper 177 Electricity derivative market participants: Financial requirements are adopted.

This new consultation paper, which is part of ASICs revisiting of financial requirements for the financial services industry generally, proposes to simplify financial requirements of AFS licensees by moving to a test of net tangible asset measure of 10% of revenue.

On the other hand, ASIC is proposing longer cash flow projections for electricity derivative market participants these would be rolling 12-month cash flow projections prepared quarterly.

But the proposal only applies to AFS licensees who only trade electricity derivatives. If you trade gas, weather or oil derivatives as well as electricity, then the standard derivatives financial obligations will still apply. As a result, this change would be of benefit really only to traders who only do electricity.

ASIC says that this limitation is justified because Australian wholesale electricity markets are highly regulated, and we are keen to limit the compliance burden applying to these persons only undertaking financial services activities relating to the wholesale electricity market by ensuring that our financial requirements are as simple and clear as possible, and are appropriate for the nature of this industry sector.

Is there a case to extend the simplified relief to other energy-related derivatives such as gas, weather or oil derivatives?

ASIC is seeking comments on the proposals, including whether the relief should be limited to electricity derivatives, by 29 June 2012.

You might also be interested in…

• ]]> http://www.bccinzago.com/2012/05/14/asic-looks-at-relaxing-financial-requirements-for-issuers-of-electricity/feed/ 0 http://www.bccinzago.com/2012/05/13/ehr-vendor-contract-controversy-persists/ http://www.bccinzago.com/2012/05/13/ehr-vendor-contract-controversy-persists/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 08:55:45 +0000 Admin http://www.bccinzago.com/?p=964 Continue reading →]]> Like many industries that evolve in a somewhat unregulated marketplace, health IT has enjoyed a bit of a Wild West existence, albeit within a highly competitive environment. The scene is changing. Products merits and their pivotal position within the care delivery system — particularly with regard to patient safety — face increasing scrutiny, as quality improvement advocates, policymakers and even the health IT community press for more transparency and, potentially, regulation.   

  One hot-button issue is electronic health record vendor contract language that some claim impedes safety improvement. Two types of clauses have landed in the limelight:

  • Hold harmless clauses that require purchasers to indemnify vendors for errors, injuries or malpractice claims arising from use of the product; and
  • Clauses that prohibit users open disclosure of identified product defects, glitches or hazards.

  The American Medical Informatics Association, in a November 2010 position paper, and the Institute of Medicine, in its November 2011 health IT safety report, called for eradication of such clauses on the grounds that they run counter to public policy and safety-improvement interests.

  EHR vendors, for their part, have cited their right to protect their intellectual property and to manage processes by which problems are reported and addressed. Some also claim that liability for errors or safety threats that occur because of faulty implementation or user incompetence should rest with those responsible.

  Kenneth Goodman — who led the AMIA task force that produced the position paper and chairs the bioethics program at the University of Miami — contends that disputes about ownership and relative liability miss the main point: EHRs are not just any consumer product.

  No one begrudges anyone the right to their intellectual property. What we are insisting on is that the agreements by which the intellectual property is rolled out in the service of patient care be made transparent, he said, citing the model used with prescription drugs and medical devices. EHRs, Goodman contends, should be held to the same standard.

  We need to know their safety records, how well they work, and whether or not they give physicians and nurses the tools they need to do their job, he said. Anything that prevents open, public evaluation of these crucial tools is an impediment to improving them.

  Confidentiality Clauses and Liability

  The HIMSS EHR Association, an EHR vendor trade association, says it is neither in a position — nor willing — to govern members behavior. As a matter of policy, the group has not collected data on how many vendors employ such clauses, according to officials.

  We dont endorse vendors having special confidentiality clauses with their clients. But at same time … we cant mandate what they do or dont do, Charlie Jarvis — vice chair of the EHR association and vice president of health care services and government relations for NextGen Healthcare — said, adding, Weve never sought that [contract] information or collected [it].

  Susan Ridgely — a senior policy analyst at RAND Corporation whose work focuses on the intersection of health IT, public policy and liability — takes a broad view on contract issues. Clauses that prohibit disclosure of safety issues that arise in using health IT products seem contrary to public policy, said Ridgely, a lawyer. But she thinks clauses that shift liability for errors to users if the health IT system has not been installed per the vendors recommendations or has been modified in a way that may affect the product’s function are somewhat reasonable.

  In general, the notion of apportioning liability is a difficult one, especially in an arena as complex as health care delivery, Ridgely maintains, and contracts are by their nature negotiable. She suggests that efforts would be better spent on reducing risk than arguing about clauses and relative liability for safety-related events.

  She said, People say, We have to sign these hold-harmless clauses. And I say, Where are your lawyers? What we really need to ensure is that whoever can best mitigate the risk is the one who holds the risk.

  Like other industry observers, Ridgely said that, in the absence of regulation, the government should convene stakeholders to figure out an appropriate way to distribute the risk. That would be incredibly helpful.

  Safety Reporting — How Open?  

  The issue of nondisclosure clauses — particularly considerations of when, where, how and by whom health IT-associated errors and safety problems should be reported — is similarly challenging. Both health IT vendors and safety advocates agree that the advent of government-sanctioned patient safety organizations is a step in the right direction. But confidentiality concerns regarding reporting individual identities, products and patients remain unresolved from a liability standpoint.

  Health IT safety improvement proponents argue that the reporting environment should be completely transparent to enable users, across products, to share safety concerns and near misses, report product flaws and engage in open product comparisons without fear of violating contracts. However, vendors are concerned that such exchanges could unleash a liability field day for trial lawyers.

  Michael Stearns — president and CEO of e-MDs, an EHR vendor — said that the vendor community should welcome and enable more transparency in safety reporting, but not at the expense of being left out of the initial loop.

  The vendors feel strongly that we need to be involved with anything that goes on with our product. We want to analyze it and prevent it from happening with other installations, Stearns said.

  HIMSS EHR Association members have commenced discussions with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality regarding legal issues and nuances pertaining to how reported information can be disseminated and identified problems resolved, according to Stearns. We are trying to make sure there are no barriers to the unfettered access to any information we need, he said.

  Stearns and Jarvis point to the reporting avenues that exist for EHR users — namely vendors own user groups and the recently launched EHREvent reporting platform hosted by PDR Network. However, both have their limitations. User groups are vendor specific and might not have enough participation to yield information that will improve product safety across the board, some contend. And EHREvent, managed through an AHRQ-recognized PSO, hasnt exactly caught on like wildfire, admits Steven Merahn, PDR Networks chief medical officer.

  Despite strong interest on the part of clinicians and organizations, report volumes are fairly limited. We are talking dozens of reports, not hundreds, Merahn said. We have not had sufficient critical mass to do any modeling, pattern or root-cause analysis.

  Government Guidance Sought

  The current burning issue is how any PSOs patient safety work product following an events analysis will be treated from the standpoint of data protection.

  Stakeholders — including the vendor and provider communities — are pressing the government, particularly AHRQ and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, to provide that guidance.

  Jodi Daniel, director of ONCs Office of Policy and Planning, said that ONC and AHRQ are working on the issue.

  We are gathering critical input from various stakeholders to make this happen. PSOs are a keystone in … improving patient safety, and we want them to have the best possible input, Daniel said, adding, Improving patient safety with health IT requires better information from reporting of errors or potential errors, good analysis of this information, and translation of the learning into practice.

  ONC is in the process of trying to better understand the product usage landscape and the approaches that would promote and support a culture of safety in a health IT-enabled environment. The agency will provide guidance when those issues are better illuminated, Daniel said.

  ONC is actively working in concert with AHRQ and other federal partners to develop a coordinated health IT safety surveillance and action plan, according to Daniel. However, she provided no specifics on when the plan will be available other than to say that we anticipate releasing [it] in the future.

  ]]> http://www.bccinzago.com/2012/05/13/ehr-vendor-contract-controversy-persists/feed/ 0 http://www.bccinzago.com/2012/05/13/scholars-say-pupils-gain-social-skills-in-coed-classes/ http://www.bccinzago.com/2012/05/13/scholars-say-pupils-gain-social-skills-in-coed-classes/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 03:50:24 +0000 Admin http://www.bccinzago.com/?p=962 Continue reading →]]> At the end of the summer session, Ms. Bigler said, “what we find is when teachers use groups to label children in their classrooms, you get the formation of stereotyping and prejudice, and when teachers ignore the presence of those groups in their classrooms, you do not find stereotyping and prejudice.”

  That sort of adult modeling may help explain why children in their first few years of school are far more rigidly oriented along gender lines than toddlers or even the adults they will become.

  During that period of schooling, children begin to play and interact overwhelmingly with others of their own sex and become less comfortable interacting with those of the other sex, according to Laura D. Hanish, the co-director of the Lives of Girls and Boys: Initiatives on Gender Development and Relationships project at Arizona State.

  Ms. Hanish’s research found that when boys and girls played mostly with same-sex classmates in preschool, they began to behave in more gender-stereotyped ways: Boys played farther from teachers, became more aggressive, and used more “rough and tumble” play over time; girls moved closer to teachers and included more gendered play.

  “As girls play with other girls, they start to become more skilled in the interactional styles and patterns typical of girls and less skilled in the interactional styles and patterns associated with boys,” Ms. Hanish said. “You start to see increasing segregation. Children develop a fairly limited set of interaction skills: less understanding, appreciation, respect of one another.

  “All of that can translate into a host of problems across classrooms,” she said. “It can translate to less effective interactions across academic tasks, harassment, bullying.”

  Building Relationships

  The Sanford Harmony Program at Arizona State is working with schools to ease the polarization of boys and girls in early grades without preventing normal gender identification. In Phoenix, Ms. Radke and Ms. Flynn are part of an experimental curriculum intended to re-engage boys and girls in two critical transition grades, preschool and 5th grade.

  The educators received professional development on gender biases and child development, including research on teacher labeling.

  “It was an eye-opening thing realizing how many times I was inadvertently categorizing the children in biases based on whether they were boys or girls,” Ms. Radke recalled. “There was personal self-awareness that came out.”

  Throughout this school year, Ms. Radke and Ms. Flynn have not directly discussed gender with their students, but each week, every child is paired with a new “class buddy” of the other sex. Every day, buddies do a different activity together, from art projects and music to active physical games outside.

  The program also includes regular activities to teach the children social skills, such as listening, sharing, and cooperation.

  In a preliminary study of 94 preschool and 199 5th grade low-income students in matched classrooms, Ms. Hanish found students who participated in the buddy matching and social curriculum were more socially competent, less aggressive, less exclusionary, and showed better social skills toward both boys and girls.

  Teachers of students in the program also reported that those children were better behaved and better at following directions than those from nonparticipating classrooms.

  The Phoenix educators said the program has made a big difference in their students’ general behavior and their relationships with one another over the course of the year.

  “Every Monday, they’re excited to come in and see who their new buddy is,” Ms. Radke said. “What we began to see was on their own, they would sit with their buddy for the sit-down, read-aloud activity. … Not every buddy partnership works well, but I resisted the temptation to change it, because there were a lot of odd couples that ended up working well.”

  ]]> http://www.bccinzago.com/2012/05/13/scholars-say-pupils-gain-social-skills-in-coed-classes/feed/ 0