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General Information on Multimedia

(Answered by our International Guests at CRN International Symposium in January, 1998)

Question 1. What is the population in your country?

Question 2. What percentage of the population is children?

Question 3. What is the mortality rate in your country?

Question 4. What is the percentage of households that own personal computers/access to the internet?

Question 5. What is the percentage of schools that have personal computers and the ratio of computer to student?

Question 6. What percentage of schools have access to the internet and how is the internet used?

Question 7. What is the average number of televisions and telephones seen per household in your country?

Question 8. How many people carry cellular phones and pagers in your country?
What percentage of those holders are children (under the age of 18)?

Question 9. What other multimedia-related electronic equipment(s) are usually seen in the homes and schools of your country? (i.e. video players, stereo, handycam, television, etc.)

• Not available. (Australia)
• television, video player, stereo, telephone, video game set (Japan)
• Video: 69%, TV 97% (Norway)
• Vidoe Players, televisions (Singapore)
• video player, stero, television, computer (Taiwan)
• Emerging technologies: Duke University: Rise in Cybertrends
  A website containing short quotations from longer, linked references by leading edge thinkers. Very interesting reading!
  Covers everything from computers, the internet, telephone service to Digital Video Disks, Personal Area Networks and more. (U.S.A.)

• Statistics not available, but it would be fair to say that the majority of schools would have video players and televisions available for use in classrooms. (Australia)
• television, video player, stereo, computer, copy machine, FAX (Japan)
• N/A (Norway)
• Computers (Singapore)
• video player, television, computer (Taiwan)
• N/A (U.S.A.)

Question 10. What do you think has been an ongoing issue regarding multimedia and children in your country? What interventions have you seen happen regarding multimedia and children (socially? legally?)

• The issue of violence in the media and the matter of children accessing inappropriate information via the Internet or through Computer Games are major issues of concern for all Australians. (Australia)
  for more details...
• The emotional and psychological influences that multimedia will have on children, especially infants and toddlers. What interventions have you seen happen regarding multimedia and children (socially? legally?) None in particular. (Japan)
• There is concern about the influence on children of violence on TV. The Norwegian Government has established a study on this topic, and it has been widely debated in the Norwegian Society.
  There is also a concern that children's use of electronic communication technolgogy reduce the children's physical activity and thus leads to poor health, and lack of experience of play in nature. (Norway)
• One of the issues is the free flow of information available on the net. The information may not be desirable or reviewed and hence, interpretation of the information must be guarded. (Singapore)
• The lackness of various CD-titles forces parents to select poor products. Foreign CD-titles show foreign culture to children. (Taiwan)
• Learning by Design: http://www.newhorizons.org/tech_irlkahn.html
  Multimedia Encourages New Learning Styles: http://www.newhorizons.org/tech_thornburg.html
  Testimony to the US Congress...: http://www.newhorizons.org/article_dede5.html
  The World Wide Web in Education: http://edweb.gsn.org/web.intro.html
  Technology and Education Reform: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/
  (U.S.A.)

Question 11. What do you think are some recent opinions or issues regarding multimedia and children?
Should the net be censored?

• media violence and children, children's access to the Internet, responsible advertising to children..., cultural diversity in new media products, equity of access... for more details...(Australia)
• What are the possible negative influences that overstimulation (through video displays and TV screens) may have on children's emotional and psychological status. (There was a recent scare in Japan where some children experienced shock-like symptoms after seeing an animation series on TV). (Japan)
• Children are fast learners and become familiar and competent with the new multimedia. This statment is of course only applicable to children in countries with good access to electronic communication equipment. There is a risk that the gap will widen between well-to- do countries and developing countries also with respect to competencies in electronic multi media competence. (Norway)
• (Singapore)
• The rank system for children's multimedia is weakly promoted. People can hardly distinguish a rank from another. (Taiwan)
• Please click here for answer. (U.S.A.)

Question 12. What movements or directions do you see in the future for the use of multimedia and society/children?

• the initiation of research..., the development of support materials..., policy frameworks..., global communication by children...for more details...(Australia)
• The use of computers and multimedia will increase in educational situations. However, at present, the students are more comfortable and knowledgable when using computers . The gap between the teachers and the students will continue to widen unless teachers become more enthusiastic and promote the use of computers in school education. (Japan)
• See Question11 (Norway)
• (Singapore)
• The learning of foreign languages is currently one of the directions of multimedia. (Taiwan)
• Please click here for answer. (U.S.A.)

Question 13. Please describe briefly, the schools system in your country. If you find an appropriate web page that indicates this information, you can refer us to that page. Please indicate which graphs or information on that page is most important to include.

• Each State has its own Web Site.
  

  URLs for each are as follows:
  

  Queensland: http://www.qed.qld.gov.au
  New South Wales: http://www.dse.nsw.edu.au/
  Austral ian Capital Territory: http://actein.edu.au/
  Victoria: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/
  Tasmania: http://www.tased.edu.au/
  South Australia: http://www.nrexus.edu.au/
  Western Australia: http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/
  Northern Territory: http://www.topend.com.au/ (Australia)

• http://www.crn.or.jp/NAVI/SYSTEM.HTM (Japan)
• Child school from age 6 -12 years. Youth school from age 13-15. Most schools are public, run by the municipalities. (Norway)
• http://www.gov.sg/gvthome/min1.htm (Singapore)
• kindergarden(3 years), primary school(6 years), junior high school(3 years), high school(3 years) or college(5 years) or university(4 years). Vocational system is not included.
  http://www.edu.tw/index.shtml (Taiwan)
• A comprehensive world-wide view of schools on the Internet. For specific information about states and state policies, look at School Districts on the Web for a picture of just how complex K-12 education is in the U.S. ("Schools on the Net")
  After the basic right to a public education, and the generally adopted 5 day school week, with 12 weeks of vacation, the variations begin! (U.S.A.)