2012 Context Study of the Use of Technology and PBS KIDS Transmedia in the Home Environment: A Report to the CPB-PBS “Ready to Learn Initiative”

Introduction

The 2012 Context Study of the Use of Technology and PBS KIDS Transmedia in the Home Environment (Home Study) is an important part of the multiyear summative evaluation by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), and SRI International (SRI) of the CPB-PBS
Ready To Learn Initiative. The evaluation is focused on documenting and, whenever possible, measuring the impact of transmedia mathematics and literacy resources on learning for children from low-income families in preschool, community, or home settings. The Home Study is an extension and expansion on the Ready To Learn Parents and Caregivers Study (Parent Study), which explored the use of technology and media at home through surveys and focus groups. The study responds to a need to deeply understand family patterns of media and technology use at home—a need recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS, and the summative evaluation research team. This Home Study extends the survey and focus group analyses produced in our Parent Study by analyzing first-hand information on the ways in which Ready To Learn families adopt, use, and report
benefitting from technology and PBS KIDS Transmedia in their homes. This work has been critical to the larger Ready To Learn for two reasons. First, empirical studies of how Ready To Learn families engage with media and technology resources in this unique environment can be a great help in informing design and development of PBS KIDS transmedia resources that support learning at home. Second, we will use these findings in deciding which data we collect from families and incorporate into our analyses during 2013 Prekindergarten Randomized Controlled Trial (PreK RCT)—a multisite evaluation of a transmedia-rich math curriculum supplement in early childhood classrooms.