Happy App Friday!
Challenge yourself and your family with word games in Pictoword, and solve algebra problems with Linear Equations. Plus, the latest study on the effects of screen time, and how to use Apple’s screen time tools.
Garry Froehlich
Jellybean Tunes
Pictoword: Fun New Word Games
by Kooapps
Pictoword gives you a pair of pictures and challenges you to make a word (an ear and a ring equals earring). It starts simple, but quickly gets more challenging and will give your brain a workout. My son and I had fun guessing together. As so many games are these days, it is ad-supported, but fortunately pop-up advertisements can be turned off in settings, or you remove them altogether through an in-app purchase.
Linear equation in 2 variables
by Red Hong
Recently redesigned, Linear Equations in 2 Variables is exactly what the title says. Students are given algebra equations with two variables, and shown how to use the elimination and substitution methods for solving them. They can also graph the equations (linear equations are lines on a graph) to get a visual understanding of the answer. It took me a while to figure out the user interface (tap operations and drag numbers around) but once I did, I found it works well. However, I would use the app as practice for students already learning the techniques in school rather than as a stand-alone teaching tool.
The Kids (Who Use Tech) Seem to Be All Right
“A new paper by scientists at the University of Oxford, published this week in Nature Human Behaviour, should help clear up the confusion. It reveals the pitfalls of the statistical methods scientists have employed and offers a more rigorous alternative. And, importantly, it uses data on more than 350,000 adolescents to show persuasively that, at a population level, technology use has a nearly negligible effect on adolescent psychological well-being…”
This study is important because it looks at a wide variety of factors associated with well-being. Screen time was found to be a neutral factor (there is a statistical link but it is too small to really matter), much like wearing glasses or eating potatoes. As you’d expect things like binge drinking and bullying have a negative effect on well-being, and eating breakfast and getting enough sleep have a positive effect, and of course getting enough sleep is a good reason to put the screen away.
That’s not to say there aren’t other reasons to limit screen use, just that well-being isn’t one of them.
Full Paper at Author’s Site
https://www.amyorben.com/publication/2019_orbenprzybylski_nhb/
Article in Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-kids-who-use-tech-seem-to-be-all-right/
Using the iOS Screen Time Tools
Speaking of getting enough sleep, have you tried the new Screen Time tools in iOS 12? We’ve been setting downtime hours which serve as a polite reminder to tone media use down as our family approaches bedtime. The downtime hours on my device are set from 8pm to 7am, which means whenever I try to access an app after 8pm, the screen reminds me that I’m officially in downtime mode. I can still access an app if needed, but the reminder is effective to help keep usage light.
To set your downtime, open Settings > Screen Time > Downtime and select the start and end times you’d like to permit. A downtime reminder will even appear 5 minutes before downtime to prepare you for the new routine.
