What is Taming the Tube?

Taming the Tube is an annual Internet happening that runs from Feb to May or October to January of each year since its launch in 1994. Students ages 10-12 participate in an online research and data analysis project: monitoring TV-watching habits of their own age group around the world. A Call for Participation is posted on various educational listservers and on this website outlining the procedures and deadlines to be followed by participants. Classes wishing to participate must register with the coordinator. A detailed project description for participants can be found in the section, Participation Process.

Overview

1. Classes register with coordinator. Registration form is provided with the Call to Participation and on this website

2. Upon registration participating classes are added to Tametube listserver.

3. Participant list sent to all schools for locating research team members using latitude and longitude.

4. Each class composes a Hello letter to be sent to all participants.

5. Four categories of data are collected in Taming the Tube. Procedures for data collection are outlined in the section, Participation Process.
   • total TV watched per week per student according to gender
   • statistical data (range, mean, mode, median) for classes and by gender in the classes
   • favourite TV shows by gender
   • TV Watchers Anonymous Survey by gender. This survey, designed by Grade 6 students, looks at student attitudes towards TV in general and its influence on kids in such areas as violence, role models, clothing, lifestyle.

6. All collected data are forwarded to the coordinator for analysis and compilation of global results.

7. Global results of survey are shared with all participants and published in hard copy and online. The hypotheses are tested out with real data.

8. Timeline: actual dates will vary from year to year. Data collecting can be completed by participating schools in a 1 week period. Comparisons of data with schools world-wide will take place at a later date when all scores are compiled and analyzed by the Tube Tamers and tbe coordinator.