Parents’ Guide – internet safety

Parent’s Guide
NetAlert has prepared an Internet safety guide as a resource to help you create your own Internet safety strategy for your family.
Whether you are simply investigating the issues or need some practical advice on how you can help your children, this guide is for you.

Global Kids’ Digital Media Initiative main Second Life grid launch of Teen produced game CONSENT!

CONSENT! is a first person, simulation game based on Harriet A. Washington’s book “Medical Apartheid” <www.medicalapartheid.com> in which your avatar assumes the role of an African-American prisoner who has to make tough decisions about whether to choose to ‘consent’ and submit to medical experiments, which took place during the time period of the 1940s to the present.

The game was designed and developed by Global Kids youth leaders in the Playing 4 Keeps after school program at South Shore High School, NYC using tools in the virtual world of Teen Second Life. Additional building and scripting was also done by the teen-run TSL development company, Digital Refinery.

Source: http://www.holymeatballs.org/2009/04/consent_sllaunch.html

Teen Content Creators and Consumers

More than half of online teens have created content for the internet; and most teen downloaders think that getting free music files is easy to do.  American teenagers today are utilizing the interactive capabilities of the internet as they create and share their own media creations.

Fully half of all teens and 57% of teens who use the internet could be considered Content Creators. They have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations.

Read the full Pew/Internet report

Video – Growing up online

“a must watch for all teachers, parents and anyone involved with students or children going online. The video was released last week in the US on the PBS network as part of the Frontline program. Growing Up Online explores a large number of issues about students growing up online and the challenges that everyone face from parents to teachers and most importantly students.

A Green Social Networking Site for Teens

Call it the green Facebook.

There’s a new social networking site where environmentally minded teens looking for a place to chat, share ideas, and learn about careers and university programs can now visit.

Sponsored by the Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), the Weather Channel, and Philippe Cousteau, grandson of legendary sea-explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau, the recently launched Planet-connect.org is a site designed for teens by teens.

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Officials: Craigslist doesn’t protect kids

An undercover investigation shows Craigslist is not protecting children from online predators, reports the Detroit News. | Read More

Game to play – Perilous river crossing

The Digital divide and school success

Kids with home computers more likely to graduate Access to a home computer increases the likelihood that children will graduate from high school, but blacks and Latinos are much less likely to have a computer at home than are whites, according to a new study. The study also found that the so-called “digital divide” is even more pronounced among children than adults.more …

A Digital library for the world’s children

From New Zealand to Mongolia: Co-Designing and Deploying a Digital Library for the World’s Children

From the Abstract:

The Internet has led to an explosion of users throughout the world. Low-cost computing options are now emerging for developing countries that are changing the world’s educational landscape. Given these conditions, there is a critical need to understand the obstacles and opportunities in designing and deploying technologies for children worldwide. This paper discusses seven years of strategies and methods learned in co-designing and deploying the International Children’s Digital Library (www.childrenslibrary.org) with children in multiple countries.

http://www.resourceshelf.com/2009/02/19/article-from-new-zealand-to-mongolia-co-designing-and-deploying-a-digital-library-for-the-world%e2%80%99s-children/

See baby touch a screen, but does baby get it?

New media products for babies, toddlers and preschoolers began flooding the market in the late 1990’s, starting with video series like “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby.” But now, the young children’s market has exploded into a host of new and more elaborate electronics for pre-schoolers, including video game consoles like the V.Smile and handheld game systems like the Leapster, all marketed as educational.

Despite the commercial success, though, a report released yesterday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “A Teacher in the Living Room? Educational Media for Babies, Toddlers and Pre-schoolers,” indicates there is little understanding of how the new media affect young children – and almost no research to support the idea that they are educational.

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