21st Century life – Page 16 – Media! Tech! Parenting!

21st Century life, connected learning, digital citizenship, digital learning, digital parenting, digital wellness, educating digital natives, parents and technology

10 Digital Wellness Thoughts to Consider

Posted on May 6, 2015March 22, 2019 by Marti Weston

These days everyone talks about personal wellness — those steps that people need to take to remain physically and mentally healthy and strong. But what about digital wellness? Poor digital health affects not only our connected lives but also our physical and mental well-being.

Digital wellness is about fine-tuning the 21st Century skills that we use to work and play in a connected world, and it also involves understanding a number of common myths about the nature of online life. Helping family members take steps to develop digital wellness habits can challenge parents, mainly because many children, pre-adolescents, and teens appear to be far more advanced online consumers than their parents. Underneath the veneer of digital native expertise, however, are a fair number of information gaps. Continue reading “10 Digital Wellness Thoughts to Consider” →

21st Century life, digital life, digital parenting, family conversations, parents and technology, social media, teaching digital kids

So What Happens to Social Media Data? Read the Terms of Service!

Posted on April 30, 2015March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

I am preparing to make a presentation to a group of well-informed teens at a school. In the process, I’ve reread the terms of service at a range of social media sites to remind myself about what can potentially happen to the pictures, comments, videos, and other content that we share on social media.

Social media is a part of life in today’s 21st Century world. Rather than wringing our hands about these apps, and the things that can go wrong, it’s a far better strategy for adults to proactively learn about social media, know what their digital children are using, and help them understand the power of social media apps. Moreover, every social media user — young and old — needs to develop strategies to use when things have the potential to go wrong.

Check out the terms of service for your favorite social media site. What do you think these policies mean for the pre-adolescents or teens in your life? The social media companies design these statements — albeit long documents — to make it clear what happens and what does not. What can you do to ensure that your child develops the necessary tools and strategies to think carefully about what content to post and share and what content to avoid sharing? Ongoing conversations about living in the digital world are a critical part of family life.

Each of the clips is from one of the social media websites, and I’ve added a link to each site’s complete terms of service document. Most of the companies want us to understand these documents.

Continue reading “So What Happens to Social Media Data? Read the Terms of Service!” →

21st Century life, digital life, parents and technology, teens and finance

When It Comes to Check Writing “The Times Are A’ changin”

Posted on April 28, 2015March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

With thanks to the Deviant Art blog, http://theinfamousj.deviantart.com

People of a certain age write checks. People of a much younger certain age, mainly millennials don’t, instead using their mobile phones for most of their financial transactions.

It would be hard to find an elder who cannot write a check, and most aging children still write them, albeit far less frequently. Some parents have given a check to their millennial young adult, only to have their child carry it around in a wallet for weeks and weeks rather than cashing it.

Now according to Washington Post Wonkblog writer, Christopher Ingraham, how to write a check is a big search item on Google. Continue reading “When It Comes to Check Writing “The Times Are A’ changin”” →

21st Century life, digital kids, digital life, educating digital natives, parents and technology

Has Your Child Grown Up With Google? Check Out This Article

Posted on April 16, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Ever so often adults are reminded that the world where we grew up is dramatically different from the world where our 21st Century children live, learn, and grow. What is new and different for parents and educators is merely routine to digital kids.

Over at the TeachThought blog I discovered an interesting article about the dramatic life changes that have occurred during the first 16 years of Google’s existence (dramatic to adults, that is). The author uses Google as a yardstick to measure the ways the world has changed during those 16 years, Click on the box below to read the whole article.

Continue reading “Has Your Child Grown Up With Google? Check Out This Article” →

21st Century life, data collecting, digital devices and gadgets, digital life, kids and privacy, parents and technology

Privacy 2015 Part II: Find Out How Invisible Trackers Collect Your Information

Posted on March 19, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

We hear, over and over, about how people are tracked online. Now we have a way to watch for ourselves and learn. Download Ghostery and let it tell you who is keeping track of your data. When I downloaded it to my computers, it was so amazing that I could not believe my eyes!

Screen Shot 2015-03-19 at 2.57.06 PM — Ghostery identified 4 trackers on Word Press.

The quick install, available for every browser, makes it possible to identify and display any website tracker that is collecting information. As a user moves from website to website the number of trackers changes. It’s amazing, because, despite the fact that I have checked the box in my browser asking sites not to track me … they do.

At first I was skeptical, so I went to the Ghostery website to find out why a company would “out” so many other companies. There’s an enlightening video to watch and lots of information about how and why the company does what it does. Read more on the company’s about page.

If you don’t know much about tracking check out the first post in this series.

Continue reading “Privacy 2015 Part II: Find Out How Invisible Trackers Collect Your Information” →

21st Century life, digital learning, parents and technology

So What Else Can Google Do?

Posted on March 11, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Did you know that, besides searching, Google can carry out a variety of simple tasks in daily life — making 21st Century connected life easier or at least a bit quicker? Amaze your children or students by trying out and sharing a few of these Google bells and whistles. A few of the tasks may also support learning activities.

Use Google as a timer by typing set time to 24 minutes.
Find a movie release by typing the name of the movie and the word release: e.g., Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel release.
Check out the sunrise and sunset times by typing sunrise in [town or city].
Get the weather forecast by typing forecast [town or city].
Get a definition by typing define [word here].
Figure out a tip by typing tip calculator.
Get songs by groups you like by typing songs by the [group name].
Convert measurements by typing convert and the units that you want to convert to: e.g., convert 3 yards to meters.
Find books by a certain author by typing books by [author’s name].
Get a definition by typing define [word here].

Check out even more! Continue reading “So What Else Can Google Do?” →

21st Century life, apps, digital kids, parents and technology, young innovators

12-Year-Old Researches Male & Female App Characters

Posted on March 5, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 10.51.32 AM — Symbols from http://www.flickr.com/photos/43812360@N05/6123054395 with my labels added.

With all the talk in today’s educational world about innovation, inventing, and making things, we sometimes forget that lots of good ideas still develop when an individual takes the time to organize a basic research project, sees it through to completion, and then clearly writes and reports about it. This process takes time.

Sometimes it seems that time is lacking when it comes to many of today’s digital products, an app for instance. Once it’s developed and deployed, it often feels like no one developing the product took enough time to think about and develop perspective about how many ways it might affect consumers.

Parents and educators will want to read I’m a 12-Year-Old Girl: Why Don’t the Characters in My Apps Look Like Me?,appearing in the March 4, 2015 Washington Post and written by Madeline Messer, a digitally native 12-year old. This young woman took the time to investigate the potential effects a product can have on individuals.

Continue reading “12-Year-Old Researches Male & Female App Characters” →