Watch this amazing and inspirational video about girls and coding. It’s worth sharing with kids and keeping it at hand when your child or a student in your class gets discouraged by a challenge in a math or coding activity.
The video comes out of the Made With Code project where there are lots of other videos to watch.
Every 21st Century parent needs a holiday digital parenting checklist that describes the tasks to accomplish between purchasing a new digital device and watching a child gleefully unwrap it. A list gives parents a head start, helping them understand challenges, set explanations and guidelines, anticipate problems, and most importantly, set the stage for responsible and respectful use of extraordinarily powerful devices.
Many parents I speak with point out how little time they have to go through this sort of checklist — but the time spent now is nothing compared the time drain that occurs after your child experiences a connected world problem. It’s worth your time to consider the checklist now.
As parents and educators, we quickly come to understand how stories help young people learn.
Unfortunately, when it comes to digital parenting and digital citizenship, we do not have many positive children’s stories — the kind you can sit down and read with a child. We know what we want children to learn as they grow up and use more and more digital devices in a connected world. We are also gradually coming to understand that citizenship and digital citizenship are one and the same.
We need lots more stories that illustrate the way digital life should be lived — stories that we can share with 21st Century children when they are young.
Continue reading “A Positive Story for Younger Digital Kids: Meet the Von Awesome Family”
It’s Thanksgiving 2015 and time for my annual list celebrating what’s good about our digital world.
As a parent, teacher, and 21st Century learning advocate with a digital parenting focus, I spend lots of time suggesting ways that families, educators, and children, can strategize, enrich, and improve their digitally connected lives. And, of course, I am always encouraging people — kids and parents — to learn and understand enough about digital life to avoid potential problems.
This year I am especially grateful for a young new family member and for the digital tools that allow me to continually stay in touch. The ability to see, chat, laugh, watch reactions, and almost touch family members who live at a distance enriches life in countless ways.
My 2015 Thanksgiving List
I am thankful that digital life allows me to: Continue reading “Digital Opportunities That Make Life Better — Thanksgiving 2015”
At the same time that many parents worry about their children and what they are doing online, these same adults enjoy sharing pictures and funny information about their kids (funny to the parents, not to the kids). Many children, especially as they head into late elementary and middle school, are not at all happy about what their parents post.
Recently I read a thoughtful article, Too Much Sharing: Students Ask Parents to Think Twice Before Posting, in the Bloomington Pantagraph (Illinois). The article described a class at the Bloomington Junior High School that studied personal digital privacy. Their teacher, Karen Kelly, found that students expressed frustration with their parents and the things that they shared about their children. She found that many had tried to have a conversation with a parent, asking that less be shared, and some even ask Ms. Kelly if she would speak with parents. Continue reading “In Video Kids Speak Out to Parents About Sharenting”
In an always-connected world, how can we help our students and our children become better, more thoughtful problems solvers when they encounter challenging dilemmas? What can adults do to encourage young people to grow into citizens who understand how to examine issues and problems from a range of perspectives — theirs, of course, but also the possible ramifications of theirs in the context of a community where they live, with others, or even the world. Each parent and every teacher ask these reflective questions again and again as they observe young people navigating through their online lives.
The questions change a bit in the midst of a digital problem or public embarrassment, caused by misuse or misunderstandings on the Internet. In those situations it’s not uncommon to hear people, and young people especially, exclaim, “Why did I do that?” or “What was I thinking?” Or even more often an adult asks a child, “What were you thinking?” These questions come up when there is little to reflect
In her book, Disconnected: Youth New Media and the Ethics Gap, Carrie James (read author’s bio) suggests some answers to these questions as she shares the results of her qualitative research with young people ages 10 – 25 and also with parents of digital natives. James examines the decisions that young people make and how they respond to digital life ethical problems. In her research the author documents how participants think about and solve privacy, participation, speech, and intellectual property dilemmas, finding that the most of the young people tended to examine issues and respond to problems with a self-focused perspective or a friend-focused moral perspective. Only rarely did the young subjects in her interviews engage in more complex ethical thinking by considering perspectives from the viewpoint of a larger community, a group, or even society as a whole. Continue reading “Building Ethical Thinking Skills – Thoughts on Disconnected: Youth, New Media & the Ethics Gap”
I’ve been waiting and waiting. I realized that the KarmaGo was a new device, but I had no idea how popular it would be or how long I’d have to wait for it (like nearly two months). So about two weeks ago I wrote to ask EXACTLY WHEN I might expect it. And the customer service folks got right back to me, explaining that more people had ordered than expected, and that I should have it in hand within two weeks. Also they offered me another gigabyte of memory to use with this mini (and cute) wifi router.
It’s been two weeks and now I have it in my hand, so check out the photo of my new KarmaGo and the handy little felt bag to use when I carry it around in my purse. The felt container ensures that I don’t turn it on by accident. What a nifty little 21st Century gadget!
For those of your who don’t know, the KarmaGo is a mini router with portable wifi that I’ll carry around. I can turn it on whenever I need wifi and keep if off when I’m not using it. I buy the wifi access that I require. as I need it and I’ll be learning a lot in the next few days!
Continue reading “My New KarmaGo — It’s Here So Watch for My Reports #1”
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