Category: parents and technology

Posted in 21st Century life, online tracking, parents and technology, privacy

Retailers Track Adults by Monitoring Device Wifi

Posted on by Marti Weston

We most often worry about advertisers tracking our children online but sometimes forget to think about how much we adults are followed around digitally.

FTC Privacy Series
FTC Privacy Seminar on Mobile Device Tracking

Check out the Washington Post article, Privacy Advocates Push Back on Stores’ Tracking, describing how retailers keep track their customers by monitoring smartphone wifi signals. No guidelines currently regulate this type of information collecting so no privacy parameters exist. Essentially this mobile device tracking is a way to get more information about shoppers, track what they do, and target advertising and target advertising more effectively.

The article, by Amerita Jayakuma, describes how a Maryland legislator has proposed a bill to require retailers to inform people if the store is watching them while they shop.  The Federal Trade Commission recently held a seminar on mobile device tracking.

I’ve been wondering for some time if I was tracked a few months ago when I visited a huge regional outlet mall with my husband.

Continue reading “Retailers Track Adults by Monitoring Device Wifi” →

Posted in 21st Century parenting, connected learning, digital kids, digital life, family conversations, Internet statistics, parents and technology

Amaze Digital Kids with Internet Statistics!

Posted on by Marti Weston

Royal PingdomDo you wish you could amaze the digital kids in your life with trivia or fun facts about the connected world?

For the past couple of years, the Royal Pingdom site has posted a yearly overview of Internet statistics. The post, Internet 2012 in Numbers, shares some interesting figures, and they will indeed help you amaze the digital natives in your life. Moreover, these statistics can serve as excellent conversation starters and provide good context to help connected learners understand more about the size and scope of the digital world that they take for granted.

Here’s a sampling from the 2012 post. By the end of the year the Internet featured:

  • 425 million active Gmail users
  • 635 million web sites
  • 51 new web sites added during the year
  • 246 million domain name registrations
  • 2.4 billion Internet users and 565 million of them are in China
  • 175 million Tweets per day
  • 40.5 years as the average age of a Facebook user
  • 4 billion hours watched on YouTube per month

Check out the many other stats and some nifty graphs. Remember, though, that the statistics are from 2012. Royal Pingdom has also compiled numbers for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, so you can have some fun comparing and contrasting the numbers from year to year (and watching them grow). The site has not posted statistics for 2013 – at least not yet.

Posted in 21st Century life, 21st Century parenting, digital devices, digital kids, family life, parents and technology

Get Better Quality Sleep With a Centralized Home Charging Station

Posted on by Marti Weston
From a MakeZine Activity. http://makezine.com/craft/how-to_diy_device_charging_sta/
Check out this MakeZine Activity!

Where a digital device is charged is a health issue for 21st Century children.

With so many different electronic devices in our lives, it’s easy to get distracted and use them for extended periods and inappropriate times. Concerns about overuse abound, but one of the most significant issues is the way that digital devices keep people, especially 21st Century preadolescents and teens, from getting enough good quality sleep.

To improve sleep habits in your house, consider purchasing or one or two digital gadget charging stations where family members can charge phones and other devices. Locate the charging stations away from the bedrooms.

A Google search for charging stations gets you started, or you can begin with this Mashable post, 10 Chic Charging Stations.

Charging station at Pottery Barn.
Charging station at Pottery Barn.

I recently discovered, in a small way, just how a cell phone screen can disrupt sleep. I received a new Solitaire game app and began playing two or three games on my iPhone just before bed several nights in a row. A few games grew into 20 or 30 minutes of play, and for three nights in a row, when I put down the phone, it took me a long time to settle down and get to sleep. The fourth night I did not play, and sleep came easily.

Lesson learned.

One of my favorite charging stations is the red box at the top right of this post, a nifty do-it-yourself craft project made from a filing box. Click on the image link and check it out at MakeZine.

Twenty-first century parenting demands are unending and sometimes difficult to solve, but introducing charging stations into a home is a simple and elegant solution that addresses sleep deprivation issues for everyone in the family.

Other than ensuring a child gets all of the recommended vaccinations, supervising good sleep is just about the best thing a parent can do for a child’s health.

A Few Resources on Sleep Deprivation and Digital Device Screens (repeated from the previous post)

Posted in 21st Century Learning, connected learning, parents and technology, Safer Internet Day

International Safer Internet Day – February 11, 2014

Posted on by Marti Weston

Parents and educators may want to encourage 21st Century learners to participate in the International Safer Internet Day celebration on February 11, 2014. This year I am especially looking forward to the event, because it focuses on what is good about the connected world. (Unfortunately, way too often people concentrate on the fear aspects of the connected world.)

One Good Thing
Instructions for Submitting a Video

Over 100 countries observe Safer Internet Day each year on a day in February. As a part of the celebration, United States organizers are asking participants to make short videos that share their thoughts about the good things that can happen on the Internet concentrating especially on how these good things contribute to making the world a better place.

The United States sponsors of the event are journalists Anne Collier and Larry Magid, who jointly run the ConnectSafely.org website. Anne also writes on her blog at NetFamilyNews.org and Larry writes on his at LarrysWorld.com.

Check out the U.S. Safer Internet Day website below.                  Continue reading “International Safer Internet Day – February 11, 2014” →

Posted in 21st Century parenting, digital kids, digital learning, digital learning resources, digital literacy, parents and technology

My Two Blog Posts at A Platform for Good

Posted on by Marti Weston

Blogging can be a solitary endeavor, so it’s exciting when another cool website publishes a blogger’s thoughts and ideas. Over the past several weeks I’ve had two blog posts published over at A Platform for Good (PFG), a part of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI).

PFG
Visit A Platform for Good

PFG aims to encourage parents, kids, and educators to connect with one another and think about “doing good” in the digital world. The website and the blog focus on a range of interesting topics with lots of ideas on digital parenting, learning, growing up in today’s world, and many other authentic opportunities  — all great for us to have access to in a connected world.

Continue reading “My Two Blog Posts at A Platform for Good” →

Posted in 21st Century parenting, digital citizenship, digital devices, digital parenting, parents and technology, tweens and technology

Your 2014 Digital Parenting Resolutions?

Posted on by Marti Weston

os7iphone 2Read the excellent blog post by Sue Scheff over at A Platform for Good. In Digital Resolutions for Parents, the author reviews some of the 21st Century connected world parenting resolutions that parents will want to consider implementing as families move into 2014 digital life.

Scheff offers some good suggestions to help children and adolescents (and their parents) stay safe, learn more, and develop savvy digital street smarts.

If new gadgets and devices have arrived in your family it’s not too late to check out the holiday contract cards over at A Platform for Good. You can use the cards, take the language and organize  on your own paper, or personalize the cards themselves them a bit. These cards are a wonderful resource that can help family members get started in 2014 with clear and well-stated digital life expectations.

If you are searching for more information on digital age contracts to use with children and their digital devices, check out the  contracts and agreements page on this blog. It lists everything on the topic that Media Tech Parenting has discovered on the web and judges to be a worthwhile resource.