Posted in cyber-bullying, digital citizenship, digital parenting, parents and technology, social media

Summary of White House Bullying Prevention Summit

Posted on by Marti Weston

Over at Net Family News, Ann Collier has provided a superb summary of the Bullying Prevention Summit held last Thursday at the White House. Her blog post, Takeaways from the Bullying Prevention Summit, includes a list of presenters, links to organizations that are working on national plans to deal with cyberbullying, and a list of federal government initiatives.

Early in January 2011 this blog published a short post, Bullying and Cyberbullying: Myths and Reality, describing an Washington Post article, Five Myths About Bullying by one of the summit presenters, Susan Swearer-Napolitano. Swearer, a professor at the University of Nebraska, co-authored the book, Bullying Prevention and Intervention (under the name Susan M. Swearer).

Other Articles About the Bullying Prevention Summit

Posted in parents and technology

Typing Web Touch Typing Site: BookMark It!

Posted on by Marti Weston

It’s been some time since I’ve found keyboarding lessons that look good, really focus on touch typing, and are as enjoyable as typing lessons can ever be when a youngster has to develop a visual memory of the keyboard. However, here’s a keyboarding site — discovered a few days ago in a Twitter feed — that just may fit the bill.

I think that Typing Web may be a find — lessons that can help kids master keyboarding without lots of distractions and violent games. It’s web-based — a web 2.0 interactive site — so kids can use it at home or teachers can introduce it to a class at school. The site includes plenty of lessons and and good games (some of them made me laugh). A related site, Fun to Type, has more games.

If you have children who need keyboarding practice, give this site a try.

Continue reading “Typing Web Touch Typing Site: BookMark It!” →

Posted in acceptable use, cultural changes, digital parenting, family conversations, parent child conversations, parents and technology, social media, social networking

Grandma/Grandkids Use Facebook: Do You?

Posted on by Marti Weston

Join Facebook?  For three years I avoided the site. I knew that some of my friends from work, church, and other activities were joining, and of course the kids at school were all over it, but I just did not feel like it was a fit. Way too different, I thought. My daughter, then in graduate school, used the social networking site, and she occasionally suggested I get started with Facebook (she spoke these words in bold). Still I refrained.

At some point, however, I became aware that my mother and my twenty-something daughter were communicating with each other more than usual. They knew things about each other that I did not know. Finally my daughter mentioned that her grandmother  — my mother — was on Facebook and that the two of them had “friended’ one another. That’s when I called Mom, at that time age 81. She explained that her fellow workers from the Obama campaign, exceptional young people she called them, had arranged virtual reunions on Facebook. They wanted her to participate and helped her get started.

So, like many of today’s parents, I found that I was in the middle, but basically out of the generational communication loop. By the time I tuned in, my mother had over 100 friends, all people she knew in one way or another (no strangers and privacy settings in place, she reassured me), and quite a few in her age-range. I signed up for Facebook.

Continue reading “Grandma/Grandkids Use Facebook: Do You?” →

Posted in cell phones, interesting research, parents and technology, risky behavior

Technology and Sleep

Posted on by Marti Weston
Click to see one-page report profile.

Parents need to be vigilant about the amount of sleep their children get each night. In fact everyone in a family needs to be aware that pre-bedtime gadget habits may decrease the quality of nighttime sleep.

Technology gadgets, computers, television sets, even glowing alarm clocks and radios, are interrupting sleep patterns according to a Reuters article, Not Getting Enough Sleep? Turn off Technology. The article reports on the Sleep in America poll (full 76 page report), carried out by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). The poll surveyed 1,508 people, ages 13 – 64. Click on the image at the top left to see a one-page summary of sleep habits for all age groups.

Part of the problem is that people stare at very bright screens just before bed or go to bed with glowing screens surrounding them. Another issue is that people, including adolescents and teens, leave devices on at night while they are sleeping so phone calls and text messages often interrupt sleep. This is risky behavior for everyone, but especially for adolescents who need sleep to learn effectively and grow.

Findings for Students Age 13 – 18 Include Continue reading “Technology and Sleep” →

Posted in cultural changes, digital citizenship, digital devices and gadgets, family conversations, parents and technology

5 Tech-Free Times for Families

Posted on by Marti Weston

I am reading Sherry Turkle’s book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Ourselves. Turkle is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Last Friday she was Ira Flatow’s guest on the NPR’s Science Friday program. Professor Turkle explained how she interviewed more than 300 children and teens who described feeling immense frustration when their parents use technology gadgets at the same time they are supposed to be interacting with their kids.

The Alone Together author, quoted in a January 31, 2011 Washington Post article, AnyBody: Parents are Ignoring their Children for their BlackBerry, points out, “It’s now children who are complaining about their parents’ habits…” During the Science Friday interview Turkle identified five times when children want their parents to put away their phones, Blackberries, and other gadgets and to pay attention. They include: Continue reading “5 Tech-Free Times for Families” →

Posted in digital citizenship, gadget ownership, parents and technology

Generations and Their Gadgets – from Pew

Posted on by Marti Weston
Click for a larger copy.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project just published (Feb 3, 2011) Generations and Their Gadgets (overview). Researchers surveyed 3001 Americans in late 2010 and discovered a lot about how technology tools and gadgets are used. Click on the image on the right to get a larger image of the summary chart.

I often think about how members of my family use computers, laptops, cell phones. Our three generations are a microcosm of gadget world users. Are we average? Do we have more gadgets or fewer? I don’t know.

  • My mother (83) uses a Dell desktop and occasionally a Dell laptop. My dad (87) uses a Dell laptop and an iPad. They have a cell phone and a landline and are contemplating removing the landline. Mom e-mails a lot, Dad a little.
  • My husband and I have a desktop, a couple of laptops, an iPad, an iPhone, a Blackberry, and a basic cell phone. I text, he does not. We both e-mail a lot. We, too, are contemplating removing the landline.
  • My daughter and her husband have all of the above, but more of them, as well as iPods and two iPhones. They text most of the time and e-mail much less  Their house does not have a landline.

My Thoughts After Reading the Pew Report Continue reading “Generations and Their Gadgets – from Pew” →

Posted in digital parenting, television

TV Habits and the Winter Months

Posted on by Marti Weston

Read Mommy, Why Can’t I Watch More TV, over at Boston.com. Author Beth Teitell describes the how many of us let our children watch increased amounts of television and play more video games like Wii during vacations, winter months, and especially after big snowstorms when school is closed.

According to the March 1. 2011 article, which also quotes Children’s Hospital Boston Mediatrician, Michael Rich, MD, it’s not always easy to retrench after periods of excess media activities.