YouTube for toddlers and preteens

There has been a lot of debate about time spent in front of the television and determining how much computer exposure is good or bad for children. I'm not completely leaning one way or the other but I do think that television and internet exposure can be a viable educational tool, if and only if it is monitored and limits are put in place. One website that has become increasingly popular is YouTube it offers a wealth of video resources and people have become famous from their postings.

One problem is that there is no filter and a 9 year old doing an innocent search on YouTube could see some pretty controversial and inappropriate results. With this in mind totlol was developed for the 13 and under crowd.

Here's an excerpt from the website "Totlol is a video website designed specifically for children. It is community moderated. It is constantly growing. It is powered by YouTube. All videos were submitted, screened and rated by parents. The selection is huge and if you like, you can participate too."

The most porpular and recently added videos are listed, you can search for videos and there's also a section where parents can screen videos awaiting approval. There are fun videos and loads of educational videos. For all of you "school house rock fans"...Yes it is there! I hope you'll take a moment to check it out and if you know anyone with children please share this resource.

http://www.totlol.com/index.php

Gamequarium

Gamequarium

Here is a really neat resource of educational videos for younger learners. Gamequarium was a link I found after reading an article about IT Specialists and the first word that would come to mind is "cute". However, it is very comprehensive and has icons on the top of the page that indicates what videos you can watch (there is a sombrero that represents Spanish videos and a piano icon that you click to learn to play the piano. These links take you to multiple resources of videos located on the Internet.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen many sites like these, but they really emphasize the video, or technical component of the resource. So if you're an educator who teaches younger students, check it out!





http://gamequarium.com/

The Digiteen Project

I have recently become involved in a project with my students that has changed the way I look at education and my curriculum in particular.

The Digiteen Project is a global hands-on project for middle and early high school students which was founded by Julie Lindsay (Qatar Academy, Qatar) and Vicki Davis (Camilla, GA USA) in 2008. This project studies digital citizenship with students researching current topics, writing a collaborative report on a wiki, and performing and documenting offline action educational projects to promote effective digital citizenship at their local schools. Topics of study include digital: access, communications, literacy, security and safety, etiquette, rights and responsibilities, law, health and wellness, and commerce.

The purpose of the project is to promote effective Digital Citizenship and responsible online choices. Students are participating from Australia, Qatar, Canada, Austria and the United States. Classrooms from India and Bangladesh are also expected to join the project shortly.

The digital tools used in this project are:

• Wikispaces - students collaborate on research of Digital Citizenship
  
  
• Ning - students are members of a social network so that they can get to know each other.
  
  
• Diigo - students & teachers use social bookmarking to share helpful resources.
  
  
• Elluminate - teachers meet weekly to discuss progress and help one another with obstacles.
  
  
• Google Groups - teachers belong to a group for communication and document sharing.
  
  
• iGoogle - teachers (and some students) share a start page consisting of shortcuts to relevant links, and rss feeds of updated project information.

So far my students have learned so much about the life of the students in these other countries. They have also learned how to use a wiki (including using the discussion tab on the wiki to propose and debate ideas for wiki content). As a result of this project, I have learned that I need to do better preparing my students for global interaction. They need to know how to communicate WELL digitally, how to use multiple applications/websites to get the job done, and how to contribute POSITIVELY to the digital society that they are so immersed in.

The Digiteen2008 Wiki will contain lots of information about Digital Citizenship and, upon project completion, will contain the offline action projects developed by the collaborative teams. Be sure to check back often to follow the project progress.

Maybe as you explore this project you'll have the same inner questions as I do... Am I really preparing my students for a digital life? Can my students really, truly collaborate with others? Are their skill sets ready for the collaboration? Do they know how to research? What can WE do starting in elementary school to build their skills?

eLearning for Kids

This eLearning website offers free courses for kids of all ages on a Global level. The non-profit site categorizes the courses by topic and by age-range (ages 5-12). eLearning for Kids offers courses on Math, Language Arts, Science, Computer Skills, English Language, and Health and Life Skills. I thought this site was a very useful tool for parents looking for extra education for their children or lessons prior to beginning school. I thought it was remarkable what this company is doing for the education of our children. . . . for free! There are many ways to "donate;" click here to find out how.

Virtual Worlds

I have been doing a lot of research for my Centra presentation, The Dangers of Virtual Worlds, and I found a few things that really surprised me. I had no idea there were so many real dangers in a make-believe world. I won't go into detail because you'll have to hear it again in November, but I wanted to give you all some links that I found really interesting/disturbing regarding the virtual world, Second Life. It was really hard to create my presentation because I don't exactly agree with the view in which I had to write. I really think virtual worlds are what you make of them and if you have half a brain I think most people can avoid dangerous situations. I found a story online about a woman who was raped in Second Life and tried to sue Linden Labs for allowing something like this to happen. Couldn't she just log off? I think that's taking it a little too far. I mean, I don't really understand what exactly happened to the woman's avatar, but she was in no physical danger herself so how could she be emotionally scarred? It may be that she was a rape victim in real life, but like I said before..why not walk away from the computer? The research for this project was a great experience and I learned some things that really opened my eyes to the dangers of virtual reality. Check out the videos I found, you might be surprised.

Virtual Relationships
Virtual Child Predators
Children & Second Life