Six Ways to be a Media Saavy Parent This Year

This list of 6 things all parents can do to connect with their teens & tweens around their use of technology might seem obvious, but it's just easy and smart. It can't get any more essential than this. Thank you Common Sense Media.

(I also like that they said "this year" - a good point.)

v. important: report & conference

Pew issued a new report on teen use of technology -- this one focuses on writing. Not surprisingly, their research finds that teens make a clear distinction (in their minds) between casual writing, as in a text or blog post, and formal writing for school. But of course the occasional "LOL" will slip into a term paper. (But hopefully not a college application!) 

• update:  eSchoolNews parsed this story more throughly, and found statistical evidence that teen bloggers, through their experience writing for personal reasons, value the skill of writing more than non-bloggers.   A good reason to encourage blogging! 

Stanford hosted a conference (sponsored by digital-ed funders MacArthur Foundation and non-profit media-parent link Common Sense Media) on how to get schools/teachers/educators in general more up to speed on what kids actually LIKE to do with media & technology tools. I hope someone is listening - it is about time that some cogent research on this subject is being presented on this subject.

• CNET story on said conference (link via Ypulse)
• Berkeley's recap of the conference, notes presenting researchers
  

teen spirit

two blogs to investigate further:

• Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten
  
• Connect With Your Teen through Pop Culture and Technology
  

Parental controls extend to cellphones

A primer on how to monitor your child's cellphone use, including texting history and past internet access.    Good practical info, but did it have to be couched in that Danger Danger Will Robinson tone?   At least one voice of moderation (posted about before) was voiced at the end of the piece.    

Quelling the Danger Lurking in Junior's Backpack

(WSJ - April 23, 2008)

two books

Two new books arrived today - The Case for Make Believe (Susan Linn), and Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (Kathryn C. Montgomery).

I'm really looking forward to reading these and trying to bridge the distance between "play" in the traditional/child development sense of the word, and "play" as in video games, social networking, and other online fun.

(or is it "fun" ?)

Frobel's legacy

Great piece in the April 14 Wall Street Journal (and follow-up post on The Juggle) about nature-based preschools in Germany - and one in Portland, Ore.  I hope more parents/educators in the U.S. jump on this trend.  

AudibleKids

Audible.com recently launched AudibleKids, focusing on children's books. There is an interesting stat in this article: Audible's internal research states that more than half of all third grade students own their own MP3 players.

"Once upon a time, in the 21st century"
Peggy O'Crowley, New Jersey Star-Ledger
April 1, 2008

(oh ... am I being gullible? no, it looks like it really exists. but I had to double check.)

Spring!

I love cherry blossoms. Happy Spring!

Parenting has become advanced surveillance

danah boyd, in her response to the NY Times article about parents attempting to keep up with their kids and start texting (inexplicably placed in the Sunday Business section - maybe that is why I forgot to post about it?), made this great general statement about parenting today. I just had to pass it on:

Over the years, parenting has become more and more about surveillance. In this mindset, good parents are those who stalk their kids. Parents complain that their children ignore them when they're in the same space, preferring their friends. When was this not the case? What's different now is that there are fewer siblings/cousins running around to team up with. There's less free time to just "hang out." There's no openness to go out after school and "be home by dark" (a practice that used to start in early childhood). With activities and scheduling and this and that, I'm always amazed that children don't demand more time for friend time.

There's an arms race going on: parental surveillance vs. technology to assert privacy.

I am definitely going to "steal" this one (with credit, I promise!).