Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Uniquely 21st Century Parenting Decisions

How do you gauge the developmental appropriateness of gadgets for kids? Here are some guidelines for using cognitive development benchmarks (heavy reliance on Piaget) to match techie toys to age ... but no mention of social-emotional developmental pros & cons. Still, it is a good starting point for parents so we can thoughtfully introduce these new types of toys and gadgets into our kids' lives.

(I printed this out last week, but forgot to post ... thank you to swissmiss for reminding me of the article.)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Plugged In - Zoned Out

Great title. This Baltimore Sun article touches on how teachers need to instill a sense of balance between heavy tech use and going off-line for short periods of time. Use of yoga is specifically mentioned, also made me think of the need to juicing up reflective and critical writing practices in the classroom.