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How Young? How Often? How Long? Creating a Taxonomy for Kids and Technology |
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Why isn’t there a Dr. Spock for the digital age telling us when it’s appropriate to begin emailing, or using the web, or having buddies. Giving kids high tech tools that are age-inappropriate is like giving a new driver the keys to the car and saying “Sure, you can pick 4 friends and start driving cross country.” What do the experts know about age appropriate digital behaviors. |
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Does Technology Really Make Kids Smarter? |
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Can you click your way to an “A”? We take a look at the appeal of high-tech educational tools and games versus the reality. Which innovations work and which are the modern equivalents of the Emperor’s new clothes? Do they personalize or de-personalize education? Are they more creative and openended or are they simply new ways to teach the same old thing? |
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How are Consumer Electronics Devices and Social Networks Creating New Environments For Kids? |
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With each passing year, our children spend more of their time in virtual environments and less time interacting with the ‘real world.’ How do these experiences impact the way they see their world? We’ll explore the pros and cons of living the cyber-life. |
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Warren Buckleitner’s Legendary Dust or Magic Show |
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A former K-6 teacher, educational psychologist Warren Buckleitner has utilized his classroom experience and singular insight to become one of America’s foremost reviewers of children’s software. His writing appears in Parents magazine, the New York Times, Scholastic Parent & Child, and Children’s Technology Review, which he also edits. Buckleitner is a principal organizer of the annual Dust or Magic event, a three-day “show-and-tell review of the past year in children’s technology.” He also teaches communications at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He will demonstrate current and upcoming innovations in kids’ tech through kid’s eyes and tell us whether they’ve got the “magic” or they’re just dust collectors on the shelf. |
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The New Internet Safety: Nothing to Fear But Kids Themselves |
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With the advent of social networking it became clear that kids would need protection from all sorts of predators. Few, however, anticipated that the kids would be a threat to themselves and each other. Cyberbullying, IMing, texting, picture posting, virtual lives --- these are the things get kids into hot water everyday. We’ll look at some of the new tools and approaches to help protect kids from making costly Internet mistakes. |
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Virtual Worlds, Real Problems |
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This year we’ll see virtual worlds aimed at toddlers, grade-schoolers and teens and tweens. Whether it’s penguins, wizards, Barbies, or pets, we’ll explore the characteristics of virtual worlds like persistence, shared environments, immediacy, currency and more. And we’ll tour quite a few. |
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Can Tech Help Strengthen Family Ties? |
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Is the modern family stronger as a result of new technologies? Technology makes it easier for families to stay in constant contact, whether through email, text messaging, websites, cell phones and more. It also provides common ground on which parents and kids can meet to discuss everything from the next vacation to the perfect college. But technology can also create divides, especially when children far outpace their parents in technological mastery. Furthermore, many new technologies (e.g. the Internet, video games) promote prolonged solitary activity that can quickly displace ‘family time’. When the balance is tallied, are new technologies helping, hurting or transforming the traditional family? |
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Tales From the Teen Trenches |
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They can text faster than a speeding bullet, post a profile faster than a speeding train. So what are they doing with their online hours and gadgets. Our speakers have done first person research out there in the world of digital teens and they’ll report back to us. |
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Kids and Their Phones: Communications Miracle or Catastrophe? |
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Cell phones offer parents the comfort of knowing they can contact their children at virtually any time. They also confer a frightening amount of independence on children, allowing them not only to call one another but also to play games, send photographs of themselves, surf the Internet, and text message. Location based phones add a new level of complex issues as to who can find you when on your phone. And then, of course, there are the usage bills, also quite frightening. What are the upcoming trends in kids’ cell phones? What new features are in the pipeline? How young is too young for a child to have a cell phone? |
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Games for Your Health
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Research shows that games can help kids when they’re sick, help them stay fit, and help them make the world a better place. Here’s a look at technology that can give kids a handle on their health. |
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Creating Learning Communities |
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Today's youngest learners don't differentiate between one medium and another. Those who understand this best are developing products with cross-platform media strategies. Kids can seamlessly move between on and offline worlds, creator and spectator, and deep or topical exploration. |
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