Group items tagged

Families.com is a great website for parents and families. There is a lot of information on a variety of different topics. This site provides a discussion forum where members can post topics to gain advice or knowledge from other members. I recommend it as an easy way for parents to stay informed and connected with other parents.

Advice blogs and discussions on a variety of topics but not about technology.

This website would be useful for parents and families. Not only do they offer a plethora of blogs, there are message boards, as well as money saving ideas and coupons. This website offers a lot of support to parents or all different types of families. For example, you can sort the blogs you are reading, by selecting "Jewish Family", "Single Parent" or "Fatherhood" just to name a few. Members can comment on blogs and offer their opinions and support. The only thing I did not love about this site is that there are lots of advertisements.

Jooners is a free Web site focused on communication and collaboration between schools and parents. Its e-mail and scheduling Web site allows parents to have immediate online access to school-wide information, such as calendars, events, after-school programs and field trip information. Parents and teachers can arrange sign-up lists for any event that needs parental support, such as book fairs or PTA fundraisers, and coordinate classroom volunteers.

TotSpot integrates many aspects of technology together to create a Facebook-like network for parents and their child. The network is private and accessible to only account holders. Parents create an account then are able to add their children to the account on their own page. Pages can be shared through friend invite. The parents and children can upload pictures, videos, write journals, create developmental charts, and track milestones. Friends on the account can view items and make comments. With families living far apart and technology on the rise, families can keep track of their childrens' progress (even before birth!)

A friend of mine's three-year-old son can turn on a computer, direct the internet browser to YouTube and search for funny video clips. When I learned this I thought, "there's no way." But it's amazing what kids are capable of. These so-called digital natives never knew of a world without computers, cell phones, or the internet. I read about a couple who develop iPhone games for kids, and use their three-year-old as the guinea pig. Parents often rely on their kids to show them how this stuff works, leaving them wondering how they're supposed to, well, be the parents here. We wanted to find out how parents can encourage their kids' use of technology without losing control. So we called up two experts in the field. First, Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Technology Review, and author of a recent study on young children's tech habits, and Lisa Guernsey, senior policy analyst at New America Foundation, and author of the 2007 book Into the Minds of Babes.

Gail Lovely's list of Top Ten Web 2.0 tools for young learners. Should be interesting to check this out.

#6. Glogster EDU- This is a great way to incorporate the school into the home. This program allows teacher to show caregivers what is being done in the classroom (i.e. uploading class calendars, posting students' projects, etc.). If teachers post educational practice links, students are able to practice certain skills learned in the classroom at home. This program also allows parents to connect with the teacher, it will allow parents and teachers to communicate via blogs.

Wonderful that someone put together a list of the top ten tools for young children,their parents and teachers. Several sites would be helpful in working with young children or counseling are: 1. Wordle - students could create a poster of words they know and continue adding new words. 2. Yola - a user friendly software that allows teacher, parents, student to create a web site.to share information with others. 3. Blogs - the KinderKids Blog published class projects that could be view by parents or serve as means of communicating with classrooms around the world.

Twitter is an easy way to communicate with friends, co-workers, and other people. For us, as teachers, it is a great way to communicate with parents what is happening in the classroom!

Twitter has become a very popular site over the last 2 years. This site would be more appropriate for teachers and parents. Teachers could follow someone in the public eye that has importance to education, and parents can follow teachers. By "follow", I mean that if you "follow" someone, you receive updates from them to your phone and/or web. It is a great way to stay connected! Many times parents are curious as to what their children are doing/learning that moment, and teachers can express this through using Twitter.

After evaluating this site even more, there is not always a guarantee that a website that is posted to someone's update would work or be available. This could cause concern and frustration for a parent or student trying to stay in communication with a teacher through Twitter.

HotChalk is a collaborative tool for teachers, parents and students. Teachers can access a free learning management system and curriculum tools. Also available is the ability to interact with students and parents regarding assignments and grades. Free resources include a learning management system, lesson plans, curriculum tools and forums to discuss topics with other teachers. Most resources on this website are free but some of the more advance and global setting are not (hotchalk.com)

Interested in tipsheets/simple materials for parents/families of young children related to media diet. If others have good examples, would be great if you can bookmark/share them here with a mediadiet tag. Thanks!

Communication is key to involving parents in their child's education and educators must do what they can to keep the conversation going.

"A Wetpaint website is built on the power of collaborative thinking. Here, you can create websites that mix all the best features of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks into a rich, user-generated community based around the whatever-it-is that rocks your socks. A social website that's so easy to use, anyone can participate."\n About Us. (2009). retrieved February 28, 2009 , from WetPaint Web Site: http://www.wetpaint.com/page/about \n\n Technology has become such a great assessment and device to drive and promote learning in the classroom. I believe that it would behoove teachers to take advantages of these new tools and incorporate them in the classroom. Technology has open so many new ways to allow teachers and students to collaborate while learning, and WetPaint is the way to go. By using WetPaint, Teachers can create blogs for their classrooms; which may include, syllabus, information, assignment, etc. The students of the classroom can join the bog and post new information, ask questions, work on projects, etc. WetPaint can be used in classrooms of different ages. The teacher can disable ads and other information that children may not need to see. Parents can also read the blogs. This allows a chance for parents to know what their children are learning and promote these ideas at home. WetPaint is can become child-directed, if the teacher is will to make it that way. If teachers allow children a chance to learn about and experience this in the classroom, WetPaint can become a very child-directed technology. The possibilities are endless with using WetPaint.

Snapfish has a really neat way where teachers and parents can communicate with each other by posting thier pictures to a secure room. It is a really great way for parents to share pictures of their vacations, outings, or fun adventures they experience with the class. There is also a way that parents can take their child's artwork and turn it into calendars, purses, etc.

Snapfish is an online place to print, share, and create with your digital photos. Post and share your photos with a group, class, team, or club. All photos and students' work can be posted and published in one convenient room. This is a great way for teachers, parents, and students to get to know one another by sharing their photos, in a safe and secure room. There are also great tips and ideas for taking pictures, projects, and gifts.

Technology in the lives of our children is here to stay. As a creator and developer, I am very pro technology. While there are many things to celebrate there are an equal number of things to be concerned with. My primary concerns are divided into 2 main areas: technology's impact on human to human interaction and the negative effects of shorter and shorter cycles of information, impacting our ability to focus our attention. Throughout of development cycle, we met with a number of parents. The number one thing everyone expressed was, wanting more time for themselves. Being a parent is exhausting and every one needs a break. What concerns me is the kinds of content, the kinds of experiences and fundamentally, the kinds of rhythms involved in those experiences. I don't want the digital baby sitter to over stimulate my kids or to weaken their ability to hold focus. Everything has a rhythm; every person, every moment, every place. As human beings, this is our primary relationship to our world and to each other. Providing parents with experiences that support their child's rhythm is key to the use of technology in the home. When seeking out digital content, I encourage parents to look for things that provide longer times of focus. Save the fun and flashy events for highly active time. Communicate to your child the quality of time as you make content available to them. its focus time - a movie, its fun time - a game, its quiet time - drawing. One of the things we've done with our digital book, is to provide a free downloadable coloring sheets. Every experience should not be digital. In fact, I believe strongly that facilitating the transition back to the analogue world is part of my responsibility as a digital content creator.

Interesting food for thought about the effects of constant tech use on children. It's not clear how much actual research is out there yet; this sounds like more of an opinion piece. But it's an issue worth watching.

This blog is written by an early childhood teacher out of Florida. She uses this to update her parents and communicate with them about what is going on in the classroom. She posts entries here and there and also uploads pictures to share, which offers a balanced view of the classroom. She has it organized by recent posts, where parents can click on the title and also by categories. Additionally she has a bar on the side of her page which offers great websites and resources that parents can access.

Scholastic website is well-organized and has good resources available. One can sort online learning activities by age level, including Pre K-K activities. The blog appears to be the same as Christina's Classroom (Christian Germano).