ECETECH

Posted by The TEC Center at Erkison Insitute: GeekDad | PBS' Quest to Build a Better Kids' App | GeekDad | Wired.com

This would be a good site to look at, I would think, regarding Internet safety. I have not gone through all the links-if others do so, please comment.

This site is nicely put together -- I really like the pre-k section, how it gives an easy run-down on where kids are developmentally w/ media, and issues that parents are concerned about. I've added the game review section separately because I think it belongs in a different section on the page.

In September 2008, "Meaningful Technology Integration in Early Learning Environments"

"Evaluation Rubric for Educational Apps"

Vygotsky would be proud

Kids ask lots of questions, right? "Do fish sleep?" "Why do balls bounce?" Sometimes the answers are hard to explain! I came across this website called Whyzz.com. While the site describes it for parents, I think it would be a wonderful resource for teachers, especially when children are engaged in investigative studies. Try it out!

Only useful if someone contacts you to edit a document, or if you upload a document and contact them. More person to person, then person to internet community.

Writeboard is a collaborative document creation tool that can be used between a number of people. This tool quick for anyone to start up. On the homepage you can create your document to be edited by naming the document, then provide your email address. Once the wrtieboard is created you can begin typing! Once the document is complete you can invite people to view and edit your document as well as leave comments. Once the document has been edited by another person, you will be able to compare your document with the newest edited document. One of the challenges I faced when using this tool is the format of the document when typing. In order to indent or make a word bold or italic, a special code needed to be entered. For example, to make the word "Introduction" bold, you would have to type *Introduction*. This actually slowed my typing down, but I feel if this is a tool that you use often, these are codes you could catch on to. The strength of this tool is the option to invite anyone to edit. I feel that this would be useful for teachers to communicate back and forth to share activities and edit them. Or it could be useful as an assignment for students to share a paper and to edit the others. This would help their editing skills. I also like the option to compare and contrast your original document with one that has been recently edited. I think this would be helpful in seeing what improvments were made and choose whether or not you'd like to accept them. I think that this tool would be better for high-school students, or any teacher. The tool would be difficult for anyone younger to use.

Lots of interesting app ideas, including many that could be appropriate for young children.

This is a very useful site for those interestign in learning more about using web2.0 tools within the education realm. With this site you are able to connect with others and share experiences and ideas in using web2.0 tools.

The release of the NAEYC/Fred Rogers Center joint position statement on Technology and Interactive Media in Programs that Serve Children from Birth through Age Eight.

From the menu, if you click on eBooks and select Quality Rating, you can access the Akron Ready Steps e-Book Quality Rating Tool- 2010-2011, with opportunities to rate various items in areas such as Ease of Use, Multimedia, Interaction. Very interesting!

Abstract of a research study on videos and DVDs marketed to parents of infants and toddlers.

The Curriculum Toolkit is an innovative online resource for higher education faculty in the fields of early childhood education, psychology, and children's media. The Toolkit features content designed to enhance classroom instruction by providing instructors with a wealth of archived video and instructional material from the Fred Rogers Archive. The Toolkit continues to grow as more faculty add their expertise to this growing knowledge base.

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.