Group items tagged

Mobile technology. Fifteen years ago, most home computers weren't even linked to the Internet. Today, our computers are both linked and, in many cases, mobile. With more than five billion mobile users worldwide and a massive global network, small mobile devices with significant computing power have become a routine part of day-to-day life for people of all ages. The combination of a smartphone's intuitive interface and thousands of apps for iPhones and Androids aimed at young children has fast made it a child's favorite plaything. And as the smartphone market continues to explode, more parents are passing their phones to their offspring as tools to educate or gadgets to pacify.

"This site promotes positive body image and tackles the impact of young people's internalization of idealised media portrayals of beauty and gender stereotypes.  The site has been developed by the Queen Victoria Women's Centre Trust. My image. Your image. The media.  Advertising. Take it apart. Discuss, investigate, unpack. Then make and shape your own. Take control."

The twelve units of work in Global Words have been produced by World Vision Australia and the Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA) to integrate the teaching and learning of English and global citizenship education. At the centre of both global citizenship education and the study of English is the aim of supporting students to become ethical, thoughtful and informed citizens, predisposed to take action for change. These units, and the supporting resources of Global Words, aim to build the essential knowledge, skills and values young people need to participate actively, critically and creatively as global citizens.

Technology and 21st Century Learning These films look specifically at the ways that the latest digital and mobile technologies can potentially transform the ways that young people communicate, collaborate, and learn.  

"At the start of the 21st century only half of all school classrooms had Internet access, compared to 98% today. The proliferation and sheer breadth of accessibility that the Internet offers has in many ways redefined the process of "growing up" - this graphic explores this redefinition and provides insight into not just how we learn stuff, but also what we learn from a young age now that we have computers."

Scratch is a programming language for young people to create their own interactive stories, games, music, and art. Scratch was created by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. You can find more information and download Scratch for free at scratch.mit.edu

"The nature of evolving technology sees the emergence of new trends and behavior among young people and new efforts by government and industry to combat harmful behaviors. FOSI provides periodic information to keep you informed about these issues."

Google has released a completely visual programming language that lets you build software without typing a single character. Now available on Google Code - the company's site for hosting open source software - the new language is called Google Blockly, and it's reminiscent of Scratch, a platform developed at MIT that seeks to turn even young children into programmers. Like Scratch, Blockly lets you build applications by piecing together small graphical objects in much the same way you'd piece together Legos. Each visual object is also a code object - a variable or a counter or an "if-then" statement or the like - and as you piece them to together, you create simple functions. And as you piece the functions together, you create entire applications - say, a game where you guide a tiny figurine through a maze.

"Last November, a young man was ordered by a NSW court to pay A$105,000 in damages for defaming a teacher at his former school on Twitter. The decision, which only came to light earlier this week, should serve as a reminder to all users of the legal risks involved in using social media."

"Doctors have long said children under 2 years old shouldn't have any screen time.  Now, a leading pediatric researcher who's been a strong voice against babies watching TV has a new recommendation.  He says young children can, and should play with touch screen computers."

"Welcome to educators, parents and carers everywhere. This is the first and best UK directory to locate quality podcasts from over 250 carefully selected podcast channels for educational use - ideal for teaching and learning activities with children, young people and educational professionals."

"NSW Police have described it as ''the number one social media problem involving teenagers'' - but most parents would barely have heard of messaging app Kik before this week. Kik's popularity among young people was highlighted by the disappearance of Sydney teenager Krystal Muhieddine, who left her house early on Tuesday morning in a car with a stranger before being found in country Victoria on Friday."

"The Internet is without a doubt one of the best resources available to us. Unfortunately it's also extremely dangerous if you aren't aware of who and what lurks behind the scenes. Everyone should know how to be safe when surfing the web, but internet safety tips and tricks are spread out all over the web without a go-to resource. Since the majority of internet scam and virus victims are students and young people, Open Colleges is a perfect place to post the very first full guide to being safe on the internet."

"The track record of commercial products designed with privacy as a top priority has been abysmal - at least until recently. The ephemeral texting app Snapchat is turning assumptions upside down about young people and their desire for digital privacy."

"KFC Australia has created its first ever branded mobile gaming app to directly target the young adult market. KFC teamed up with DT - part of Ogilvy Australia and STW - in October last year and released the KFC Snack! In the Face mobile gaming app for android and apple devices. The campaign ran from October 8 to December 2, 2013 where 2,500 free prizes were given away every day of the campaign plus multiple achievement prizes were available. All rewards were mobile-based and redeemable in all 600 KFC stores across Australia."

"Published on 21 Jan 2014 A short documentary about a Chinese boot-camp-style treatment center for young men "addicted" to the Internet."

Pedagoo is a growing community of teachers collaboratively supporting, encouraging and sharing innovative and effective approaches to education. We aim to improve educational outcomes for our young people through positively and professionally sharing our practice.