WebWatch Releases Landmark Study on Childrens' Web SitesPublishers of many major children’s Web sites should do a better job disclosing sales and advertising information to parents, especially as more kids at younger ages go online to play and meet friends, says a study released today by Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Mediatech Foundation. For the study, parents in 10 families used video cameras to keep journals, providing insights into the way children use sites such as Club Penguin, Webkinz, Nick Jr., Barbie.com and others. Footage from those journals, which can be viewed here, illustrates how young children respond to advertising and marketing tactics online. The study, "Like Taking Candy from a Baby: How Young Children Interact with Online Environments," used ethnographic methods and focused on young children, ages 2½ to 8. Download a PDF of the study.

episodes about music education technology and will specifically feature podcasts by music students as they learn about various aspects of music, podcasting and digital audio technologies.This podcast will be of benefit to school music teachers, technology teachers and anyone interested in learning the basics of podcasting and it's application in an educational setting.

watching TV is no longer the de-facto spare time activity that I'm going to simple force people to watch it when they claim not to understand how I have no time to watch television.

Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills

This article is an attempt to objectively define the phrase “creepy treehouse” as coined by Chris Lott, and in current usage by ed tech folks such as Scott Leslie, Marc Hugentobler, John Krutsch, and others

In the field of educational technology a creepy treehouse is an institutionally controlled technology/tool that emulates or mimics pre-existing technologies or tools that may already be in use by the learners, or by learners’ peer groups.

nstructors push down hot Web 2.0 technologies, while students push back with vocal objections or passive resistance.

“…good teachers “refuse to see their pupils as . . . pint-sized deficits or assets for America’s economy into whom they are expected to pump ‘added value.’” Jonathan Kozol, as quoted by Kohn

Education for Well-being Education as if people and the planet mattered The purpose of education should be to create well-being. We should educate in way that places personal well-being at the center of all educational decision-making. We cannot achieve personal well-being without also simultaneously promoting economic well-being, social well-being, and environmental well-being. We must strive to understand the relationships between personal, economic, social and environmental well-being.

These 9-12th grade students have just begun their major blogs on topics they are passionate about. All students have selected a topic/cause which has a message that needs to be better heard --

The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use provides research and outreach services to address issues of the safe and responsible use of the Internet. We provide guidance to parents, educators, librarians, policy-makers, and others regarding effective strategies to assist young people in gaining the knowledge, skills, motivation, and self-control to use the Internet and other information technologies in a safe and responsible manner.

The YouTube Wars Prof. Akalın was probably pleased last week when, for a few days at least, we lost our access to that Eurovision winning song. In response to a satirical video that was offensive to the memory of Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, a Turkish court shut down any access to YouTube.com. The offending video was uploaded supposedly by Greeks wanting to antagonize their neighbors, and it prompted a war of offensive and counter offensive videos and endless (and pointless) comments.  It is against the law here to insult Atatürk, but since the offenders were "out there" somewhere beyond prosecution on the Internet, punishment was levied on Turkish Internet users instead. The story is even sadder as I remember attending a conference in Athens last fall with several Turkish colleagues, and we were pleasantly surprised at the warmth of so many Greeks, including several who spoke with us in Turkish.

The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.

But when I get such granular updates every day for a month,

For example, when I meet Misha for lunch after not having seen her for a month, I already know the wireframe outline of her life: S

we thought it would be interesting to write something collaboratively using our collective intelligence. It was also pointed out that it is kind of an oxymoron to write a Web2.0 book.

So how can regular folk get involved with social media? And how much time does it really take?

See, when you're at the front of a wired classroom, you get to watch students peck at laptops, skitter their eyes over screens and, every now and then, toss a glance in your direction. Some of them are taking notes, some are chatting with friends or cruising sports sites. Few are giving their instructor undivided attention. It's crazy making.

one of the things we ported over to new media from traditional media was the notion of the passive audience.

that chittering back channel itself isn't the problem. The problem is, as instructors, we haven't given it anything useful to do. "Students are telling us they want to be engaged. So, we need to find a way to give them specific focus for that back channel. If they're doing stuff that's on-task we're going to get engaged learning and ownership," she says.