NC Ed Tech

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