a view from the back row

This blog post is from David Warlick at 2 cents worth.  

Pew Internet: Parent and Teen Internet Use:

Parents today are less likely to say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the internet has been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the amount of parents who do not think the internet has had an effect on their children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online — at least 17% more than average adults.

The study indicates that parents are paying a lot of attention to their children’s media consumption.

Parents check up on and regulate their teens’ media use, not just in terms of the internet, but with television and video games as well. However, those rules lean slightly more towards the content of the media rather than the time spent with the media device.

Alexandra Rankin Macgill, the author of the report, suggests that “The fact that the biggest increase has been in the number of parents who think the internet has no effect on their children suggests that parents are beginning to have a more nuanced view of the internet.“  She continues,  “It is a grey technology that can be helpful or harmful depending on how you use it.“  This is from the PEW Press Release for the study.

I wonder, though, — and this is just me wondering — if maybe the opposite might be true.  That in 2004, we felt that we understood the Internet as a rich source of content.  Some was good and some was bad, but it was a place to go to find answers.  Today, however, our children seem to be spending more time interacting in their social networks, and, in my opinion, discovering and even inventing new ways to learn through those interactions.  But we don’t understand this. 

What do you think?  
How do you use technology ?   Is it safe ? 
How much time do you spend using technology in a given day/week?  Is it too much ?
Does the internet have an effect on you ?  How ?
Do your parents know how to use technology ?  Are they aware of what you are doing on the computer, cell phone, email, my space, facebook, etc. ? 
What are the parent’s roles ?
Are schools using technology effectively ? 

Tags: ICT, ideas, Technology

As you know, I am going to be away on Friday of this week.  Your assignment is to check out voicethread and compare/contrast this program with windows movie maker.  You can create a chart or a list and email it to me by the end of class. 

What are your opinions of the movies you saw on voicethread?  Is this a program worth looking into?  List your favorite movies you watched and why they were so good.  Were there some that you didn’t like?  Why weren’t they good? How could the author have improved their project? 

We finished our digital stories this week and spent some time viewing them yesterday.  What makes a good digital story?  What suggestions can we make for our next project?
Post your comments here.

We will be posting our 8C & 8D Halloween stories here.  Check back regularly to see what people have been saying about our stories.

The end of the first AR session is over on October 31st.  What books have you been reading?  Choose one book that you have enjoyed reading this last AR session, or during the summer months to review.  Don’t forget to add the title of the book as well as the author’s name and a rating out of 5 (5 being the best).  What was the story about?  Was it an action, romance or horror book? 

Our next Assignment in Language Arts & Computer Class will be to collaborate on a document with others in our class.  Then we will collaborate with other students in other classes!  Watch the video to find out about how to use google documents.

We have been working on our digital storytelling project for the past 2 weeks.  Here is your last reminder – storyboards are due this week (Oct 22-26)  and  we will save our FINISHED project on FRIDAY OCTOBER 26. 

Mr. Densen is here this week to help us with recording our voices and adding music and sound to our Windows Moviemaker files.  

Well, we are getting closer to the long weekend and that means time with family and friends.  I hope that you all have a great weekend and we will see you back on Tuesday!