Kids Online: How Low Will You Go? by Caroline Knorr

In a world where Tori Spelling's 3-year-old son has a Twitter account and toddlers are making Lady Gaga videos on YouTube, it's increasingly difficult for parents to refuse their kids access to Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, YouTube, and other social networking sites.

And yet we're also living in a world in which 1 in 5 U.S. children say they do things online that their parents wouldn't approve of, according to a 2007 Norton Online Living Report. We know that kids are supposed to be 13 to use social networking sites, but even ultra-responsible parents often throw in the towel and let their kids fake their birthdates and create accounts.
Why? In the words of one mom who let her 11-year-old daughter have a Facebook page, "All her friends were on it."

Read more...

Source: Common Sense Media

Kids Online: How Low Will You Go? by Caroline Knorr

In a world where Tori Spelling's 3-year-old son has a Twitter account and toddlers are making Lady Gaga videos on YouTube, it's increasingly difficult for parents to refuse their kids access to Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, YouTube, and other social networking sites.

And yet we're also living in a world in which 1 in 5 U.S. children say they do things online that their parents wouldn't approve of, according to a 2007 Norton Online Living Report. We know that kids are supposed to be 13 to use social networking sites, but even ultra-responsible parents often throw in the towel and let their kids fake their birthdates and create accounts.
Why? In the words of one mom who let her 11-year-old daughter have a Facebook page, "All her friends were on it."

Read more...

Source: Common Sense Media

Study questions digital-divide efforts by Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

"Two researchers at Duke University have published a draft study that raises questions about the academic value of giving students home computers and broadband internet access. Their study has led to a flurry of media coverage, with some reports trumpeting the study’s findings as evidence that efforts to close the digital divide are counterproductive. But is that what their research really says?", continues eSchool News.

The study, “Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement,” is the work of researchers Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. It was published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research as a working paper that was not peer-reviewed.

The study examined the reading and math test scores of more than 500,000 North Carolina public school students in grades five through eight from 2000-05. It sought to determine if differential access to computer technology at home compounds the educational disparities among students from various socio-economic backgrounds, and whether government provision of computers to middle school students would reduce those disparities.

Read more...

Related links

“Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement”
Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
“Are the New Millennium Learners Making the Grade?”
Consortium for School Networking

Source: eSchool News

Study questions digital-divide efforts by Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

"Two researchers at Duke University have published a draft study that raises questions about the academic value of giving students home computers and broadband internet access. Their study has led to a flurry of media coverage, with some reports trumpeting the study’s findings as evidence that efforts to close the digital divide are counterproductive. But is that what their research really says?", continues eSchool News.

The study, “Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement,” is the work of researchers Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. It was published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research as a working paper that was not peer-reviewed.

The study examined the reading and math test scores of more than 500,000 North Carolina public school students in grades five through eight from 2000-05. It sought to determine if differential access to computer technology at home compounds the educational disparities among students from various socio-economic backgrounds, and whether government provision of computers to middle school students would reduce those disparities.

Read more...

Related links

“Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement”
Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
“Are the New Millennium Learners Making the Grade?”
Consortium for School Networking

Source: eSchool News

Tech & Learning eNews - July 29, 2010

Take a closer look at this top stories - 07.29.10


• Take a virtual summer vacation
• Schools share their clicker stories
• 6 tips for selecting a reading program
• EdTech report: next-generation learning systems
• How to prepare educators to teach online

Source: Tech & Learning

Tech & Learning eNews - July 29, 2010

Take a closer look at this top stories - 07.29.10


• Take a virtual summer vacation
• Schools share their clicker stories
• 6 tips for selecting a reading program
• EdTech report: next-generation learning systems
• How to prepare educators to teach online

Source: Tech & Learning

Latest Technology & Learning's eBooks

Here’s the latest Technology & Learning's eBooks below.

Improving Student Achievement: Professional Development and Informed Instruction

Providing teachers with the means to affect and increase individual student achievement is a win-win for everyone, and technology makes a big difference. It begins with online, on-demand professional development and participation in a professional learning community. Teachers learn about making data meaningful and using specific ideas for timely intervention with their students. And it ends with teachers using more effective methods to improve student learning and achievement.

What's Inside the eBook:

Transforming Education: Turning Classrooms Into Collaborative, Interactive, and Efficient Learning Environments

Today's teachers have more of a challenge than ever to manage their technology-filled classrooms and make sure each student reaches his or her potential. Luckily for them, the latest classroom-management software includes applications that help with lesson planning and student assessment. See how this type of technology can help you turn your class into an efficient room filled with 21st-century learners.

What's Inside the eBook:

Latest Technology & Learning's eBooks

Here’s the latest Technology & Learning's eBooks below.

Improving Student Achievement: Professional Development and Informed Instruction

Providing teachers with the means to affect and increase individual student achievement is a win-win for everyone, and technology makes a big difference. It begins with online, on-demand professional development and participation in a professional learning community. Teachers learn about making data meaningful and using specific ideas for timely intervention with their students. And it ends with teachers using more effective methods to improve student learning and achievement.

What's Inside the eBook:

Transforming Education: Turning Classrooms Into Collaborative, Interactive, and Efficient Learning Environments

Today's teachers have more of a challenge than ever to manage their technology-filled classrooms and make sure each student reaches his or her potential. Luckily for them, the latest classroom-management software includes applications that help with lesson planning and student assessment. See how this type of technology can help you turn your class into an efficient room filled with 21st-century learners.

What's Inside the eBook:

Super Learning Styles 2.0 by Maria Rainier

Today I have Maria Rainier guest blogging. Please be sure to check out her unique guest post. Guest posts are always welcome, please contact me.

Some of you may be familiar with the work of Sheila Ostrander, Lynn Schroeder and Nancy Ostrander and their 1979 book entitled Super Learning.
Greatly simplified Baroque Music was played while teaching ordinary students. Baroque Music is calming; usually at a tempo of 60 beats per minute. This music was written between 1600 and 1750. This was known as the Baroque Period. During the Super Learning Study this music was played to students in a controlled environment and after about each 8 beats, information was inserted. Different tonalities and voice inflections were used to keep the information engaging and fresh. The results were staggering. These children learned faster, retained more and developed a lifelong love of learning. There is much more to this system and I assure you, young or old, it is worth checking into. You can find a ton of information as well as downloads on the official Super Learning site here: http://www.superlearning.com/

I bring this up because it seems kids are not advancing intellectually or academically as fast as they should or as fast as technology. Why is this?

We have more tools and resources for students than ever before. Why the obsession with Facebook, Twitter and video games? Where is all this narcissism coming from? What about the sense of self entitlement? I’ll give you my opinion. School is boring. Besides for the addition of the computer in the classroom, what has changed?

School still looks and smells like school. The air is still stale and most teachers are still uninspired and uninspiring. The teaching methods and text books are outdated and obsolete as they were decades ago. And with such low pay, why should a teacher be excited to teach?

In addition our society teaches our kids that nothing matters except for self. I have never seen so many selfish kids. When I grew up I was taught to share. I am not ancient either; I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. Not too long ago. As a matter of fact my dad would punish me if I was not polite and did not share. I played nice in the sand box, even if the boys weren’t and I made friends easily. We can go all over the place with this topic from the collapse of the family to too much information being pumped into growing minds but I think the bottom line is kids are not learning core values at home or at school. It is two pronged, a double whammy.
In conclusion I think if you have kid captive at school for 5 or 6 hours you the educator should take some responsibility for instilling core values. Instead of saying it’s not my job. For too many years educators have been using the old cliché “education starts at home”. Give me a break. Guess where these kids are learning to offload and skirt responsibly?

From the very people charged with educating them.

This guest post is contributed by Maria Rainier, she writes on the topic of http://www.onlinedegrees.org online education.

Take a closer look at onlinedegrees' blog

Many thanks to Maria Rainier.
Enjoy your reading!

Super Learning Styles 2.0 by Maria Rainier

Today I have Maria Rainier guest blogging. Please be sure to check out her unique guest post. Guest posts are always welcome, please contact me.

Some of you may be familiar with the work of Sheila Ostrander, Lynn Schroeder and Nancy Ostrander and their 1979 book entitled Super Learning.
Greatly simplified Baroque Music was played while teaching ordinary students. Baroque Music is calming; usually at a tempo of 60 beats per minute. This music was written between 1600 and 1750. This was known as the Baroque Period. During the Super Learning Study this music was played to students in a controlled environment and after about each 8 beats, information was inserted. Different tonalities and voice inflections were used to keep the information engaging and fresh. The results were staggering. These children learned faster, retained more and developed a lifelong love of learning. There is much more to this system and I assure you, young or old, it is worth checking into. You can find a ton of information as well as downloads on the official Super Learning site here: http://www.superlearning.com/

I bring this up because it seems kids are not advancing intellectually or academically as fast as they should or as fast as technology. Why is this?

We have more tools and resources for students than ever before. Why the obsession with Facebook, Twitter and video games? Where is all this narcissism coming from? What about the sense of self entitlement? I’ll give you my opinion. School is boring. Besides for the addition of the computer in the classroom, what has changed?

School still looks and smells like school. The air is still stale and most teachers are still uninspired and uninspiring. The teaching methods and text books are outdated and obsolete as they were decades ago. And with such low pay, why should a teacher be excited to teach?

In addition our society teaches our kids that nothing matters except for self. I have never seen so many selfish kids. When I grew up I was taught to share. I am not ancient either; I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. Not too long ago. As a matter of fact my dad would punish me if I was not polite and did not share. I played nice in the sand box, even if the boys weren’t and I made friends easily. We can go all over the place with this topic from the collapse of the family to too much information being pumped into growing minds but I think the bottom line is kids are not learning core values at home or at school. It is two pronged, a double whammy.
In conclusion I think if you have kid captive at school for 5 or 6 hours you the educator should take some responsibility for instilling core values. Instead of saying it’s not my job. For too many years educators have been using the old cliché “education starts at home”. Give me a break. Guess where these kids are learning to offload and skirt responsibly?

From the very people charged with educating them.

This guest post is contributed by Maria Rainier, she writes on the topic of http://www.onlinedegrees.org online education.

Take a closer look at onlinedegrees' blog

Many thanks to Maria Rainier.
Enjoy your reading!