The UK has seen too much social cruelty this past week, and now tragedy as well, with the suicide of 14-year-old Hannah Smith. Though there has been plenty of news coverage and analysis already – linking Hannah's suicide to cruel comments in social site Ask.fm – a formal inquiry into what happened has only just begun, the BBC reported. And suicide prevention experts on both sides of the Atlantic … [Read more...] about UK’s teen suicide tragedy: Problems, solutions
Search Results for: minecraft
Parents more protectionist than empowering: Study
Readers, this post (like a few others, recently) is inspired by my participation on the Aspen Institute Task Force on Learning and the Internet that got started last month. The task force would love to have you join us in what we hope will become a nationwide conversation about safe, successful and connected learning. Pls sign up to join the conversation here, and you'll get more information … [Read more...] about Parents more protectionist than empowering: Study
Involving our kids in their own digital media learning
Just as neither blackboards (technology) nor the words or numbers on them (media) weren't the source of learning in the 19th century, digital devices and the games, apps, and other media on them aren't the source of our kids' learning in this century. They're just learning tools. It's how they're used by teacher and students, parents and children, that spells learning. "For teachers, in … [Read more...] about Involving our kids in their own digital media learning
Why not a gazillion ‘likes’?: Getting wise to gamification in social media (& life)
Likes in Facebook and Instagram, +1's in Google+, (potentially) "HISCORE(s)" in Snapchat are fun to get (though there isn't much evidence having a HISCORE is a big deal for Snapchat users yet). They're a great example of gamification, a word that's increasingly heard in pop culture as much as education. There's nothing wrong with liking likes and other gamification forms (more on this in minute). … [Read more...] about Why not a gazillion ‘likes’?: Getting wise to gamification in social media (& life)
A techie dad’s perspective on school
The subhead of this post might be: "Writing code as an extracurricular activity" or Venturebeat's headline, "Why your 8-year-old should be coding," or just "Let them learn code!" Another article about Harvard undergrads' extracurricular code-writing activity shows how that activity can enrich a whole lot of lives as well as open up careers for young code writers, but I'll get to that in a minute. … [Read more...] about A techie dad’s perspective on school