• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

NetFamilyNews.org

Kid tech intel for everybody

Show Search
Hide Search
  • Home
  • Youth
  • Parenting
  • Literacy
  • Safety
  • Policy
  • Research
  • About NetFamilyNews.org
    • Supporters
    • Anne Collier’s Bio
    • Copyright
    • Privacy

virtual worlds

The learning power of a virtual world

August 18, 2010 By Anne 2 Comments

It's definitely not a flashy video production, but if you're interested in learning about a virtual world that 6.4 million kids aged 8-15 (68% girls, average age 12.5) like because it challenges them in math and science and expects them to be smart, watch this interview about Whyville.net at Discover magazine. Founder and CEO of Whyville parent Numedeon Inc., Jim Bower – who is also a professor of … [Read more...] about The learning power of a virtual world

Filed Under: Social Media, videogames, virtual worlds Tagged With: Jim Bower, Kidscom, Lucy Bradshaw, QuestAtlantis, Tiffany Barnes, virtual worlds, Whyville

2 new kids’ social spaces: ToonsTunes, Scuttlepad

August 10, 2010 By Anne 2 Comments

One is both feature- and media-rich, the other plain & simple. Both aimed at under-13s, they're social in different ways (one a virtual world, the other a social network site). Toonstunes.com Surfing through ToonsTunes's information pages, demo videos, and kid-created music videos indicates to me that this is a great addition to the kid virtual world lineup – especially for young music … [Read more...] about 2 new kids’ social spaces: ToonsTunes, Scuttlepad

Filed Under: kids, Social Media, social networking, virtual worlds, Youth Tagged With: kids sites, Scuttlepad, social networking for kids; TunesToons, Tiny Planets, Togetherville, virtual worlds

Avatars & virtual penguins vs. real-life dolls

May 27, 2010 By Anne Leave a Comment

Sales of Barbie, Liv, Moxie Girlz, and other dolls have declined 20% in the US since 2005, and kids as young as 8 and 9 are passing them up for the live "doll play" – or avatar play – of virtual worlds, the Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported, citing NPD Group figures. It tells of 8-year-old Paige, who says she finds playing with dolls boring after a while, and of a Manhattan dollmaker, who … [Read more...] about Avatars & virtual penguins vs. real-life dolls

Filed Under: kids, play, Social Media, virtual worlds, Youth Tagged With: avatars, Barbie, dolls, virtual worlds

Teacher of the Year teaches with Facebook

April 30, 2010 By Anne 2 Comments

I hope the news – of President Obama honoring 2010 Teacher of the Year Sarah Brown Wessling at the White House – strengthens support for the amazing tech educators I know and love. "In reciting Wessling's qualifications for the award," the Boston Globe reports, "Obama said her students 'don't just write five-paragraph essays, but they write songs, public service announcements, film, storyboards, … [Read more...] about Teacher of the Year teaches with Facebook

Filed Under: education technology, Literacy & Citizenship, School & Tech, Social Media, virtual worlds Tagged With: 21st century learning, education technology, Global Kids, President Obama, Quest Atlantis, QuestAtlantis, ReactionGrid, Sasha Barab, Teacher of the Year, tech ed, Teen Second Life, virtual worlds, Wessling

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3

Primary Sidebar

NFN in your in-box:

Anne Collier


Bio and my...
2016 TEDx Talk on
the heart of digital citizenship

Subscribe to my
RSS feed
Friend me on
Facebook
Follow me on
Twitter
See me on
YouTube

IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Amid all the talk of teens and ‘digital wellbeing’…
  • Children’s own views on well-being: Global study
  • Most kids are fine online: New study
  • Datafied Childhoods the book
  • Powerful parenting for child safety online, offline
  • Media literacy and an invasion: The view from Estonia
  • Online safety for 2022: 8 things we need to see
  • ‘Playful by Design,’ a landmark report

Footer

Welcome to NetFamilyNews!

Founded as a nonprofit public service in 1999, NetFamilyNews quickly became the “community newspaper” of a vital interest community of subscribers in more than 50 countries. Site and newsletter became a blog in the early 2000s. Nowadays, you can subscribe in the box to the right to receive articles in your in-box as they're posted – or look for tweets, posts on our Facebook page, and key commentaries from Anne on her page at Medium.com. She welcomes your comments, follows and shares!

Categories

  • Home
  • Youth
  • Parenting
  • Literacy
  • Safety
  • Policy
  • Research

ABOUT

  • About NFN
  • Supporters
  • Anne Collier’s Bio
  • Copyright
  • Privacy

Search

Subscribe



THANKS TO NETFAMILYNEWS.ORG's SUPPORTER HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM.
Copyright © 2022 ANNE COLLIER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.