Comments on: Musing on Kids and Electronic Literacy http://flashforlearning.com/2007/12/musing-on-kids-and-electronic-literacy/ Knowledge Management > Learning Strategy > E-Learning > Flash Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:07:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Brian Dusablon http://flashforlearning.com/2007/12/musing-on-kids-and-electronic-literacy/#comment-30491 Brian Dusablon Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:41:35 +0000 http://flashforlearning.com/2007/12/06/musing-on-kids-and-electronic-literacy/#comment-30491 <p>Another great post. My son is into technology, but not obsessed. I like that. He's getting a camera for his birthday, so I look forward to teaching him how to use iPhoto and iWeb to create his own gallery.</p> <p>He loves to use TUX Paint to create greeting cards or just to mess with. I also let him play chess on the computer.</p> <p>Moderation is the key with everything. Video games, technology, TV, whatever - it's all about moderation, and as Philip said, reminding them that it is a PRIVILEGE, not a right.</p> Another great post. My son is into technology, but not obsessed. I like that. He’s getting a camera for his birthday, so I look forward to teaching him how to use iPhoto and iWeb to create his own gallery.

He loves to use TUX Paint to create greeting cards or just to mess with. I also let him play chess on the computer.

Moderation is the key with everything. Video games, technology, TV, whatever - it’s all about moderation, and as Philip said, reminding them that it is a PRIVILEGE, not a right.

]]> By: Mike Yared http://flashforlearning.com/2007/12/musing-on-kids-and-electronic-literacy/#comment-29642 Mike Yared Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:54:06 +0000 http://flashforlearning.com/2007/12/06/musing-on-kids-and-electronic-literacy/#comment-29642 <p>Great post.</p> <p>I think even if you try to intentionally keep your daughter away from the technology, as your recognize - it will find her.</p> <p>I've been amazed at how my 5 year old has mastered websites, remote controls, cell phones and the like from a very early age. My 3 year old has shown no interest in anything tech, except for the Wii, yet.</p> <p>It may be easy for us to separate our tech life from our 'real' lives, but for our kids these two are intertwined and the same.</p> Great post.

I think even if you try to intentionally keep your daughter away from the technology, as your recognize - it will find her.

I’ve been amazed at how my 5 year old has mastered websites, remote controls, cell phones and the like from a very early age. My 3 year old has shown no interest in anything tech, except for the Wii, yet.

It may be easy for us to separate our tech life from our ‘real’ lives, but for our kids these two are intertwined and the same.

]]> By: philip http://flashforlearning.com/2007/12/musing-on-kids-and-electronic-literacy/#comment-29605 philip Sat, 08 Dec 2007 08:51:27 +0000 http://flashforlearning.com/2007/12/06/musing-on-kids-and-electronic-literacy/#comment-29605 <p>i agree. i have two examples you may find interesting:</p> <ol> <li>my sister. my little sister is 13 years younger than me. when she was in grade school my parents got her kidpix (mac-based image editor/drawing tool for kids). she loved it. she learned to type before she finished elementary school, and she started making her own websites and using photoshop in high school. now she's 20 and in college, and guess what she's doing in school? journalism with graphic/web design courses.</li> </ol> <p>i doubt she would have gone down that path if it wasn't for some affordable, kid-friendly drawing software back in 1991.</p> <ol> <li>our kids now that i have (step)kids in grade school, we definitely keep an eye on their computer, TV and video game time. my wife came up with a great rule that works very well for us: no video games or TV -- AT ALL -- on monday, wednesday and friday, except for 30 minutes at night (one cartoon), and they get TV all night friday night... it's "cartoon cartoon friday" or something. kinda like when i was a kid i stayed up to watch videos on TBS's "night tracks". :)</li> </ol> <p>not having access to TV or video games 3 days a week forces the kids to find other things to do, like go outside or read a book.</p> <p>whenever they get in trouble, the first thing we do is take away video games, then TV. out of boredom, they start picking up books on their own! it's great. sometimes, even after they get their privileges back (we clearly state that TV and video games are privileges, not rights), they still pick up books because they want to finish whatever they started earlier in the week.</p> <p>regarding their internet/computer use, it's the same rule as TV... no computer mon/wed/fri unless it's for a school project.</p> <p>we've already discovered that their friends and cousins will find very mature stuff (like 'jackass') on youtube and talk about it in school. apparently today's bragging rights revolve around whoever has watched adult swim on cartoon network or 'adult' videos on youtube.</p> <p>they're getting to the age where they want to start doing google searches for school projects, so i'm starting to get nervous. we struggle with how protective we should be, y'know?</p> <p>they've already started doing searches for pokemon trading cards on ebay to see how much their cards are worth, and game 'cheat' searches on google.</p> <p>it's a whole 'nother world from when i was a kid and the most exciting thing in school was learning how to change the color of text on a commodore 64 screen! :)</p> i agree. i have two examples you may find interesting:

  1. my sister.
    my little sister is 13 years younger than me. when she was in grade school my parents got her kidpix (mac-based image editor/drawing tool for kids). she loved it. she learned to type before she finished elementary school, and she started making her own websites and using photoshop in high school. now she’s 20 and in college, and guess what she’s doing in school? journalism with graphic/web design courses.

i doubt she would have gone down that path if it wasn’t for some affordable, kid-friendly drawing software back in 1991.

  1. our kids
    now that i have (step)kids in grade school, we definitely keep an eye on their computer, TV and video game time. my wife came up with a great rule that works very well for us: no video games or TV — AT ALL — on monday, wednesday and friday, except for 30 minutes at night (one cartoon), and they get TV all night friday night… it’s “cartoon cartoon friday” or something. kinda like when i was a kid i stayed up to watch videos on TBS’s “night tracks”. :)

not having access to TV or video games 3 days a week forces the kids to find other things to do, like go outside or read a book.

whenever they get in trouble, the first thing we do is take away video games, then TV. out of boredom, they start picking up books on their own! it’s great. sometimes, even after they get their privileges back (we clearly state that TV and video games are privileges, not rights), they still pick up books because they want to finish whatever they started earlier in the week.

regarding their internet/computer use, it’s the same rule as TV… no computer mon/wed/fri unless it’s for a school project.

we’ve already discovered that their friends and cousins will find very mature stuff (like ‘jackass’) on youtube and talk about it in school. apparently today’s bragging rights revolve around whoever has watched adult swim on cartoon network or ‘adult’ videos on youtube.

they’re getting to the age where they want to start doing google searches for school projects, so i’m starting to get nervous. we struggle with how protective we should be, y’know?

they’ve already started doing searches for pokemon trading cards on ebay to see how much their cards are worth, and game ‘cheat’ searches on google.

it’s a whole ‘nother world from when i was a kid and the most exciting thing in school was learning how to change the color of text on a commodore 64 screen! :)

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