Deconstructing Code

Teaching Kids about Global Hunger

From the BBC:

Food Force is the brainchild of the World Food Programme (WFP), which last year fed more than 100 million people.

The UN body seeks to capitalise on the popularity of video games to educate youngsters about hunger and the work of the aid agency.

Written for the PC and Mac, the free game is aimed at eight to 13-year-olds for download at http://www.food-force.com.

Posted by rshah on April 15, 2005| Comments (1)

Maine's Laptops in Schools

Maine's Laptops in Schools
King said his office worked closely with Apple to ensure that the laptops were learning aids, not entertainment devices. Except for chess - considered a mental discipline - no games were installed, and none can be downloaded, said Jim Doyle, a King aide who oversaw the project. Students have limited e-mail access and cannot perform instant messaging. Music and pop culture sites also are restricted. Pop-up ads do not appear.

Posted by rshah on December 03, 2002| Comments (0)

Pupils and Porn and Games, Oh My

Pupils and Porn and Games, Oh My
It wasn't surprising that some kids started downloading pornography shortly after Virginia's Henrico County Public Schools distributed over 11,000 Apple iBooks to its high school students. Nor was it surprising that they surreptitiously played games in class and gobbled up bandwidth trading music and movie files.

Posted by rshah on February 01, 2002| Comments (0)

PowerPoint Invades the Classroom

PowerPoint Invades the Classroom
PowerPoint — the must-have presentation software of the corporate world — has infiltrated the schoolhouse. In the coming weeks, students from 12th grade to, yes, kindergarten will finish science projects and polish end-of-the-year presentations on computerized slide shows filled with colorful animation, bold topic headings and neat rows of points, each introduced with a bullet mark. Software designed for business people has found an audience among the spiral notebook set.

Posted by rshah on June 07, 2001| Comments (0)

Computer ban is new way to punish children

Computer ban is new way to punish children
Unruly children are increasingly being threatened with virtual grounding by parents who find that pulling the plug on the computer is the best punishment for bad behaviour, from a family survey conducted by the Family Assurance Group, a friendly society based in Brighton.

Posted by rshah on March 26, 2001| Comments (0)

Sherry Turkle on Children's Online Lives

Sherry Turkle on Children's Online Lives
There are few neighborhoods left where children can meet their pals after school for a friendly game of kickball in a vacant lot. Parents should accept this reality of contemporary life and understand that the virtual world can be a boon to today's latchkey child.

Posted by rshah on February 14, 2001| Comments (0)

Kids leery of chat room 'friends'

Kids leery of chat room 'friends'
While they love online chat, most won't meet in real world

Posted by rshah on February 03, 2001| Comments (0)

Criticism for Company Offering Free Computers to Schools

Criticism for Company Offering Free Computers to Schools
ZapMe Corp., a company that gives free computers to schools and sells advertising on their screens, is facing an attack from a broad coalition of advocates for children and other groups that object to the ads and the company's collection of data from students.

Posted by rshah on November 14, 2000| Comments (0)

FBI Educating Youth About Cybercrime

FBI Educating Youth About Cybercrime
NY Times article

Posted by rshah on October 19, 2000| Comments (0)

License for Video Game Guns

License for Video Game Guns
So one New Zealand preschool has decided to allow gun play, but only after its 3- and 4-year-olds have applied for a license for their pretend guns.

Posted by rshah on September 26, 2000| Comments (2)

SHOULD PARENTS HAVE ACCESS TO SCHOOL WEB LOGS

SHOULD PARENTS HAVE ACCESS TO SCHOOL WEB LOGS
A New Hampshire judge is considering whether parents should have access to Web logs of sites visited by their children while at school.

Posted by rshah on September 25, 2000| Comments (0)

Family's Guidance Can Blunt the Effect of Video Violence

Family's Guidance Can Blunt the Effect of Video Violence
from NY Times

Posted by rshah on September 25, 2000| Comments (0)

Zapme

Zapme
Advertising and collecting data inside schools

Posted by rshah on August 15, 2000| Comments (0)

THE RISE OF THE TEEN GURU

THE RISE OF THE TEEN GURU
They're brilliant, ambitious, and almost intuitively gifted at technology. A new generation of whiz kids are gaining unprecedented power and authority -- and, as a new study shows, they're reshaping the American family, see also Slashdot

Posted by rshah on July 09, 2000| Comments (0)

Cameras at Daycare

Cameras at Daycare
Working parents now can ease their guilt and angst by watching their kids at day care, all over the Net. But some educators aren't feeling as secure.