The popular online destination for kids, Webkinz, drives continued revenue by granting Webkinz pet purchasers a limited access license to the online Webkinz world. My son received the following in-world message in Webkinz recently: Account Renewal Reminder: 30 days: This note is just a reminder that your account is set to expire in 30 days
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This podcast features an interview with 11 year old Alexander, discussing his experiences playing the iPod Touch / iPhone version of the game Civilization Revolution. According to the English WikiPedia entry for the game: Civilization Revolution is a turn based strategy game. In past installments the player had more control over the rules of the
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Podcast329: Playing Civilization Revolution on the iPod Touch / iPhone [ 31:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3465)
Last Saturday we visited our local Apple Store in Oklahoma City, and had fun learning about several new applications for the iPhone and iTouch. The video which plays in the store window advertises several new apps, most of which are commercial. Of the apps we tried on the iPod Touches in the store, the following
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This podcast is a recording of an interview I conducted in February 2009 with Linda the Computer Lady at her Internet Cafe in Cushing, Oklahoma. The young people in Cushing (as well as older folks who are digitally inclined) are extremely fortunate to have an entrepreneur like Linda in their community who has provided this
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Podcast 324: Gaming, Fun, and Digital Citizenship at the Internet Cafe in Cushing, Oklahoma [ 30:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2795)
These are my notes from the NECC 2009 session “Best Practices for Encouraging Learning 24/7: Models that Work!” Official program description is: Several distinguished educators will offer actual examples of 24/7 learning approaches to educational practice. Can these technology-based, best practices inform your classroom teaching? Presenters are: Michael Searson, Kean University with Judith Beaver, Andrew
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My 8 year old daughter recently googled something like “cool games for girls” and came across the website GirlsGoGames.com. We had a discussion this morning about the site and this is something we need to talk about more at length, because of all the issues it raises. I asked Sarah to blog about this, but
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These are my notes from Monica Martinez’s CoSN09 spotlight session, “Navigating Beyond the Now: The Force, Trends, and Signals that will impact Learning in the Next Decade.” MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. THERE ARE SOME AMAZING VIDEOS HERE. POWERFUL IDEAS. GOOD SYNTHESIS AND RESOURCES. Grassroots Economy The Institute For The Future –
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I posted twice on the NECC 2009 ISTEconnects blog today: Free image editing options Student Voices about technology and creating the future Don’t miss either of the videos discussed in the latter post, “Learning to Change, Changing to Learn – Kid’s Tech.” …and… “No Future Left Behind.” Hat tip to Tammy Stephens for the first
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Like a large number of North American households with Internet access and elementary age children this holiday season, our home was the scene of many hours logged on both Club Penguin and Webkinz the past couple weeks. After Christmas, we made a momentous purchase for our five year old: A new Webkinz Penguin she’s named
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This podcast is a 57 minute screencast recorded by 11 year old Alexander, giving an in-depth introduction to the online browser game Travians.com. Travians is different from the singular Travian game, which he has discussed in two previous podcasts (linked in these shownotes) and is more of a simulation game rather than a team-based warfare
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Podcast296: Introducing and Explaining Travians, A Free Online Simulation Game (by 11 year old Alexander) [ 57:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3227)
My 10 year old son has discovered a new online simulation game called Travians. The game is similar in some ways to the war game Travian, which he played independently for the past year and I played with him as my own character for 10 months in an alliance we joined for mutual protection and
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After almost a full year of playing the online game Travian, gameplay is over for me on our server. One of the other alliances successfully built their Wonder of the World to level 100. The player “Steve the Spiffy” referenced in the message above was a member of our alliance (SE Meta) and the player
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I learned about several new sites and tools this morning thanks to conversations with James Deaton and Eric Hileman. Wordle can be used to view a tag cloud of a delicious.com user’s contributions, so you can get a quick, visual picture of the ways that person tags the web. Here’s my current Wordle delicious.com tag
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This is a cross post from the TechLearning blog. Keyboarding is an important skill. I reflected a bit on cursive and keyboarding on the TechLearning blog a year ago this month in the post, “The New Cursive.” Perhaps my comparison of cursive writing to keyboarding was not appropriate. The relevance of cursive to successful living
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My 10 year old son and I are continuing to play the free online strategy game Travian, and the game on our server has moved into its final stages. To win the game, members of an alliance must first conquer a village from the Natars tribe which contains the plans for a Wonder of the
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This podcast is an interview with Lars of Lego Education on the vendor floor at NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, discussing the recently announced “WeDo Robotics” product designed for elementary students ages 7-11. According to the official Lego Education press release, WeDo Robotics “redefines classroom robotics, making it possible for primary school students 7-11
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Podcast267: A Discussion about Lego WeDo Robotics at NECC 2008 (Coming in January 2009 to North America) [ 20:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4818)
This podcast features a recording of Dr. Mitchel Resnick’s NECC 2008 presentation “Grassroots Creativity: Helping Everyone Become a Creative Thinker.” This session was shared on July 2, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Resnick is a professor at MIT and works at the MIT Media Lab with some of the most innovative and creative thinkers
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Podcast264: Grassroots Creativity: Helping Everyone Become a Creative Thinker by Dr. Mitchel Resnick [ 55:50 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4635)This podcast features interviews with 14 year old Solana and 8 year old Jack who share their perceptions and ideas relating to reading, writing, literacy, technology use, gaming and publishing on the global stage of the Internet. Solana has had her own computer since she was eight, and with the help of her father found
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Podcast261: Student Perspectives on Reading, Writing, Literacy, Technology Use, Gaming and Publishing on the Global Stage of the Internet [ 43:50 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2992)These are my notes from Idit Caperton’s closing keynote at NECC 2008, “The Transformational Power of Social Media Technology in Learning: Inspiring Stories from the Classroom and Beyond!” MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. THIS WAS A FANTASTIC KEYNOTE AND ONE OF THE BEST I’VE EVER SEEN AT NECC. INSPIRATIONAL, CHALLENGING, RESEARCH-BASED, KID AND LEARNING
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