Spies Like Us: Facebook, Parents, and Teen Privacy

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I came across this graphic last week, and had a real guttural feeling about it.  But, I promised myself I’d take a full week to mull over what I was feeling, and why.  Click inside to find out why I think this graphic doesn’t bode well for our kids.

Google+ Circles the Classroom

Google+ is starting to gain some traction — albeit it small, compared to Facebook and Twitter — but, it might not find a niche as a way to replace Facebook and Twitter as social tools for personal and professional use.  It might actually be the perfect tool to finally bring a universal social networking tool into the classroom.

I look at some of the ways Google+ can change the social network game in education after the jump.

Games and Comics: Providing Counseling for Our Parentless Children

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Let an artificially intelligent piece of software counsel my child or student?

It’s a tough concept to accept.  We’ve heard horror stories since the 90’s about the effects of video games on our children (amazingly, comics date all the way back to the 1920’s).  You have those who feel gaming makes kids violent, reclusive, or even mentally ill (all have been debunked over the past few years).  And, while the list of those who would argue that video games do induce violence in our children is dwindling fast, the list of those who think video games are socially beneficial is growing at a much slower pace.

When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Scribblenaut: Students, Scribblenauts, and Problem Solving

Last week saw the release of a much anticipated, and even more hyped game, Scribblenauts. The game sports a 22,000 word dictionary of nouns that promises the player the ability to create any object their mind can fathom.

I can substantiate that claim having created some rather off-the-wall items, such as: a vampire, a block of chalk (which I used to thwart off some troublesome ants), the chupacabra, hover boots, and even god, wielding a bazooka and jetpack.

But, what does this all mean? Why would I sit all day and simply type into my Nintendo DS nouns and watch the analog appear on my screen? I do it, because I helps me solve the in-game puzzle — which is to retrieve a captured Starite — in the most creative and improbable way.