Clik here to view.
The Right Age for a Smartphone? Interesting NY Times Article
Take a few minutes to read What’s the Right Age for a Child to Get a Smartphone? by Brian X Chen. The July 20, 2016 New York Times article includes interviews with Internet Safety experts and contains...
View ArticleClik here to view.
9 Digital Parenting Back-to-School Tips – 2016 (With Printable PDF)
What can parents and teachers do to ensure that digital kids, with their hand-held devices, connected school activities, homework, and other online activities, get off to a good start at the beginning...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sharenting? A Child’s Digital Future Requires Careful Consideration Today
I’ve often written about sharenting — defined as digital age parents sharing their 21st Century kids’ photos, stories, and information via Facebook, blogs, and other public online social media. If you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
6 Digital Life Conversation Starters to Use in School Meetings, Discussions &...
Now that back-to-school nights are about over, schools will be scheduling parent potlucks, curriculum nights, and educational seminars throughout the academic year. These activities offer lots of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Media Literacy, Girls, Women, and Beauty Magazines
Each month I receive several teen and women’s magazines to look over, and I immediately go through each one to tear out scads of perfume advertisements. My allergies react to the scented pages, and it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Digital Communication Disrupts the Rules of Civility, Privacy, & Integrity
After spending years teaching digital citizenship and civility in the K-12 world, I’ve now come to the conclusion that we parents and teachers should, in the midst of teaching children, stress that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Starting Out With Digital Devices Is Just Like Learning to Swim
The minute a child gets that first web-connected mobile device, the adults in the family commit themselves to extended digital life “swimming lessons.” Young swimmers become increasingly competent and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Parents Confront Digital Life Challenges
Take a few minutes to read When Tech is a Problem Child, appearing in the New York Times on November 19, 2016. Written by Bruce Feiler, the article describes how families go about addressing and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are You Thinking Enough About Phone Apps & Personal Privacy?
It seems so simple when we install apps. Download, click agree and OK a few times, and use. But it’s not as simple as it seems because we may be unintentionally giving free access to lots of our data....
View ArticleClik here to view.
After Buying a Device & Before Giving It to Kids — 2016 Update
Every 21st Century parent needs a holiday digital parenting checklist that describes the tasks to accomplish between purchasing a new digital device and watching a child gleefully unwrap it. This list...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More on Using DuckDuckGo & My Extra Bit of Privacy
Last June I wrote How Much Privacy Do I Have? DuckDuckGo Gives More, describing how I am using the DuckDuckGo search engine for most of my online inquiries. Interestingly after six months using the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching Civility to Kids? Excellent Resource @ WikiHow
Civil behavior is a fundamental building block of our democracy, and throughout our history both children and adults have strived — and occasionally struggled — to demonstrate it through their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Video Visually Demonstrates Sharing Fake News vs. Checking It First
A media company in Sweden, MetroSverige, shared this excellent video visualization that depicts the differences between checking on the validity of a piece of news and just sharing it without pausing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thinking About Digital Life in 2017? Consider Simon Sinek’s Ideas
As you think about parenting or teaching digital natives in 2017, check out this presentation, Millennials in the Workplace, by Simon Sinek, an author and business consultant who writes on business,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The News User Manual — A Great New MediaLit Teaching Tool
If you have not discovered The News User Manual as a media and news literacy resource for 21st Century digital kids and yes, even for their parents, do check out the website. Started by two seasoned...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Japanese Internment in the U.S. — Information to Share With Today’s Students
I have known six people whose families were forced to move into United States government Japanese internment camps. It’s been an honor for me and my family to listen to their stories — though not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No-Tech Zones Enrich a Child’s Life — and the Family’s
You might want to read 5 No-Phone Zones for Parents and Kids Alike, a January 2017 New York Times article. Written by Perry Klass, M.D., a pediatrician and long-time writer, the Times article reminds...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Amusing but Pointed Welcome Poem for Kids With New Digital Devices
Since it’s National Poetry Month, I decided to write a few amusing verses about digital kids and the connected world. You are welcome to attach this poem, with attribution, to any new device that a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Virtual Reality Is Amazing & a Little Bit Scary
Many years ago, at a conference on the campus of Virginia Tech, I entered a virtual reality (VR) area — I think it was called “the cave” — with all sorts of things going on around me. I think I was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Collaborative Family Digital Activities For Summer 2017
Summer 2017 is here, and as we enjoy family fun, outdoor activities, trips to museums and historical sites, vacations, and all sorts of camps and special programs, it’s also important to discover...
View Article