I remember civics class in seventh grade -- it was taught by one of the coaches, just like health. Somehow my public Nashville middle school thought that the squat, big-armed coaches who were great at yelling at pubescent boys would also be great at teaching us how our government worked...and how our bodies worked. I remember spending most of my time in civics daydreaming or doodling. Yet what could be more important than learning how to participate in our democracy? With today's teens tuning out the news, anyone who can figure out a way to teach the branches of government or how congress works deserves...at least $20 million. That's how much PBS is investing in multimedia content about American History and civics for teens. According to this Boston Globe editorial:

Launched in 2005, this project asked public television managers to develop media projects that "measurably improve" how middle and high school students learn civics and history. Public television was asked to work with educators, filmmakers, and high-tech content providers. This month, the corporation announced that seven of 88 proposals would get funding to develop prototypes.

Among these are "Virtual Congress," a Web-based game about getting bills passed; "Flashback," a reality show and online game about completing historic missions; and "American Dynasties," an online role-playing game in which students interact with historic figures.

I love it. Go PBS! Reaching today's totally wired teens by using media they are already immersed in like gaming is much more engaging than reading about congress or history in a text book. I love seeing how games are being used not just to teach but as tools for social change. Check out these games for some examples from Persuasive Games and mtvU's game about the situation in Darfur.

Update: There's also a new game designed to teach high school and college students about the arbitrary nature of immigration laws (definitely coming from a specific point of view).

Posted by anastasia at 4:56 AM | Permalink

My good friend has given up on her cellphone. It's her 1-year-old son's favorite toy -- so it's often in his mouth or he's holding it up to his ear. Obviously, he has no idea what it is. He just likes the sounds it makes, especially when it plays music. Kids are beginning to engage with technology younger and younger. The market research firm NPD just released a report saying the age at which children start interacting with electronic media, gadgets, hand-held digital-media toys and such dropped, from 8.1 years in 2005 to 6.7 years in 2007. Is it healthy for younger children to begin what will probably be a life long relationship with gadgets at 7...or 1?

I'm doing a stint as a PBS Parenting Expert right now, and my first question was whether an hour of computer time is too much for a 4-year-old. I'm not a child development expert, but it feels like 4-year-olds should still be spending time with other children playing, getting dirty and touching stuff. So an hour or two is probably the maximum amount of time for a 4-year-old to be spending on the computer.

There was also new research released by Jupiter about tweens and cellphones. You guessed it -- more parents are buying them for their kids, as a protective measure. According to the report:

Parents surveyed said that nearly half of 12- and 13-year-olds would have a mobile phone by the end of 2007, while a third of those ages 10 to 11 would get their own mobile phones.

Nearly a fifth of parents added their children to existing plans because it was affordable. The cutoff age was 10 years old, with parents saying it was unnecessary to add kids younger than that to their plans.

Most parents who added children to their calling plans said that they wanted their kids to be able to reach them. Incentives like free phones are also helping convince parents to add children to their mobile calling plans.

As kids begin to become "tethered" to gadgets and technology at earlier ages, it's more important than ever for parents to play an active role in setting limits and encouraging moderation. It's just too easy to spend hours on Club Penguin or attached to an iPod or texting in the middle of the night on a cell phone. It's also too easy to call mom and dad for advice or help with every little thing when they're on speed dial. It's important to teach kids to be independent, too. Parents have to tell kids and tweens when to turn it off and set clear boundaries around using all of these tech toys...I'm not sure putting phones in your mouth is such a good thing ;-)

MIT professor Sherry Turkle had a great quote in this New York Times, reg. required, article on virtual worlds for girls (you can also read my article on this over at BusinessWeek). She said: "If you're lucky enough to have a kid next door," she said, "I'd have a play date instead of letting your kid sit at the computer."

Posted by anastasia at 11:55 PM | Permalink

Last night I watched an episode of "The Simpsons," where Marge discovers the internet after being called out at a PTA meeting for not having an email address! Soon she's doing price comparisons on paper towels, checking the weather without having to look outside, and playing a role playing game that seems like a combination of Everquest and World of Warcraft called "Earthland Realms." She gets completely sucked in, spending hours online, not sleeping, and then discovers that the evil, most destructive character is, of course, Bart. Soon she is "mothering" her evil knight in the game (much to his dismay). Redecorating his lair with Hello Kitty was the final straw causing Bart to accidentally kill mom in the game. Of course he revives her, and then is killed by the rest of the players and decides to just "go outside and play."

One of the things I tell parents when I'm speaking is to find out what games their kids like to play online and play it with them. It's an easy way for parents to understand the appeal and the addictive nature of some of these games and ideally to set limits on how many hours your kids spend playing them (if you don't get sucked in first yourself!). "The Simpsons" episode also speaks to the natural tension that will happen if you try to get too close or spend too much time inside your kids' digital worlds. That said, I interviewed a mom for the book who regularly beat her two sons at their favorite video game. Like everything else in parenting teens, it's push and pull -- you need to step inside their digital worlds to get a better understanding of how they are spending their time, and then you need to step back out.

Here's a great commentary from Wired on the challenges of being a gamer and a parent. And check out Common Sense Media's video game reviews and ratings.

Posted by anastasia at 5:49 PM | Permalink

This past week Harris Interactive came out with research revealing the potentially negative affects of too much game play. The research is claiming that many kids are actually "addicted" to video games. The negative effects from this include lower grades and attention deficit problems. From their press release:

Nationally, 8.5 percent of youth gamers (ages 8 to 18) can be classified as pathological or clinically "addicted" to playing video games.

Most youth play video games and many feel that they may be playing too much.

Nearly one-quarter (23%) of youth say that they have felt "addicted to video games", with about one-third of males (31%) and a little more than one in ten females (13%) feeling "addicted."

Forty-four percent of youth also report that their friends are addicted to games.

With nearly 8 in 10 American youth (81%) playing video games at least one time per month, including 94 percent of all boys playing, this certainly raises concerns about video game addiction.

Dr. Douglas Gentile, Director of the Media Research Lab at Iowa State University and the director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family, states, "It is important that people realize that playing a lot is not the same thing as pathological play. For something to be an addiction, it has to mean more than you do it a lot. It has to mean that you do it in such a way that it damages your life. This is why we based our definition on how pathological gambling is diagnosed in the DSM-IV. Almost one out of every ten youth gamers show enough symptoms of damage to their school, family, and psychological functioning to merit serious concern."

To me, this is clearly a parenting issue -- and it starts early since kids can begin playing games either on CD-ROM or online as early as age 3 (probably even earlier than that!). There are tons of positive effects kids get from game play as well. But if your teen is allowed to be in his bedroom with the door locked playing games for more than an hour or two a day, it's time to step in and set limits. Or if we're using addiction terminology, it's time for an intervention.

Also check out Common Sense Media's video game reviews for parents and don't forget to join the discussion at the Blog Safety Forum.

Update: Here's a great column from Wired Magazine about this first generation of "gamer parents" having to make decisions about what types of games they let their kids play and what kinds of limits they set.

Posted by anastasia at 7:14 PM | Permalink

The other night my husband and I went bowling with some friends. After a couple of strings, my friend challenged me to a game of Dance Dance Revolution. Dance Dance Revolution or DDR is a game where you jump on a small dance floor matching your feet to the movements being given on a screen in front of you. You see Japanese-styled dancers do the moves while you attempt to follow the arrows. It's like the game Simon that many of us played in the 80s - different colors would light up, and you attempt to repeat the pattern.

I realized at the bowling alley that as you get older your eye - foot coordination appears to degenerate. I was jumping like an elephant and quickly breathing heavily. I confess that I'm probably not in the best shape I've ever been, but it's also because DDR really does force you to move quickly. If you've ever been to an arcade and watched the real DDR pros at work (all whom are under the age of 18), it's pretty impressive.

I'm not the only one who discovered that DDR can actually get your heart rate up -- some P.E. teachers have, too, and the game is beginning to be used as another way to get our nation's overweight youth moving. The latest video games to buck the stereotype of keeping teens glued to the couch can be found on Nintendo's new Wii console. David Pogue wrote about how the Wii is giving kids a workout in his most recent blog post:

"I am not suggesting replacing real, outdoor, playing-with-neighborhood-kids exercise with Wii playing.

I am, however, suggesting that the Wii is infinitely better for our kids' health than any other video or computer game -- in fact, better than just about any other indoor activity."

The video game industry tends to be a favorite target of politicians, parents and the media for the sex and violence that is often rampant in the many popular titles. I think it's important to look at the positive effects of gaming whether it's boosting cognitive skills, challenging us to think about global conflicts or getting us off the couch.

Update Here's a great story from The Shifted Librarian about how one librarian is using Dance Dance Revolution as a way to settle library fee disputes:

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting a teen librarian who keeps Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) set up all the time so she can invoke it as need be. For example, if a teen has overdue books, she will dance-off against the person, and if the teen wins, the librarian will waive the fines.

In addition, when the kids get into squabbles amongst themselves, she tells them to take it to the mat and dance off against each other. It's a great way to channel some of their energy.

Posted by anastasia at 2:17 AM | Permalink

Bits & Bytes will be a regular feature that rounds up interesting Totally Wired tidbits in one post.

ABC is easy as 123 (a new study says poor children may see increases in literacy rates through the frequent use of cell phones) (Media Life Magazine, second item)

- Wired journalist and former hacker creates MySpace pedophile-hunter bot (Kevin Poulsen wrote and released code that matches up registered sex offenders to their MySpace profiles [the ones who use their actual names] and finds hundreds of matches. But just like with any technology solution, each case requires human investigation to determine who these people actually are. Update: You can read about how Kevin's code actually caught a predator here.) (Boing Boing) (Wired)

- Unrated (one professor wonders if she's actually missing valuable, honest feedback from students by not showing up on increasingly popular websites where students rate their teachers) (Washington Post, reg. required)

- Gaming may make kids smarter (a new study shows that the way video games are built "in surprisingly pedagogical ways") (Newsweek)

- Decorating their space (the latest Nielsen Netratings show that the most popular sites with teens right now are those that feature ways for them to customize and personalize their MySpace profiles. This is a shift from three years ago, when it used to be all about choosing istant messenger buddy icons) (.pdf download)

- Peering through a vritual microscope (The New York Times, reg. required, on how science educators and the College Board are questioning whether virtual education, at least for science classes that require lab work, measures up to the real thing)

And over on Ypulse.com, I posted two interviews recently worth checking out. The first is with Lauren Bigelow, General Manager of WeeWorld North America. WeeWorld is a community based around "cheeky" avatars teens can customize and then use when they instant message each other. It's big in Europe and is headed our way. The second is with Michael Wilson, CEO of There.com, the virtual reality game that has become increasingly popular with teens. They are also the company that helped MTV create "Virtual Laguna Beach."

Posted by anastasia at 9:59 PM | Permalink

I'm just going to reprint this press release straight up. It's a must-attend press conference in Second Life (which means most of us will probably wait and watch the Webcast....)

MacArthur Foundation Press Conference and Panel Discussion on Digital Media and Learning

Thursday, October 19, 2006
10:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. ET
Second Life Venue: NMC Campus Amphitheater (113/97/26)
(NOTE: Please join "NMC Guests" group for access to Amphitheater)

Webcast Link: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=35992 (beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET)

Topic: Are kids different today because of their exposure to technology? What role do video games, cell phones and social networking websites play in the development of today's children?

On Thursday, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will make a major announcement that will generate a greater understanding of the impact technology and digital media has on today's youth.

You are invited to join the press briefing LIVE via Second Life or via a special Webcast. You can participate in this panel discussion with some of the greatest minds and most influential voices in the fields of technology, digital media, education and learning.

Panelists and influential audience members will include:

* Dr. Mizuko Ito, Research Scientist, Annenberg Center for Communication, University of Southern California , studying new media

* Henry Jenkins, Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture.

* Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

* Dr. Nichole Pinkard, Director of Technology and Research Associate, Center for School Improvement, University of Chicago, working to expand after-school media literacy programs

* Eric Zimmerman, CEO and founder, gameLab, working to develop new games to support media literacy and design skills in young people

Posted by anastasia at 8:25 PM | Permalink