IPad app: Barefoot World Atlas

New app this week just released in the iTunes app store, Barefoot World Atlas might seem steep at $10(NZ)+ – but if you don’t own a globe, and have children, this might be just the thing (that’s what I told myself anyway

Key features include:

• Ambient music
• Full spinning 3D globe with animated sequences in each country
• Famous sites, flora, fauna and indigenous people, with audio and photographs to illustrate the different countries

How might it be used for learning?

• Social studies – Geography – locating places, engaging students in consideration of different key features of countries, key economics of each area
• Social studies – consideration of different people’s and their histories
• Maths – latitude, longitude, distance etc are detailed for each country

It would be neat to be able to add photos/ information to the globe, tailoring it to your own interests (although that, I guess, is Google maps;-) – but even without that, my children were able to quickly locate places they knew, and the engaging graphics pulled them into new countries so they learned a few new ideas.

My 7 year old said:

“I liked that you could turn the globe, and you could press things and then the man would speak about them and then you touch the button and you could see a real picture of it. My favourite things on the globe were killer whales and penguins because the penguins are cute
and the whales have different colours. One thing I learned was that killer whales work as a team to get their food.

“It’s better than a globe because the globe that we just saw has extra things about the world that you can look at.”

My 5 year old said:

“I liked it when we pressed the button and then the real life comes out. I saw the real scorpion in Africa. I learned they are not in our country. And penguins live in a different icy pace and bugs live in sand, like scorpions.”

Ten minutes after this, reading a bedtime story, she spotted the Eiffel Tower, seen for the first time on the Barefoot World Atlas, and correctly identified it.

 

Did I over-react?

This is a post about learning…but bear with me while I work off a ranty-preamble…

The six-year-old had a lesson on banking today from a well-known Southern Hemisphere bank. Let’s call it the Absolutely Solid Bank, for argument’s sake. She came home, all excited about a cash-gobbling monster stomping through stories with a salutary message: ‘Zoom to your needs, and wait for your wants.’ No argument from me thus far.

But then we argued…sorry, strongly discussed…the need for her to then wear a tattoo emblazoned with the brand of the bank that was a freebie at the end of the lesson. She loved the colour, the idea of the tattoo. And, apparently, everyone will have them on tomorrow…

What got to me most was the way the kids were being branded (albeit temporarily) by a corporate logo, sucked in by a shiny, ‘cool’ ploy (not to mention the looong list of crazy chemicals that are in these stick-on tats). So I resorted to bribery (money in her piggy bank in exchange for the tattoo. Fair, sensible, even ironic swap). If the bank wants to be altruistic, then the learning experience is fine. Otherwise, perhaps they shouldn’t be allowed to come and market themselves to primary children.

I love the message of saving, and I believe strongly in the value of financial literacy. But not at the expense of learning about the value of information literacy and the power of advertising. A hard lesson to learn when the person is teaching the first, but exploiting the second.

And when they come armed with shiny bribes.

[Image source: Naypong]

When your 13-year-old joins Facebook

Finally.

I have found a great post that articulates really sensibly the role that a parent could – should? – take to support their child’s developing understanding and awareness of digital citizenship.

I was struck by the way the author, Molly Baker, embraces the benefits, and takes a pragmatic approach to the potential challenges. She acknowledges the bigger picture, the world of technology in which our children are growing up and the way. Her analogy of teaching children to ride a bike, that we need to give them ‘training wheels’, is spot on. Sensible woman.

On the other hand, the comments underneath that post reveal a whole other side to her argument, one that often sees technology as a harbinger of danger, predation and a dumbed-down view of life.

Here is the original post:   Why I finally gave in and let my 13-year-old join Facebook

(Thanks for the tip, via the blog Might be of interest; image via Freefoto.com)

A letter to my daughter trapped by a disaster

Tonight I wrote a letter to one of my daughters – the 3 year old – that urged her to stay happy and smiling, be strong and good for the people looking after her. I told her I loved her loads and that I would with her as soon as I could.

This letter may never be read. In fact, I hope like heck it never is. Because this is a letter to go in my daughter’s emergency box at her pre-school. Following the Christchurch earthquake, the teachers reviewed their plan for looking after the children should they have to stay at the school over night, even for a couple of days, in the event of a disaster, such as an earthquake.

Parents have been asked to provide a box (ice cream container) that includes:

• a small torch and batteries
• underwear
• toothbrush
• juice
• snack bars
• a contact numbers
• small toys/games
• a picture we have drawn together
• a family photo
• …and a letter that can be read out to the child.

I think this is a fabulous idea and shows great forethought from the teachers at the pre-school. Imagine having to look after a whole group of children who all want their mummies and daddies, to go home, to go to bed.

But it’s a fabulous idea that I hope stays in little boxes, neatly stacked in the cupboard, forever unopened (except, perhaps, for interest when she leaves the pre-school).

I cannot imagine how she would feel listening to the letter should she ever be in a situation that would necessitate it being read aloud  - but I know that I was nearly in tears writing it.

Image source: matsuyuki > ‘in writing’

Review of Reading Eggs: beware the addiction!

It was when my 3 year old earned her first ‘critter’ for her animal collection – Marshmallow Mouse for the learning about the letter ‘M’ – and begged for more time on the computer that I began to see why this tool has been so successful.

Reading Eggs is a (subscription-only, although there is a trial) Australian tool for 4-7 year olds that sets out to engage children in readings, from playing games in the online playroom to moving through phonics to phrases and sentences. Children, led by an engaging wee ant called Sam, move their self-designed avatar around a map, completing lessons on the way, earning prizes and animals.

My then 4 year old collected eggs that she can exchange for prizes, read 22 books and collected nearly 100 golden eggs before she lost interest last year. The game clearly engages children immediately – it’s bright, colourful and they can see their animal collections building with every lesson. At times, the activities seemed a little similar (perhaps that’s why she lost interest?), and the busy dashboard requires a parent to work through activities with younger children, but I am intrigued to see if the second child hangs in there.

After all, who’s next, after Marshmallow Mouse? Lesson 2 is the letter ‘S’ so her new ‘critter’ might be a Super Spider, a Singing Snake, or even a Silly Sausage;-)

Tips for Skyping with the kids: they’re not performing monkeys

This morning, I was part of a Skype session between grandparents in the UK and two children under six in New Zealand. This was not the first time we had undertaken this type of conversation – but each time it often takes more organising than a school play.

We want everyone to be able to see and hear, we want it to be enjoyable for everyone, to be natural…in other words, we are trying (and yearning?) to replicate a face-to-face chat.

And, most importantly, we are trying to help the children build loving bonds with their grandparents, whom they hardly ever get to visit. And, of course, vice versa.

So, here are a few tips – so you can learn where we have sometimes struggled:

1. Pick your moment: Kids don’t like to engage if they are hungry, tired or otherwise engaged, and time zone differences will be something to consider here. Watching TV or eating breakfast is far more important that family ties, y’know;-)
2. Prep them: Get them excited and build the moment. And prep the grandparents, too. Explain that the children may not sit and talk like adults, make sure they listen as well as talk, so they don’t drown out little voices. Set all the equipment up first and do a trial run just before to check it’s all working. Pre-schoolers have no patience with tech that doesn’t just work.
3. Involve them in planning: little kids will be much more likely to engage if they are talking about something that is important to them that day/week (a picture they have drawn, new shoes they got for school) and especially if they have chosen the topic themselves.
4. Keep it short, sweet and often: Better to chat for five or ten minutes a week, than try to have looong conversation for half an hour.
5. Show them how it all works: point out where the camera is, set up the mic, even put a photo of the grandparents (or Mickey Mouse, or their favourite toy) above / around the camera so they talk to that and make eye contact, rather than at the screen.
6. Keep ‘em busy: If they aren’t ready to talk directly to the camera, set it all up so they are busy playing or drawing at the table, and let the grandparents watch them do that. This takes the pressure of them to ‘talk…now’.

And if all else fails – and it so often does – send video clips instead, capturing them at their most chattiest and excited.

Image source: blogs.skype.com

3 reasons why online privacy is the best gift you can give your children

I was recently asked to complete a survey about children (say, under 13) and blogs: are they are good idea (blogs, not the children)? Is there a benefit in children blogging, what are the issues and so on. I have also had a conversation this week about people posting photos of their children online behind limited or no privacy settings.

Is this post a hysterical reaction – or common sense? Here are three good reasons why you should think twice before sharing your children with the world:

1. Our children have not chosen to be online

This one is pretty obvious. Little humans they may be (and gosh, they can be annoying at times), but they still have rights. Even schools have to cover themselves, with various permission forms, before they post images of students online. Should parents consider similar issues?  Even if our children enjoy seeing themselves online, they have no idea of the ramifications of the internet and cannot know what it means to see themselves on the web.

2. We cannot control the information we post up

Yes, we can choose our settings and our controls. We can tick the boxes and run checks. But once the photo is in the cloud, it’s there, somewhere in the ether, forever. How large a digital footprint do we want to create for our children without their say so?

3. It is scarily easy to track people down via information on the web

Is it too much to suggest that an identified child on the net is the same as a child wearing a t-shirt bearing their name, address etc, wandering around in a big city? We do not know who sees our images or our children’s images, who stores our information, or how easily we can be found. So, yes, you wouldn’t want your child to have their name, address, location or school linked to their image even if you have decided to post their photos up there.

Yet, here’s the rub.

We live in an online world, and we share our lives with our loved ones via the web as naturally as we used to send them copies of the school photos in the mail. We are a highly mobile lot, who rarely live close to our folks anymore. What about Grandma in the UK who never sees her grandchildren? Or the ante-natal group of mums who bond online, sharing news, views and shots of their bubs doing mad stuff, to keep themselves sane?

I  would be recommending the obvious: if images of your children must be posted online, ensure you have the tightest security settings you can, don’t refer to them by name and give all that personal information a second thought.

Let your children define their own digital shadow when they are old enough. Then at least, when we are lecturing – sorry, supporting –  them about cybersafety, we can say we tried to set an example back in the day…;-)

[Image source: WoodcraftPlans.com]