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Media Workshop Edu-Tech News Digest -- Feb. 19, 2001

A very good weekly newsletter. For those of you who want to receive it regularly, subscription information is at the bottom...
Mark

From: Jessica Millstone <jmillstone@mediaworkshop.org>
Subject: Media Workshop Edu-Tech News Digest -- Feb. 19, 2001
To: edutech-news@www.mediaworkshop.org
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 04:04:43 -1000

======================================================
Each week Media Workshop sends out an email highlighting recent news articles about K-12 educational technology...
======================================================
week of February 19, 2001

Inside this week's issue:

* TECHIE TOYS
"Toy Story"
"Toy Industry Learning to Merge Technology and Play"
"Tech Toys Need to Get Smart"

* ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING
"Teacher Training Programs Turn to Cyberspace"
"Teenagers Try Online Learning"

* ONLINE LIFE
"M.I.T. Professor Reconsiders Children's Online Lives"

* FILTERING SOFTWARE
"Digital Chaperone for Kids "

================
TECHIE TOYS
"Toy Story"
Martha McNeil Hamilton
Washington Post,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1148-2001Feb13.html
February 14, 2001
One of the big trends of 2001 is interactive toys designed for infants and toddlers. LeapPad, laptop-like device that displays specially designed e-books for children as young as two years old, won the Educational Toy of the year and People's Choice awards at the Toy Manufacturers Toy Fair in New York City last week. While "educational" used to be a dirty word within the toy industry, educational toys that react and interact with children are becoming bestsellers and winning stamps of approval from child -development specialists. Other popular interactive toys presented that the Toy Fair include: karaoke machines, plastic version of Palm Pilot organizers, and musical toys that play Bach to babies.

"Toy Industry Learning to Merge Technology and Play"
Maureen Fan
San Jose Mercury News,
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/toys021601.htm
February 16, 2001
The Toy Fair selected Michael Hawley, director of M.I.T's Toys for Tomorrow division, to deliver the keynote speech last week, showing recognition for the trend towards technology merging with children's patterns of play. Hawley criticized the PC industry for being slow to innovate and create more playful devices, but saw many toys this year promised more crossover between high-tech and high-fun. Retailers like Toys R Us are beginning to integrate the Web into toy distribution plans, and toy manufacturers are developing toys that can be upgraded via the Internet. Many of the technology-enabled toys were shown in prototype form, and won't be available to the mass market for quite a while.

"Tech Toys Need to Get Smart"
Donna Tapellini
Wired News, http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,41450,00.html
February 13, 2001
This article takes a more critical look at the educational and interactive toys featured at the Toy Fair, finding that many are still a long way away from being considered truly educational. Panel discussions such as, "Future Toys: How Kids in 2010 Will Be Playing and Learning" looked at the possible evolution of today's toys into ones that enhance play, not dictate it. Companies like Fisher-Price and Intel have established "smart toy" divisions to create products that encourage kids to discover how the toy works through the course of play.

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ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING
"Teacher Training Programs Turn to Cyberspace"
Julie Blair
Education Week, http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=22online.h20 (sic)
February 14, 2001
Although distance learning is not for everyone, people who are changing careers to become teachers or who live in remote areas are flocking to online teacher-prep courses being offered by universities throughout the U.S. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have both published distance learning guidelines, hoping to improve the quality of course delivery. Online courses have clear benefits, such as flexible scheduling, more immediate and individualize d feedback from professors and classmates, and the ability for a student to work at his/her own pace; however, supervision of student teaching needs to be improved and more face-to-face contact between professors and students should be integrated. A recent study conducted by the American Federation of Teachers compared teachers who earned their advanced degrees online with those who attended traditional classes. Results showed that 75% of the distance learners did as well (or better) academically than their classroom-bound counterparts.

"Teenagers Try Online Learning"
Lisa Guernsey
New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/15/technology/15SCHO.html
February 15, 2001
Another article about Florida Online High School (see also "Cyber Learning at Online High" from Education Week, summarized in the January 29, 2001 issue of the Edu-Tech Digest), and other online high schools. This article, written for the New York Times' Circuits Section, investigates online learning programs from the student's perspective.

================
ONLINE LIFE
"M.I.T. Professor Reconsiders Children's Online Lives"
Margaret Goldsborough
New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/14/technology/14EDUCATION.html
February 13, 2001
A somewhat misleading headline for this article, since Sherry Turkle, an M.I.T professor and author of books and articles on online identity, has always recognized the important role the Internet plays in the lives of children as well as adults. Parents, she says, need to accept that the Internet is one of the only remaining spaces for adolescents to create and experiment with their identities, an important stage in personality development. College, the traditional time and space for experimentation for previous generations, comes too late for today's more sophisticated teens. Turkle advocates using the so-called "dark side" of the Internet to spark discussions between parents and children about sexuality, hate speech, and discrimination.

================
FILTERING SOFTWARE
"Digital Chaperone for Kids"
Consumer Reports,
http://www.consumerreports.org/Special/ConsumerInterest/Reports/0103fil0.html
March 2001
Consumer Reports tested six Internet filtering software products plus AOL's parental controls (three programs were eliminated because they were too difficult to install and configure) to see if the new generation of filtering programs had improved upon the ones tested by CR in 1997. The 2001 report provides a good explanation of how filtering programs work, and evaluates each product based on the number of bad/inappropriate -- and good/appropriate -- sites that were blocked by the configured software. Overall, AOL's Young Teen Controls received the highest marks.

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summaries complied by:
Jessica Millstone (jmillstone@mediaworkshop.org), Technology Consultant
Media Workshop New York, a special project of the Bertelsmann Foundation
http://www.mediaworkshop.org

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