Strollerderby : online

Charter Schools go Online

JeanneSager — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:24:00 GMT

Thinking about homeschooling but not sure you have the chops? What if you could school your kids at home, but leave the actual education up to a "real" teacher?

Charter schools are making the jump to online, where a curriculum is laid out, tests given and students have the advantage of doing it all from home. And, because it's a charter school, the bulk of the costs to parents - from the price of a (loaner) computer to their art supplies - are taxpayer funded.

It's a movement that could expand homeschooling opportunities to parents who have always been uncomfortable with the idea of the burden of their child's education resting entirely on their shoulders but who are equally uncomfortable with the public school system in their area. That's why charter schools are usually created anyway - chartered by parents who want an alternative to the traditional school system that will be open to all kids, kids whose parents often can't afford private school tuition. Taxpayer funded, they're meant to extend choice in education to more families.

But while homeschooling parents have been making use of the internet practically since it began, if they signed on to a particular program, parents have often paid out of pocket. By granting the charter school label to an online school, taxpayer funds come into play.

And parents who've signed their kids up say they're loving it. In a recent Chicago Tribune piece, Michelle Koss, mom of a child with learning disabilities, said this has enabled her daughter to take her time mastering different subjects. Where she was lost in a traditional school setting, Sarah Koss is gaining momentum by working online at home.

As a mom who is pro-homeschool but knows it just wouldn't work for our family, the idea intrigues me most because it would take some of the onus off of me as teacher. I don't have faith in myself to be her educator, but with this kind of help, I could see it working. And knowing my taxes were going to fund it, instead of paying into a school system she would never use, would be a bonus. Too bad it's not available in my hometown.

Is this option available in your area? Would you take them up on it?

Image: Media.Canada

Worksheets Die a Green Death, Kids Celebrate

JeanneSager — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:34:00 GMT

Oh what I wouldn't have given to skip worksheets in grade school. The totally useless (in a kid's mind anyway) busy work handed out by bored teachers to get us to sit down and shut up.

I guess I was just born a few decades too early. Sigh.

Teachers are saying bye bye to the worksheet in an effort to both cut costs and cut their carbon footprint, and today's kids are loving it.

They write their papers on a computer, read books on the computer, even do their homework on scanned PDFs available via the Internet. The teachers are finding themselves spending less time at the copy machine (or less time sending their assistants to the copy machine) and more time for classroom instruction or preparation for instruction. And the kids, they say, are more engaged. Used to cell phones, Wiis and constant electronic connections, being plugged in inside the classroom has meant better student engagement.

And, of course, there's that cost issue - even in better economic times, schools across the country could always used more money. Now, the financial issues are dire in some districts - where teachers have sold ad space on testpapers, administrators have called for kids to bring their own toilet paper and all classroom appliances have been yanked.

With kids learning about Twitter and Wikipedia in England and these efforts, are you worried our kids will never be able to unplug? Or are you just happy to see a greener planet that costs you less green?

Image/Source: Boston Herald

Strollerderby's Gone Facebook

JeanneSager — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:01:00 GMT

Can't live without your Facebook OR your Strollerderby?

We've got good news for you!

The new Facebook is driving us all a little crazy, so we figured we'd get some relief by merging our two favorite things. Strollerderby has now hit Facebook! We've got a group for you to join, where you can add to the discussion plus a page where you can become a fan (please, oh pretty please?) and get updates on what we're talking about.

While you're at it, did you know Babble has a Facebook page? Our editors keep you updated there on some other Babble news - like our Babble Playground contests and the other news outlets who are showing Babble some love.

So why don't you come join us?

Click here to become a fan of Strollerderby on Facebook.

And click here to become a member of the Facebook group!

Image: Facebook

A Safer Space for Kids Online: Hope or Hype?

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Concerned about the dangers of online predators, mom-of-five Mary Kay Hoal launched a social networking site that she hopes will provide a safe space for kids aged 9 to 18 to interact. But can places like Yoursphere -- which charges a monthly access fee and checks to make sure nobody on it is a registered sex offender -- really serve as alternatives to Facebook (or to MySpace, the Sodom and Gomorrah of Hoal's press release, although nobody really uses MySpace anymore)? And is an alternative even needed?

If you read Hoal's site or her press release (or watch the Nancy Grace Show), you are probably pretty worried about your child's Internet safety. You know that there are sex offenders on MySpace (even though that number, widely disputed, is only about half what you would expect, given the general population on MySpace), you know that "sexting" and other technologically-enhanced forms of teenaged sexual expression can get you killed, and you know that you want to protect your kids.

Well, I agree with you about the last one. As for the other two, it's fairly clear that the dangers of sexual predation online are vastly overstated and exagerated, both by shows like Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" segments and by the marketing for alternative sites like Hoal's. And when it comes to teenaged cruelty around issues of sex and reputation, technology hasn't changed things one whit: girls have been harrassed for sexual activity for centuries in our culture, which continues to both demonize and deny teen sexuality. The medium makes very little difference (except that now, if your teen is engaged in thoroughly consensual sexual flirting using cellphone pictures, she could get charged with child pornography).

As a new study out of Harvard's Berkman Center for the Internet and Society points out, worried parents are barking up the wrong tree here. It's not Facebook, MySpace (does anyone still use MySpace, seriously?), or the Internet at large that hurts kids; the dangers kids face online are the same as they face offline -- dating violence, sexual harrasment, social ostracism, bullying, and yes, sometimes (but very rarely) sexual predation by adult strangers. How to protect them? Funny enough, it's not from banning them from the Internet, or stealing their passwords, or spying on them. Just as in the offline world, kids are protected by having caring adults who talk to them, who make it their business to know where their kids are and what they're doing, who know their friends and are involved in their activities, and who let them know every day that their kids can always come and talk to them about anything. Those of us who have babies, toddlers, and preschoolers right now have no way of knowing what kind of technological advances and devices will flavor their world. All we can do is try to keep up, understand what they're up to, and remember that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It turns out that trust and respect -- not spying, forbidding, or trying to scare them (or their parents) to death -- is what really keeps kids safe.

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How To Catch a Teenage Crook: Use Facebook

JeanneSager — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:47:00 GMT

If you thought the only risk your kids had in going on Facebook was from child predators, guess again. It turns out when they royally screw up in the real world, Facebook can get society the help it needs.

Police officers in Maine took surveillance photos of some teenage hoodlums and posted them on Facebook - so users could identify the crooks and send them to jail.

The pictures went up on Facebook on Jan. 29, and already the three fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds responsible for breaking into a spa and wreaking havoc were identified - ostensibly by other teens - and arrested.

Considering law enforcement and social networking sites have had to develop relationships thanks to dumb kids posting photos of their misdeeds online, it's high time there was a little quid pro quo. It's also a good reminder for kids who think they're safe from their crimes that the more widespread big brother's reaches, the more likely their pranks will land them in jail. Good ammunition for parents who are at the end of their rope and looking to cash in on the scared straight program.

If nothing else, the parents of the kids who IDed the perps can feel a little better about how much time their kids are wasting online. At least they performed a public service.

Image: Mediabistro

Parents Just Don't Understand (Facebook); Stanford Aims to Help

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:01:00 GMT

Everyone knows that all American teenagers – save those being raised on religious compounds or in hippie treehouses – are on Facebook. They go there to talk, laugh, share their intimate feelings – all the things they once did with us, their parents, and now do with 928 "friends" instead. For parents who consider themselves close to their kids, it can be a little hard to take, this feeling that while you're the one paying the bills and making their dinner and washing their socks, their true emotional lives are happening somewhere else, or nowhere at all. So, remembering the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," thousands of middle-aged parents of teenagers now find themselves on Facebook, stalking their own children.

In a first of its kind, Stanford University now offers an evening class to help these befuddled, yearning parents understand the new medium that plays such an important role in their children's lives. If along the way they become fans of beer, sleep, or Aretha Franklin's inauguration hat, so be it. And hey, knock yourself out with the "25 Things" meme (I wonder how many Stanford parents' "things" include an item about how badly the stock market has decimated their 401Ks). But don't try to friend your kids – or your kids' friends – or if you do, don't be surprised if all the kids leave Facebook for something the old folks haven't found out about yet. According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, adults over 35 represent the fastest-growing segment of the Facebook population, but the backlash can be extreme:

Some kids say that a "friend" request from parent is like discovering Dad at your beer pong game. Or bumping into Mom in the dressing room of Forever 21.

When Facebook first opened itself to the public in 2007, students circulated an online petition called "Don't Let My Parents Onto Facebook!" to founder Mark Zuckerberg pleading for a reversal of the decision. Since then, there has been a proliferation of no parent groups, such as "For The Love of God — Don't Let Parents Join Facebook." One group is hosted by "The Bureau of Endangered Generation Gaps."

Offered free to all parents but particularly aimed at those with kids under 18, the course is intended to help parents learn about the world their kids navigate so that they can offer guidance and boundaries, enforce good etiquette and promote online safety. At the same time, the class tells parents what their kids want them to know -- don't push the boundaries, allow your teenager some space that's for her own friends, not your prying eyes. Above all, both sides say, a little balance goes a long way. As one recent college grad put it, when your mother joins Facebook, it's an opportunity for a teenager or young adult to include her in a new kind of grown-up relationship. Here's how she asked her friends to respond to her mother's presence on Facebook:

"Please make her feel welcome. Friend request her (she has no idea what that is though "... so be patient if it takes a while), and in true Facebook fashion get drunk and write on her wall."

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Is It Wrong for Parents to Sell Girl Scout Cookies for their Daughters?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:30:00 GMT

In this not exactly neighborly modern world of ours, eight-year-olds in Girl Scout vests are much less likely to go door-to-door pedaling Thin Mints and Somoas than they once were. So how do 200 million boxes of Girl Scout cookies still get sold every year? Their parents, of course!

CNN reports that parents are increasingly relying on their jobs and connections to make cookie sales for their daughters, who then get the credit. Opinion is divided as to whether this is simply a sensible, safe way to get the cookies sold—supporting a good cause and satisfying America’s sweet tooth—or whether this deprives young girls of the intended lessons of cookie-selling, not to mention creating an unfair playing field in which girls are punished or rewarded for their parents’ success.

It seems clear to me that parents selling cookies when their daughters aren’t even present is not right (and it goes against the recommendation of the Girl Scouts organization). Although, come to think of it, I’d probably still buy a box if I was hungry and had five bucks on me....which just shows how wrong it is for parents to exploit a national addiction like that.

But I used to buy all my annual Girl Scout cookies at work, and I couldn’t have been happier about it. My coworker walked around the office with her daughter, who shyly and sweetly did all the talking. I was always grateful for both the distraction and the sugar fix. I mean, who doesn’t want to buy a box of thin mints from an adorable eight-year-old? (And then eat half the pack while slowly blinding yourself in the eerie glow of computer screens and neon lights…but I digress.)

If it had been my boss’s daughter going around selling cookies, then the dynamic would have been more problematic. What employee is going to refuse to buy cookies from the boss’s daughter? This means that girls with parents in more powerful positions are more likely to sell more cookies—and, alas!, even Somoas play a part in perpetrating social inequality.

Perhaps the most ethically unquestionable and effective way to sell cookies is to have girls set up a booth in a public place. This way, they’re doing the work themselves, they’re not in any danger, and they’re offering passersby a very important public service.

Photo: Once Upon a Plate

Blogging Moms Find a Kidney For Teen on Dialysis

JeanneSager — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:02:00 GMT

If you've ever doubted the power of the Internet, just imagine the motivation of helping a kid in need thrown in. This is one of those happy holiday stories to make up for all the bad stuff we ended up writing about here on the 'Derby, but I warn you. Get out the tissues.

"Domestic Diva" mom blogger Lisa posted in early November that she could barely keep posting as she watched her teen daughter, Marielle, suffer through her kidneys shutting down. The family was making a drastic move. They were pulling Marielle out of a Philadelphia hospital and heading to New York's Columbia Presbyterian in hopes that the living kidney donor program there could save her life.

Two weeks to the day later, yesterday, Lisa was back online. Blogging mothers across the country had picked up her story and blogged about it, tweeted it on Twitter and shared it on Facebook. Calls poured into Columbia Presbyterian from every state in the U.S., from Africa, from Saudi Arabia. Marielle now has a donor. A friend her mom met through Ebay called the hospital, went through the process and has come up as a match. The teenager is home, still on dialysis, but home for the holiday as doctors work to bring her body to a state of health that will enable them to proceed with surgery.

Yesterday, the day before Thanksgiving, the family released this announcement to the world:

"Thank you to EVERYONE who sent in donor forms, called, blogged, twittered and help spread the word…BUT WE DO NOT NEED ANY ADDITIONAL DONORS AT THIS TIME. I am amazed by the power of the web and the hearts of those who helped make a difference."

Now wipe your tears and get back to that turkey.

Image: Domestic Diva

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Is Online Cheating a Deal-Breaker?

Kelly Mills — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:33:00 GMT

From Britain comes the news that a couple who had an elaborate wedding on the virtual reality game "Second Life" are now getting divorced. So what tore this couple, who met in a chatroom, apart from each other? Well, Amy Taylor says she caught her real-life husband having virtual sex with a woman on the same game. Later she also reported she hired an online detective to track his virtual activities, though she knew he wasn't fooling around in this reality. "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over," she said. Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met on "World of Warcraft".

Now, for a couple who are so invested in their virtual lives, it makes sense Taylor would consider this a betrayal. But what about other couples? With virtual reality games becoming more elaborate and consuming, do activities online carry the same weight as those commited in the physical world? Perhaps some would draw the line at any kind of online flirtation, whether or not it was acted out with avatars, while others would consider this harmless fun as long as it never spills over into real life.

What do you think? What's cheating in the age of online worlds? Where would you draw the line?

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Adult "Bimbo" Players Mad at Parents

Kelly Mills — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:33:00 GMT

There's no such thing as bad publicity, right? In the wake of the widespread hand-wringing over the Miss Bimbo game--hand-wringing I partook in as well--there's an article on how regular adult users are peeved because the site is now getting so many hits people can't log in. Aw, poor locked out Bimbos. And let's face it: After watching a few news clips, it's clear the site creators have been intentionally milking the media attention. I mean, they say ridonkulous stuff about how the game promotes good values because you can send your Bimbo to university instead of the more obvious damage control things like, "It's intended for grown-ups," and no one is actually that stupid, are they?

One irate Bimbo user says that only the worst parents ever would actually let their kids play the game, and that the controversy must be manufactured. While I'd never, ever let my six-year-old play, and I hope I'll be up on her internet activties for a while, I believe there may come a time when I can't oversee every site she visits, nor block every potentially problem webpage. But even after I wrote about the site, I started getting irked by the media coverage, screaming that children will develop eating disorders if they just look at the site. (If we did everything our avatars did, why there would be far more shootings and leaping over mushrooms and I would totally be a lead guitarist in a kickass rock band.) Yeah, I wouldn't ever want girls playing the game. And sadly, they can also learn about tramp clothes and crazy body image from their Barbies and Bratz; they can get the message that a woman is complete when she lands a rich guy from maybe 90 percent of the Disney catalog; and they'll learn about their movie and music idols getting plastic surgery and taking diet pills from any gossip magazine on supermarket stands. Miss Bimbo just happens to be an obvious collection of all that shit in one lame place.

Your Girls Can Be "Bimbos" Online!

Kelly Mills — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:02:00 GMT

Sometimes you see stuff and think, "Is this fer real?" When I read about the Miss Bimbo game, I kept thinking, "Oh, in a minute they'll say the game is for adults." But no, in fact the majority of the 200,000 players are between the ages of 7 and 17. But let me back up: There's a virtual "fashion" game for girls where they get a "Bimbo" and have to navigate her through boob jobs and diets and so on to make her the coolest bimbo of all. Girls can dress their dolls in sexy outfits for clubbing, and are encouraged to keep them waif thin through diet pills and plastic surgery. Niiiice.

Most of the accounts I read focused on the weight and cosmetic horrors of the game, but I personally was more disturbed by the fact that the bimbos are supposed to find a rich boyfriend so they don't have to work. Like, it's one of the goals of the game. Now that is just creepy. For god's sake, we don't even read "Cinderella" without some irritable commentary about how Cinderella ought to stand up for herself instead of waiting to be rescued. So the idea of having girls finding a sugar daddy through the game is icky. It simultaneously asks them to identify with and look down on the bimbos, and frankly, it seems strangely angry to me.

Here's the best quote from the game's creator: "It is not a bad influence for young children. They learn to take care of their bimbos. The missions and goals are morally sound and teach children about the real world." Frigging excuse me? But it goes on: "The breast operations are just one part of the game and we are not encouraging young girls to have them, just reflecting real life." Well, that's a relief. For a minute there I was worried. Yeah, these are totally the lessons I want my kids to learn. Why does it smell so strongly of misogyny in here?

To Pee or Not to Pee

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:24:00 GMT

If you want to start a fight when you meet a new parent online, the quickest route isn't to bring up breast v. bottle or Waldorf v. Montessori. No, if you really want to descent into screaming fits of madness, whisper the words: elimination communication.

Who knew that the world of diaperless v. diapered infants could be so heated. Heather Caliri, who wrote a feature about her diaperless baby for Brain, Child magazine, has discovered, the mere mention of babies who pee can unleash all sorts of online angst. Among the weighty issues under debate are the merits of peeing in a public sink, the entitlement of parents and the proper use of hand santizer.

Nothing like a little urine to bring out the flamer in everyone.

Webkinz: The Online Toy That Will Eat Your Child's Brain

thezeroboss — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:04:00 GMT

This article by the Massachusetts Eagle Tribune's Krystal Hicks arrived at an uncanny time. My daughter Neve had her 10th birthday party last night at a local Embassy Suites hotel. (Which, by the way, my ; it costs as much as a traditional wife highly recommends for tweens and teens; it costs as much as a traditional party, and lasts a lot longer.) She came with two Webkinz, a clever marketing ploy by the Ganz collectible company. The dolls are a cross between old-fashioned dolls and a Tamagotchi: each stuffed animal comes with an online code that lets you "adopt" and care for the pet online

Hicks reports that the Webkinz craze has taken off, with many retailers saying they can't keep the toys stocked on shelves. I can see why: they're cheap ($10 a pop), and the free Web site is hella-good fun for the wee ones. All of my kids have become addicted to it. Hey, I'd rather have them hanging out here than on that goddamned Postopia - which is to "educational value" what Tammany Hall was to honesty in government.

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Your Girls Can Be "Bimbos" Online!

To Pee or Not to Pee

Webkinz: The Online Toy That Will Eat Your Child's Brain