Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Boy Collapses Playing World of Warcraft

The Local, an English language news site based in Sweden, reports that a 15-year old boy collapsed after playing World of Warcraft for nearly 20-hours. The boy's father, after seeing his son collapse and suffer a seizure, called and ambulance and the boy was rushed to the hospital.

The diagnosis?

According to doctors "the boy’s bodily systems had been thrown off by a combination of sleep deprivation, lack of food, and too long a stretch of concentrated game playing." The boy has since recovered and is doing well.

My question? Where were this boy's parents? 20 hours is a long time to do anything. This is an extraordinarily long time to play a video game. When he cracked the 6 or 12 hour mark, they should have made him stop and take a break.

When it comes to teens and technology, it's up to parents to sit down with their kids and set some boundaries. And I'm not just talking about video games. Or just teens.

Technology is wonderful and has made our lives better in so many ways. But it's important that we also strike a balance between our online and offline worlds.

So put down that Wii remote. And that Blackberry. Time to connect with your First Life.

Related Resources

• Research: Videogamers Not Lonely Introverts
• Obama Says 'Yes We Can!' to Video Game Ads
• Microsoft to Fund Video Game Research

CyberSurvey: What Kids, Parents and Teachers Are Doing Online

In the spring of 2007 The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative (CSEI) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) initiated the world’s largest cyber research project, which by January of 2008 involved surveying 40,000+ K-12th grade students along with hundreds of parents and teachers.

Here are some of the key findings among students, parents and educators:

Key student findings:

• Children have unsupervised access to a computer and the internet at home as early as age 5, and that by age 7, 15% report that someone was mean to them online, while 7% admit they have been mean to someone online;

• Contrary to public perception, the majority of cyber offenses involving children, t/weens, teens and young adults are perpetuated by their peers, not strangers;

• The onset of cyber bullying beginning in the second grade and it’s not always the adult predator. Reports show that 45% of the cases are friends victimizing friends.

• 23.2% admit to lying about their age online;

• 1 in 4 children between the ages 9-18 report that they have been victimized online by one or more forms of abuse within the past school year that was not reported to a grown up.

Key parent survey findings:

• 90% of surveyed parents report supervising the home computing activities of their children;

• 14% report they have caught their children visiting inappropriate websites;

• 61% parents report that their children access the web from a private place in the home;

• A majority of parents report that their children use the web to do research for school (78%), play video games (61%) and listening to music or watching movies (50%);

Key Teacher Survey Findings:

• Teachers report that they feel confident that their schools are well prepared to use technology to facilitate student learning;

• However, few teachers feel prepared or feel they are prepared to teach students about Internet safety, social computing ethics or digital literacy;

• Teachers report that there is a lack of or inconsistent professional development and/or training on information security, social computing and web safety;

• Educators are divided on the issue of using technology in the classroom and whether or not students know more about information technology than they do.

Overall, it looks like parents are doing a good job of keeping an eye on their kids and what they are doing on the Internet. That said, most safety experts recommend that kids use the computer and surf the web from public areas of their home.

While the good news is that the stereotype of the Dateline NBC-esque sexual predator is far from reality, the bad news is that students are being bullied online by their peers. This is a topic that should be addressed both at school by teachers and at home by parents.

In summer 2008, as part of the Yahoo! Teachers Tour, I had the opportunity with my colleague Karon Weber to lead workshops across the country and teach educators how to use web and social computing  technologies in their classroom. Time and time again we heard from teachers that this was exactly the type of professional development that was sorely needed.

Moreover, they reported that they were lacking hands-on, practical training on how web and social computing can be used in the classroom to prepare educators for the influx of digital learners filling their classrooms.

You can review the entire findings of the RIT CyberSafety report, including results broken down by grade level, by clicking here (pdf).

Related Resources

• Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
• Secret Lives of Teens
• Study Debunks Sexual Predator Myths
• Yahoo! Safely
• Cyberbully Pledge for Teachers
• Parents Guide to Social Networks

Ruminations: 2008 YPulse Mashup Boston

I just spent a couple days at the YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup East which was held on the campus of Boston University. As usual, it was a fantastic event! Congrats to Anastasia and the Modern Media team for putting together a really informative, fun and relevant event.

I have a few longer posts about the event brewing in my noggin that I hope to push out here on Barking Robot sometime next week. But I had a couple quick thoughts  and highlights from the event that I'd like to share while it's still fresh in ye olde noggin.

On Boston: The more time I spend in this city, the deeper I fall in love with it. New England in the fall is something that everyone should experience. One morning I took a walk along the Charles River. The tree's were heavy with orange, yellow and red foliage, the ground was still wet from the overnight rain and rowers glided silently up and down the Charles. Stunning.

On Boston University: Graceful old buildings, a deep sense of history and lots of energy oozing from the student body. Just fantastic. One morning on my way to the YPulse event, I passed the campus chapel and a beautiful sculpture of doves flying up into the sky. At the base of the monument, students had placed bundles upon bundles of flowers. I was curious, but I was also running late, so I didn't have time to learn more.

The YPulse event was opened by Dean Kenneth Elmore, Dean of Students at Boston University. He started with a super energetic and warm welcome to Boston the city and Boston the University. Dean Elmore was full of passion, energy and enthusiasm. As part of his keynote, he spoke about President-Elect Obama, collaboration, community and how great things can be accomplished when we work together. It was very inspiring.

Dean Elmore also took a moment to explain more about the bundles of flowers being left at the base of the sculpture I had seen earlier in the day. The sculpture is a memorial to one of the greatest alumnus ever to study at Boston University--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The morning after Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America, students began to spontaneously leave flowers at the MLK monument to honor Dr. King and his contributions, sacrifice and role in making the Obama presidency a reality. It gave me chills.

We need more people like Dean Elmore in the world.

On Virgin Mobile: Ron Faris from Virgin Mobile USA gave a really fantastic presentation on the Virgin Mobile Festival and Pro-Social Initiatives. He started by having everyone text "karma" to 68405. He then told us that for every text, American Eagle would donate a hoodie to homeless teen. Way to go Virgin Mobile!

Ron's presentation was really, really interesting. Virgin Mobile, and the Virgin brand, have done some really innovative, creative and interesting work in the music, pro-social, marketing and branding space. He also talked about the mobile and texting habits of Gen Y and how Virgin is leveraging mobile to engage and market to youth. You can read more on the live blog transcript.

At the end of his presentation, he mentioned that Virgin Mobile next pro-social cause is to become an advocate on the issue of homeless teens. Virgin Mobile will be launching an awareness campaign in the next couple of weeks. Want to hear something shocking? According to research conducted by Virgin Mobile, there are approximately 1 million homeless teens in the United States of America.

Yes....1 million.

These teens are homeless for a variety of reasons ranging from being kicked out by their parents due to sexual orientation, abusive parents or being abandoned. This figure just floored me. I've spent a lot of time working with homeless adults and mothers with children, but I was woefully ignorant on the subject of homeless teens.

I spoke to the Virgin Mobile team about their homeless teen campaign and I will keep everyone here at Barking Robot updated on how you can help out. I feel very strongly that the education technology community should be actively and passionately involved in this issue. Homeless teens are an education issue.

On SurveyU & MTV: Dan Coates from SurveyU gave a really interesting and relevant presentation titled, What Every Brand Could Learn from the Obama Campaign's Marketing to College Students. He shared lots of really good information, far too much to share here, but you can read more over on the YPulse Live Blog. SurveyU also had a very, very interesting report titled, What Happens to Media as Millennial Take Control?, that I'll blog about in-depth next week.

Dan Hart, SVP MTV Digital, also gave a very insightful presentation, Engaging Viewers Through Multiple Screens, where he talked about MTV's strategy to meet the demands and viewing habits of their (mostly) Gen Y viewers.

One example of how MTV was meeting the always on media habits of Gen Y was Backchannel --a social and interactive platform that allows "fans gather to talk about The Hills as it happens! Type your thoughts and don't hold back! Other players award points with a click of their mouse on the best comments. When it's your turn to click, earn points by predicting the comments you think will be the most popular." Mr. Hart said that this multi-channel approach has been wildly successful and popular.

On YPulse: As usual, this was a fantastic event. The next YPulse Mashup will be held in San Francisco on June 1 & 2, 2009. If you work with youth in education, technology, social services or marketing, you should--no you need--to attend the 2009 YPulse Mashup.

And now, time for that nap...

Related Resources

• YPulse.com
• Day 1: YPulse Mashup East Transcript
• Day 2: Morning Sessions, YPulse Mashup East
• Day 2: Afternoon Sessions, Ypulse Mashup East
• Twitter: #ymme

Microsoft to Fund Video Game Research

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that they would invest $1.5 million dollars in educational video game research. The investment is part of a larger, NYU led initiative to "to find scientific evidence that supports the use of games as a learning tool."

The games that are developed will be prototyped in several NYC schools. And while the games will be developed for use on the Xbox console, Microsoft is taking an open approach and has extended an invitation to other video game console makers to participate in the study.

Microsoft also announced a partnership with PBS to distribute digital content to the 12 million subscribers to Xbox Live. Also worth noting is that game maker Knowledge Adventure is bringing its Math Blaster game to Wii's WiiWare channel and the Xbox 360's Live Arcade. They are also working on designs for an iPhone version of the game. Given the mobile nature of today's kids, this seems like a great idea.

At the University of Michigan, a research team is looking into the potential that digital games have for teaching students concepts and skills. As part of their study, they have designed a web-based board game for teaching undergraduate students about Information Literacy Concepts and Skills. They chose a game for the task for many research-based reasons, but also because:

"Games can be with the student when an information expert cannot be. Games can be in the dorm room, at the coffee house, and anywhere else that the Internet can be accessed. Games are a way to bring information expertise to the users where they are already working."

All of this comes on the heels of a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that found that, when it comes to video games, "playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day."

Even more importantly, and defying stereotypes, the Pew Study found that  "game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time."

Related Resources

• Japanese Schools Embrace Nintendo DS
• International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Stewart Butterfield on Games & Learning
• 2009 Game Developers Conference

mobileYouth: Research on Gen Y & Mobile Phones

mobileYouth has put together an excellent overview of the key fact and statistics of the youth and mobile market. Whether you're an educator or a marketer, this report provides some valuable insight into how and why Gen Y love their mobile devices.

Related Resources

• Gen Y: Mobile & Ready to Learn
• Mobile Phones & Teens
• Want to Reach Teens? Think Mobile
• Mobile Internet Generation

Pew Research on Teens, Video Games & Learning

A few days ago the Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results of a national survey of U.S. teens (survey sample: 1,102 youth ages 12-17) and video games.

The study, a project of the Pew Research Center and the MacArthur Foundation,  shatters many of the previously held beliefs that video game obsessed teens lead socially isolated lives devoid of interaction with other people.

In fact, the Pew study found that "virtually all American teens play computer, console, or cell phone games and that the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement."

Among the key findings:

Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day.

• 97% of American teens ages 12-17 play some kind of video game.    
• 99% of boys say they are gamers and 94% of girls report that they play games.

Game playing experiences are diverse, with the most popular games falling into the racing, puzzle, sports, action and adventure categories.

• A typical teen plays at least five different categories of games and 40% of them play eight or more different game types.    
• While some teens play violent video games, those who play violent games generally also play non-violent games.

Game playing is social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time.

• 76% of gaming teens play games with others at least some of the time.    
• 82% play games alone at least occasionally, though 71% of this group also plays games with others.   
• 65% of gaming teens play with others in the same room.

Game playing can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life.

• 76% of youth report helping others while gaming.    
• 44% report playing games where they learn about a problem in society.

Game playing sometimes involves exposure to mature content, with almost a third of teens playing games that are listed as appropriate only for people older than they are.

• 32% of youth 12-16 in this sample play games that are listed as appropriate only for people older than they are.    
• 32% of gaming teens report that at least one of their favorite games is rated Mature or Adults Only.    
• 12-14 year old's are equally as likely to play Mature and Adults Only rated games as their 15-17 year old counterparts (source).

Related Resources

• Video Games Teaching Diplomacy & Social Justice
• Gen Y Update: Video Games 101
• CBS News > Gen Tech & Wired Teen America

Safetyclicks: AOL Launches Social Safety Site for Parents

AOL's popular parenting site ParentDish has added a new blog called Safetyclicks that is focused on helping parents teach their kids how to use the web safely and wisely.

SafetyClicks will feature articles, videos, and topical blog posts designed to support and inform parents as they teach their kids to navigate the social web.

There are lots of great resources out there to empower parents and educators on social media safety & cyberbullying. The ADL, Yahoo!, Media Awareness Network, and MySpace (to name a few) all provide free web safety guides for parents and teachers on social safety, digital literacy & social media. It's great to see AOL adding their voice to the discussion.

Related Resources

• Yahoo! Safely
• SafetyClicks
• The Secret Online Lives of Teens
• Study Debunks Sexual Predator Myths

Hurray for Dizzywood: Virtual World with a Purpose

Dizzywood is a new virtual world for tweens created by the folks over at ROCKETpaperscissors.  Like other virtual communities geared for the tween set (I'm talking Doko, Webkinz, Neopets, Moshi Monsters) users can create an avatar, connect with friends, play games and activities that earn them unique super powers and other rewards.

The team behind Dizzywood have designed a virtual environment that "encourages kids to engage in challenging activities and cooperate with others, while developing important cognitive skills. I had my pre-tween nephew give Dizzywood a go this afternoon and he was instantly hooked. He loved the animation and said that the games were "really, really fun."

Beyond the element of online play, Dizzyworld is using their virtual world to teach kids about the environment and other life skills like honesty, digital citizenship and respect. Dizzyworld recently joined with the Arbor Day Foundation on a promotion that allowed Dizzyworld citizens to plant a virtual tree to reforest a damaged area within the online world of Dizzywood.

But here's the really cool part: when you plant a virtual tree in the Dizzyworld forest, a real tree is planted on Earth. And as the virtual tree grows, kids are able to see how the tree is able to clean pollution from the skies above Dizzyworld. This is a great way situate the lessons learned in a virtual world, into a real world context and provide kids with a sense of empowerment and a purposeful gaming experience.

Dizzywood's ability to successfully mash together virtual games, social responsibility and collaborative skills has caught the eye of the YMCA of San Francisco has announced plans to integrate Dizzyworld into their education technology curriculum.

Here's more from the Press Release on the partnership:

"The YMCA is using Dizzywood’s virtual environment to reinforce its program emphasis on activities that promote values such as caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

Children also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals."

Almost every week it seems like there is a new virtual world being launched with no real purpose other than shopping or fun-based gaming activities. It's refreshing to see a product like Dizzyworld that has a strong educational component cleverly woven into the practice of play.

Creating an educational and fun virtual learning environment that kids will actually use is no small feat. It looks like Rocketpaperscissors team is well on their way to finding that magical mix between learning, technology and community.

So give Dizzyworld a whirl, plant your virtual tree and have fun!

Related Links

• Dizzywood Parents Guide
• Facebook > Become a Fan of Dizzywood
• Dizzywood - Arbor Day Foundation Partnership
• Teens, Virtual Goods and Real Money
• Dizzywood's Arpajian Talks Motivating Kids Play

Nintendo DS & Learning: A "No Brainer"

In a pilot program aimed at increasing English language skills, teachers in Japan are integrating the wildly popular Nintendo DS into the curriculum. According to Motoko Okubo, a teacher at the Tokyo Jr. High, the use of the hand held device is primarily focused "on vocabulary, penmanship and audio comprehension."

The students are enthusiastic about being able to use the device in school and say that it has been a great motivator to work on developing their English language skills. Other schools in Japan are integrating the Nintendo DS in their math and Japanese curriculum.

Related Resources

• Reuters > Japanese Students Schooled With Nintendo DS
• Learning 3.0: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile
• Barking Robot > Mobile

Summer Camp Goes Virtual

Remember when summer meant running around the neighborhood, hanging out and getting your top lip stained by orange or grape soda? That may have been how we spent our summer, but Gen Y has its own ideas of how to spend summer vacation--and naturally, it involves technology.

Camp Fatal1ty was developed by pro-gamer Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel and is run by iD:Gaming Academy. The Fatal1ty camps are held at Emory University, Stanford University, UCLA and Villanova University and provides teens with "an immersive experience in the dynamic worlds of game development and professional gaming, our video game camp courses are geared for beginning to advanced teens aged 13-17."

Cybercamps Academy provides teens with the opportunity to learn more about web technologies, including Flash, graphic and video game design. The Cybercamp Academy sessions are held at over 50 universities including Duke, UCLA and Stanford.

They also have a virtual camp track where kids can learn how to do everything from game design to 3D modeling. According to research conducted by Cybercamps Academy, this type of camp "significantly increases higher-order thinking skills in kids."

This seems like a fun and active way for kids to get engaged in science and technology while providing them with the opportunity to develop both critical thinking and problem solving skills.

These tech camps provide an environment in which kids get to use technology in a context that allows them to learn how to work in a collaborative environment.It's too bad that these types of active learning experiences aren't more common during the regular school year.

Who knows, the next MySpace, Facebook or Flickr gazillionarie might be sitting in a VirtCamp right now.

Related Resources

• Technology Encourages Active Learning
• Seymour Papert
• Logo Programming Resources

Horseland: My Digital Friend Flicka

Horseland (hat tip: ypulse) is a new virtual world where, the oft horse obsessed tween girl, can "own, breed and show your very own horses." There are two tiers on the Horseland ranch, one for the under and over 13 set.

Players can design their own horse and then a la tamogotchi style, feed, groom and keep the horse healthy so it can compete in shows. If you neglect your horse it will be put out to the (digital) pasture.

The site include games, the ability to network with other friends around the world. When you compete in shows, you can win trophy's and ribbons of course, you can shop at the Tack House for virtual goods.

This virtual world is a companion to the CBS cartoon series titled, yep you guessed it, Horseland.

Related Resources

• Horseland
• Virtual Goods, Real Money
• Horseland on CBS

Tween Scream: Moshi Monsters

Moshi Monsters is a new virtual world for tweens created by the folks over at Mind Candy. Like other virtual communities geared for the tween set (i'm talking Doko, Webkinz, Neopets, MyPenguin) users can create an avatar (or in Moshi's case "adopt a monster"), connect with friends, post notes on each other's "pin boards", or on their own Monster blog.

They can also meet up with friends in "Monstro City." The Moshi World also sneaks some learning into the mix with daily puzzle games. Members of the Moshi community can play puzzle games to earn Rox, the in-game currency. They can then use Rox to purchase "weird and wonderful things" for their Monster from the Moshi Monster Store.

I had my tween niece, a big fan of MyPenguin, NeoPets & Webkins, give Moshi a whirl and it was a big hit. She loved the illustrations (they are quite brilliant and engaging), had a lot of fun creating her Moshi Monster and all in all gave it a "thumbs up." She even proclaimed it "way better than MyPenguin."

It looks like the UK-based Moshi Monsters team has done their research and pulled in the best of breed from the various social networking communities, snuck in a healthy dose of educational games & media, and created a pretty fantastic product.

Related Resources

• Moshi Monster Blog
• Moshi Parents Guide
• Yahoo! Safely

Gen Y Update: Video Games & Podcasting 101

• iPod in Education: This is a fantastic site run by David Baugh in the U.K. that provides teachers with all the information and support they need to integrate iPods into their curriculum. Tools like the iPod are the types of authentic learning activities that engage the Gen Y learner.

• Doll Web Sited Drive Girls to Stay Home and Play: This is an interesting piece in the NYT that delves into the burgeoning wave of interactive media aimed at younger kids. Girls, for the most part, have been left out of the video gaming boom. Some smart business are now looking to fill that void in the marketplace.

• Next-Gen Multiplayer Worlds: Speaking of video games, Wired Magazine reports that video game companies are trying to lure non-gamers into the virtual world of MMOs with a new breed of offerings.

• Podcasting in Ireland: This is a fantastic resource maintained by my pal and fellow blogger Bernie Goldbach over at the the Tipperary Institute in Ireland. This is a must listen for anyone trying to integrate social media into the classroom. Give Bernie's blog a read and find out what's new and exciting in the world of social media and education. Who knows? You might learn something new. I know I always do.

CBS News Report: Gen Y & Technology

GenTech & The Wiring of Teen America: "On June 13, CBS News will begin a three-day series of reports on the intersection of teenagers and technology. Through the use of multimedia, we will examine how teens are using technology and what that technology is doing to them.

Each day of the series will include several offerings around a central theme. On the first day, we will present an overview on teen habits and explore the high-tech gear they are using. We will show how MySpace and Friendster work, what games teens are playing and how the latest mobile phone features are attracting teen users.

We also will release the results of an exclusive CBSNews.com poll on how technology is being used in teens' daily lives."

Web Resources

• Learning Styles 2.0: Digital, Social, and Always-On
• Listening to Student Voices on Technology
• debaird.net + generation y

Video Games: Teaching Diplomacy & Social Justice

"Several contests for the creation of computer games focus on social causes and other notions beyond simple entertainment.

The Reinventing Public Diplomacy Through Games Competition, sponsored by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the U.S. State Department, will award $5,000 to the developers of the game that best uses the concept of "public diplomacy" to boost the reputation of the United States in countries around the world.

John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox and one of the judges of the contest, noted, "All types of explicit and collateral learning can take place through games." Meanwhile, the Darfur Digital Activist competition solicited games that highlight the genocide in Sudan.

Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU, said the competition, which is sponsored by the mtvU network, can teach players about an issue that is not generally covered by news media in the United States.

In that competition, the field has been narrowed to three finalist submissions--from Carnegie Mellon University, USC, and Digipen Institute of Technology--which are being tested by players to determine the eventual winner."

~via Wired News, 27 March 2006