Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

Marie Curie once said, “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. ”

If machinima and avatars are not in your parental lexicon, deep breath, relax…Shaping Youth is out to unfog the lens and peek into virtual teaching and learning on the teen grid of Second Life.

Virtual worlds, emerging social media networks, and just about any kids’ digital dialogue can be perceived as a ‘threat’ by concerned parents…so we’re big on deconstructing “media, shaping youth” to amp up comfort levels via knowledge.

Here’s an easy primer on virtual world terminology by online community specialist Izzy Neis, along with her ‘worthy tween picks’ as well as a heads-up from Izzy on communities NOT for “U-13″ (‘tater tots’ as she calls them) plus, a partial list of up and comer virtual worlds for ‘tweens/twids’ on the virtual horizon. (‘twids’ is new to me, clearly an Izzyism)

I’ll add on my ‘What the Heck is Machinima?’ article, my basic exploration of Teen Second Life Virtual Learning, then springboard you to one of my favorite gaming sites, Gamine Expedition, covering Global Kids’ video creations on children’s rights, filmed and presented via virtual world. (more…)

“Just because you watch “CSI” doesn’t mean your six-year-old (no matter how brilliant and mature) should, too. As a parent, you instinctively know stuff like that. Unfortunately, broadcasters don’t get it…So what can you do about it? Here’s where the Smart Television Alliance comes in. We’re a new coalition of leading nonprofit organizations committed to helping you use technology to find and watch quality television programming — on your family’s own schedule.”

Hmn. Parent-friendly. Non-preachy. Nonprofit coalition with TiVo as a corporate sponsor? Now, THIS is an example of a collaborative win-win venture that has the potential to work on a global scale of partnership building…

By ditching the funding fiefdoms and individual agendas for a collective good, the Smart Television Alliance is using their nonprofit social entrepreneur noggins to brainstorm media management, convenience, and the shifting of values back into the hands of families themselves with USER CHOICES for all. (Plus, there’s the ‘KidZone’ for under twelves too; all makes sense to me!)

Nonprofits and commercial interests are finally shifting to a hybrid model for sustainability…learning to align rather than malign…Whew. About time. (more…)

My prankster friends love to pull my chain. I wish Facebook’s beacon was one of their many gotchas. But it’s not.

After writing the behavioral profiling article on kids, reading the update on beacon from Facebook’s reply, seeing the backlash surge from 0-45,000 members in 8 days, and hearing Ideashower’s post was viewed 80,000 times, I should’ve seen this corker coming…

I received this FB “terms of use” video on privacy issues, several pings on the “What’s Your Beacon Story?” prompt, and should’ve been primed for this…

…A VERY dire warning about my Ca. Driver’s License being online via database registry housing the National Motor Vehicle License Bureau, along with a note, “whoa, Aim, you’ll want to opt-out of this one fast; here’s the URL, you’ll see yourself splashed right on the page…ugh, so much for homeland security”)

Psyche. I remember now that this was internet tripe from awhile back making the rounds again, but here’s the thing, it’s so dang relevant that it really DID suck me into the vortex of gullibility in a “Is it real or is it Memorex” moment… (more…)

When our Age of Conversation* co-authors rallied on Facebook to form a group for book sales to benefit Variety, the children’s charity, I joined in the fun, despite my initial hesitance of adding yet another social media profile into my daily media mix, especially one mining digital data for ads.

Since Facebook is a huge draw for teens, I decided I’d better fully immerse myself rather than report peripherally so I’d know the ins and outs well. (much like virtual worlds, you don’t really ‘get it’ until you’re ‘in it’) I still prefer Ning, but the giants (MySpace, FB, etc.) house the kids, so I need to speak the language.

Facebook’s become a blog peer hangout spot too, distilling relevant feeds into handy info-capsules tagged by topic, and mobilizing friends instantaneously with a click. (Excellent for poking kindred spirits in the backside to get off one’s duff & “Do Something” when called upon) Alas, the new privacy issues just ratcheted up my discomfort level big time.

See articles on the Facebook/MoveOn campaign (L.A. Times article here) and micro-targeted ads with copious quantities of behavioral profiling, plus CNet news discussing the third-party partnerships & privacy deals and it’s enough to make your head spin…If I want someone to know what movie I’m seeing, or what book I’m buying, I’ll tell them!

I don’t need an automatic social ad ‘beacon’ to enlighten folks via virtual feed…Icky. Sharing info is up to me, not you, Facebook…Keep your mitts off my personal life! (more…)

Last fall I wrote about Food Force, an internet game you’d WANT your kids to play. Now, the same ingenious folks are at it again, this time with Free Rice, a new, quiz-style vocabulary builder that rewards correct answers with ten grains per bowl to feed hungry children, distributed by the U.N.’s World Food Programme.

Beth Kanter’s blog listed it as one of her many excellent picks for the Thanksgiving holiday, and it’s a fabulous free find to engage kids on multiple levels of giving and learning simultaneously. FreeRice begins with a mishmash of words at different levels of difficulty, using a 3:1 ratio, for advancing/retreating from your learning level to keep you at the ‘outer fringe” of your vocabulary. Brilliantly challenging.

My daughter became a little TOO eager to help out, carping, “10 grains? That’s not even a mouthful, we’ve gotta earn a lot more than that if we’re gonna feed anyone!”

At first, her logic made perfect sense to me, so I agreed to ‘team with her’ figuring I could ‘score high,’ and help her make a hefty contribution since I’m one of those life-long learners that looks forward to a ‘word a day’ feed from dictionary.com.

We played until we earned 2000 grains, which was no small feat…and in retrospect, probably a parenting mistake. Why? Because we sorta ‘cheated’… (more…)

“I’m thankful for…”

C’mon now, don’t give me a ‘Miss America’ answer; what’s an event, a growth point, an ‘aha’ moment you’ve had firsthand? We ALL know experience matters!)

Intimacy-building can be dicey stuff, especially when kids are in ‘preadolescent privacy’ mode…Nevertheless, table time can be the equivalent of the carpool ‘rearview mirror’ when you bat around banter with ease over dessert or ‘parlor games.’

My fave conversation starters right now? Books like “If” (Questions for the Game of Life) and “If2″ and the various booklovers forums, sequels, and Kids Book of Questions, as well as the original “Table Topics” cubes to pull a card from the set and turn the table into an ‘open mike’ forum.

Or…break out the index cards and create a DIY collection on the topic of your choice!

Growing up, my ‘family of origin’ was a mashup of disparate personalities, sometimes hilariously edgy entertainment. (I remember one of my brother’s high school friends used to just ‘come hang out’ at the dinner table and listen to us like a radio show…a BBC script of barbs and jabs to poke and prod for responses and toss a nugget on the table for debate.)

There’s irony that I’m now in a bit of a force-field of much more reticent playmates, so I break out the marketing ‘props’ to try to engage, enlighten, and bridge into authenticity, to ‘boldly go where no one has gone before.’ (more…)

Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as thousands of volunteers and intricate plans peel off into preparation groups with exacting precision?

Here’s how those giant balloons are made and how the floats are built, plus a sneak peek video of school kids visiting the prep studio in Hoboken, N.J., to preview some of the new balloons for 2007 (hey, you knew Shrek would get his green mug in there, and the pink princess Abby Cadabby was inevitable too, despite all the media controversy).

Shaping Youth Correspondent Katherine Chinn is bringing us her own ‘reality show’ live from New York, by journaling her personal experiences as a twelve-year-old representing Kirkpatrick’s in the opening dance number of Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade.

With a rich history floating around since the 1920s, the tradition is a high profile honor for dance troupes and bands auditioning for these performance opportunities. Katherine joins her team of 28 other Californians bringing excitement and nervous energy to midtown Manhattan where she’s eager to ‘hit the mark,’ and learn the dance routine with only one week of rehearsals!

Imagine being a tween in a massive dance number of color-coded costumes, determined not to get scrambled up on national TV…(Whew. Better ‘she than me.’ I can barely get my workout class steps down.) (more…)