by Parent Juice
James*, 15, sits in front of his computer, simultaneously IMing his friends, checking his fantasy basketball stats, and looking up the price of a pair of sneakers. He is also listening to his ipod and occasionally flipping through the pages of a sports magazine. If you ask him what he is doing, he will say “Nothing.
Increasingly, many teens spend a majority of their time this way, and if pressed, they will confess that this kind of multi-media multi-tasking is what they are doing for fun in their spare time.
“To me, it looks like she’s just sitting around,” admits Callie, the mother of April, a teenage daughter. “But the more I ask around, the more I see that this is what teens are doing -- this is how they stay in touch, listen to music, and communicate with their friends. And they like to do it all at once.”
It will come as no great shock to the parents of teenagers that the time we spent on the phone or listening to records has been transferred to a set of electronic devices — computers and MP3 players and the like are really updated ways of participating in the kinds of hobbies and activities that teens have always enjoyed, from shopping to finding the latest music to sports. We may not comprehend how this translates, exactly, into fun, but to teens it’s a necessity, it’s familiar, and it keeps them in the loop. It also seems to be the case whether they live in Chicago or Cheyenne—the desire to be wired transcends boundaries.
But when -- and if -- your kids actually do leave the house, what are they doing for fun then?
Surprisingly, some of the same things we did.
The teenage years are often about getting together in groups, exploring both the unknown (going out without mom, dad, or grandma; figuring how much change to get back from the popcorn) and the known (seeing a movie, eating a hamburger.) It means, essentially, going to the movies or places to eat and hang out, thus fulfilling the basic physical and psychological teenage needs of food and knowing what’s hip.
For suburban kids that may mean hanging out at the local mall or restaurant; urban kids tend to congregate at someone’s house, or someplace that's inexpensive that welcomes teens—increasingly, places like a coffee chain, where the output of cash can be fairly low, but the input of information from friends fairly high. It provides an arena for teens to test their independence while in the safe confines of a large mass of people.
Other popular options for fun? Heading the list of an extremely unscientific poll (I asked my son’s friends) was “hanging out with my friends.” The gathering place was often secondary, but included playing sports (we hate to stereotype, but more for boys) and bowling alleys -- places where kids can be loud, and make fun of their prowess or else show off, while keeping busy and thus avoiding awkward silences and pauses. Further down on the list were venues like amusement parks and museums — places that require more time, and often, more cash.
It may also seem, at least to their parents, that today’s teens spend an enormous amount of time shopping, or at least, checking out merchandise. But hey—if today it’s the AT&T store or Urban Outfitters or Sephora, it's still not that much different from what we did-- looking for merchandise to tell the world who we were, tentatively trying out the adult world while keeping one foot planted firmly home with mom and dad.
And speaking of mom and dad, lest you think that all your teen thinks about is her friends, her latest outfit, or how to con more money out of your wallet, take heart from this statement from Lizzie, 15.
“I like being with my friends and going out to lunch and to flea markets,” she says thoughtfully. ”But I also (be still, my beating parental heart) just like to hang out with my parents.”
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Computer Games Make Fun In School
by Rainco
Computer games are just one way technology can transform potentially dry subjects into relevant and engaging experiencesTo help plan a lesson on the language of probability, year 5 teacher Tom Barrett decided to tweet for pavilion HP dv2000 battery. “What is the probability of it snowing where you are tomorrow?” he asked his 4,700 Twitter followers.
The answers were vast and different, he remembers. “I had someone in Australia using local slang, “Buckley’s, mate!”, to say “Not a chance!”, to fractions and percentages of Fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery. We did a timeline and put some of the responses on it, from “no chance” to “certain”, while we explored probability, plus globalisation and language use.”
Twitter is just one way in which Barrett, ICT subject coordinator and assistant head at Priestsic primary school in north Nottinghamshire, mines technology for his maths teachinglike VGP-BPS5 , vgp bps5a A prolific blogger, he also encourages his pupils to use games consoles and has developed a number of lessons based on the Nintendo Wii.
Barrett claims gaming is the simplest way to keep students’ attention: “This is about switching learners on to maths,” he says. “We often separate the two worlds the kids live in: home and school for Fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery. Using gaming consoles and game space learning is still very niche in the UK, but it shouldn’t be.”
He says that he spotted how engaged pupils were by games consoles when many brought in their Nintendo DS one end of term. “We now have 30 of them in class for SONY VGP-BPS5 , SONY vgp bps5a ” he says. “I use them with Dr Kageyama’s Maths Training first thing in the morning, and in maths lessons.”
Meanwhile, he uses Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo Wii to teach a lesson visualising and matching 3D shapes to 2D, while Wii Golf proves an effective way of discussing subtraction; the students take the distance left to the hole of Fujitsu lifebook t4210 battery, then one student takes a shot, and the class works out how much further is left to clear.
He says he can see at least a week of lessons in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games for Wii, based on using decimals in swimming and running races, and angles and distances in javelin throwing for pavilion dv2000 battery .Dan Sutch, senior researcher at Futurelab, an independent organisation that promotes the use of technology to make teaching more relevant and engaging, says good teachers are increasingly seeing the potential of gaming.
“This doesn’t take away from written teaching methods,” he says. “But it engages the class in the actual task compared with the written method, which can be pretty stale and boring. It also helps them do the task for longer Fujitsu lifebook t4210 battery, and remember what they’ve learned.”
One game adapted by teachers with Consolarium, the Scottish Centre for Games and Learning for ThinkPad T60 Battery, part of Learning and Teaching Scotland, is Guitar Hero, a video game in which players use a guitar-shaped controller to score points by matching notes on the screen.
Teachers use the game to get the class to pretend they are rock stars about to go on a world tour for ThinkPad T60 Battery. They have to work out which countries to go to, which brings in geography, then look at the miles they need to travel and money needed to get there, which brings in plenty of maths.
“Great, imaginative teachers can take these games that are not developed for the classroom and make them work as a teaching resource,” says Sutch. “This has been happening for years of vgp bpl8, whether it’s a teacher picking up a leaf on the way to school in the morning to use in a lesson, or looking online to find new resources.”
Barrett blogs regularly about his experiences of using technology in the classroom, using it to get his thoughts in order, get feedback from other educators and people in technology, and tap into ideas from experts for vgp bpl8 . “Using networks, you can build great value into any maths lesson,” he says.
Computer games are just one way technology can transform potentially dry subjects into relevant and engaging experiencesTo help plan a lesson on the language of probability, year 5 teacher Tom Barrett decided to tweet for pavilion HP dv2000 battery. “What is the probability of it snowing where you are tomorrow?” he asked his 4,700 Twitter followers.
The answers were vast and different, he remembers. “I had someone in Australia using local slang, “Buckley’s, mate!”, to say “Not a chance!”, to fractions and percentages of Fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery. We did a timeline and put some of the responses on it, from “no chance” to “certain”, while we explored probability, plus globalisation and language use.”
Twitter is just one way in which Barrett, ICT subject coordinator and assistant head at Priestsic primary school in north Nottinghamshire, mines technology for his maths teachinglike VGP-BPS5 , vgp bps5a A prolific blogger, he also encourages his pupils to use games consoles and has developed a number of lessons based on the Nintendo Wii.
Barrett claims gaming is the simplest way to keep students’ attention: “This is about switching learners on to maths,” he says. “We often separate the two worlds the kids live in: home and school for Fujitsu lifebook t4220 battery. Using gaming consoles and game space learning is still very niche in the UK, but it shouldn’t be.”
He says that he spotted how engaged pupils were by games consoles when many brought in their Nintendo DS one end of term. “We now have 30 of them in class for SONY VGP-BPS5 , SONY vgp bps5a ” he says. “I use them with Dr Kageyama’s Maths Training first thing in the morning, and in maths lessons.”
Meanwhile, he uses Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo Wii to teach a lesson visualising and matching 3D shapes to 2D, while Wii Golf proves an effective way of discussing subtraction; the students take the distance left to the hole of Fujitsu lifebook t4210 battery, then one student takes a shot, and the class works out how much further is left to clear.
He says he can see at least a week of lessons in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games for Wii, based on using decimals in swimming and running races, and angles and distances in javelin throwing for pavilion dv2000 battery .Dan Sutch, senior researcher at Futurelab, an independent organisation that promotes the use of technology to make teaching more relevant and engaging, says good teachers are increasingly seeing the potential of gaming.
“This doesn’t take away from written teaching methods,” he says. “But it engages the class in the actual task compared with the written method, which can be pretty stale and boring. It also helps them do the task for longer Fujitsu lifebook t4210 battery, and remember what they’ve learned.”
One game adapted by teachers with Consolarium, the Scottish Centre for Games and Learning for ThinkPad T60 Battery, part of Learning and Teaching Scotland, is Guitar Hero, a video game in which players use a guitar-shaped controller to score points by matching notes on the screen.
Teachers use the game to get the class to pretend they are rock stars about to go on a world tour for ThinkPad T60 Battery. They have to work out which countries to go to, which brings in geography, then look at the miles they need to travel and money needed to get there, which brings in plenty of maths.
“Great, imaginative teachers can take these games that are not developed for the classroom and make them work as a teaching resource,” says Sutch. “This has been happening for years of vgp bpl8, whether it’s a teacher picking up a leaf on the way to school in the morning to use in a lesson, or looking online to find new resources.”
Barrett blogs regularly about his experiences of using technology in the classroom, using it to get his thoughts in order, get feedback from other educators and people in technology, and tap into ideas from experts for vgp bpl8 . “Using networks, you can build great value into any maths lesson,” he says.
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