August 2007
It's All About Networking ... And Maybe Learning
Almost all kids on the internet use social-networking tools – chatting, blogging, instant messaging – to stay in touch with their friends and to make new ones. Researchers behind a new study think educators may be able to tap into the world of social networking to promote… learning.
The study, conducted by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and Grunwald Associates, focused on kids between the ages of 9 and 17 with internet access. One part of what the researchers learned is probably not a surprise: 96% of the kids surveyed had used at least some social-networking technologies. What may be a surprise, though, is that more than half of those kids spent much of their social-networking time talking about education-related topics ranging from that night’s homework to long-term planning for college.
Despite the near universal use of social-networking tools among teens, the study found that more than 80% of all school districts prohibit students from engaging in online chatting and instant messaging while at school. And more than 60% forbid participation in blogging. Rather than banning students from using these technologies, the researchers believe that educators should begin to look for ways to use these tools – safely and wisely – in their school curricula. "In the future," said Grunwald Associates' Peter Grunwald, "schools that incorporate social networking tools in education will help engage kids and move them toward the center of the learning process."
To read the entire NSBA study, visit: http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf.
In a related note, while we usually think of young people as the primary users of social-networking tools, older folks now have a virtual place where they can hang out too. It's called Kaneva and it was recently described in BusinessWeek as "Second Life meets MySpace, with a dash of Match.com thrown in." The site is specifically targeted to grown-ups and is becoming increasingly popular, with about 150,000 current users. You can learn more about Kaneva by reading the BusinessWeek article.
Math and Science Teachers Get More Video
The ever-expanding world of online video has gotten a little more interesting for math and science teachers, thanks to a very cool site called the Futures Channel.
The Futures Channel features a wide range of professionally-produced videos covering all kinds of math and science topics, with an emphasis on how the academic content relates to real life and real careers. Some of the math subjects featured in Futures Channel videos include integers, algebra, fractions, geometry, measurement and statistics. And the site includes free activities and lesson plans that teachers can download to complement the video content.
The building popularity of the site has caused the media to take notice of the Futures Channel. It was recently written about at the USA Today website: "This is high-quality stuff… suitable for classroom use (something I doubt you'll hear me suggest re: YouTube anytime soon) and designed to explain to kids why math and the sciences are not just applicable to the real world but [also] extremely cool pursuits."
Check out the Futures Channel.
And Still Games Rule the Roost
So with all of this reporting on social networking and educational-video resources, have the good folks here at Got Game forgotten about video games? Not hardly. And the rest of the world hasn't either. In fact, a new study by Parks Associates indicates that gaming is at the top of the heap of all online activities among adults.
The study found that 34% of all adult internet users play games on at least a weekly basis. By comparison, about 29% visit video sites like YouTube and 19% use social-networking sites like MySpace. And the researchers found that online gaming continues to grow by leaps and bounds, with a 79% growth rate during the past year.
While gaming is number one for now, though, the researchers also determined that video-streaming sites are experiencing an even faster rate of growth, increasing by 123% in the last year. And this caused the Parks Associates team to suggest that those sites "could pose a significant challenge to the gaming industry in capturing the online leisure time of internet users." Analyst James Kuai said the gaming industry "cannot rest on its laurels" and "needs to continue to grow its fan base."
Injured Soldiers Rehab with the Wii
In a happy spin on a sad story, some military occupational therapists have begun to use Nintendo's Wii video game system as part of their treatment for soldiers wounded in America's current wars. Occupational therapists like Staff Sgt. Bryan Vallerie have found that using the Wii's motion-sensing controller provides a welcome relief for rehabbing soldiers grown weary of squeezing putty balls. "It's a healthy, fun alternative to doing these things," he says. Read more about it at the Stars and Stripes website.
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