by Michael Sheehan on May 28, 2010
in Cast of Dads, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Family, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Lose the Laptop, parenting, Safety, social media, social networking, twitter
I have always been a big proponent against the use of Social Media by children, especially when they are in elementary school. Interacting with Social Media is not something you want your kids doing at an early age, at least not until they can really understand its implications. However, as they grow older and more independent, loosening up the reigns a bit may not be that bad of a thing.
More and more children are getting cell phones at an earlier and earlier age. This is a good thing in many ways in that it’s easy for them to call if they have an emergency, to text you if they need to be picked up, or simply just free up the home phone (hope you have a good calling plan with lots of minutes!) Many elementary schools simply don’t allow cell phones on campus, which I think is good because it is a distraction and the negatives definitely outweigh the positives.
That being said, as your children move on up the ladder, they will need to have ways to communicate with you and their friends in timely and efficient ways. Having a cell phone can not only help a bit with their independence, it can also be a great virtual assistant when it comes to extending your leash on them just a bit further (and virtually).
My oldest daughter who is 11 years old, for example, does have a cell phone. She texts with her friends and uses it to communicate with us. She also feels “special” and a bit more “adult” by having one. (I’m still trying to figure out if this is a good thing or not.) However, as she moves to 6th grade, it will be important for her to fit in with the crowd and be able to “chat” within the channels of her social peers. While we restrict her phone to calls and SMS texts only, I know that this will probably change in the future as more of her friends become more “socially active” online. Remember though, many of the main social sites require you to be 13 years or older to participate.
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A few months or so ago, I saw an interesting phrase from Intel fly by on Twitter. It was the line “Upgrade Your Life” which I thought was a very creative melding of technology and real life. I was definitely intrigued. To my surprise and pleasure, a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend an all-day summit on June 2nd titled “Upgrade Your Life” on the Intel Hillsboro campus where I would be meeting with several notable technology bloggers and “digital influencers” as well as key Intel staff members in a series of round-table discussions revolving around one’s digital life.
The list of invited attendees is a stellar one and I feel humbled to be included in the list.
For more information about the event, please see the Intel’s InsiderScoop blog post.
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by Michael Sheehan on May 25, 2010
in audio, Cast of Dads, Consumer Electronics, Family, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Humor, iPad, Opinion, parenting, PodCast
Well, we are no longer teenagers. That is to say, this Cast of Dads episode has pushed us out of the terrible teens and we now are almost at drinking age. And, I think that drinking was on our minds when we recording Episode #20 of Cast of Dads. I personally had just woken up from a nap, Daddy Brad was at the pool with his kids, and the rest of the COD gang were raring to head off to dinner, drinks and family.
In this episode, we had a listener-submitted comment and question, specifically from a teacher who had some information to provide regarding a topic on a previous episode where we discussed the future of typing vs. touching (a screen) and how our children are learning differently. Schools were definitely on the top of our minds as well, especially since Jeff Sass was the first of us to have a college graduation (I have two minor graduations coming up: kindergarten and 5th grade). Things got a bit heated when we talked about whether schools should grade kids or simply provide materials for someone else to assess. We all agree that teachers should be paid a whole lot more. But we didn’t stop there…
The Topics
Here are all of the topics we discussed in Episode #20 (which is also available on iTunes – be sure to subscribe, rate the podcast and leave a comment):
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Ok, this is another one of “those lists.” And for many people, this list of my top iPad applications is very subjective in nature. What I feel to be a hot application, others may find to be a yawner. And I only have a couple of weeks of experience and a limited budget to form my opinion. But here goes nothing…
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Summary of my Recommendations
Below is a quick summary of the applications discussed further on in the article. These are not in any particular order either. Listed are the name, iTunes link, Website, Type of Application and Price. Do note that the prices may change. “Universal” means that the same app works on both the iPhone and iPad so you only have to buy it once for both devices.
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