Technology

So check out this fascinating little peice of image-based sociological research: Gender, Technology, and Toys R Us.

The author, Lisa Wade, checked out gifts for the geeky boys, vs gifts for the geeky girls using the Toy's R'Us suggestion centre. She points out that in terms of defining interests Toy's R' US gives very similar options for boys and girls ie; arsty, sporty, outdoorsy, techie etc.. But given that, the gift suggestions are very different. The breakdown is essentially this:

So that’s 13 building/engineering games (like Lego and KNEX), 3 ipod accessories, 4 portable DVD players, 2 MP3 players, and a few other things.

What do girls get? Seven ipod accessories, 5 portable DVD players, 4 MP3 players, 3 laptop computers, 3 cameras, and one building/engineering game. One.

For the first time today the kids are eager to engage in constructive activity; you’d think they were playing musical chairs from their mad scramble to take seats at their respective terminals. The children are more respectful to each other in the computer lab, amiably coaching each other on how to best search for information and recommending their favorite websites. Derek goes directly to an online gaming site that he likes, while Diquan uses Google Image Search to look for pictures of exotic snakes. Tony has a minimal grasp on the rules of chess and isn’t very good at the game but he likes playing it online anyway. Corey is typing the names of his favorite rappers into Google and clicking links somewhat arbitrarily, mostly looking at the pictures that appear as the pages load.

Wow, a quote from School of Hard Knocks. Described by the author as;
"In 2008 I spent some time working in a special classroom for kids with behavior problems in one of Philadelphia's most notorious public high schools, in one of the city's worst neighborhoods. The experience resulted in an seven part web series that tells in great detail what it's like to be inside room 315."

Read the whole series, it's great.

For those of us involved in youth media or technology, the last few weeks have been all about the results of a 3.3 million dollar research project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation called Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Culture. The project was carried out by investigators at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley. The purpose of the research? To discover and learn about what young people are doing when they hang out online, doing what researchers like to call "informal learning" and what the rest of us usually refer to as 'playing', 'hanging out' and if we have an assignment due 'wasting time'. During this study dozens of research projects looked at teenagers use of MySpace, Youtube, Neopets, gaming and more.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Luddites is the Globe and Mail's take on the research. For a more nuanced discussion, here is a video of Mizuko Ito, lead author of the study talking about the findings.

If a three year study can be boiled down to one sentence, then Ito has it: "There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age."

So I guess some people (all 2 of my readers) are wondering what's going on with the blog. Well, let me tell you, it may not be pretty to look at right now, but with some help from John I have switched from Drupal 4.7 to 5.12 to 6.6 and moved onto 3sCo' server-land, it was a little touch and go there for a while, considering I am allergic to the command line. Also given the radical nature of the surgery my theme (which I was growing to hate) may have bitten the dust.