Remember Silly Putty?  It was born as the high tech replacement for rubber during the shortage in WW II. What about Winky Dink? The first interactive TV program that asked kids to lay a sheet of acetate over their TV screens and draw Winky out of a jam. Yesterday’s toys are tomorrow’s innovation.  Better graphics, better interaction, but is the [...]

Google is known for having dozens of new tools in various states of development at any given moment. These typically extend the power of Google and they are  available to the public in various states of “not ready for prime time”.  There’s no cost to being a part of this human guinea pig beta other than your [...]

Soon, you might be sitting down in front of a 3D movie that flashes a warning about the known risks involved in watching. For now, what we don’t know about watching movies and TV shows in 3D could fill a 2D book! This week, I spent some fun time with Panasonic’s new line of 3D [...]

When I was kid, we ate Wonder Bread because it “built strong bodies in 12 ways.” Mom didn’t count; she just took it on faith. Ditto for choosing Crest, because more dentists recommended it, and Keds for making us run faster, jump higher. So why did Disney decide to offer a full refund to families [...]

I remember sitting in Dr. Salas’ Spanish class. The sum of the year? I can sing A Las Son Las Mananitas and have a great conversation with anyone who has a cold. (Ojala que se mejore pronto.) I’ve always felt a little sheepish about comparing a human teacher to a computer, but when it comes [...]

Whoever designed the three-month summer vacation must have received kickbacks from the electronics industry. Even the most well intentioned moms and dads need a break from lemonade stands, swim parties, and cookouts. Here are a handful of great ideas followed by a handful of fair warnings.

It’s getting harder for kids to discern the difference between cheating and using technology. I used to write about the “cut and paste your way to an A” phenomena. Kids got so used to cutting and pasting text from the web into their documents that they failed to see the fine line between research and [...]

If organic food is better for the body, then what’s organic media? Chopped liver? That’s the question that Amy Tucker, CEO of Matter Group and founder of a new kid’s multimedia property called Xeko, posed at a recent meeting of Women in Children’s Media where the subject was “green” media. Xeko challenges kids to “Be [...]

In cyberspace, whether you’ve been a saint, sinner, or some combination of the two, your reputation sticks. Forever. Long after the real world has moved past its obsession with your high school foibles, tawdry affairs, or crooked deals, the Internet elephant never forgets. I’ve lived it. A few years back I made a dumb business [...]

There’s something really creepy about paying your kids to learn…or is there? The New York Times recently ran an interesting piece on whether or not kids learn better when they’re given material incentives. Historically, educators have frowned on rewards. They want very much to believe that education, the pursuit of knowledge, is reward enough.