For many parents, getting your kids away from the computer and their cell phones are a major task. We all know our kids need a cyber-space timeout now and again to actually be able to talk face to face. Yet, let’s look again at some possibilities for a cyber journey together.I recently came across a website called Earth Cam for Kids, http://earthcamforkids.com/. You can virtually travel with your kids with sports, parks, cities, zoos. You name it! Earth Cam is designed for children and kid friendly, fun, and educational. Take your kids to see tigers, search for ghosts, and journey to New York to visit the Statue of Liberty. This is a great way to engage your kids in fun, educational interaction. There is one link, Exploration, that can virtually take you to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Now isn’t that just awesome! Just a hint here to make sure your computer has the programs to view the videos.
You can look inside the clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Watch the next Mars rover being built. The camera is located in a viewing gallery above the clean room floor. These are just a few examples. So, give it a try.
Your children can also participate in webcam tutoring for that particular subject they may be having difficulty with. You can share in the interaction as well. Check out your child’s school for referrals. You can also do a net search yourself and find one like Teach Your Children Well, http://www.teachyourchildrenwell.ca/WebCam/ or Web Ring, Home Tutoring, http://www.webring.org/hub/1on1hometutoring.
The webcam can be a fun tool for interacting with each other, family, and friends. And the conversation is more personal and live. It is also important to talk with your children about webcam etiquette. Knowing what to do and what not to do in front of a camera, and what to do if you experience something uncomfortable are essential elements for any webcam user, young child or adult. According Kids and Media (http://www.kidsandmedia.co.uk/) parents need to know these tips to protect their children:
- Think through where you position the webcam. It can be wise to put it in open areas instead of putting it in the children´s rooms. This way it´s easier to keep an eye on the children´s Internet use.
- With teenagers in the house it can be wise to talk about responsible webcam use. Others can abuse personal pictures or video clips made with a webcam. Remember that pictures on the net can have a longer life than young people´s relationships.
- Talk with your child about how other people can make recordings of performances in front of the camera. Therefore, one shouldn´t do anything in front of a webcam that one doesn´t want others to see afterwards.
- Talk to your child about what to do if strangers offer them gifts in exchange for photos, or wish to meet the child.
- An adult should accompany the child if he or she wants to meet anybody in person that they´ve met online.
- Invite your child to talk with you if he or she should experience anything uncomfortable and scary online.
- It can be a good idea to disconnect the camera when it´s not in use. If the child has downloaded and distributed music or films illegally from the net, they´ve also been involved in filesharing. With filesharing there´s a technical chance that others can access the computer and control it, and amongst other things activate the webcam. This way the viewer might see private situations without the person in front of the camera knowing about it. The best thing of course, would be to avoid illegal filesharing altogether, so that all firewalls can be activated. The computer will then be secure from intrusion.
0 comments:
Post a Comment