“Can Kids Stay Healthy in Front of a Computer? DoCrew.com says Yes” plus 3 more

Can Kids Stay Healthy in Front of a Computer? DoCrew.com says Yes
Can Kids Stay Healthy in Front of a Computer? DoCrew.com says Yes
Computer games can improve maths skills
FTC Launches Site To Teach Kids About Advertising

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Can Kids Stay Healthy in Front of a Computer? DoCrew.com says Yes

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 12:19 AM PDT

DoCrew.com is a new website designed for kids ages 3-8 that has kids playing games in a unique way: using their entire bodies as controllers.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) April 29, 2010 -- The games are a blend of traditional cartoons and Augmented Reality and they call on the viewers to jump up and down, wave their hands, and play with the characters. The catch? Unlike traditional television programming, the show can't go on unless children actively participate. All these motions add up to calories, and the just-launched site already has kids jumping and running all over the world.

The epidemic of childhood obesity is a real one, and the numbers are staggering. The rate of childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years to the point where almost 20% of children aged 6 to 11 years are considered obese by the Centers for Disease Control. The creators of the Do Crew wanted to make a new type of game that focused on getting kids off the couch as they played with their favorite characters. Do Crew games require physical exertion, like the Wii, but don't require expensive consoles and the purchase of games. As the Do Crew continues to grow, they'll be able to bring the excitement and activity of the Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution into every living space with a computer.

Do Crew focuses on the fun, and makes exercise fun for kids. "It's amazing to watch a four-year old break into a sweat in front of a computer, jumping up and down and laughing," says Chas Mastin, CTO of Whistlebox. You certainly won't find that type of reaction to most television programs.

The Do Crew makes all this magic happen with ordinary computers and webcams. The technique of mixing one's image with games and videos is called Augmented Reality (AR), and DoCrew.com uses AR to place kids into episodes of a cartoon about colorful Beavers and their problems. The child becomes part of the show: swimming underwater, jumping for exploding fireworks, and dancing with the animated characters. Parents are loving it, saying "If you don't enjoy it, you've lost track of your inner child."

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Can Kids Stay Healthy in Front of a Computer? DoCrew.com says Yes

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 12:01 AM PDT

Barbara buzzed up: Miss. tornado couple receives wedding dress, trip (AP)

29 seconds ago 2010-04-29T07:11:43-07:00

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Computer games can improve maths skills

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 03:43 AM PDT

April 29, 2010

93% say games website made maths more enjoyable

Carrie-Ann Skinner

Computer games can improve school children's maths skills, says Mangahigh.com.

The gaming website, which offers games that use maths skills outlined in the national curriculum, conducted a 12 week trial of children from 12 Scottish schools, in conjunction with Learning and Teaching Scotland.

Mangahigh revealed that on average scores in maths tests improved by 13 percnet after using the gaming website, while 93 percent of students admitted they would enjoy maths more if computer games were used to teach it.

Algebra Meltdown is one of the games on Mangahigh.com that requires maths skills

Furthermore, more than two thirds (68 percent) of the children in the trial said they wanted to improve their maths skills in a bid to do better in the games on Mangahigh.

Meanwhile, over half of teachers said they thought the students were more likely to make progress with maths when using the games compared to traditional teaching methods.

"Most students were actively engaged when using Mangahigh and able to overcome some problems that I don't think they would have persevered with so much if it were a paper based exercise they were doing" said one teacher at a school involved in the trial.

Derek Robertson, from Learning and Teaching Scotland, said: "Games-based programmes have proved to be extremely useful educational tools that engage and stimulate both teachers and learners."

"It is essential that we use all the resources available to us to ensure that our pupils develop successfully in a highly computer-literate society."

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FTC Launches Site To Teach Kids About Advertising

Posted: 28 Apr 2010 09:42 AM PDT

The Federal Trade Commission has launched a new advertising literacy campaign aimed at helping older children understand the ads they say and become smarter consumers.

"Today's kids see advertising everywhere - in movies and TV shows, outdoors, on phones, in games," said David C. Vladeck, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

"That's why it's important to teach them how to apply critical thinking skills to the ads they see. The resources at Admongo.gov help kids figure out who's responsible for ads, what ads are saying, and what ads want their target audiences to do."

The campaign is targeted to "tweens" ages 8 to 12, and includes a free game-based website at Admongo.gov. The curriculum is tied to national standards of learning in language arts and social studies that teachers can use to educate students, a library of fictional ads that can be used as teaching tools, and activities parents can do with their children.

The online game allows kids to create an avatar and features four levels of play to help them think critically about advertising. In "The Atrium," they identify the ads that are around them. In the "Assemblimator," they learn how to take apart an ad, evaluate its claims, and figure out how ads try to persuade people. In the "Planadtarium," they find out how ads are targeted, and in "The Adgitator," they build and target their own ads. Throughout the game, players learn to ask the three critical questions about ads, no matter where they see them: Who is responsible for the ad? What is it actually saying? What does it want me to do?

"To me, the great thing about Admongo is that its gaming format is designed to reach out to children right at the age where they can actually distinguish between content and advertising," said C. Lee Peeler, President and CEO of the National Advertising Review Council.

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Kids Games

Thursday, April 29, 2010