Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Evo - Featured TechKiddie

Good morning guys! Meet our featured Tech Kiddie of the week - Evo!



Evo is a 3 year and 2 months boy living in Manila, Philippines with his parents - Darlene and Chuck. 



What is your techkiddie tinkering with right now? 

 A new gadget - an Android phone. 

 Why does he like or love playing with the new gadget? 

 "He loves to play the games he himself chose - from airplanes, helicopters, motorbikes, racing, thomas and friends, puzzles. He was using the phone once when I noticed he's just staring at it. When I asked him what's wrong, he said none. He's just downloading something. I hurriedly checked the phone and he really was downloading. I asked him how he did it, and there - he turned on the wifi and navigated through the android market and selected an app of he likes - Bike Mania. After that, we told him not to do it anymore. So far he complies." 


Your Proud Parent Moment! 

 "Evo played games for pre-school at Fisher Price website. I told him to select games for toddlers. The next thing I knew, he's playing a memory game already and his best time was 12 seconds. We didn't teach him how to play the game. He just figured it out himself. He also knows which engine is hiding under the suds when playing Thomas and Friends Engine Wash even without revealing it." 


What rules do you have at home on using gadgets? 

"No specific rules. We are using it as a reward. But often, he uses it after school and during weekends. No worries because some of the games and apps are educational." 



Do you want to feature your techie kid? Do you have a proud parent moment too? 

Monday, February 13, 2012

HOW TO: Prevent Kids from Buying Paid Apps on Android

One of our techkiddie mommy mentioned that his kid has been buying paid apps on their Android phone without her knowledge. Well, here's a great guide on how to prevent kids from buying paid apps on Android from the Mobile Indian site.

Step 1
Start up your device and locate the Android Market application icon. The icon is placed within the application menu, from where you can access it. In most devices the Marketplace icon is placed right on the home screen itself. Open that or press the market icon on your device to enter the application.





Step 2
While accessing the application store, make sure you are connected to the internet through data connection (GPRS) or though WiFi. Let the application open up.



Saturday, February 11, 2012

HOW TO: Find Educational Videos for Your Techie Kid on YouTube



It’s easy for YouTube's subtle changes to go under your radar if you do not pay enough attention. 
One of the greatest changes they have made is making a dedicated section for educational videos. 


Regardless of age or education level, it’s considerably easier to find content for kiddies of all ages. This ranges from preschool material to full college courses.


Step by Step


From the YouTube homepage, click Browse (next to the search bar).


Choose Education, 4th from the grey row.


From here, you can click on All Categories and choose between K12, Primary and Secondary Education, Lifelong Learning.



Or, you can browse down to see these displayed as separate categories, as well as others such as University, Math, Science, etc.



Other Youtube Tips

Your options in saving those YouTube videos for easy retrieval are endless. The easiest way is to bookmark these videos into their own folder. However, if you have a YouTube account, you can favorite these videos, place them in the Watch Later queue, or best of all, save them into their own playlist. Using your YouTube account will give you easy access to these videos even if you are not at your computer. Making a YouTube playlist will give you the freedom to organize what order they will play automatically. 

 If you already have a teaching plan, you can of course simply copy the URLs into a document to open again and play when ready. Again, for those more tech knowledgeable, you can prepare a lesson slideshow via Slideshare and embed the appropriate YouTube video into it. Finally, although it’s not officially enabled by YouTube in all countries, you can download these videos. Learning how to download YouTube videos is beyond the scope of this article. 

YouTube and Online Learning

These adaptations to YouTube have farreaching effects to techie kids and homeschoolers. You have access to an entire school curriculum online. Not only does it save you the trouble of making study materials from scratch, it’s easy to access for anyone who would need to audit or review the study materials you used to educate your child. And of course, s/he would be able to watch those videos again and again anytime they want. Memorizing will become a matter of repetition, and you can focus on understanding key concepts. 

Of course, this does not make YouTube your child’s school teacher, anymore than it would be your child’s babysitter. Review the videos you plan to use and set a schedule for them to watch them. You have the prerogative to make your child’s lessons around a certain set of YouTube videos, or have them augment your own teaching plan. 

Do not hesitate to let your child see the University videos. S/he may just be looking around for future careers, or s/he might be ambitious enough to try studying. Just bear in mind the only remaining barrier to entry, which would be his/her learning ability. 

What do you think?

How would you plan to use these videos to educate your child? Would you recommend this to others? Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Gavz - Featured TechKiddie

Mae is college classmate in MSU-IIT. We've been working on several projects together as a team. At one time, we had this multimedia project where we presented something about Kalimulan. Those were the days when we had to do work overnight to be able to present something at school!

Being IT graduates that we are, I was not surprised to know that her son Gavz is a techkiddie. (: We met Gavz here in Cebu when he was still about 2 years old. Let's get to know Gavz more!

Meet Gavz, our featured techkiddie.



Gavz is a 3 year old boy living in Iligan with his Mommy Mae and grandparents.



What is your techkiddie tinkering with right now?


Thomas Train toy

 


Why does he like or love playing with the Thomas train toy?


"He first noticed Thomas train while browsing alphabet videos on Youtube. Since then, he has been requesting me to buy him one. I am not sure why he likes the train. I just noticed he just want to watch Thomas running around the rails and making the cho choo sound."




Your Proud Parent Moment!

"I was so proud of my techkiddie when I was working on my laptop and I left him playing his iPad 2. And the next minute, I heard the voice of my father. When I look over what he was doing, he was already talking his granddad using Skype app. I was really amazed how user-friendly iPad 2 is. He uses the iPad not only for Skyping and playing games, but also for learning his ABCs and counting 123s. "


What rules do you have at home on using gadgets?

He is only allowed to use iPad every other day. If he is looking for it, I tried to make some diversion like playing with him and his car toys and going to the mall.

Do you want to feature your techie kid? Do you have a proud parent moment too? 






Wednesday, February 1, 2012

10 Signs That Your Kid is a Techie (Not a Checklist!)




source: stockvault
Warning: Please do not treat this as a checklist to judge your kid by. These are factors that may make your child more inclined towards tech if they are present in his/her life. Here are signs that your kid is a techie.
1. S/he shows signs of technology addiction.
This is not necessarily a positive sign, of course, but it's a fairly reliable indicator. If your child spends a lot of time watching TV, playing video games, using the computer, or all of the above, it means s/he has become facile with technology enough to be addicted to it. Beyond that, however, what other signs are there? The following are also signs that your child may have a higher intelligence.
2. S/he is a fast learner.
If you can leave your child by himself or herself, and she can figure out how to solve problems or handle situations on their own, then s/he can figure out how to use gadgets on their own. Furthermore, it makes it more likely that they would like playing with and using gadgets themselves.


3. S/he has interests in different fields, such as music, arts, reading and writing, cooking, etc.
This might puzzle some viewers. How does an interest in music/drawing/writing etc peg your child to be a techie? Well, the idea is that some children are genetically wired with the temperament that makes it easier for them to learn skills. If they show a higher interest in learning a certain skill, than they are malleable to learning the skills needed to handle technology.
Note that I was careful not to call it a talent, because this is such a loaded and misunderstood word. A talent for music does not translate to someone being a great musician. That talent needs to be nurtured and developed by long deliberate practice to become great. This also applies to techie kids, of course; if you give them the freedom and the opportunities to learn how to use technology early on, they will get much better at it as time passes by.


4. S/he is emotionally secure
This may not seem that relevant, but it is. Kids with high self esteem will not worry about what other kids think when they indulge themselves in 'nerdy' techie endeavors. They will be open minded enough to understand why other kids do not like what they do, and will happily do their own thing. Of course, this does not protect them from being bullied or just feeling different, and you need to be on guard for that, but overall they should be confident enough to play with nontechie friends. If they have problems with sociability or self-esteem, they have to be handled appropriately, but overall emotionally secure children are more likely to follow through in their interests.
5. S/he has parents or other family members in tech who can enable their interest
May people in the realm of technology, such as Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, and countless others benefited from having had relatives who were also in technology. More than inspiration, these relatives helped them get their first exposures and big breaks into the field.



6. S/he wants to know how things work.
Many of us take it for granted  when we grow up, but truth be told, many of us do not know how our computers or tablets work. Most of us would not understand heads or tails of the parts of a stopwatch. Most of us have probably forgotten how batteries connect circuits, even if we made night lights that ran on potatoes as children. It’s that kind of curiosity that you find in a techie kid early on, and that is the quality that you want to nurture in them.
7. S/he likes building things.
Now, this is not a trait found in all techie kids, but it’s definitely something that can set them up in several different fields. Of course, it’s easy to imagine that if they play with brick toys, they would want to grow up to be engineers. However, builders are just as likely to become programmers or artists.
8. S/he can be left to his/her own devices (so to speak).
A techie kid is not easily bored, if you give him/her something engaging. And yes, you could give them an iPad, or leave them in front of a computer, but they could be just as interested with a notepad, paper and scissors, a (toy) musical instrument, a RC toy, a die cast car, a kite, etc.


9. S/he has a boundless curiosity of the world beyond what he sees.
If your child will sit down to listen to a story about pirates or Roman gods, or keeps asking you questions about how many countries there are in the world and what languages each country has and things like that, it reflects a desire to learn more about the world beyond them. This is a great characteristic! It means your child is also capable of seeing the bigger picture.
10. They tell or show you they are techies on their own.
At the end of the day, you can see for yourself if your child has an inclination towards tech, gadgets and science. Some of them will even tell you themselves.
If these signs are not present in your child's life and you want him/her to get more into technology, you can take the initiative to bring them in. You can introduce them to people who are in the tech industry, and nurture skills that would be useful to them as techies later. Of course, you also need to set reasonable limits to their exposure to gadgets, and let them explore nontechie activities (sports, social play) as well. Whatever you do, make sure to keep their happiness and well-being in mind. Do you want to feature your techie kid?

Do you have a proud parent moment of a tech kiddie?


Thursday, January 26, 2012

Featured TechKiddie: Jacob A.

When I saw Ms. Aloha's post on Facebook, I knew that I had to invite her to feature her techie kid here at our site. We are inviting parents to feature their kids and their proud parent moment.  

Ms. Aloha was my multimedia teacher back in college. Her kiddo is definitely as techie as she is. Thanks for sharing it with us Nanay Aloha!

Meet Jacob, our first featured techkiddie.


The Amazing Techie

Jacob is 3 years and 2 months old and lives in Niigata, Japan with his parents and his little sister.



What is your techkiddie tinkering with right now?
A new game.

Name of the New Game?
Clown Around, Cut the Rope among many others that he plays in his phone.



Your Proud Parent Moment!

"Out of the blue he demonstrated to me and his Tatay how to play Clown Around, a logic game app for iPhone. We were amazed how good he was; he knew when to cut the chains, which barrel to shoot the clowns and how to orchestrate his moves to win."

"We are so proud, he has already unlocked all the levels that is to be unlocked. He did this without us teaching him; he just tinkers away on his own the games in his phone."



Do you want to feature your techie kid? Do you have a proud parent moment too? 




Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Five Cool Gadgets for Techie Kids


There are several considerations you need to make when buying gadgets for techie kids. Although gadgets like iPhones and PSPs look like they are ideal for kids because of their size, the truth is they are designed for adults and so use interfaces and have content that would either bore or frustrate them. Plus, they are pricey and easy to break (A notable exception to this are Nintendo consoles, which have been designed childproof, but again, these may not always be age appropriate).

Thankfully, toymakers today realize that kids learn about our high level of technology early on, and have designed gadgets that will cost parents less, teach kids more and keep them happier longer. These have been picked out from the many different brands and kinds of toys available, so do not be surprised if one of your favorites is not found here.

Boggle Flash


Boggle Flash is an innovative new version of the classic word game Boggle by Hasbro. Traditionally, Boggle uses 16 dice with different letters in it, that you arrange to form words for points. 


Boggle Flash replaces those dice with small LCD tiles that change letters. When connected side by side, the tiles will recognize and indicate when you've actually formed words. Boggle Flash is a great new way to play an old classic.

Leapster Explorer

Leapfrog is a brand name for several educational devices catered to young children. They have rapidly produced several sprite-based video game consoles that play educational games, with constant upgrades, emphasizing child-safe usability and increasing features. 


Among their products, I would recommend the Leapster Explorer, which features games, e-books, apps and even an attachment that turns it into a camera. 


National Geographic 50mm Telescope
Telescopes are one of those toys that kids really want to get but parents cannot afford. Most toy telescopes are unhappy inferior facsimiles. National Geographic's 50mm Telescope is a reasonable copy of a real telescope, externally and internally, and great at getting them started peering into the planets, without having to pay full price. 


Please note that National Geographic also has 30mm telescopes that sell for less, but will not be good enough for looking up. If you want your child to learn astronomy in earnest, do not settle for less than 50mm. 


Paper Jamz

Paper Jamz are toy versions of musical instruments such as guitars, drums, turntables, amplifiers and even microphones. As the name implies, they are made of mostly cardboard and are battery operated. More importantly, they simulate the sound and experience of the real thing to an astounding degree. 

At a fraction of the price of kid sized musical instruments, or musical video game accessories (Rock Band guitars do not run cheap), your kids can start playing music early with these genuine musical wonders.

Computer Engineer Barbie


Not technically a gadget, but I had to include this as a role model for girls AND boys. Famously announced as her 126th career, Computer Engineer Barbie reflects contemporary geek-friendly sensibilities and appropriately, accessories include a cellphone, Bluetooth headset, and laptop with appropriate travel bag. 

Although some people complain why it took this long, I think its appropriate that it was now, when gadgets and the internet had pushed geekery into the forefront, that we got a Barbie that reflected these current trends. 


Your Thoughts?

These are only some of many great gadgets to get for techie kids. What other toys would you recommend? If you are a kid, what do you think of these and what gadgets do you actually own? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. All copyrights and trademarks owned by respective owners.