Archives for 2015

Children’s App Reviews: Does Money Talk? Part Two

Aug. 27, 2015 “I can make or break you” may sound more like a line from Good Fellas than a children’s app review site, but the skullduggery and reticent storytelling seeping out of the industry cracks since I wrote “Part One: Children’s Apps: Does Money Talk?” has nothing on Scorsese. The last few weeks have been a sophisticated sift and sort game of “perception vs reality” … [Read more...]

Children’s App Reviews: Does Money Talk?

August 4, 2015 Lately I’ve been deluged by email solicitations to publish "sponsored content," turning down so many advertising requests that I now have a template reply that goes something like this:“Thank you for your interest and outreach, but currently Shaping Youth is a self-funded, nonprofit, media literacy entity, thus we take no advertising, content marketing, link … [Read more...]

Distractingly Sexy: Media Literacy Summer Fun

July 2, 2015 This summer has been heating up with a slow burn in social media maneuvers starting in June when female scientists set Twitter ablaze with the #DistractinglySexy hashtag in response to the now infamous comments made by Nobel prize winner Tim Hunt, who implied women were a distraction in the lab:“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls...Three things happen when … [Read more...]

Tech with Kids: How to Assess Reviews, Find Quality Apps

June 19, 2015 One of the thorny questions I posed at the recent Tech with Kids Conference involved how to "review the reviewers."There are a wide array of reputable resources...Common Sense Media gives a macro view of kids media, as a one stop hub of advocacy, tips, and over-arching views across a vast media spectrum (TV, movies, books, apps, and beyond...) and Tech with Kids … [Read more...]

Tech with Kids: Developing Media That Matters

June 9, 2015 As a diehard infovore with a “what’s behind the media curtain” critical thinking lens, I’m fascinated by the scads of kids’ conferences I can’t afford and have no time to attend, usually gathering crumbs of media, education, technology data via hashtag to bring back to my little Twitter nest.This week I chose to outreach like Cinderella in rags asking to go to the … [Read more...]