Here are some steps and tips to help you get your child started on blogging safely:

1. Decide what to write about.  The great thing about blogging is that you can write about any topic that interests you.  Whether your child is interested in animals, educational games, a favorite band or even just talking about their daily life, the blog is an appropriate medium.  A great example of a kid-run blog is TechNewsKids, run by 11-year-olds, which discusses the latest technology news and developments.  Other kid bloggers, such as 6-year-old Aiden, just write about their lives.
2. Choose a blogging platform.  Luckily, there tons of free blogging platforms out there that are extremely easy to use and configure.  My personal favorites are Blogger and WordPress, but you can also use a service like Tumblr, LiveJournal or even a paid service specifically geared towards children, such as http://kidslearntoblog.com/.  If you’re a teacher looking to set up an entire class with blogs, KidBlog.org is a great free blogging platform designed specifically for classroom use!
3. Set up privacy controls and monitoring. The internet is a public forum, so it’s important to know how to protect your kids and monitor what they are writing (and who’s responding). Luckily, most blogging services make it easy to control your privacy settings.  As the parent or teacher, set yourself up as the blog administrator.  You can then:
   • control whether or not the blog is visible in search engines
   • moderate and approve blog comments
   • read over your child’s blog entries before they are published
   • give your child his or her very own login, but with restricted permissions
4. Share with family and friends. Every blogger loves feedback, and kids are no exception!  Even if you disable the blog in search engines, you and your child can still give the link to family and friends that you trust.  It’s a great way for family members to keep in touch, and kids will love the attention of receiving comments on their blog.  Receiving feedback will only make them more excited to write future blog posts!

Blogging can be a great educational activity for parents (or teachers!) and kids to do together.  It’s a fantastic excuse to teach your kids proper internet research, help them with grammar/spelling, and get them feeling comfortable with technology.  Give it a try!

Last night, Jay Mohr hosted the Oscars of the video game world, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) Awards. In addition to the sometimes funny material from the emcee, there were some awards given out!

Here are the winners:

Outstanding Achievement In Animation
God Of War III

It’s a bit of a rehashing of previous games, and certainly it’s not meant for kids. But overall, you can’t disagree with climbing around on a Greek god like a rock climber scaling an animated version of the Statue of Liberty.

Outstanding Achievement In Art Direction
Red Dead Redemption

Another violent game definitely not for kids. It was beautiful, however — especially when the protagonist heads to Mexico — so it’s a tough one to disagree with.

Outstanding Achievement In Visual Engineering
Heavy Rain

Though I haven’t yet played this one, I’ve seen the videos and spoken with friends who have, and it’s (yet again) a tough one to challenge. They pushed the PS3′s engine almost as hard as Crysis pushed then “SoTA” PC rigs, in 2007.

Outstanding Achievement In Gameplay Engineering
Red Dead Redemption

See above. Great game — plus, they added zombies in a downloadable add-on. Can’t go wrong with zombies.

Outstanding Achievement In Character Performance
Red Dead Redemption

Yeah, absolutely. Playing the game felt like watching an old Spaghetti Western at times, and just as violent. The character acting was wonderful.

Family Game Of The Year
Dance Central

I’ll just mention that I heartily disagree with this selection and move on. Cosmos Chaos wasn’t available to be nominated for the award because of its publishing date, but thinkSMART was definitely in the running.

Racing Game Of The Year
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit

This must come as a shock to the makers of Gran Turismo, but it might suggest an industry-wide return to the concept of arcade fun rather than “realistic” simulation. We’ll see.

Outstanding Achievement In Story
Mass Effect 2

I suppose so. This might’ve gone to an equally-deserving Red Dead Redemption, or a more esoteric choice like The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom or Limbo, but there’s nothing wrong with Mass Effect 2, here. Again, not for kids though.

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Mass Effect 2

Again, I guess. They really should separate this category, however.

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Heavy Rain

Yes! Brilliant choice here. The story-based gameplay was the best part of Heavy Rain, apparently.

Hall Of Fame Inductees
Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk (BioWare)

Okay.

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
Heavy Rain

Dunno.

Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack
Rock Band 3

Well, if you’re going to give it to a music game… Why not give it to a game with an original score, though?

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Limbo

Yes! Huge big win. Limbo deserves so much credit for the sound — it’s creepy, scary, nasty, and spooky all in one. Definitely check this game out before you hand it to your kids, though.

Adventure Game of the Year
Limbo

See above. Amazing game, on the verge of being a bit too spooky for children, though.

Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
StarCraft II

Hmm… haven’t played this one yet. I know there’re some violent themes going on here, though, so I’d watch out for that with my kids. Plus: anytime you play a primarily online game, there’re going to be people who yell and swear over the microphones.

Action Game of the Year
Red Dead Redemption

Yep.

Sports Game of the Year
FIFA 11

I loved it, though I think MLB the Show or NBA 2K11 could’ve easily filled in here. Great for kids, too.

Fighting Game of the Year
Super Street Fighter IV

Hyper-stylized violence and over-the-top, cartoonized action. Pretty good game and I can’t think of a better fighting game off the top of my head, but it’s probably not for kids.

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
StarCraft II

Yeah, not so much. Civilization 5 came out this year as well and, despite its flaws, is a better history-teacher.

Portable Game of the Year
God of War: Ghost Of Sparta

Haven’t played it, but Cosmos Chaos is a portable game. We’d better win that award next year.

Casual Game of the Year
Angry Birds HD

Yes, I suppose it is. Darn those pigs!

Social Networking Game of the Year
CityVille

Ugh. No thanks.

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Red Dead Redemption

Yeah, complete agreement. RDR was this year’s “Titanic.”

And! An imaginary drumroll, please…

Game of the Year
Mass Effect 2

Though we felt that Cosmos Chaos was a shoe-in for game of the year, we weren’t able to qualify the game for this year’s award show because of the publishing time. Next year!

In this article, I will be outlining some great ideas for internet projects you can do with your children.  Aside from being good exercises in internet proficiency, they’re also quite practical!  Most of them can be adapted for classroom use as well.

• Idea #1: The How-To Project.  Does your child have a favorite dish? Why not have them research the recipe on the internet, and then (with adult supervision, of course) cook it? Or maybe they’ve always wanted to build a bottle rocket, or learn how to make balloon animals.  For almost any educational endeavor you can imagine, “how-to” information is readily available on the internet.  You can generally find lists of materials/ingredients, step-by-step directions, and even instructional videos/pictures for those visual learners.  The possibilities are endless!
• Idea #2: Plan a Trip. Your kids probably have a list of places they’d love to visit.  New York City? Disney World?  Grandma’s house?  Having your children plan out a road trip to a series of interesting locations is a great way to introduce them to Google Maps.  You can ask your children to look up the distance between locations, as well as approximately how long it would take to get from each location to the next by car.  Have them figure out in which order to visit each location so that you travel the shortest overall distance.  This is also a great opportunity to incorporate some math lessons.  (“If New York City is 1200 miles away from Orlando and our car gets 30 miles per gallon, how many gallons of gas will it take to get there?” or “How long will it take us to get from San Diego to Nashville if we drive at 60mph the entire way?”)  Who knows—maybe you can even take the trip once it’s been planned out!
• Idea #3: Create a Website.  Every child has something they’re passionate about—whether it’s baseball, dogs, books, or even video games!  With a little bit of creativity and research, your child can turn that passion into an informational site on the web.  On paper, have your kids plan out the design and structure of their website, as well as what information they want to include on it.  Encourage them to choose a subject on which they will need to do some research, and have them do that research on a free, online encyclopedia like Wikipedia.  There are many free web hosts that are geared towards children and don’t require the user to know any coding.  One such example is Doodlekit, which allows parents to easily monitor their children’s websites.  If your child is interested in learning some beginner HTML, there is a great beginner guide located here.

There are countless ways for parents and educators to incorporate the internet—and technology in general—into learning.  What are your ideas?

And then there’s this kicker, from Nintendo themselves:

Nintendo says children ages 6 or younger shouldn’t play with its upcoming 3DS handheld gaming system with 3-D technology, because it might affect vision development.

So what’s the deal? Why push for 3D when you’re potentially pushing out one-quarter of your potential customers, in addition to the young children’s market, before you’ve even delivered a single unit?

Mostly because the industry sees 3D as the next “it” thing in American electronics. 3D has already been dubbed the savior of modern movie theaters as Netflix, video games, Hulu, the Internet, and the umpteen-thousand other entertainment choices continue to multiply like excited rabbits. DreamWorks Animation’s CEO, Jeff Katzenberg, calls 3D “the greatest innovation that’s happened for the movie theaters and for moviegoers since color.”

Wow.

ESPN announced it would soon begin broadcasting 24 hours a day in 3D. The first run of 3D television sets have descended on the US market. And now, Nintendo’s 3DS is nearing its release date without the usual barrage of “A-list” video games we’ve begun to expect alongside any console release. Is America ready for 3D gaming?

Or maybe the question is: is Nintendo ready for 3D gaming?

Take a look at the list of launch titles available in the Japanese market:

Winning Eleven (Pro Evolution) 3DS Soccer
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
Samurai Warriors: Chronicle
Tobidasu! Puzzle Bobble 3D
nintendogs + cats
Ridge Racer 3D
Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle

That’s a list containing some solid second-tier games. You could make a case for Nintendogs (if Nintendo didn’t warn us about the dangers of children’s eye development) and Winning Eleven (if you live in Europe), but short of those, there are no Killer Apps in that list.

So then, like movie theaters and production companies, is Nintendo relying on the draw of the technology itself? Does the idea of playing a 3D game get you excited enough to cue up for a launch release?

According to Nintendo, it definitely is. And one expects they’d better be right; while Nintendo is projecting huge 3DS sales — 4 billion 3DS units and 15 billion 3DS software titles — Nintendo recently released an announcement, cutting its yearly profit estimate from $2.2 billion to $1.1 billion.

One expects that the Nintendo “Virtual Boy” just can’t happen again in this day and age, and I’m inclined to agree. If you don’t recall Nintendo’s first awkward attempt at a “portable” “3D” device, take a quick Google trip back to 1995 and look at the headset on that thing. Too heavy to wear without its stand (which required you sit at your parents’ dinner table and lean over like you were sipping hot soup), monochromatic color limitations, and (history repeating) motion sickness complaints, and little to no 3rd party support made this one of Nintendo’s only flops. It was an historical flop, discontinued the following year.

Likely, the 3DS was rushed out to prop up Nintendo’s disappointing profit news and the flagging stock prices the announcements would’ve engendered. We’ll likely see the full might of Nintendo’s powerful in-house production companies releasing A-list game after A-list game in the near future. It’s way too early to call the 3DS a winner or a loser in any sense, but the low-level grumbling about the software situation already has some gaming forums nervous about making this a release-day purchase.

Will Nintendo figure out a way to limit the motion sickness effects in later versions? Only time will tell whether the idea of a portable 3D gaming device can outsell its inherent launch-day problems.

Research.  Learning how to navigate the internet is a vitally important skill for students to learn.  Most of the fastest-growing jobs in America are internet-related to some degree; however, even people that don’t have jobs in these sectors still use the internet for practical purposes on a near-daily basis.  The possibilities for projects incorporating internet research (both at school and at home) are virtually unlimited.  Researching instructions for building a kite, a recipe for a favorite food, or just general information on a topic of interest are all great ways to utilize the internet for both educational and practical purposes.  Writing a paper based on internet research is also a great way to teach older kids how to do a proper internet citation.

Reading. For older students, many classic books are available free online (legally!) under the public domain.  Project Gutenberg alone has over 33,000 books available for download.  This is a great way that technology can be used in an educational setting to save money and paper!

Expression. There are a variety of ways technology can be used by children for self-expression.  Digital cameras make it possible to not only capture hundreds of pictures, but also to play around with them using various free picture editors.  Blogging is another great way to encourage students to write, and setting up your own blog is free and easy (as a bonus, it can also help increase typing speed).   For those with concerns about privacy, there are many free blogging services out there which allow you to modify your privacy settings, so you can control who reads what you write.

Games.  Of course, we here at Mentor Interactive love games!  Although there is some skepticism out there about the value of educational video games due to their status as “entertainment,” there are many games out there that are backed by significant research. (Cosmos Chaos!, for example, was funded by a Star Schools grant from the U.S. Department of Education and developed by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning.)  There are also numerous amounts of free games online geared towards learning—even dictionary.com has word games on their website! With a little bit of research, you can find all sort of fun, educational games that combine learning with technology.

There are many ways to integrate technology into a child’s education.  Join me next week, when I elaborate further on some of the suggestions above!

I mentioned little George in my last post and our efforts to teach him through the use of Wii learning games. I thought to myself recently, “What if I could get the whole family on board for self-improvement using some Wii learning games and watch as everyone trains both body and mind?

One Saturday afternoon, bored out of our minds, we were lounging around wondering what to do next when I made a move to turn on the Wii. My dad gave me a rather malevolent look, but my mom was more than happy to pick up a Nunchuck.

Every time I return home for an all-family visit (usually once a week), games are a must have. I have seen: my parents working together to solve complex puzzles, my nephew dancing in triumph after besting his parents in a math match (much to their dismay), and my slow improvement in the memory games.

Family time has gone from sitting around to a frenzy of movement and gaming while enhancing ourselves mentally. Life is full of strange but fun turns.

For the record, when I say “traditional,” I mean that my family and I were using enrichment books which focused primarily on memorization of new words.  Tutoring is expensive, and we have the time, so we thought as long as we had the right materials, we could handle the tutoring ourselves.  Boy, were we wrong!  Unfortunately, this process was not only ineffective, but horribly boring for all parties involved–I consider myself lucky that none of us passed out from boredom!

I had to come up with an effective way to teach vocabulary that would help George to not only memorize the words, but use them practically as well.  Now I understand the struggles that teachers go through on a daily basis–and I was just trying to help one kid!  Ultimately, I came up with two methods: comics and video games. It worked better than I expected, to say the least.

“Write your own comic!” I suggested.  Just to make things interesting, I told George that there was a comic competition and that the winner would receive a lot of money.  George jumped up, grabbed some crayons, and pretty soon, he was well on his way to creating a comic.  Before long, George gave me his first draft and asked what I thought.

“Uncle Joe, what do you think? Can it win?” he inquired, barely able to contain his excitement.

“Perhaps….the characters don’t sound too serious, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“When they talk, it just seems so…boring. Everything is just ‘nice’ or ‘mean.’” I saw the look in his eyes of frustration.  I gave him some examples of comics I had on hand so that he could see the difference in language.  He stormed off and came back about an hour later with a new comic, which I approved of.  This time, he used much more complex vocabulary and made it much more emotional as a result.  About a week later, I told him that he had lost, but that there would be another competition. He didn’t write one again, but now George is using the words he used in the comics in the proper situation with striking accuracy.

Okay, I admit it–I’m not the first person in the world to think of using educational video games to help my children, but hey, it’s a great idea.  George, like many kids of his day (heck, even my day) loves to play video games.  So, as an early holiday gift, I bought him some Nintendo DS educational games. Now, I learned from my sister and her husband something which helped quite a bit: never tell your child the video game will help them learn!  Tell them that, and they won’t touch it!  Knowing this, I said nothing about the games’ educational content–I just gave them to him, and he started playing bit by bit whenever we all went on a long drive.  I started noticing last weekend that his vocabulary is beginning to improve, and he is using words that I have never heard him use before.

Lesson here for me: Sometimes, helping a child learn vocabulary (or anything else, for that matter!) requires some creative thinking that goes beyond traditional methods.

Beyond all the corporate speak about “the best video game system of all time,” there are some interesting things going on. The DS — and this is counting its various iterations throughout the years, from that chunky, dimly-lit first edition to the upcoming 3DS — was created for and marketed to almost anyone. Whether you were young or old, male or female, new to gaming or a seasoned veteran, the DS had (and still has) a lot to offer. You have the touch screen, the easy portability, the family-friendly Nintendo brand, recognizable and fun franchises, and intuitive gameplay. It all adds up to a very successful handheld system.

Nintendo has made a killing creating systems with new and innovative features, and its effect on the market is clear. Microsoft built and released its “Kinect” add-on for the already fairly successful 360 system; Sony built and released its Wii-like “Playstation Move” in a hurry to match Microsoft’s release date. Both are motion-controlled add-on systems that copy the unique movement-based control of the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo’s willingness to be the “innovator,” rather than play it safe, has paid off, solidifying their position as a major force to contend within the gaming industry.

Another element that Microsoft and Sony may have missed out on was Nintendo’s ability to attract developers of games that appeal to people of all ages. Educational games, for example, are found almost exclusively on Nintendo consoles. The Nintendo DS’s stylus control system lends itself to educational video games, of course, and Nintendo has done a fine job of marketing itself as the “family” video game brand. With a variety of educational games for DS available, it is no wonder the system has been so popular among parents with younger children.

Perhaps the biggest lesson from this generation of video games is that there is much to be gained by selling video games and systems to everyone, rather than just “gamers.” The Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii’s unprecedented success in America ought to be a strong predictor for the future of video games.

While the traditional players have responded with answers for the Wii’s unique control scheme, they haven’t come out with a handheld device to challenge or emulate the success of the Nintendo DS. Sony’s PSP, marketed towards more hardcore gamers, exprienced nowhere near the success of the DS. Meanwhile, however, the multi-use devices from Apple (like the iPad or the iTouch) and phones with enough juice to surf the web and play games (like the iPhone or the Android) are catching up–and catching up quickly–with the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo seems to recognize and concede this in having developed and begun marketing the Nintendo 3DS — a 3D gaming system that won’t require any special eyewear like cinema and television 3D systems. When a market begins to dry up, Nintendo finds a way to stay relevant. They keep innovating where other companies emulate, and for that reason, Nintendo will always be a player in the video game world.

If you’re a male anywhere between the age of 5 and 30, you’ve likely played a game of Madden Football at some point in your life. If you additionally pay attention to the real-world NFL, you’ve probably heard about a strange connection between art (Madden) and life (NFL): the phenomenon called the “Madden Curse.” It goes like this: if you’re put on the cover of the Madden video game, look out! You’re about to get a swift kick in the keister from fate.

One would think — in the interest of attracting future spokesmen, anyway — that Electronic Arts, the publisher of Madden, would want to downplay the Madden Curse. On the contrary, it would seem, because today Electronic Arts announced the development of a movie about the Madden Curse! TheWrap.com had this to say:

Electronic Arts is developing “Madden Curse,” a sports comedy that incorporates the infamous jinx, believed to strike NFL players who appear on the cover of EA’s popular “Madden” video game with injury or poor performance.

The story will follow a former Madden video game champion who is forced out of retirement just as he finds himself on the corner of the game’s cover — and subject to the curse.

If you’re as skeptical as I was, consider this: almost every single Madden spokes-player has suffered from some sort of real-world calamity the year after having appeared on the cover. A quick rundown:

• Marshall Faulk appeared on the ’03 cover and had an epic fall from his previous year’s stats, finishing the year with reconstructive knee surgery
• The next year, Michael Vick appeared on the cover and promptly broke his leg in the preseason. He missed 12 games.
• ’05: Ray Lewis suffers a season-ending wrist injury.
• ’06: Donovan McNabb blew out his ACL, also ending his season.
• ’07: Shaunn Alexander hurts his foot, missing a half-dozen games. He was never the same, afterwards.
• ’09: Farve does his famous retired/not retired routine, ends up on a different team, and suffers a biceps injury.
• ’10: Troy Polamalu injures his knee in the preseason, then re-injures it again.

For a while there, it looked like no one would escape the curse, but in 2008, Vince Young managed to escape the majority of the curse, approaching the success of his previous year without any major injury. Plus, so far this year, Drew Brees has similarly avoided catastrophe.

Strange indeed! Art imitates life; then, art imitates life that another art cursed?

Education doesn’t end when they kick you out of school!

In my brief hours away from my family, I’ve tried to enjoy the unique tourist attractions in and around my hometown. On this fine day, I’ve decided to continue my “animal” instinct for more learning by checking out the local aquarium.

I enjoyed the learning centers, of course. And nothing says “aquarium” like fish, and there were plenty of fish. But as you may’ve guessed, I had the most fun learning about otters.

Otters! Otters like to use their tummies as tables. The handlers demonstrated otters’ playfulness and eating habits with a morning feeding. The otters chased down pieces of fish, fish-seeking torpedoes darting and dodging around the tank. They’d grab their meals with their cute little hands, turn on their backs, and put the meal on their comfy bellies. Cute, indeed.

The aquarium was fun, and a great way to keep learning while I’m away with my family. I think that’s one thing that thinkSMART’s reminded me – just like I can take out my DS and play just about anywhere, anytime, learning and education can happen just about anywhere, anytime.