Facebook for kids

A social networking site for children as young as 7 launches soon. Is this really a good idea?

Read more

Videogames By Land And Sea With Disney

Videogames have become mainstream entertainment thanks in large part to Nintendo’s Wii and Nintendo DS. Gaming is now influencing Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) as they craft new experiences for Disneyland, Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line ships.

“Our audience is ever-changing and the more videogames become popular, the more visitors to our theme parks expect to interact in their world and also in their entertainment,” said Sue Byran, senior show producer and director, WDI. “When we were working on DisneyQuest 12 years ago, our audience was mostly frightened by the idea of interactivty, we now have an audience that’s excited about it.”

Read more

George Sampson gets online series

Bebo will go behind the scenes with Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson in a special online series following the young street dancer.

Follow My Lead, is a collaboration between Bebo and Simon Cowell’s Syco Music which will get up close and personal with Sampson while teaches viewers his signature moves.

Read more

Guilty Verdict in Cyberbullying Case Provokes Many Questions Over Online Identity

Is lying about one’s identity on the Internet now a crime?

The verdict Wednesday in the MySpace cyberbullying case raised a variety of questions about the terms that users agree to when they log on to Web sites.  The defendant in the case, a Missouri woman, was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles on three misdemeanor counts of computer fraud for having misrepresented herself on the popular social network MySpace. The woman, Lori Drew, posed as a teenage boy in using the account to send first friendly and then menacing messages to Megan Meier, 13, who killed herself shortly after receiving a message in October 2006 that said in part, “The world would be a better place without you.”

Read more

Schools minister shifts focus to parents

The schools minister, Jim Knight, shifted the onus for improving children‘s educational and life chances on to parents today.

Speaking at the Special Schools and Academies Trust conference, Knight said: “If we’re really serious about narrowing attainment gaps, we’ve got to put more of our focus on parents.”

He urged schools to do more to engage parents, saying they were “our best ally”, a “hugely untapped resource” and “one of the most important influences on a child’s educational attainment”.

The shift in emphasis will come as a relief for schools and teachers, who have been bombarded with government initiatives that put the responsibility for improving children’s prospects on them.

Read more

BBC Children’s reveals winter highlights

A new show for CBeebies presenting pair Chris Jarvis and Pui Fan Lee and the return of Aardman’s Timmy Time are on the cards as the BBC gears up to launch its kids’ versions of iPlayer.

BBC Children’s controller Richard Deverell confirmed that versions of iPlayer adapted for the CBeebies and CBBC audience would launch during the winter/spring programming season.

Read more

UK focus for De Agostini global ambition

European media giant De Agostini Group is poised for an acquisition spree in the UK and the US, with a focus on companies with strong IP catalogues. Brands owned by troubled kids company Entertainment Rights are believed to be at the top of its shopping list.

De Agostini has brought its existing production companies such as Marathon Group, Magnolia Productions and Diverse Production together under a new brand, Zodiak Entertainment, which will lead the expansion.

Read more

Assessment: Tools to measure pupils’ progress

Assessment is now climbing up education agendas, driven by the arrival into schools of the government’s Assessing Pupil Progress (APP) programme and growing interest in assessment for learning (Afl). Teachers are being made much more aware of the need to know where a child is at any one time on their learning journey, and what’s needed to make the next step. That’s part of a good teacher’s stock-in-trade, but help based on tests and assessments is at times necessary and often welcome – particularly when they can be given, marked and analysed electronically.

Read more

TV can benefit children’s educational development, experts say

While most parents know that too much TV is bad for their children, experts say often kids’ programmes can be educational.

Watching TV can help encourage a child’s mental and physical development as well as benefitting parent-child communication.

Suzie Hayman, spokesperson for Parentline Plus, explained: “Television is often educational and while it may keep the kids entertained if parents have had a hard day or need to get the tea done, it can also be a springboard for important discussions.

Read more

Woolworths May Sell BBC Venture; Shares are Suspended

Woolworths Group Plc said it may sell its stake in a video-publishing venture with the British Broadcasting Corp. as newspapers reported the century-old U.K. retailer is scrambling to avoid a collapse.

The sale of the 2Entertain stake to the BBC’s commercial arm is being pursued “with vigor,” as are discussions unveiled last week aimed at selling Woolworths’ retail stores, the London-based company said today. Woolworths, whose stock has tumbled more than 90 percent this year, had its shares suspended at its own request, pending the talks’ outcome.

Read more