Read @drjodigold 's book, screen-smart parenting for wise, constructive advice on kids and tech usage

Jodi Gold spoke at my school's Parents Association meeting on finding balance in children’s use of technology (in its various forms). She was entertaining, informative, and most of all, constructive.

I have not read her book (screen-smart parenting) yet (though I purchased it on the spot), but if it is half as useful as her talk, it is a must read.

She gave us practical advice upon practical advice: everything from how to talk to your kids about selfies to creating family guidelines and behavior plans that work, and much more.

The key take away for me was that working on kids’ healthy relationship with technology should begin in nursery school.

Some other tips from her included:

• have your tween/teen install the self control app
• don’t spy on your kids, get in the practice of them touring you through their tech world, and giving you their passwords
• use technology to send people compliments and caring expressions
• delete embarrassing photos
• don’t like mean posts
• unsubscribe from mean group chats
• do talk about pornography with your kids
• too many more to list!

"21st Century Families" - My talk at Bloomberg today

I was honored to be invited by Elana W (protecting her digital footprint) to speak at Bloomberg today as part of their Innovative Speaker Series. I entered the beautiful lobby, showed my ID, quickly had a digital photo taken of me and put onto a badge with my name and "Hewitt School" emblazoned on it, and then was told to enter any elevator that lit up green (large lights above the elevator). I then went into the 6th floor where a receptionist quickly instant messaged my contact at Bloomberg (thanks, Jen!) and sent me off to the open coat room, and directed me to the free snacks, food, and drink area (which was buzzing). I took a seat on a modern sofa and looked up into the circular building with huge windows with light pouring in. I watched screens whizzing by with blips of news reports from around the world, and all around were Bloomberg terminals. This seems odd to say, but I felt like I was on a movie set for the future. The understanding and respect for technology was amazing. I was also lucky enough to meet their new social media director who has the daunting charge of overseeing social media for an enormous corporation.

When I walked into the 250 seat auditorium (which was beautiful) I noticed my Prezi slide deck on 3 huge LCD-powered walls. It was pretty amazing to see my name up there. It was also outside the room, and there were cameras at different angles recording the talk. Unfortunately, the recording was for internal use only, or I would have been happy to share it here. I wasn't able to use my laptop (obvious tech hurdles, resolution, etc), so I used the web version of my presentation. Thanks, Prezi!

Representing the school I teach at was a real honor. I am proud to be part of an academic institution that cares about helping students and families make good decisions about how they use technology. As Sir Arthur C. Clarke put it so well, "We need to educate children for their futures, not our past."

During the talk I referenced a few resources that I wanted to make note of here:

• My bookmarks on helpful read for parents
• Sugata Mitra and the Hole in the Wall Experiment. Watch his TED Talk here.
• John Palfrey, author of Born Digital, which talks about Jonathan Zittrain's concept of "digital bankruptcy"
• Department of Justice report on internet crimes against children

And finally, my "slides"

Photo credit: Jane Quigley