Apps

With the stress of preparing for the holidays, having some of the best and latest apps on your digital device can help entertain kids when you need to do a few more minutes of shopping, wait in line at the post office or are delayed in traffic during holiday travels. For some new and seasonal apps, take a look at the Tech with Kids list of Holiday Apps, or the recently updated Best Apps for Toddlers list. Pretend Doctoring is another good resource as well.

With the stress of preparing for the holidays, having some of the best and latest apps on your digital device can help entertain kids when you need to do a few more minutes of shopping, wait in line at the post office or are delayed in traffic during holiday travels. For some new and seasonal apps, take a look at the Tech with Kids list of Holiday Apps, or the recently updated Best Apps for Toddlers list. Pretend Doctoring is another good resource as well.

In keeping with that oft-repeated phrase “there’s an app for that,” now comes Oyoty. Oyoty is a chatbot is designed for children aged up to 12 who are active on social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). It acts as a personal assistant of sorts via a smartphone or tablet, and automatically scans what kids are posting publicly. It will intervene by flagging problem posts to children themselves to help them understand why it’s not a good idea to share - whether it be an overly provocative selfie or posting personal information. The interventions are also structured so the child is guided to edit or delete the content themselves, keeping them involved in the process of their own moderation – again with the aim of helping them understand what is and is not appropriate to share online. If the child refuses to moderate their own content, the bot can and will escalate issues directly to parents via an alert — the default setting being three days after no action has been taken by the child to resolve a problem. The hope is clearly that kids will agree to rethink any problems before the bot has to get parents directly involved. This app is so new that there is no feedback yet on how well it works, but this use of Artificial Intelligence is an interesting new tool for parents who are trying to “trust but monitor”.

In keeping with that oft-repeated phrase “there’s an app for that,” now comes Oyoty. Oyoty is a chatbot is designed for children aged up to 12 who are active on social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). It acts as a personal assistant of sorts via a smartphone or tablet, and automatically scans what kids are posting publicly. It will intervene by flagging problem posts to children themselves to help them understand why it’s not a good idea to share - whether it be an overly provocative selfie or posting personal information. The interventions are also structured so the child is guided to edit or delete the content themselves, keeping them involved in the process of their own moderation – again with the aim of helping them understand what is and is not appropriate to share online. If the child refuses to moderate their own content, the bot can and will escalate issues directly to parents via an alert — the default setting being three days after no action has been taken by the child to resolve a problem. The hope is clearly that kids will agree to rethink any problems before the bot has to get parents directly involved. This app is so new that there is no feedback yet on how well it works, but this use of Artificial Intelligence is an interesting new tool for parents who are trying to “trust but monitor”.

Club Penguin, a Walt Disney Co. affiliate that is a virtual world designed for young kids, has become a venue for protests following the presidential election. Both supporters and protestors of President-Elect Donald Trump have been voicing their opinions about him on the app. This kind of protest may crop up on other kid oriented sites and apps as well, so even if your kids are not Club Penguin users, it is probably still a good idea to discuss keeping comments positive and to avoid getting into a war of words with others on sites like these that seem so innocuous to most adults.

Club Penguin, a Walt Disney Co. affiliate that is a virtual world designed for young kids, has become a venue for protests following the presidential election. Both supporters and protestors of President-Elect Donald Trump have been voicing their opinions about him on the app. This kind of protest may crop up on other kid oriented sites and apps as well, so even if your kids are not Club Penguin users, it is probably still a good idea to discuss keeping comments positive and to avoid getting into a war of words with others on sites like these that seem so innocuous to most adults.

With Election Day quickly approaching, take a look at the summaries of 11 political apps on the Netted site. The apps cited can give you more information about the election process, including how to make contributions (Spotfund), understanding what things are going to be on your ballot locally (BallotReady) and even giving you information on how to get an absentee ballot if you need it (TurboVote). (Democracy.io) is an app for getting hold of members of Congress and (4US) is one that will compare your opinions to the votes to those of your local Congressional Representatives. If election data is needed to complete a homework assignment, try RealClearPolitics or Greenhouse. PebbleGo Vote is an additional website, not mentioned on the list, offering free educational content about the 2016 election for students in kindergarten through second grade. Among the assets available for download are e-books, articles and lesson plans.

With Election Day quickly approaching, take a look at the summaries of 11 political apps on the Netted site. The apps cited can give you more information about the election process, including how to make contributions (Spotfund), understanding what things are going to be on your ballot locally (BallotReady) and even giving you information on how to get an absentee ballot if you need it (TurboVote). (Democracy.io) is an app for getting hold of members of Congress and (4US) is one that will compare your opinions to the votes to those of your local Congressional Representatives. If election data is needed to complete a homework assignment, try RealClearPolitics or Greenhouse. PebbleGo Vote is an additional website, not mentioned on the list, offering free educational content about the 2016 election for students in kindergarten through second grade. Among the assets available for download are e-books, articles and lesson plans.

Facebook users will be able to search locally for items for sale with the new Marketplace "shop" icon on Facebook's app. This new feature puts Facebook up against eBay and Craigslist with local listings that include large images and the user option of adding filters for price, location and category.

Facebook users will be able to search locally for items for sale with the new Marketplace "shop" icon on Facebook's app. This new feature puts Facebook up against eBay and Craigslist with local listings that include large images and the user option of adding filters for price, location and category.