Tech Makeover Contest

If technology has played an important role in how your children learn - both at home and at school - let Cablevision know and you could win a technology makeover. The company just announced the Power to Learn Optimum Technology Makeover to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Power to Learn education initiative, a nationally recognized technology-enabled learning program.

To enter, families submit an essay of 500 words or less "focused on technology's significant impact on learning, both at home and at school." Essays will be judged on originality and creativity by a panel of judges and five families will be selected to receive the Grand Prize of a complete home technology makeover that includes 10 prizes delivered and installed by Optimum.



For the time it takes to write a 500 word essay, this is certainly worth a shot. Also, Power to Learn offers some excellent tips on how to incorporate technology into your family in the For Parents section. I encourage you to check it out.

iWonder what kids are doing on their iphones

Did you ever wonder what your children are looking at on their mobile internet? Now you can know for sure. iWonder Surf is a new application available for iPhone and iTouch devices. This first of it's kind parental control allows you to block the sites your child can visit, disable the device with the touch of a button and see exactly where your child is surfing from any computer.

In a recent press release, Michael Pike, Chief Software Architect of Life Record Inc., the developer of iWonder Surf, said that "filtering is not enough in the internet of today, parents need a way to see what their children are thinking about and who they are talking with." iWonder enables parents to get insight into their child's thinking by providing real time reports of what a child is searching for, sites they are visiting and what they are doing there.

The application is available for download for a one time fee of $15 at iTunes.. User reviews so far are overall positive with some complaints about dissatisfaction with the browsers limited functionality. Many parents reported discovering that their children are browsing the web during class instead of paying attention and one is now fighting with her daughter because she saw so much browsing she decided to disable the internet while she is in school. Although intended as a parental control, one women installed it on her boyfriends phone disguised as a "faster browser" and logged in the next day to read his private messages on MySpace in which he was setting up dates with other women!

While I don't encourage use of the application to spy on other adults, I can see how it could be a valuable tool for parents that are concerned about the well-being of their child. If truancy, drug abuse, depression, violence or other harmful behavior is suspected, iWonder could help.