Recommended Website:
Media Awareness
Age Range: 9-14 (Grades 4-8, approximately)
ClickScholar Cie recommended this website that offers free, interactive, multidisciplinary, educational games that help kids use critical thinking skills to navigate their way through the volume of media, consumer, and pop culture influences they are exposed to everyday.
When you get to the site you’ll see a menu of games that include:
- Co-Co’s AdverSmarts: An Interactive Unit on Food Marketing on the Web — Kids design a website for a popular cereal and learn about marketing techniques that foster brand loyalty and consumerism.
- Privacy Playground: The 1st Adventure of the Three CyberPigs — Kids (ages 8-10) learn to detect marketing ploys, spam, and how to protect their personal information and avoid online predators. A Teacher’s Guide provides activities and handouts for classroom use that can be tweaked for homeschooling.
- CyberSense and Nonsense: The 2nd Adventure of The Three CyberPigs (ages 9-12) — Learn the rules of netiquette, how to distinguish between fact and opinion, and how to recognize bias and harmful stereotyping in online content. A Teacher’s Guide gives info on “cyberbullying” with activities and handouts.
- Jo Cool or Jo Fool — Take a CyberTour of 12 mock Web sites to test kids’ online savvy and surfing skills. Includes a quiz that provides food for thought about various Web issues they may encounter. Teacher’s Guide provides further activities and resources.
- The Target is You!: Alcohol Advertising Quiz — A quiz for kids ages 11-14 to help increase students’ understanding of alcohol marketing on TV commercials, branded clothing, ads in magazines, websites, and sponsorships at sporting and music events. The quiz helps students understand how these marketing messages can influence their attitude toward drinking. Includes a companion activity to reinforce learning.
- Allies and Aliens: A Mission in Critical Thinking — Increases students’ ability to recognize bias, prejudice and hate propaganda on the Internet and in other media. A Teacher’s Guide provides supporting discussion points and student activities.
All of the games are interactive, colorful, animated, and narrated presentations designed to engage kids in learning how to deal with the issues and challenges they encounter in all forms of media — especially when using technology tools like computers, video games, and smart phones, etc.
As always, parents should preview the games to determine suitability of content. These games, when used with parental guidance, can open the door to important discussions about Internet savvy and safety.
Enjoy!
