Ideas

I like this idea.

My wife homeshools our kids so it would be great for her to be able to go online and make some lessons easily for the kids to play.

this is very similar to a project called VELA I want to do in Phoenix on a more physical level. very cool.

Great Idea!

I find this to address a largely untapped market by the Web2.0 community.An idea like this if executed properly would do well to serve the millions of Internet veterans of the mid 90s who are now in their 30s and parents themselves. Young children are getting on the Internet younger and younger and it would be nice to have something positive they could participate in under parental supervision.

+1!

Sorry, I didnt see this idea before I posted my own :) I think this would be a great, fun way to teach chcildren and also a fun way to get parents involved.

I think it would be cool if you could put photos of the children into the story. Maybe put a face onto a character? I think it would make the story more personal and fun.

I like any idea that could improve education , or finding gifted children because the are the future, good luck!

nice idea. I like the collaborative part

This is in the same vein as thunderbears idea - http://www.cambrianh...er/ideas-id/uwDIQH0/

I love this idea. My son was just asking me about money the other day (and he loves computers) so what better way to educate then on a computer with a fun interactive game.

Do it.

Good one!
Tommy

I like it to... get the parents involved.

]V[oogy

for older kids, and technical questions: http://www.howstuffworks.com/ has already filled this niche!!

Nice! Sounds somewhat like a wiki targeted for kids. I had a similar idea a while back called wiki levels. I have to give it a definite thumbs up!

As a retired educator I say it's a fine idea. There may be some websites out there similar now but why not tweak yours against theirs and kick their butts!

As an educator myself and a corporate pawn, this one is good period!

You have not siad anything about "how does this make money dude!"?

great idea

What's the selection procedure to make sure the kids get better than average lessons?

Web 2.0 and E-learning is a great pursuit! Teachers from all over the world can share and exchange lesson plans with this. I'm excited to see those tool sets CC!

This would be great to see in action. Do the parents pay a subscription fee?

Here is a project I wrote up five years ago, that might be of some value.

Kids-Teaching-Kids™ Science Program

Objective
Provide free, easily accessible and entertaining materials to tutor children in their elementary science courses and increase their interest in pursuing a career in science.

The Challenge
Dramatically increase interest in science and augment the nation’s educational system with an easy-to-implement, high-value, low-cost communication tool that can easily and quickly be implemented on a national basis.

The solution must be extraordinarily inexpensive to create and maintain and be capable of implementation without requiring any approvals from educational authorities or governments, who might needlessly bog it down with years of debate.

Criteria for Success

-Based on scientific facts
-Inspires students to study science
-Near-infinite benefit in relation to cost
-Near-zero technological cost
-Zero talent cost
-Does not require approvals from any institutions to implement
-Independent of political and bureaucratic requirements
-Can be financed readily by sponsorships
-Useful for all students of all nationalities
-Understandable in all languages
-Accessible both at home and at school

The Solution
Kids-Teaching-Kids is an intercultural educational program empowering children to share their unique learning strategies, academic skills, and life’s lessons with their peers through Internet-delivered video tutoring in science and mathamatics.

Example
Imagine that your daughter, in London, is having a problem understanding how to divide fractions. She needs help, but you are not home.

Opening her Internet browser, she links to Kids-Teaching-Kids. At the Kids-Teaching-Kids website, she clicks on “KidTutor,” then “Math,” then “Division,” then “Fractions.”

A video window opens showing a student your daughter’s age in Australia explaining the unique strategy she developed for dividing fractions, along with a chart, mind-map and explanation. Hyperlinks to other explanations and other valuable tools are also on the web page.

How It Works
The steps to implement Kids-Teaching-Kids are:
-Obtain server tools or similar uploading capabilities as Google Video currently provides
-Divide the curriculum into the most basic building blocks, such as “dividing fractions”
-Distribute on the Internet the list of building block topics and guidelines for making quality video tapes
-Invite children to videotape each other describing their strategy for solving the problem or learning the material and submit their video for inclusion, with proper legal releases obtained from parents, as necessary
-A jury of kids picks the most effective entries
-Winning video segments, dubbed in a variety of languages (by the kids), are made available free on the Internet at the Kids-Teaching-Kids web site in a hierarchical listing of links

What Kids-Teaching-Kids Accomplishes
Kids-Teaching-Kids will permit any student with an Internet connection to obtain effective, focused, tutoring so they may learn and understand specific elements of their studies. It will also enable discussions of age-related social issues and how kids handle them effectively.

By using cross-cultural metaphors and strategies, we create a global information network to leverage all educational systems and facilitate cross-pollination of learning strategies.

The result creates a forum of students sharing tips. It makes many subjects palatable, and learning more enjoyable. It makes a tutor available to every child, everywhere in the world, at any time, for any subject.

Summary
Kids-Teaching-Kids builds on the universality of the Internet and video cameras around the world and works across language and cultural barriers. It encourages learning in a compelling manner, because kids intuitively know and create effective learning strategies that might not occur to adults.

In addition to academic subjects, Kids-Teaching-Kids empowers kids to cross-culturally share their life experiences, problems growing up, and strategies for success. This is of great value, because kids are more receptive to explanations from peers, rather than adults.

Best of all, Kids-Teaching-Kids is extraordinarily low in cost to implement and has virtually no distribution costs.

LarryM:

I wish you could submit this as an idea for the weekly tourney, and lets seehow the crowd will rate on this...on a birdview its cool. But, i have to check some major educatpr's point of view and issue eventually. SOme are:
-Students and teachers become critical co-investigators in dialogue with each other
-the product of cultural influences will not be good
-K2k might not empower learners to critique and challenge mental models

I will be posting more!

Good questions. Let's investigate.

Larrym,

I googled something and found this; http://www.uwa.edu.a...ds_at_uwa_(21_march)

and something about kidsonline:

http://www.wired.com...e/news/2000/09/38709

Are you Mr. Richard Wood? =)

CC:

Hows Kids on line different from this?

http://www.kidzonline.org/TechTraining/

Certain developing economies are employing much better/effective use of technology than us:

Hey Math
http://heymath.net/m...owitworksschool.html' target='_blank'>http://heymath.net/m...owitworksschool.html
This is one initiative that I have been tracking for about a month. It is a subscription based service, that employs online/offline based learning. [a]*

I believe this is an Indian venture, initiated with support from the Millenium project project in England. Lessons are delivered via the web to the kids. The kids can then go home and learn at their own pace/time/do homework. Reports are delivered to the teachers.
Such a simple, yet effective use of technology.

Already this venture has a solid customer base in the South East Asian region, as well it has been mentioned in the time magazine, bbc news.

[a]
http://heymath.net/m...owitworksschool.html' target='_blank'>http://heymath.net/m...owitworksschool.html

http://heymath.net/m...owitworksschool.html

correct line

I know I'm late in posting this, but I just saw it and think it's a fantastic idea.

I'm a teacher and I'm always looking for new ideas to engage my students.