Emilie Doolittle reports in The Mercury News on a new site for teens that mixes social networking with learning in a secure space. The goal is to teach teens more about business and technology. And it's a nonprofit, so the site is free.
Dale Ferraro of Saratoga, CA, came up with FreshBrain for teens 13-18 years old. He wanted to help teens learn about new technology and to help schools keep up with all the rapid changes. Ferraro worked for Sun Microsystems for 20 years and when "he told them he was quitting to start a nonprofit...Sun offered to help him out and is currently one of FreshBrain's leading partners."
Kids can register for FreshBrain by entering their birthdate and making up a profile. Then they can try out activities and projects on the site and compete in contests. Parents have to complete a form that is emailed, faxed, or mailed back to FreshBrain before students can participate in any project or contest. Once registered and approved, kids can find activities and projects in several categories: Eco/Green, Gaming, Graphic Design, Music, Videos/Movies, Web, and Development. Projects are featured every week on the homepage. Users rate projects and activities and can even create their own projects.
On June 9, FreshBrain started its roster of summer activities and projects called Summer Splash 2008. Contests challenge students to create the best Facebook application or the funniest YouTube video or to design headphones. This is a great site for your project-oriented and gifted/talented students for the summer.
SOURCE: "Saratoga man's networking Web site enhances education" 06/09/08
photo courtesy of technochick, used under this Creative Commons license
No comments:
Post a Comment