Children who use technology are 'better writers'

I was really pleased to read on the BBC website last month that "Children who use technology are 'better writers'"

A research survey was carried out by the National Literacy Trust: "Our research suggests a strong correlation between kids using technology and wider patterns of reading and writing," Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, told BBC News. "Engagement with online technology drives their enthusiasm for writing short stories, letters, song lyrics or diaries."

Of course we at Kids on the Net have known this for 12 years. It's our raison d'etre that writing online not only increases digital literacy but more general literacy as well: increasing interest and skills in writing and reading. I will never forget the many instances of children I have worked with who had never liked or found writing easy before, but were inspired and enthused by the whole idea and concept and experience of writing online. Often these have been boys. Teachers have shaekn their heads and said things like "He's never written more than a sentence before!". It makes it all worthwhile.

So it's no news to me that "the more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literary skills".

Try reading some of our brilliant Kids on the Net writers and that's self-evident!

Writing on Kids on the Net can make you famous!

Regular visitors to the eTeachers' Portal and Kids on the Net will know about the Monster Motel, a project which has been on the Web for ten years.

Following on from Saturday's Leicester Mercury newspaper story about the search by a group of young French artists to find the artist who drew Fat Gourg in the Monster Motel, and become an internet craze in France, the story hit the local TV yesterday. It's already made it onto YouTube (no I didn't put it up there!).

Unfortunately the interview they did with me ended up on the cutting room floor. That's probably because I gushed about how wonderful the Internet is as an opportunity for children to write to the world. And how SAFE it is, if it is a well-moderated site.

All writing that is submitted to Kids on the Net is fully moderated and published so safely that it took 5 years, a newspaper, a TV station and thousands of French fans to find Luke.

It's wonderful that they were able to find Luke and interview him! Meanwhile, the current crop of children at his old school, Oakthorpe Primary, have submitted their own monsters who reside on the Monster Motel website in Fat Gourg's Friends annex.

Why not submit some of your own?

Monster Motel hits the headlines!

Kids on the Net features today in the Leicester Mercury. In one of those strange but heartwarming Internet stories, a monster ("Fat Gourg") created by a seven-year-old, Luke, during a writing workshop at a Leicestershire primary school led by KotN editor Helen Whitehead in 1999 has become something of a cult figure for a group of French artists and cartoonists.

"In 2003, the drawing was discovered on the website by famous French online cartoonist Pierre Primen. The 25-year-old raved about Fat Gourg on Primsworld, his website dedicated to funny cartoons and drawings, which gets 50,000 visitors a day, sparking instant adulation. Every year, thousands of fans gather in groups on August 8 - the "eight" symbolising his fat body - for Fat Gourg Day.

"He has a Friends Reunited profile, where he is listed as single and retired, and there is a Facebook page dedicated to finding Luke."

Now the hunt is on to find Luke. His French fans "would like to know if Luke remembers drawing this monster. If he does, I guess we have to thank him for all the fun Fat Gourg has brought to us, and we have millions of questions to ask him about this character. We also have to offer him a statue to pay tribute to his oeuvre!"

Fat Gourg can be found in the Monster Motel on the Kids on the Net website. Children worldwide are invited to contribute their own monsters to this ongoing project.

New collaborative project - Wings

At the Education Show on March 1st, Kids on the Net inaugurated a new project as part of our tenth birthday celebrations:

We invite teachers to join in. Please contact the editor at info AT kidsonthenet DOT com and we will arrange for you to have access to the input forms for a period of time appropriate to your class.

Check it out:

Wings

Tenth Birthday Celebrations

***Tenth Birthday Celebrations***

Can you believe that Kids on the Net has been online ten years? It’s true! In this academic year we plan to have lots of celebrations. There will be writing projects, competitions and features. If you or your class would like to be part of this celebration, with a first refusal on any new special projects, you can express your initial interest by

Sending an email to info@kidsonthenet stating
* Your name
* Your position e.g., teacher, parent
* Your school or group name
* Age and grade/year of children you plan to work with
* Any particular topics or types of writing you would like us to include.

We are also interested in hearing from authors or illustrators who would be interested in contributing to start of a new writing project.

Writing prompts

A 15-year-old confessed recently that he loves writing but can't always think about what to write. He's not the only one. Even professional writers sometimes have difficulty finding inspiration.

There are various places on Kids on the Net which will provide inspiration at a variety of levels, whether you're 6 or 16. Here are some of our writing prompts:

Monster Motel: submissions are closed at the moment, but you can still be inspired to write a story about a monster... http://www.kidsonthenet.com/motel/

Dragonsville - will be opening to submissions again in September:
Complete "the Story Dragon" tale at http://www.kidsonthenet.com/dragonsville/scroll.htm
Write instructions for young dragons - how to fly, or how to breathe fire - or report on a young dragon's training http://www.kidsonthenet.com/dragonsville/research.htm

Kids' Castle: write a diary entry from the castle, a newspaper report, or a poem about the tournament. http://www.kidsonthenet.com/castle/

Write your own Adventure Island! Very challenging for an individual, but a great project for older writers http://www.kidsonthenet.com/adventureisland/index.htm

Here are some tips on Getting Started, from children's author, Philip Ardagh, http://www.kidsonthenet.com/create/howtostory.htm

Some more prompts to get you going from children's authors here: http://www.kidsonthenet.com/big3/storygame.htm
Can you write a spooky story? http://www.kidsonthenet.com/big3/dollshouse.htm

And more advice to young writers - exclusive to Kids on the Net - from dozens of children's authors including some very famous names... http://www.kidsonthenet.com/authors/advice.htm

Watch this space!

Kids on the Net and the eTeachers' Portal have some great plans for the autumn term.

We will be reopening Dragonsville and initiating some new projects to celebrate our TENTH birthday - quite amazingly old for an internet venture :)

Watch this space for more information.

Writing added to Kids on the Net

• All writing submitted to Kids on the Net up to 9 pm BST, 9th July 2007, has been published.


• More added to poems, stories, All About Me, book reviews, writing about friends, a collection of poems from Sal in Ohio, USA and some writing from young people in hospital, from Snow City Arts, Illinois, USA and some great dragon writing from Bristol, UK

New writing on Kids on the Net

All writing submitted to Kids on the Net up to 5 pm BST, 20th June 2007, has been published.

More added to poems, stories, creative nonfiction, All About Me, book reviews, opinions, writing about friends and animals, haiku and kennings

If your writing hasn't appeared then it's probably because it wasn't edited well enough. Please, writers, check, redraft and edit your work before you submit it, as our editors rarely have time to correct every spelling mistake, add a story's worth of capital letters, and so on.

What's the latest on Kids on the Net?

More added to poems, stories, All About Me (including some children from Istanbul in Turkey who would love you to reply to them), book reviews, writing about friends and a collection of "What am I?" poems from a school in Brunei. There's a great collection of poems from Newport News, Virginia, USA

We have now moved to our new server! Hopefully you will find the website both faster and more reliable!

And have you seen the latest Adventure Island submitted by Millfield School, UK?
Island of Lost Time

Scratch your own multimedia

MIT's Media Lab have created a free programming tool called Scratch. It allows anyone to create their own animated stories, video games and interactive artworks by easily blending images, sound and video. (I see nothing about text.)

BBC News report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6647011.stm

Scratch
http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/llk/scratch/

Teachers' TV programme

Teachers' TV is showing the "Just Write" programme about alternative endings which features the Kids' Castle website.

Friday 3rd Feb - 9.45am Teachers' TV

Teachers' TV is available on Sky Guide 592, Telewest channel 240, ntl channel 803, FREEVIEW channel 88, HomeChoice channel 845 and KIT channel 70

Teachers' TV website