Google Teams with 'Highlights', Shows How Goofus and Gallant Use the Internet (blog.google) 19
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:
Last month there was a special Google-funded edition of Highlights for Children, the 77-year-old magazine targetting children between the ages of 6 and 12. This edition was based on Google's "Be Internet Awesome" curriculum, and 1.25 million copies of the print magazine were distributed to children, schools, and other organizations. It's all part of a new partnership between Google and Highlights.
A Google.org blog post calls out the special issue's Goofus and Gallant cartoon, in which always-does-the-wrong-thing Goofus "promised Kayden he wouldn't share the silly photo, but he shares it anyway", while always-does-the-right-thing Gallant "asks others if it's OK to share their photos"...
theodp's orignal submission linked ironically to Slashdot's earlier story, "Google Hit With Lawsuit Alleging It Stole Data From Millions of Users To Train Its AI Tools."
But even beyond that, it's not always clear what the cartoon is teaching. (In one picture it looks like they're condemning Goofus for not intervening in a flame war between two other people — "Be Kind!")
Still, for me the biggest surprise is that Goofus and Gallant even have laptops. (How old are these kids, that they're already uploading photos of the other children onto the internet?!) Will 6- to 12-year-old children start demanding that their parents buy them their own laptop now — since even Goofus and Gallant already have them?
A Google.org blog post calls out the special issue's Goofus and Gallant cartoon, in which always-does-the-wrong-thing Goofus "promised Kayden he wouldn't share the silly photo, but he shares it anyway", while always-does-the-right-thing Gallant "asks others if it's OK to share their photos"...
theodp's orignal submission linked ironically to Slashdot's earlier story, "Google Hit With Lawsuit Alleging It Stole Data From Millions of Users To Train Its AI Tools."
But even beyond that, it's not always clear what the cartoon is teaching. (In one picture it looks like they're condemning Goofus for not intervening in a flame war between two other people — "Be Kind!")
Still, for me the biggest surprise is that Goofus and Gallant even have laptops. (How old are these kids, that they're already uploading photos of the other children onto the internet?!) Will 6- to 12-year-old children start demanding that their parents buy them their own laptop now — since even Goofus and Gallant already have them?
Re: (Score:2)
Even more - the story seems to be just confusing.
iPads and laptops from year 1 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I've got kids in a public elementary school in the US, where kindergarteners use iPads while everyone older uses Chromebooks.
Adults who think you type fast, imagine if you had started at age 6.
I'm disappointed... (Score:3)
I was expecting that they either Goofus or Gallant were going to burn in hell for trying to use an ad blocker with YouTube.
Maybe they're planning that for the next issue?
And then (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
not always clear what the cartoon is teaching. (Score:2)
"1.25 million copies of the print magazine were distributed to children, schools" that is why corporations do anything with children and schools. People including children and their personal information are the consumables.
Google Warns Kids: "Don't Fall For Fake!" (Score:3)
"In this puzzle [staticflickr.com], kids can learn to discern between what's real and what's fake [slashdot.org] online."
Re: (Score:2)
The consent message seems like a really valuable one, even more so than spotting fakes.
"Internet Awesome" (Score:2)
>"Last month there was a special Google-funded edition of Highlights for Children[...] This edition was based on Google's "Be Internet Awesome" curriculum"
Cool. So does it show children how to install Firefox, UBO, and then set the search engine to only DuckDuckGo or StartPage?
>"Still, for me the biggest surprise is that Goofus and Gallant even have laptops"
Indeed, that is far more concerning. Electronic devices (desktops/laptops/tablets/phones) are not the/a big problem. The big problem is if they
Re: (Score:2)
Children should NOT have unsupervised full access to the internet on ANY device.
Unfortunately, this is getting harder and harder to implement. Based on your Slashdot ID (roughly half of mine, and I signed up in 2008), I'll wager that your first few years of computer use involved using computers that didn't have internet connections. We had games on cassettes (if you're older than me), floppy disks (if you're my age), and/or CD-ROMs (if you're younger than me), which made computers useful in a standalone capacity.
I'm hard pressed to think of a game or software title from the past few ye
Goofus and Gallant? (Score:2)
"Still, for me the biggest surprise is that Goofus and Gallant even have laptops."
For me, the biggest surprise is that Goofus and Gallant even exist any more! I was reading the Goofus and Gallant cartoon in Highlights in the very early 60's, when I was just learning to read. I can't believe they still are a thing. Much less that they have laptops!
Where are the Timbertoes? (Score:1)
Um (Score:2)
Still, for me the biggest surprise is that Goofus and Gallant even have laptops. (How old are these kids, that they're already uploading photos of the other children onto the internet?!) Will 6- to 12-year-old children start demanding that their parents buy them their own laptop now — since even Goofus and Gallant already have them?
Laptop? Parents are considered weird and overprotective now if they don't buy their 2 - 12 year old children internet-connected pocket computers (AKA "phones") equipped with microphones and video cameras.
A laptop seems safe and quaint by comparison ...
Goofus⦠(Score:2)