Family Focus on Internet

Week 11 Report by Group6

For this Week's report, I used a search engine called, "Galaxy."

"The Child/Family Interactive Network." According to their information, "The Child/Family Interactive Network" is an internet based information system that is being developed by Children First through The Village Project. It is designed to link the agencies and organizations that serve children and families in Lane County. It will also provide a way for community members to link with those agencies and with each other. The project is in its initial stages, but they already have information on-line in the World Wide Web. Their planned "menu" includes a calendar of events of interest to parents and professionals, a child care resource data base, parenting resources, agency information, education, healthcare, emergency assistance, basic needs, recreational resources, volunteer opportunities and legislative alerts. They also plan interactive capabilities (Email and dialogues) that would allow professionals to talk with each other and allow community members to access professional help (Ask-A-Nurse, Ask-A-Pro). I thought it was very interesting to see a site that is still developing their system. And, I thought in social psychological sense that this kind of community based project that help access local people to information needed for parenting is one of the important roles and benefits that WWW can bring to us in future. For second part of my search, I used
"Point Search."

The interesting point about this search engine was that they only search for the top 5% of internet sites. And they even indicated the score each sites earned. I thought it was funny. However, I looked through the list and found that the number one site on topic of "parenting" was the one that I visited before. "ParentsPlace.com" was the number one site. I figured out that this search engine doesn't connect to the site directly but it connect to the introduction page they have made to give an idea about the site and give another choice to get connected. However, the second one was unfamiliar even though I remembered that I have seen it before. It was "Family Surfboard."

This online guide to family Web surfing is put together by parenting authors Steve and Ruth Bennett; their mission is to help parents and kids get the most out of technology while "preserving childhood" in its low-tech and no-tech forms. In the "Bennetts' Best" annotated list of kids' links, each site description includes a related (nonelectronic!) family activity to engage in "when you return from cyberspace." Steve and Ruth also share some ideas for introducing kids to computers, like making a spreadsheet of family members' favorite ice cream toppings. Also, a new project called, Internet "scavenger hunt" started youngsters on a search of U.S. cities for a famous monument. Visitors can help out with some of the Bennetts' projects by responding to surveys that might be included in an article or book (one they've done is "Kids' Answers to Life's Big Questions"). Plenty of general information on parenting, but especially worthwhile for parents spooked by the electronic media. In other words, this site was created to help parents enjoy fun and educational computing with their children. We've included information about engaging and appropriate sites for kids, as well as online activities that will help children explore the Internet in a safe, purposeful, and productive way. I looked over the list of links and contents and felt that it was very well-focused. Even though there were not that many links, the style was very free and relaxing in favor of family. It really looked like a page for the whole family.