Contact person: Donna Kozak donna.kozak@sd23.bc.ca 250-718-5332

September 13, 2014 - Dawson Creek BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by South Peace Child Care Resource and Referral.

Contact person: Katherin Charbonneau kcharbonneau@spcrs.ca 1-866-782-1138 ext 221

September 19, 20, 2014 - Hong Kong, China

Workshops on impact of technology on corporate productivity and family life sponsored by the Young Presidents Organization.

Contact Person: Timothy Wong twong@ypowpo.org 

September 22, 23, 2014  - Mongolia

Workshops on impact of technology on corporate productivity and family life sponsored by the Young Presidents Organization.

Contact Person: Timothy Wong twong@ypowpo.org 

October 1, 2014 - Vancouver, BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by Gatehouse Montessori School

Contact Person: Gretchen van Nostrand gretchen@gatehousemontesorri.com 604-925-1437

October 16, 2014 - Roberts Creek, BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by Sun Haven Waldorf School

Contact Person: Sari Cormack saricormack@gmail.com 604-741-0949

November 16, 2014 - Squamish BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by Quest University

Contact person: Luce Melancon luce.melancon@questu.ca 1-888-883-7808

February 5, 6, 2015 - Rivers Inlet BC

Workshops on self-regulation, literacy, technology balance, and attachment, sponsored by Vancouver Coastal Health grant

Contact person: Kevin Gianakos kgianakos@sd49.bc.ca 1-250-949-8881

March 6, 2015 - Vancouver BC

Workshop on school design for success sponsored by Cross Currents Special Education Conference

Contact person: Mary Berg seaspeakers@gmail.com 

Instant Messaging Virtual Universe (IMVU)

Be careful and aware of what your kids are doing online. Check out above example of the type of sex your children can engage in while using IMVU. Aside from the addiction component, organized crime, pimps and gangs are luring people into 'fantasy romances' and then luring them into face-to-face encounters with the sole purpose of trapping and coercing people into sex slavery where they are forced to perform 14-18 tricks daily and then service the pimp or gang members after. The gangs and pimps keep all the money! 5 prostitutes generate $900,000 annually for the gangs and pimps.

What an IMVU addict says.

See what an IMVU addict says about their experience on Online Gamers Anonymous website. 

Alleged pimp busted training teen prostitutes
By Bay City News May 29, 2014
A 17-year-old girl ran away from home after a fight with her parents about two months ago and decided to meet up with 20-year-old Chester Brown, whom she first met a few months ago in Antioch, according to Stockton police Officer Joe Silva. Every year in the US 1.69 Million Kids run away from home and more than 1 out of 3 of them will engage in survival sex (trading their bodies for food or bedding) with in the first 48 hours.

Moreno Valley woman accused of sex-trafficking could face 12 years in prison
City News Service May 30, 2014
The 19-year-old is charged with five sex trafficking-related felonies for operating a sex-for-money operation.

Safe Online Surfing - New Cyber Safety Website for Teachers, Students

From the FBI

Cyber safety one topic that's on many class curriculums around the nation. The FBI has a program that can help - a free web-based initiative designed to help teachers educate students about cyber safety. It's called the FBI-SOS (Safe Online Surfing) Internet Challenge-and it was developed with the assistance of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and with the input of teachers and schools. 

Reflections on an Adolescence and Young Adulthood under Psychiatry's Spell, and How I Woke Up 

ISEPP 2013 International Annual Mental Health Conference: Transforming Mad Science and Re-imagining Mental Health Care 

Watch this moving speech by young psychiatric survivor Laura Delano (who barely survived) at the Occupy Psychiatry event in 2012.

Drug cartels are amateurs: here's the real thing

By Jon Rappoport June 9, 2014

The destruction of societies by medical drugs goes far beyond what some people call "over-prescribing." This isn't just a tilt in the wrong direction. It isn't simply errors of judgment compounded by the number of doctors dispensing medicines. Countries of the world are literally being assaulted by pharmaceutical companies and their foot-soldier doctors. It's chemical warfare.

Anatomy of an Epidemic Down Under - Psychiatric disability numbers rise in Australia and New Zealand
By Robert Whitaker September 16, 2011 in Mad in America
Speaking about my book Anatomy of an Epidemic, I find the same questions being asked. Why, everyone wants to know, is mental illness becoming such a big problem in their society? And what are they to make of psychiatric drugs, which are being so frequently used?

Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption - The Brain on Porn
By Simone Kühn, PhD1; Jürgen Gallinat, PhD2,3 JAMA Psychiatry. Published online May 28, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.93
Since pornography appeared on the Internet, the accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of consuming visual sexual stimuli have increased and attracted millions of users. Based on the assumption that pornography consumption bears resemblance with reward-seeking behavior, novelty-seeking behavior, and addictive behavior, we hypothesized alterations of the frontostriatal network in frequent users.

Breakthrough Study Reveals Biological Basis for Sensory Processing Disorders in Kids
By Juliana Bunim on July 09, 2013
In a groundbreaking new study from UC San Francisco, researchers have found that children affected with SPD have quantifiable differences in brain structure, for the first time showing a biological basis for the disease that sets it apart from other neurodevelopmental disorders.

By Active Healthy Kids Canada, 2014
Canada's Overall Physical Activity levels are at a D-, clustered near the back of the pack with Australia (D-), Ireland (D-), the United States (D-) and Scotland (F). Even though 84% of Canadian kids aged 3-4 are active enough to meet guidelines, this falls to only 7% of kids meeting guidelines at ages 5-11, and only 4% meeting guidelines at ages 12-17.

Why Children Fidget: And what we can do about it
By Angela Hanscom - Thursday, June 05, 2014
In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.

What's Lost as Handwriting Fades

By Maria Konnikova June 2, 2014

Even as the emphasis shifts to the keyboard, experts say that learning to write by hand improves motor skills, memory and creativity. 

Classroom Activities and Off-task Behavior in Elementary School Children
By Goodwin, Almeda, Petroccia, Baker, & Fisher, 2013
Maintaining focused attention in the classroom is considered an important factor for successful learning. Loss of instructional time due to off-task behavior is recognized as a significant challenge by both researchers and practitioners. However, there has been little research into the factors contributing to off-task behavior. This paper reports results from the first large-scale study investigating how elementary school children allocate their attention in classroom environments.

Study Shows Classroom Decor Can Distract from Learning
By Kaye Burnet June 2, 2014
It's hard to imagine a kindergarten room without colorful drawings and posters, crafts on display and educational charts and maps covering the walls. But a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University shows that decorations in classrooms may actually hurt the learning process.

A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop

By Cindi May June 3, 2014

Learning involves more than the receipt and the regurgitation of information.  If we want students to synthesize material, draw inferences, see new connections, evaluate evidence, and apply concepts in novel situations, we need to encourage the deep, effortful cognitive processes that underlie these abilities.  When it comes to taking notes, students need fewer gigs, more brain power.

By Nir Eyal May 31, 2014

When it comes to potentially addictive products, companies should not wait for users to harm themselves. Companies who know when a user is overusing their product have both an economic imperative and a social responsibility to identify addicts and intervene. 

Television Viewing, Bedroom Television, and Sleep Duration From Infancy to Mid-Childhood 

By Cespedes, Gillman, Kleinman, Rifas-Shiman, Redline, & Taveras, April 14, 2014

Television and insufficient sleep are associated with poor mental and physical health. This study assessed associations of TV viewing and bedroom TV with sleep duration from infancy to midchildhood.

The Impact of Technology on Young Individuals

By Erika Klenk May 2014

I was interviewed by Erika earlier in the year for her Senior Project. In a recent email to me she said "This project has made me so much more aware of my surroundings and being in the "now". I'm so passionate about this, and I really hope things will get better for teenagers and youth" - One to watch for the future.

Seeing Eye-to-Eye:  The Power of Telepresence
Posted by Dominic Keogh November 5, 2013
Whether the setting is a place of business or in the public sector, telepresence can deliver more efficiently face to face communications where and when they are desired-along with the visual nuance and human touch that can more fully satisfy the consumer.