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 

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 8, 2014 - Vancouver, BC

Workshop for health professionals presented at CHA BC Annual Meeting and Training Session.

Contact Person: Joanne Tardiff joanne@cha-bc.org 1-250-503-1123

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 

Addiction & Rehab

A Day at the First Video Game Rehab Clinic in the US 

By Jagger Gravning June 18, 2014

Heavensfield, the name of the five acre, ranch-like estate home to Dr. Hilarie Cash's reSTART, the first in-patient treatment facility devoted exclusively to video game and internet addiction.

The young men who come here, often at the behest of their families, for video game addiction as a primary issue often wind up needing to be treated for porn addiction as a secondary issue. In fact, video game addicts are screened when they arrive at reSTART to determine whether porn addiction is actually the primary problem. The two maladies are linked, not only because you can access them both, video games and naked women, through your computer, but also in how they stimulate and sometimes entrap the brain.

Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption
The Brain on Porn
By Simone Kühn, PhD; Jürgen Gallinat, PhD JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71(7):827-834. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.93.

Results: We found a significant negative association between reported pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the right caudate as well as with functional activity during a sexual cue-reactivity paradigm in the left putamen. Functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was negatively associated with hours of pornography consumption. 

Detox & Unplugging

Social Media's Vampires: They Text by Night

Vamping Teenagers Are Up All Night Texting

By Laura M Holson July 3, 2014 New York Times 

Owen Lanahan's parents demand that his cellphone be stored in the kitchen by 10 p.m., but sometimes he sneaks it into his bedroom. That's because he considers late-night hours his "me" time. Does his mother get upset? "Yeah," he said. "She asks me to go to bed at 10 p.m. If the lights are on she comes in two or three times." 

Ms. Lanahan, Owen's mother, said she once got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and noticed that her son's laptop was missing from the hallway bench. That was the first time she found her son in bed, the sheets pitched like a tent, with his laptop and some music equipment. She even bought Owen an old-style Timex clock so he wouldn't use his cellphone as an alarm.

"All parents are struggling with this," Ms. Lanahan said.

Zack Morris on Tech Etiquette

By David Ryan Polgar

"See, that's the problem. You're always on that stupid phone." -Zack Morris

We all know his brick-phone, but we may have forgotten Zack's guidance on Bayside to put down our phones and connect.

An iPhone app that keeps you off your iPhone 

July 14, 2014 on www.purewow.com

Pop quiz: iPhones or hugs? 

The apps like a really firm bartender who will totally cut you off.
Need a little more convincing? Consider this factoid: The average American checks her phone 150 times a day. That's more than we've hugged our loved ones in the past month.

Disconnect to Connect

By Christine Gross-Loh July 4, 2014 for www.fearlessparent.org

Last month we returned to Japan, where we used to live, for the summer. After so many months being constantly online, I was in for a shock. Here, I can only use my phone with wi-fi service, and we only have wi-fi in one room of our home. Even there, the signal is spotty. Random email checks, text messages, checking Twitter or FB, looking up a recipe online, or making a Skype call can't ever be done instantly. They now take patience and effort and are sometimes even simply impossible.

Human Trafficking

Children Allegedly Sold By Parents To Buy In-Game Virtual Items 

By Daniel George July 15, 2014 for www.gamesided.com

It goes to show that extreme video game addiction to the point of child neglect is not strictly a North American concept; it's a terrible atrocity committed around the world. Sina Games has reported that a couple in China have been accused of selling two of their children to human traffickers, with the intent to use their money for gaming. 

Social Media & Mobile Technology

Clayton Russell B. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. July 2014, 17(7): 425-430. doi:10.1089/cyber.2013.0570. Published in Volume: 17 Issue 7: July 3, 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine how social networking site (SNS) use, specifically Twitter use, influences negative interpersonal relationship outcomes. This study specifically examined the mediational effect of Twitter-related conflict on the relationship between active Twitter use and negative relationship outcomes, and how this mechanism may be contingent on the length of the romantic relationship.

B.C. kids under-reporting cyberbullying, survey says 

Think your teen is just sexting?
By Rob Goodier July 3, 2014 in The Globe and Mail
Youth who sent or received sexually explicit photos or text messages, were 3-7 times more likely to be sexually active, and 30% said the last time they had sex, it was unprotected. 

British researchers are launching the largest study in the world to investigate whether using mobile phones and other wireless gadgets might affect children's brain development. 

Educational Technology

Tech CEOs Request Billions For School Wi-Fi
Blake Neff July 8, 2014 for Daily Caller News Foundation.

A group of tech leaders is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to spend billions expanding access to wireless Internet in the nation's schools and libraries.

The group of 41 leaders, which includes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Star Wars director George Lucas sent a letter to the FCC on Monday encouraging them to ratify a proposed plan by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler that would allocate $5 billion to expand the government's E-Rate program to put Wi-Fi in as many schools as possible.

Some groups say the entire endeavor is misguided, however.

"Expanding the E-Rate Program, spending more money on technology, will almost certainly have very little if any effect on educational outcomes," Neal McCluskey, an education analyst with the Cato Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Step Away From The Keyboard: How Our Hands Affect Our Brains 

Does it matter whether you type, print, or write in cursive?
By Nancy Darling July 4, 2014 for www.psychologytoday.com 

One of the advantages of moving away from the keyboard and doing something that requires greater flexibility in how we use our hands is that it also requires greater flexibility in how we use our brains.  This, in turn, requires our brains to develop in new ways. 

Texting helps, not hinders children's grammar and spelling, study says 

Compiled by Nicole Shepard June 28, 2014

Children and teenagers using "text speak" while texting score higher on spelling and grammar tests than those who don't, a study says.

Why you should take notes by hand - not on a laptop 

By Joseph Stromberg June 4, 2014

Walk into a college lecture these days and you'll see legions of students sitting behind glowing screens, pecking away at keyboards.

It's not just because internet-connected laptops are so distracting. It's because even if students aren't distracted, the act of taking notes on a computer actually seems to interfere with their ability to remember information.

Refuse to Use Movement

Refuse to Use is a world-wide Movement by responsible and futuristic thinking parents and teachers to ban all school-based technology for children under 12 years of age, and bring back tried and true methods of teaching.

Tools & Techniques

The Billy Goats Gruff in My Living Room

By Stephen Spitalny July 12, 2014 for Chamakanda Blogs

Stories can be powerful tools for teaching, healing and transformation. When there is a behavior in your young child that you would like to see changed, an effective tool can be a story that portrays the challenge and an outcome you'd like to see.

Increase strength and mood 

By Erik Peper June 22, 2014 for www.peperperspective.com

Body posture is part of our nonverbal communication; it sometimes projects how we feel. We may collapse when we receive bad news or jump up with joy when we achieve our goal. More and more we sit collapsed for many hours with our spine in flexion. We crane our heads forward to read text messages, a tablet, a computer screen or watch TV. Our bodies collapse when we think hopeless, helpless, powerless thoughts, or when we are exhausted. We tend to slouch and feel "down" when depressed.  

Miscellaneous

This Is The Personality Trait That Most Often Predicts Success  

By Drake Baer April 30, 2014

The only major personality trait that consistently leads to success is conscientiousness.

"It's emerging as one of the primary dimensions of successful functioning across the lifespan," Paul Tough writes in "How Children Succeed" "It really goes cradle to grave in terms of how people do." 

The sleep diet - try it, it really works!
By Drs. Oz And Roizen July 11, 2014 in The Province
70% of school aged kids get eight or less hours of sleep a night, while they need several hours more. Guess what they are doing instead of sleeping?

Transit Police eye mental-health strategy
By Frank Luba July 15, 2014 in The Province
Over the past one year, B.C. Transit Police report a 20% increase in calls regarding problems related to persons with mental health issues. Problems cited were in the Disturbed Person or Attempted Suicide categories.