Published by Anastasia Goodstein, Totally Wired (the blog) is a resource for parents, aunts, uncles, teachers, librarians youth workers or any adult trying to decode what teens are doing online and with technology. 
Bits & Bytes
Bits & Bytes will be a regular feature that rounds up interesting Totally Wired tidbits in one post.
ABC is easy as 123 (a new study says poor children may see increases in literacy rates through the frequent use of cell phones) (Media Life Magazine, second item)
- Wired journalist and former hacker creates MySpace pedophile-hunter bot (Kevin Poulsen wrote and released code that matches up registered sex offenders to their MySpace profiles [the ones who use their actual names] and finds hundreds of matches. But just like with any technology solution, each case requires human investigation to determine who these people actually are. Update: You can read about how Kevin's code actually caught a predator here.) (Boing Boing) (Wired)
- Unrated (one professor wonders if she's actually missing valuable, honest feedback from students by not showing up on increasingly popular websites where students rate their teachers) (Washington Post, reg. required)
- Gaming may make kids smarter (a new study shows that the way video games are built "in surprisingly pedagogical ways") (Newsweek)
- Decorating their space (the latest Nielsen Netratings show that the most popular sites with teens right now are those that feature ways for them to customize and personalize their MySpace profiles. This is a shift from three years ago, when it used to be all about choosing istant messenger buddy icons) (.pdf download)
- Peering through a vritual microscope (The New York Times, reg. required, on how science educators and the College Board are questioning whether virtual education, at least for science classes that require lab work, measures up to the real thing)
And over on Ypulse.com, I posted two interviews recently worth checking out. The first is with Lauren Bigelow, General Manager of WeeWorld North America. WeeWorld is a community based around "cheeky" avatars teens can customize and then use when they instant message each other. It's big in Europe and is headed our way. The second is with Michael Wilson, CEO of There.com, the virtual reality game that has become increasingly popular with teens. They are also the company that helped MTV create "Virtual Laguna Beach."
