Have you ever been in a situation where you had never heard of a concept or topic before, and then once you learn about it its everywhere? Enter the hot topic of social networking. We all know about sites such as My Space and Facebook, but now there is a new site for the younger kiddos.
Panwapa is a site that will be the new social networking site for kids. From the creators of Sesame Street, children are able to meet some new monster friends, which live on Panwapa Island.
This site is going to be available in five different languages, and available for free via iTunes in January, possibly via podcast? I was trying to find more information regarding this, but the load time on this site seemed rather slow.
Kids are able to create profiles that reflect interests in their lives, for example they might post pictures of their favorite foods and hobbies. Then children around the world are able to search for children with similar interests as them. Sound familiar?
Is this the new virtual pen pal or a match.com for preschoolers?
Teachers are able to access lesson plans, and support materials from the site. This site has a vocabulary word of the day, which you can hear in multiple languages. You can also watch videos and access other multicultural activities, which I did not do due to loading times on the site!
Check it out and let me know what you think: http://www.panwapa.com
I am wondering if you are creating this site, because I couldn’t find this site at all. Is it because of my cable server? Your blog entry was the only thing connected with panawapa in google.
I am very interested in it and sure kids will love these new monster friends. There are lots of good social networking sites, but not much for kiddies.
It seems to me that these sites are built for younger and younger kids. Eventually new born babies will be online be for they get home from the hospital. I like this site though. When I have kids, they will be regulated between computer time and outside time. I think this would be good computer time learning when they are younger. Thanks for the find.
This sounds really interesting. I wonder if teachers/students would be able to access this site from school? If so, it would be a great way to promote writing/technology. This sounds like something I would be interested in using with my students. Thanks for sharing.
Katie that sounds really neat for the younger kids, but I am wondering will it be looked down upon to be used within the classroom as myspace and facebook are now with the administration? I know I have been wanting to set up a myspace as an educator for my kids to respond and ask questions, but have been too afraid to ask because I know how many people are opposed to the idea.
It is really cool that they are including the young ones now in the social networking scene. My only concern would be if online predators could get in contact with the kids using the site based on their pictures or information that they include about themselves. I hope that there are safeguards in place since little kids may say things that could lead to pedophiles finding them if their parents don’t monitor their posts. I didn’t have time to check it out yet, but that was just my initial thought when I heard about it. Hopefully things would be safe. It would be cool to have a virtual pen pal from the other side of the world where you could get an instant reply rather than waiting weeks for a letter in the mail!
It seems that kids are always influenced by the adults around them. As the general poulation becomes more obese, so have the children. Are children being pushed into using technology too soon just because adults use computers so much? Technology has its ups and downs. I guess we just have to see what happens when these youngsters grow-up.
Now I have found it: http://www.panwapa.com. It looks fun.;)
Having a 3rd grader and 6th grader, they have both been online in different types of social networking environments. They buy Webkins and use that site to communicate with friends. The nice thing is they have to verbally share their user name with their friends in order to chat online. Even the chattting is limited to small comments and the site seems to have pretty good filtering. If a word is even close to offensive, the message is not sent. I’m sure at some point a hacker will find away around this. Overall they have had a blast. Once they are on, they create a room for their new animal and can visit friends rooms to play games against them. I tell ya, they hook ‘em when they’re young!!