I have a parent workshop coming up next month about Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Instant Messenger, World of Warcraft and various other popular Internet hang-outs for teenagers. The parents in my church have a lot of questions about it all and this is an attempt to help educate them a little. I’ll probably raise some awareness in the community about the workshop, too. If there’s interest, I may even try broadcast the workshop live on Ustream.tv, too. Post in the comments and lemme know.
Here’s the promo video I made that will run in church services and be sent around online in various ways:
About me: I am married to my beautiful wife, 
October 11th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Well Done
October 12th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Very nice. I would love to see your notes from your talk.
October 12th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Looks good. I hope that you get a great turn-out.
Also, glad to see that the parents seem to be concerned or wanting to know what their children are involved in.
October 12th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Would definitely love to see the workshop online! Looks like it will be very informative.
October 12th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
I am doing a seminar like this for my parents in Dec. - any recommendations on sources/content/direction?
October 13th, 2007 at 12:59 am
@ Casey: I’m basically going to give an overview of Myspace and Facebook, explain how they work, advantages and disadvantages of it, how they can approach their kids about their online social lives and then answer a lot of questions. I’ll also introduce them to upcoming sites, like Virb and Twitter, before playing some WoW for them on the big screen. I’ll show them how the game works, why it’s addicting and stuff like that. I don’t really have a lot of “research” per say, it’s mostly all in my head.
October 13th, 2007 at 9:08 am
I would really like to see this video, but we are a small rural church with no internet access in a place that would be suitable for our church to view it. Will you be making it available in another form of media (ie DVD or will there be a link to it on your website)?
Can anyone tell me what program is needed to view the video promo (it is a FLV file)?
October 13th, 2007 at 10:02 am
@ Gary: Yeah, Ustream.tv automatically archives the streaming events, so it will be available later. The advantage of watching it live is that you can participate in the event through the chat room that’s set up for the video stream. However, if it’s broadcasted live online, some parents might not feel comfortable about sharing personal concerns about their kids, so I’m going to get some input from my parent team before I commit to actually doing this or not.
October 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
thx Tim.
October 14th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
I would definitely love to see this broadcast online, I would really like to have a download of it to share with parents and youth workers that do not have internet access or who may not be availalbe to login at the broadcast time.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:12 am
After reading your article, I pencil in
“…and this is an attempt to help educate them a little…’’
I strongly believe that only a combination of educational-guide tool and parental involvement is still the most effective way to keep our kids safe online…
Internet is the ‘’today’’ part of new technologies and like any powerful tool of nature, has to be managed and accessed properly to get real benefits out of it.
That’s why we created AxylomClass ® a 2nd generation of Internet parent control software based on an innovative approach without exploiting standard technological filter, spying methods or censure approaches but with a Trust mode of navigation to develop a real parent-child communication.
AxylomClass ® lend a hand as parent to develop and to sustain self-governance, ethical and critical attitudes from yours children electronically connected to the world with a solid control on Internet clutter by creating your Private Internet (Virtual Library).
Finally, to give them a reason to push aside all of that clutter and focus on reaching their true potential at home, in school and beyond
October 15th, 2007 at 10:16 am
@ Yvon: Thanks for your little plug there for your product.
I’m not familiar with it, but my recommendation has always been NOT to install software that spies, limits, monitors or whatever, your kids online. In my opinion, that eliminates the understanding factor and jumps straight to police work. It also can make kids feel like you don’t trust them (even if you have good reason not to). Rather, my philosophy is to recommend that parents join their kids in these online worlds instead. Don’t just install some software that only works on your computer, which is useless when the kids are online at school and friends houses. I encourage parents to make an effort to learn what these social sites are all about and how they work by actually using them, not just taking someone else’s opinion of them. So, make a Facebook account, add your kid as a friend and communicate with them there! Dads, send your daughters little “I love you” private messages. Moms, get a WoW account and play with your son. Use these things to build relationships, learn how they actually work, and monitor your kids by being there with them.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:53 am
I would LOVE to see notes or video from this! It would be a great asset!
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:03 am
Well, we’ve decided to stream it on Ustream.tv, so you can watch it live and even Interact with your questions. Stay tuned to the blog for more info and a direct link to where to watch the video feed.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:46 am
Tim, I’ll post this on my blog, but wanted to know if you have decision if you’re going live yet or not.
S
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
@ Steve: Yeah, in my latest post I shared that we will be streaming the event live. I’ll post the agenda and outline a bit later with more info.
November 4th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Hi! I am going to run a workshop for parents in the school in which I work in, in Bogotá, Colombia, and would like to know if it would be possible for you to share whatever information or notes you used in yours (I know it’s a big favor, but I’m trying hard to do it as best as possible, and I am trying to get info from everywhere). Anyway, if you can share anything with me, be it your topic list, notes, or whatever, I would greatly appreciate it.
Juan Rozo (rozojc at gmail)
November 4th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Hey Juan! Other people have asked about having my notes, too, and I answered it here. Check out the comments at that link.