New York City Schools have just blocked access to ChatGPT for all students and faculty. If you aren’t a technical person, you may be asking, “What’s ChatGPT?” If you are a tech person, skim over the next paragraph because you’ve probably been hearing about nothing but ChatGPT since last November when it was released.
I Asked ChatGPT What Parents Need to Know About ChatGPT
Topics: technology, robots, engineering, teaching, education, computer science, high school, parenting, internet safety, academics, writing skills, Artificial Intelligence
How to Celebrate and Reinforce Computer Science Education Week at Home
Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in Summit, NJ, will be actively participating in Computer Science Education Week from December 5-11, 2022, with daily coding and computing activities across all grade levels. Parents and caregivers can reinforce these in-school activities with assignments at home. Here are some suggestions and some helpful web resources.
Topics: technology, robots, engineering, education, computer science, STEM, Math, elementary school, project-based learning, activities with kids, steam, family
It’s time to give our loyal blog readers the edge on locating the best education technology gifts for their budding Scientists, Technologists, Engineers, Artists, and Mathematicians.
Every year, Santa’s Chief Technology Elf Bernard creates a list of recommendations for Santa. Miraculously, that list has somehow fallen into our hands every year for the past seven years.
This year, Santa’s North Pole Server (the one Santa uses to store and manage all the millions of Christmas lists he’s sent) was attacked. About two weeks ago, an unidentified elf opened a malicious email causing all the data on this precious server to be encrypted.
This ransomware attack put the whole Christmas operation in peril with The Clause Family and all the elves rendered incapable of checking any lists, checking them twice, and finding out who's been naughty or nice. CTE Bernard reached out to the expert tech team at Oak Knoll who were able to track down the malicious code and decrypt the data without the need for a single bitcoin in payment. As a thank you, Bernard voluntarily shared his tech recommendations (which are normally for Santa’s eyes only) with the Oak Knoll community with the caveat that we use it responsibly.
When asked if Bernard would also share the list of who’s been naughty or nice, he flatly refused. We’ll just have to assume everyone in the Oak Knoll community has been nice this year (which we think is a pretty safe bet.)
Here’s Bernard the Elf’s suggestions for best tech-related education gifts this Christmas Season across a variety of price ranges.
Topics: technology, robots, christmas, STEM, activities with kids, steam, executive functioning, Community
Attention, attention! In the middle of a bustling morning sorting through the news of the day in Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child's Marketing and Communications Office, a top-secret letter (with teeny-tiny handwriting!) magically appeared on our printer! It looks as though once again our office has intercepted a message from Bernard, the Chief Technology Elf at the North Pole, which was intended for Santa Claus!
We are so excited to share what the elf factory has brewing up at the North Pole right now – The best technology gifts of 2021. Gear up for Black Friday shopping!
Topics: technology, christmas, students, parenting
How to Talk to Your Teenagers about Harmful Effects of Social Media
The rumors are true – the teenage years are indeed filled with the inevitable messy rooms, empty kitchen cabinets, refrigerators and smelly shoes laying around the house. However, aside from the normal teenage happenings in households across the country, parents should be aware of recent statistics uncovered about teenagers and social media.
Topics: technology, parenting, social and emotional learning, mental health, social media
Extra, extra, this just in! We intercepted an important letter (really, tiny handwriting, actually) here at OKS from Bernard, the Chief Technology Elf at the North Pole! He accidentally forwarded our school’s Marketing and Communications office a top secret letter that was indented for Santa!
We could not wait to share this hot off the presses from the elf factory. We don’t want you to miss out on this important holiday information – the best technology gifts of 2020. Hint, hint: Black Friday is coming!
Topics: technology, christmas, elementary school, middle school
Should Parents Reevaluate Screen Time During Distance Learning?
Before the global coronavirus pandemic came into play earlier this year, parents everywhere were guided by experts to set limits on their child’s screen time each day. However, in a rare twist of fate, COVID-19 stay-at-home orders meant that children and parents were left scrambling with no choice but to rely on virtual technology even more to attend work and school from home every day.
Topics: technology, mental health, Coronavirus, family
As we continue to weather the storm of the novel COVID-19 virus weaving its way throughout the world, millions of children everywhere are hunkered down at home, at their computers, attending their “virtual school day” – as they navigate this new reality.
Topics: technology, high school, elementary school, parenting, middle school
If your kids have an internet connection, they are likely using TikTok. It's a free, engaging, short-form video-sharing app geared toward teenagers that allows users to express themselves with filters, music and other features. Users can watch and record videos of themselves lip-syncing to music as well as create short, shareable videos so they can interact with friends through likes, comments, songs and livestream.
Topics: technology, high school, middle school, internet safety
The year 2019 brought us so many blog topics — from the disturbing Momo Challenge that ended up being a hoax to the College Admissions Scandal and so much more. The blog team at Oak Knoll looked back at the top posts that resonated with our loyal readers to bring you this roundup of the top 10 blog posts of 2019.
Topics: technology, admissions, parenting, middle school, health, college counseling, building confidence, fundraising