Review: The Online Mom, Tech Tools for Parents

As a parent or educator, you need to know what or at least to whom children are texting.  We can agree on that, right?  But do you know what these texting and IM acronyms mean?

• TW
• MOS
• PAL
• 420
• RUMORF
• WTGP
• IPN

I didn't know those either.  We need to know...the above acronyms stand for:

• Teacher watching
• Mom over shoulder
• Parents are listening
• marijuana
• Are you male or female?
• Want to go private?
• I'm posting naked

I was recently introduced to The Online Mom, a website for parents who want to keep up with their children's technology.  I know, we could call it our technology, too - the gadgets weren't necessarily invented with children in mind - but even the most geeky of us is sometimes stumped by our wee kids. It's like they were born knowing how to text and surf!

As parents and educators, we really do need to keep up. 

You can find a huge list of texting and IM acronyms here, at The Online Mom. 

There's a lot more at The Online Mom. Here is their description of the site:

The Online Mom provides internet technology advice and information to help parents protect their kids, encourage responsible behavior and safely harness the power of technology in the new digital world. Social networking, photo sharing, video games, IM & texting, internet security, cyberbullying, educational resources, the latest on tech hardware, gadgets and software for kids 3-8, tweens and teens, and more. You may tweet The Online Mom founder, Monica Vila anytime @theonlinemom, or join her in her Wednesday night tweetchats at #theonlinemom, in which participants discuss everything from privacy on social networks to back to school gadgets. Also, join The Online Mom's Facebook page.  Through Monday, September 21st, compete in various fan challenges to win a Nintendo Wii game system and some other prizes. Subscribe to FreelyEducate here Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com