Chuggington has left the station!!

Welcome to the production blog for Chuggington, an exciting new pre-school brand bursting onto the scene world-wide in 2009. 

On this site you will be able to track the development of Chuggington over the next year. You’ll get behind-the-scenes glimpses of the amazing CGI Animation in progress, peeks at the development of an extraordinary immersive online world where fans will be able to jump into the world of Chuggington and explore even further, and get first looks at fantastic new Chuggington products as they come available.

Sign up to receive email updates about Chuggington or subscribe to the RSS feed on your favorite reader, so you don’t miss any news about this great new brand. As a special treat, we are letting you see a small trailer we put together of the show. Let us know what you think in the comments or by sending an email to us in our Contact Us section.

Thanks, enjoy and we’ll talk to you soon!

Chuggington

The trains have the CUTEST VOICES since Wonder Pets. 

Word on the street is that:
Chuggington is an exciting new pre-school brand with 52 x 10 min glorious CGI animated episodes, bursting onto the scene world-wide in 2009. 

Joi Podgorny (safety guru, blogger, youth media star, interactive genius, and a grrreat friend) is rockin’ the interactive Chuggington thing, and from what she’s alluded to (darn those like-minded stealthers), it’s gonna be wicked cool in the comings years. 

WOOT! WOOT!

Blogged with Flock

Tags: chuggington, youth, television, preschool, interactive media, trains, cgi

Pros and Cons of Social Networking and Education

Social networking in the classroom?!

There was a debate going on recently over at The Economist, and the pro-social-networking side won. For parents or anyone interested in social networking’s benefits and not just its risks, let me zoom you in on a very meaty discussion, starting with points from the Economist debate’s opening arguments, both pro and con (not answers, not just good food for thought):

NetFamilyNews

Anne Collier goes on to quote Ewan McIntosh (Scotland National Education Tech Advisor), Danah Boyd, and Michael Bugeja (Iowa State University). So make sure you click that link above.

So yeah– Very cool!! I dig the Pro-side. The more society acts with fear & rejection, the less education & empowerment is provided for our youth. It’s like having a jungle for a back yard– you have three options:

Warn your kids about the dangers in the forest WHILE TEACHING THEM about all the survival points and helping them EXPLORE AND DISCOVER.

Or

Let them run amuck, willynilly, without any prep, safety, etc. And if they get eaten? Whoops. Or fall in a hole? Uh oh. Or eat some poisonous berries? Doh! Or run away with the woodcutter from the woodcutters cottage? Blame the world!

Or

Keep them holed up in the house– staring out the windows at this mysterious land, never to explore their own backyard. Hermits for president!

It’s all about choice really– and parents, teachers, etc need to know theirs and ROCK it.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: safety, internet, web, youth, children, teens, tweens, surfing, exploring, learning, education

Canada Cracks Down on Cyberbullying

16-year-old Charged due to Cyberbullying – Internet Safety News – Internet Safety-For Our Children’s Sake

Ontario Provincial Police officers have charged a 16-year-old student for uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm. The student reportedly sent the threatening message via email.  Two students were on the social networking website, Facebook, when one of them allegedly received a threatening email. The student reported it to parents, who then contacted authorities.    Constable Allan Boyd, from the Manitoulin Ontario Provincial Police said “What young people don’t understand is that any crime that can be committed face to face also applies on a computer,” said Boyd. “Just because someone decides to write a threat in an email format rather than verbally convey it does not make any difference. The youth was charged with Section 264.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada and will appear in Gore Bay Youth Court. The name of the youth is not being released.

16-year-old Charged due to Cyberbullying – Internet Safety News – Internet Safety-For Our Children’s Sake

Let that be a lesson to all you cyberbulliers… THE MAN IS COMIN’!  Granted, the “man” is Canadian… but still.

Note the use of the term “students”, which tells me this sounds like a case of after-school bullying on facebook.  Another example of known bully-ers perhaps?  Perhaps.

(Thanks safety Queen, Jace, for the spot on that one)

Blogged with Flock

Tags: cyberbullying, youth, canada