Common Sense Media

Normally the Wednesday Web provides resources for educators based around a central theme. There are multiple websites mentioned in one location. Today’s WW focuses on one website that stands out and is worthy of its own post.

Common Sense Media

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Common Sense Media is an organization dedicated to helping families and educators obtain trustworthy information and education around today’s media and technology. Founded in 2003 this non-partisan, non-profit organization strives to make sure parents are the primary influence in their kids’ lives; not the media.

Their website provides statistics, research, and recommendations within separate sections for parents and educators. Below is a general overview of what can be found on the website. Each review is based upon “child development principles” and has an “age” icon attached to the image so you can quickly see if it is age appropriate before investigating further.

Movies:

Common Sense Media has reviews broken down according to media type: movies, games, websites, TV, books, and music. Furthermore reviews can be arranged in subcategories by age. When looking at movies, they provide a review of each movie by a star system and age recommendation. There is a full review, as well as a way to filter the movie reviews: show movies rated ‘on’, show movies rated ‘iffy’, and show movies rated ‘off’. You can sort by genre, see recommended movie lists, or find movies by title.

Games:

This section is laid out just as the movie section is; with filters for age, recommendations by Common Sense, parents, and kids. There are reviews on all your major gaming systems: Wii, Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo DS, etc.

Websites:

Online games are a big source of frustration for educators these days. CSM has great lists available to help navigate this sea of sites including social networking sites that are safe, homework helpers, and online game sites. Browse by website type for easier navigation including virtual worlds, gaming, video sites, and music to name a few.

TV:

I love their TV list! CSM recommends not only current shows such as Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, but includes throwback shows such as the West Wing and (believe it or not) Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse!

Books and Music:

Like the other sections, there are multiple lists and genres to sort through. Since we are close to June there is a great section titled “Books to Share with Dads”.

Just as with the review section, this is an easy way to find out what Common Sense Media does and does not recommend. The nice part about this section is all media is on one page for review. As of this post there were 3,670 reviews for movies alone.

This section also contains cross references to the Educator’s section. There are numerous articles of interest, such as “Is 3D ok for kids?” There is a “Dilemma of the Week” feature as well as an area for Community Discussions.

Educators can sign up for free accounts with Common Sense Media. With these accounts comes a place for you to add your personal family information. While this information stays private, CSM will create recommendations for you based on the ages of your children. You can also sign up for weekly tip emails or monthly eNewsletters. You can also register your school. Resources are available here to conduct online training, give student and parent surveys and includes grade by grade guides to what media is like at this age, where children are developmentally at this grade level, media challenges at this grade level, and parent education topics. There are even research papers on a number of topics available.

Read the mission of Common Sense Media here. You can read biographies from the reviewers as well as the company leaders. Information about donating to CSM is available, as well as FAQs and job opportunities.