Admongo

Last week, I found out about today's post through one of the blogs I follow; Kristin Swanson's blog Teacher's as Technology Trailblazers.  The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) funds a site called Admongo.This site was established to help educate kids about the true meaning behind advertisements.  In our age of text messaging, web surfing, and more, kids are even more susceptible to advertising than ever.  So, we should take the opportunity to educate our children about the typically misleading nature of advertisements before they go clicking on any pretty, well-placed ad.

Admongo lets students play through advancing levels of a fun video game to learn about ads and what they are all about.   What I really like about this site is that it also offers a text-version of the game for teachers who may not have time for students to play through the video version.  While playing or following along, students can learn how to spot an ad, parts of an ad, hidden messages ad's want you to believe, types of ads, how designers target with ads, placement, platforms, and more.  I would say this would best be used with 5-8 grade students.

The site doesn't condmen advertising...relentless process though it may be......it just allows an opportunity for students to see the behind-the-scenes world of advertising and have some knowledge so as not to be sucked in so easily.