Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

'No Phone Zone' Lesson Plan: Teaching Teens the Dangers of Texting & Driving

The "No Phone Zone" lesson plan will educate students on the dangers associated with distracted driving (texting while driving, talking on the phone while driving).

The creation of this lesson plan was inspired by an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that focused on the dangers of distracted driving. According to a 2009 Pew Internet Study:

• One in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17;

• Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17;

• 48% of all teens ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting;

• 40% say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

No Phone Zone Lesson Plan

The Oprah Winfrey Show has provided teens with a myriad of digital resources--including an easy online editor--needed to make a 60-second PSA.

Students can create their own media, and mash it together with Oprah's voiceover, footage, music from The Oprah Winfrey Show and the No Phone Zone logo.

Best of all? It's all free!

This lesson plan was created by Derek E. Baird and has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This lesson plan is not endorsed or affiliated with Oprah, OWN or Harpo, Inc.

tvChatter iPhone Application Helps TV Get Social

tvChatter is a free social television application for the iPhone and iPod touch that presents real time Twitter-fueled commentary about your favorite TV shows.

Watch your show on your TV or PC, launch the tvChatter app on your device, choose the show from the social program guide, and watch the streaming commentary text.

If you have a Twitter account, you can post your own comments, reply to others or filter on your followers for a more intimate conversation. tvChatter has built a social room for viewers of this Sunday's Academy Awards broadcast where people can Tweet, snark and "get social" with each other during the 82nd Oscars telecast.

This type of mobile social television experience is bound to appeal to Millennials and their multiplatform media consumption viewing habits. For younger viewers, television is a much more interesting and socially interactive experience when they can watch a show and discuss it in real time online with their friends.

Research conducted last year by Park Associates found that over one-fourth of broadband users ages 18-24 are interested in having social media features integrated into their TV viewing experience. 

Moreover, the report, Social Media & User-Generated Content, found that multiplayer gaming, in-program chat, and “most watched” lists were among the most desired social extensions sought out by Gen Y respondents. Most attempts aimed at figuring out how to make TV more social have required viewers to have a laptop or computer near their television.

However, since tvChatter is an iPhone/iTouch app (and soon the iPad?) that lives on a mobile device, it makes it easier for viewers to mash-up their social networking and TV viewing into a single experience. Moreover, because of mobile nature of tvChatter, you can use it while watching TV at home, a friends house or even (for my fellow road warriors) your hotel room.

Right now tvChatter has a limited slate of shows available on it's roster. Certainly, being included in a high profile event like the Oscars telecast is sure to bring tvChatter both the attention, visibility and opportunity to connect with media conglomerates interested in joining tvChatter and pushing the foundries of the burgeoning social television industry.

So, why not give it a try while you're watching the Academy Awards? Go ahead, download the app, grab the popcorn and I'll see you on tvChatter at the Oscars.

You can also follow tvChatter on Twitter.

Trend Watch: Conan O'Brien Live Tour

Conan O'Brien and his crew will begin their cross-country (and possibly global) comedy tour sometime in April, starting with stops in the Pacific Northwest.

It'll then head south and east, with visits to Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Chicago-- and possibly Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Members of O'Brien's band will hit the road with him. Andy Richter will be along for the ride, too, people familiar with the tour confirm.

Just exactly what the revue will consist of is still being worked out, but insiders suggest there'll be a mix of comedy, music and lots of Coco schtick.

via www.thewrap.com

Weekly Wrap: Microsoft Courier, Conan vs. Leno (again), Simon Fuller's Social TV Experiment, Content Strategy, Teen Brain, Cybertots, 39% in USA Don't Use Internet & More!

Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': We're told Courier will function as a "digital journal," and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. [Engadget]

Conan Vs. Jay, Round Two: Hulu users tag Jay Leno’s return as “Vomit Inducing” (and worse) and Conan rallies his 'Facebook Army' for his next battle with Jay. Can't we all just get along? [Mashable] [Business Insider] [Barking Robot]

Simon Fuller Aims for Social Networking TV Reality Hit: The man behind Pop Idol, So You Think You Can Dance? and the Spice Girls is rarely wrong about trends and if this latest idea takes off it will change the way in which we watch television, paving the way for other producers to cut TV networks out of the loop altogether. [Guardian]

Twitter Safety | Keeping young people safe on Twitter: Twitter is popular with everyone but due to the very open nature of Twitter younger users should take extra caution. Remember everything you post to Twitter with an open profile can be seen by anyone in the world and is very easy to search for.  [BullyingUK]

The 10-Step Content Strategy: Embed social media into your content — even if your content is PDFs of case studies, e-books or white papers. Give readers the opportunity to engage in your content and share it with their networks. Lightweight ways to encourage reader engagement include adding a “like” button to your content, plugging in Facebook Connect and including discussion threads for blog comments. [Smart Blog on Social Media]

Study Finds 39% of Americans Don't Use the Internet: But even more to the point, in this day and age, not having internet access is almost like being illiterate. There is just so much of the world that is off limit without the ability to get online. So the fact that the majority of people who aren’t online in the US see their lack of an internet connection as not important is somewhat scary. [The Next Web]

The Teen Brain | It's Just Not Grown Up Yet: Nature made the brains of children and adolescents excitable. Their brain chemistry is tuned to be responsive to everything in their environment. After all, that's what makes kids learn so easily. But this can work in ways that are not so good. Take alcohol, for example. Or nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy... [NPR]

Content Marketing Lessons From the 2010 Vancouver Olympics: If you want to stand out online, you need to create a plan and invest in it properly. [IdeaLab]

The Secret To A Better Social Media Strategy: By tailoring marketing strategies to account for statistics such as these, small businesses can maximize the effectiveness of their social media efforts and focus on reaching their desired audiences. [American Express OPEN]

Cybertots: Fisher-Price Targets the Preschool Set: Set aside the Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys. Fisher-Price is cyberfying your kids. [BrandChannel]

Teachers Not Adequately Prepared for Education Reform: A report released in December by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (CFTL) indicated that in California, where schools are pursuing ambitious education reform, while many teachers are well qualified to take on the demands of such an effort, many more simply are not up to the task. [THEJournal]

'The Daily Show' Pulled From Hulu, Millennials Robbed of Their Most Trusted News Anchor

Hulu, the popular video streaming service that may or may not be charging sometime soon, will suffer a major blow to their content database next week.

Unable to reach a deal with major media corporation Viacom, the site will lose all of Viacom’s content, including Comedy Central offerings like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Say goodbye to the most trusted newsman in America, y’all.

via nyulocal.com

Trend Watch: China's Most Popular Social Network for Teens

Where do China's 500 million Millennials hang out online? Facebook? MySpace? Twitter? Nope.

For Chinese youth, it's all about 360quan.com!(EN)

The popular social networking service is the leading social media network for Chinese teens. Like other social networking platforms, 360Quan provides all the most popular features, including personal digital space, blogs, music, videos, photo albums, games and other multimedia services.

According to China Travel Trends.com: "360quan.com positions itself as the platform for those born in the 1990s: hip, trendy, and new. It has strong branding on this by promoting the pages of ‘cool’ kids on the website – for instance those who play parkour, graffiti artists and punks.

Its overall alternative aesthetic and the tagline ‘young, stylish SNS’ in the title bar shows this. PK, or users going up head-to-head against each other, is a big activity on 360Quan and online ‘clans’, ad-hoc groups of users linked by common interest or mutual acquaintance, define sub-communities within the giant user base.

There is a brand channel on 360quan, where fashion labels are displayed, such as the latest Jimmy Choo collection from H&M. The channel also advises girls how to put different outfits together and is sponsored by the fashion website 27.com."

Related: The Sexual Revolution of Chinese Youth

Call for Participation: The Shortie Awards: Student Film and News Festival

via www.shortie.org

The Shortie Awards: Film & News Festival is the premiere film festival for students ages 7 to 18 and their teachers!

Established in 2001, The Shortie Awards: Student Film and News Festival recognizes original digital media productions created by student filmmakers, ages 7-18, and their teachers. The Shortie Awards focuses on nurturing imagination and choice making in students.

The Shortie Awards is part of MHz Networks' Education Department. The event grew out of the Department's EAT (Education Arts and Technology) program for young filmmakers in the Washington D.C. area and has since blossomed into a national and even international event, featuring submissions from all over the world.

Last years competition received nearly 400 entries, created by close to 3,000 student filmmakers, from 23 states throughout the U.S. and 13 countries including: Canada, Cuba, Spain, Italy, Finland, Denmark, UK, UAE, India, Poland, France and Kenya. 

Many more of the Shortie Awards videos are also now available to view on YouTube.  You can watch past winners and finalists, filmmaking tips and tricks, the best broadcast news programs, and much more.

DML 2010: Four Things Youth Marketers Can Learn About Youth & Digital Media

Today I've published a guest post over on Ypulse and shared some of my thoughts on the 2010 Digital Media & Learning Conference (DML) which was held last week at the University of California at San Diego.

The post, Four Insights for Youth Marketers from DML 2010, highlights some of the key things I think marketers can learn from the academic community when working with youth and digital media. The post also highlights some of the most current youth media research going on around the world.

Thanks to Meredith and the rest of Team Ypulse for the opportunity to share my insights from DML with the rest of the Ypulse youth marketing community.

Global Youth: For Kenyan children, a small act has a huge impact

Jennifer Arnold's highly acclaimed documentary, A Small Act, tells the story of Chris Mburu, a Kenyan man whose early education was sponsored by Hilde Back--a woman from Sweden whom he had never met. 

via festival.sundance.org

By donating roughly $15 a month to an education fund, her small contribution paid off: Chris made it all the way to Harvard Law School and then started his own scholarship program, which now sponsors new generations of Kenyan students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to go to school.

In a recent Sundance Film newsletter, Jennifer shared how her film motivated people get involved and do what they could to help Chris provide an education for Kenyan children.

"After Festival screenings, I kept hearing from people how the film empowered them to make a difference. Audience members started handing us unsolicited donations—from twenty dollar bills to thousand dollar checks.

By the time the Festival was finished, $90,000 had been donated to an education fund, which means that more Kenyan children will go to school."

Sometimes we look at all the problems in the world and think that we can't do anything about it. We think that the problems are too complex, too far away, the problems unsolvable. But as Jennifer and Chris demonstrate, sometimes all it takes is a small act to change the course of a child's life.

Pew Research: The Millennials | Confident. Connected. Open to Change.

This is part of a Pew Research Center series of reports exploring the behaviors, values and opinions of the teens and twenty-somethings that make up the Millennial Generation.

Pew Research: The Millennials | Confident. Connected. Open to Change.

Generations, like people, have personalities, and Millennials – the teens and twenty-somethings currently making the passage into adulthood – have begun to forge theirs: confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living.

Learn more about the findings and take the 'How Millennial Are You?' quiz.

Trend Watch: I Kissed A Vampire, the Musical

What do you get when you take one part High School Musical, one part Twilight, throw in a dash of Dr. Horrible, mix it up and throw it on YouTube?

The first ever Vampire musical web-series: I Kissed A Vampire.

The web-only series, the brainchild of Hollywood writers Chris and Laurie Nolan, is a musical look at the torment of falling in love when you're in the middle of becoming a vampire. You know, your basic coming-of-age tween flick.

Yes, it's campy. Yes, the songs are catchy. Yes, tweens are watching it in droves. No, it's not from a big studio trying to show tweens how hip they are.

What sets IKAV apart from other youth oriented musical and or vampire movies is that it doesn't have the backing of a major studio. The entire series is done bootstrap style, relying on social networking sites YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for marketing and iTunes for distribution.

American Pop, a social media marketing firm who has worked on projects for the BBC teen series 'Skins', have also been pulled in to help market the film. 

The TV 2.0 revolution is being led by niche content producers like Chris and Laurie Nolan who are able to leverage social networking, free distribution channels, generational trends and the rise of a new participatory culture that can be utilized for increased exposure and commercial success.

New episodes of IKAV were shot in December and the next wave of IKAV hits iTunes in March 2010.