Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Mashup Edu: Research on K-12 New Media Literacy

I am pleased to announce that the book chapter that I co-authored with Dr. Mercedes Fisher, "Pedagogical Mashup: Gen Y, Social Media, and Digital Learning Styles," has officially been accepted for publication in the Handbook of Research on New Media Literacy at the K-12 Level: Issues and Challenges, to be published by IGI Global later this year.

Dr. Fisher and I wish to thank the co-editor of the book, Professor Subramaniam at the National Institute of Education at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, for his hard work and direction during the writing and peer-review process.

In addition, we appreciate all the members of the peer-review committee for their feedback, suggestions and collaboration on this chapter. It's been a wonderful experience to work with members of the international education technology/media community.

We've saved the links for all the resources and references cited in the book chapter over on the social bookmarking tool delicious, which you can find here: http://del.icio.us/mashup.edu

Related Publications by Mercedes Fisher & Derek E. Baird

• Making mLearning Work: Gen Y, Learning & Mobile Technologies
• Social Software & Online Learning Design
• Social Media & Digital Learning Styles
• Handbook of Research on New Media Literacy at the K-12 Level

Weekly Wrap: Social Media, TV & Michael Jackson, Captain EO, Video Game Tips for Parents, Teens Leaving Facebook, Bruno & MySpace, Adam Lambert on Michael Jackson

Social Media, TV, Michael Jackson & Saying Goodbye to the 'King of Pop': Michael Jackson's  memorial service garnered huge numbers on TV, but so did the social web. Facebook and CNN teamed up again to provide a live stream of Jackson's memorial and allow viewer to simultaneously share their thoughts on Facebook. Also worth a read is John Morton's post on 'The Passing of Michael Jackson & Mass Media.'

Over on Ypulse.com, Meredith Sires explains who 'Michael Jackson was to Today's Teens.' In other related news, Disney may re-release the 3D Jackson space fantasy multimedia experience/film 'Captain Eo' and American Idol alum Adam Lambert shares his thoughts on Michael Jackson. [TechCrunch] [eWeek] [SuperGeekery.com] [Ypulse.com] [Examiner] [YouTube] [Rolling Stone]

Declaration of Independence from Social Media (For One Day): "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the digital bands which have connected them with all of their friends they haven’t seen since preschool, and to assume a life away from the computer for one day, a respect for other Internet users requires that the person should declare the causes which cause them to separate from social media for that day." (Very clever and worth reading!) [Examiner]

Bing Now Bigger Than Digg, Twitter & CNN: According to Compete.com, Bing was able to amass 49.57 million unique visitors in its first month as Microsoft’s official search engine. Bing’s traffic trumps that of Digg 38.96 million) Twitter (23 million), and CNN (28.54 million). We want to note that this focuses on U.S. visitors, since Compete does not track international visits. [Mashable]

Tweet of the Week: "If Google bought Twitter, it wouldn't get a new feature for 3 years. If Apple bought it, tweets would be .99 but you'd get a 10 char preview." [@DanielFlorien]

Raising a Healthy Gamer: Parenting is always a tough job, and video games are a tricky subject in today's families. Ars offers a no-BS guide to dealing with gaming and your children, and their advice is simple: you know your children better than anyone else.

Also be sure to check out video game parenting tips from the folks over at Microsoft & XBox 360 along with safety tips from Yahoo!, Disney and AOL. Just keep in mind that your kid is probably smart enough to hack your parental controls. [ARS Technica] [Yahoo! Safely] [AOL Parental Controls]
[ARS Technica]

How to connect to Today's Millenials: Shop-Eat-Surf has a recap of a presentation given by Michael Wood, the Senior VP of Syndicated Research at Teen Research Unlimited (TRU), at the SIMA Boot Camp on understanding today's millennials. Hat tip to Group Y Sports for the heads up! [Shop Eat Surf]

Kids, Video Games, Learning & Health: The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) has a good analysis of the Game Changer: Investing in digital play to advance children's learning and health report released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. [CMCH]

One Last Thing: Check out this mashup of the Michael Jackson classic 'Billie Jean' by Soulwax (great, great stuff!), Julia Fallon offers advice for educators Lost in Web 2.0 Cyberspace (pdf), a must-read article with fantastic ideas for teaching kids about media literacy & body image, as grandpa & grandma join Facebook--teens begin to bail, according to new research from BabyCenter 39% of moms report that they make 'net time' their quiet time, Crain's New York Business wonders if Bruno can save MySpace, and finally...don't tell Al Gore, but the environment is not the number one social cause among college students (pdf). [YouTube] [Princial Leadership] [MyHighPlains.com] [Read Write Web] [Crain's New York Business] [SurveyU]

Study: TV Linked to Kids' Bullying

A new study shows that the more television children watch, the more likely they are to become bullies. Dr. Joseph Wright of the American Academy of Pediatrics explained on The Early Show.

Related Links

• Texas Lawmakers Crack Down on Cyberbullies
• The Power of Play: Cyberbullying Solution?
• Ypulse > Cyberbullying

Japanese Youth Trend Watch: Manba & Para Para Dance

A few weeks ago I blogged about the 'bagelhead' trend that is popular in the underground club scene in cities like Tokyo and Osaka.

This week it's all about 'manba'....I know, you're asking yourself, "What the heck is manba?" I think TV Mole has the best and most succinct definition:

"Manba is where teens wear dark make-up, white eyeshadow and multicoloured wigs. There is a growing manba scene in London who meet in Chinatown and take part in a type of line dancing (known as 'Para Para')."

According to a story about the manba trend on the BBC:

"young people in the UK have been learning about the intricacies of 'manba' by making friends on the other side of the world using social networking sites and learning how to re-create the style through videos on YouTube."

Thankfully, to the best of my knowledge, the 'bagelheads' and the 'manba' folks don't hang out together. Now that would be one heck of a rumble....

Related Links

• YouTube > How To Do Manba Makeup
• YouTube > Getting Ready Manba Style
• YouTube > Para Para Manba Dance
• Flickr > Manba Girls!

Teen Tech Guru Jailbreaks iPhone 3GS

Wall Street Journal report Yukari Iwatani Kane has written a great piece about Ari Weinstein, a teen hacker who along with a bunch of other teens he met online, was able to jailbreak the Apple iPhone 3GS and iTouch.

Ari's just your typical 11 year old boy who can hack around the AOL parental controls, figure a work around that allows him to download games onto his iTouch for free and, oh yeah--meet up with other teen geeks online and jailbreak an iPhone.

No Apple isn't happy. And yes, Ari's parents have talked to him about ethics. And oh, they also made sure that Ari got an attorney.

Related Links

• Teens in Tech
• YPulse Mashup: Guy Kawasaki & Teen Entrepreneurs Panel
• Learning Styles 2.0: Digital, Social, and Always On

Weekly Wrap: Gen Y Love Mom & Dad, Google Generation, Best Buy Mobile Survey, MySpace as 'Digital Ghetto', Millennial Stereotypes & Calling BS on Social Media

The Real Life of Teens: The media portrays teens as being 'sexting', binge-drinking louts - but it's just a variation on a centuries-old stereotype. Why are we so afraid of young people? (This is such a great column, well worth reading and a refreshing portrayal of Gen Y.) [Irish Times]

Gen Y Still Love Mum & Dad: They might be young adults making their own way in life, but a new research published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that the wired wonders of Gen Y still value the advice of their parents. [Courier News]

Google Generation is a Myth: Research conducted University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web. [JISC]

Tweet of the Week: "For the record, I keep my billions of virtual dollars tucked safely under my virtual mattress with a virtual rottweiler protecting (via @elusivefish)." Speaking of virtual currency... [Twitter] [Virtual World News]

Hot for Teacher?: A teacher accidentally put pornography into a DVD that was meant to be filled with school memories from the past year, and nobody caught the error until after it was sent home, shocking parents and students alike. Hey DJ--cue the music!. [CBS News] [MTV]

Calling Bullshit on Social Media: "For starters: social media is a stupid term. Is there any anti-social media out there? Of course not." I love this blog post. So. Spot. On. And long overdue [scottberkun.com]

Storytelling 2.0: Penguin Books have launched a great new site that allows kids to play in an unlimited online space where they can create their own virtual stories, books and games for just $10. Once created they can send them to friends to watch, read or play and save them to their own virtual bookshelf. [Digital Buzz via @liamom]

Best Buy® Mobile Survey: Of all Americans with mobile phones, 62% say they use text messaging, mostly because it's a convenient and quick way to communicate. More than one-third (37%) say they use texting to avoid long or tough conversations, and over one-quarter (27%) say they use it because they dislike talking on the phone. One-quarter feel it's a great way to flirt, particularly among the 18-24-year-old set (39%). [Business Wire]

One Last Thing: Corporate types pledge to be more open about tracking consumers online, according to some experts MySpace is now a 'digital ghetto', a new study by FUSE Marketing shows that teens love events, Steve Wheeler on e-learning 3.0 (think mobile!), the abstinence movement gets rebranded, two college kids get a book deal for 'Twitterature', and Nickelodeon launches video games with a pro social message (also related). [AP] [TransComic] [BrandFlakes] [Steve Wheeler] [Alpha Mommy] [Galley Cat] [MediaPost] [Press Any Key]

Japanese Youth Trend Watch: Here Come the 'Bagelheads'

 Anyone who works in the youth space knows that when it comes to trends Japanese youth lead the way. Even so, I don't think most of us saw this one coming down the pike.

The latest rage sweeping clubs from Tokyo to Osaka has Japanese youth injecting themselves with saline and creating temporary disfigurements on their faces and other parts of their bodies (use your imagination here folks). The process, commonly known as 'saline inflation' is also known as 'body modding.'

Kyoichi ‘Keroppy’ Maeda, an expert on the saline inflation and other underground trends among Japanese youth, explains the appeal:

"Things like suspensions are really quick. But saline infusion is a gradual process and you become a freak progressively. That’s the joy of it,” he explains. “You can enjoy watching it by having a few drinks and gradually seeing a transformation, but if you’re looking all the time, you can’t see the difference. If you meander off and come back, it’s a real surprise.”

You can check out a gallery of 'bagel heads' over on Bizarre Magazine.

Related Links

• Trend Watch: Smoking Smarties
• YouTube: Saline Inflation (Explict)
• Japanese Youth & Mobile Phone Trends
• The Sexual Revolution of Chinese Youth

Dizzywood Virtual Summer Camp

This summer Dizzywood, the popular kids site that incorporates a pro-social message into a virtual world environment, is hosting a Virtual Summer Camp.

Participants at Dizzywood’s virtual summer camp can earn badges in several areas, such as gardening and exploring, which are designed to build confidence and provide a connection for children to participate in real-world activities in their communities.

Achievement badges are also awarded to players for specific accomplishments in-game, such as helping to rebuild the road to Canal City, or voting in the annual election for Chief Poobah. When kids earn a badge, it is displayed in the game on their player profile card for friends to see.

Here's a round-up of some of the summer activities taking place in Dizzywood:

• Players can now earn achievement badges for cultivating in-game skills, such as exploring and gardening, and for specific accomplishments such as voting in the annual election for Chief Poobah. The badges are displayed on player profile cards and designed to build confidence in young children.


• Dizzywood is fostering teamwork and collaboration in a fun meta-game of Color War, as part of its virtual summer camp for kids. Players can often be found at their team clubhouses self-organizing rallies to boost their team points and proudly displaying their team colors.

• Kids can now earn a membership to Dizzywood through the SmartyCard program. SmartyCard allows kids to earn stuff they want by completing educational and grade-appropriate activities. Rewards include subscriptions to their favorite virtual worlds, including Dizzywood.

Looks like there are lots of fun activities and games for kids to play in the virtual playground at Camp Dizzywood. All the fun of summer camp--without the mosquitoes!

Related Links

• Dizzywood Quests for Change
• Dizzywood Parents Guide
• Facebook > Become a Fan of Dizzywood
• More on Virtual Summer Camps

Texas Lawmakers Crack Down on Cyberbullies

In an attempt to crack down on cyberbullying and online harassment, Texas lawmakers have passed legislation that would "make it a felony to create phony profiles on social networking sites with the intent to "harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten" others."

According to MediaPost, the new law "defines commercial social networking sites broadly, saying they include any sites that allow people to register to communicate with others or create Web pages or profiles. Email programs and message boards are excluded from the definition."

The legislation, which may or not be challenged in court on the basis that it limits free speech, is on the Governors desk and awaiting his signature.

Related Links

• Fake User Profiles: Free Speech or Defamation?
• Yahoo! Safely
  
• Fake Online Profiles Trigger Suit
  

Weekly Wrap: Mobile Phones & Toddlers, Under 30 CEOs, Teens & TV, Summer of Social Good, Social Branding, Facebook Filters

Iranian Youth, Mobiles & Social Media: Despite the government crack down, Revolution 2.0 continues to move along, thanks in large part to Iranian Millennial's and their savvy use of  mobile and social networking technologies. [Mobile Youth] [Mobile Youth Marketing Trends & Clips] [Barking Robot]

Mobile Toddlers: Despite bans by other European countries, a new mobile phone being targeted to toddlers is heading to the sticky hands of wee ones in both the UK and Ireland. A new UK study found that 50% of British children aged 5 to 9 own a mobile phone.

Mobile youth culture continues to flourish in Japan, with Disney Mobile going gangbusters after flopping in the USA. Check out this Barking Robot post on kids' use of mobile phones in other countries. [Guardian] [Times Online] [Tech Crunch]

Under 30 and Kicking Ass? Derek Johnson, the founder of popular group text messaging service Tatango has created a user-powered list of entrepreneurs/CEOs under the age of 30 to help connect young entrepreneurs to one another.

If you are a young entrepreneur under the age of 30, you can add yourself to the list here. Derek has also posted a video from his recent talk on personal branding. Good stuff. Watch it! [Big Ideas From a Young Mind] [Game Change Ventures]

New Bravo Show Will Let Viewers Interact via Tweet, Email, Phone, Video & Facebook: NBC Universal-owned cable channel, Bravo, on Monday announced plans to launch an interactive TV series, entitled “Watch What Happens: Live.” It's good to see that someone gets that there in TV-land understands that there is a huge media shift taking place and that holding on to the old media model with a death grip, just isn't going to work. [Interactive TV Today]

Tweet of the Week: "I could never be a rock star guy who trashes hotel rooms. All I think is "someone's mother has to clean it up." -- @ThisIsRobThomas [Twitter]

Nielsen Debunks Myths on Teens & TV: According to Nielsen, teenagers are far from abandoning TV for so-called new media. In fact, television viewing rates among U.S. teens have actually gone up 6% in the last five years.

If you've been a long time reader of Barking Robot, this research isn't really, uhm, news. More excellent analysis on the Nielsen study from Anastasia over at Ypulse. [Tech Crunch] [Ypulse] [Barking Robot]

Bad Apples? A High School Senior loses diploma over a kiss (FAIL!), a teacher gets suspended for posting gun pictures on Facebook, 60% of students at a Chicago school won't graduate and the finger pointing has already started, a Los Angeles student is barred delivering a graduation speech because she participated in a sit-in to protest teacher layoffs, and a new study finds that many teens use mobile phones to cheat in class. [Yahoo! Buzz] [AOL Switched] [CBS Chicago] [USA Today]

Social Media 4 Good: Lipton Tea has partned with National Geographic and the Rainforest Alliance to create a micro-site that tells about sustainable agriculture in general, including the origins of Lipton teas, as well as sustainability, social and economic aspects of the tea-growing and harvesting process.

Also this week, Google launched All for Good, a new service to help you find and share volunteer opportunities, and social media companies have joined forces and declared this the Summer of Social Good.

One Last Thing: Check out this good overview of social branding, MTV talks about digital strategy and youth, help for parents trying to figure out t/weens, how to filter out Facebook "Friends" without them knowing, teen 'prodigies' debate vital issues and stuff, learning about forgiveness from Monica Lewinsky and finally, did Michael Jackson 'Fail Whale' Twitter? Yep!  [justbrand.me] [PBS] [Connect With Teens] [AlleyInsider] [Hot Air] [Flickr] [New Media Strategies]

Chinese Youth: Trends & Implications for Youth Marketers

View more presentations from chinayouthology.

Related Links

• China Youth Watch
• China Open Resource for Education
• Ultimate 21st Century Skill? Chinese
• Study Looks at How Chinese Youth Use Mobile Phones