Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Clementine, a 20 month-old, Discovers the iPad [VIDEO]

Trend Watch: Teen Girl Communication and Social Media Use

Kristen Purcell presents Pew Internet findings on teen communication trends and social network site use as part of a joint research project with the Girl Scout Research Institute.

The research report also features findings from the Girl Scout Research Institute's latest study of social network site use among teen girls.

Pew Internet/Girl Scout Joint Webinar on Social Media

View more presentations from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

Facebook Story Project: Soldiers to Tell Their Story

Facebook is a big part of Soldier life. Long deployments, annual training and unexpected assignments force Soldiers to leave their families on a regular basis. For the last several years, Facebook has helped bridge the gap between Soldiers and their families during extended separations.

But it goes beyond Soldiers. Facebook, and social media as a whole is helping people all around the world, and from many different walks of life stay connected.

Facebook recognizes this and recently launched the Facebook Stories project. It’s a project that highlights the exceptional stories submitted by Facebook users. These stories on their own are powerful, but to drive the point home, Facebook decided to fly people in from all over the country and bring them to Facebook headquarters so they could tell their stories in person in front of hundreds of Facebook engineers.

Facebook engineers spend hours coding and perfecting Facebook, but their contact with those whose lives have been changed by the platform is limited. MTV was on hand to film the event and the final story will air in March.

Has Facebook improved your ability to communicate with your family? Do you have a unique story? Tell us about it in the comment section below. You can also send your story to Facebook by visiting Facebook Stories.

• Read the Entire Article on the U.S. Army Blog

via armylive.dodlive.mil

Profile of Australian Youth & Education Trends [RESEARCH]

Developed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), Young people in education and training provides a clear picture of how many and where young people (15 to 19 years old) studied in 2009.

More than 1.1 million or 76% of 15 to 19 year olds nationally attended school, vocational education and training (VET) or university in August 2009, according to a new statistical report released on Friday.

Young people in education and training

The publication draws together data collected by NCVER, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Of the 1.1 million 15 to 19 year old students enrolled in education and training in 2009:

• 51% attended school
• 12% undertook higher education
• 6% studied at a VET provider, studying a vocational course other than an apprenticeship or traineeship
• 5% undertook a trade apprenticeship or traineeship
• 2% undertook a non-trade apprenticeship or traineeship.

The report includes information about school students, VET in Schools students, apprentices and trainees, other VET students and higher education students.

Global Youth: Is That Egyptian Facebook Sign for Real?

via techpresident.com

Floating around the Internet of late has been the photo above of what looks to be an Egyptian man amidst the anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square holding up what appears to be a pro-Facebook sign.

A sign like that lends a little weight to the idea that, whatever tactical role that social technologies might have played in the Egyptian uprising, they've captured the hearts and minds of Egyptians. Alec Ross, the U.S. State Department's senior advisor on innovation, found vindication in the photo. "14:58 ... 14:59 ...,"  tweeted Ross this morning. "Cyberskeptics, your 15 minutes are up."

Powerful stuff, perhaps. But with the sheer volume of photos, tweets, blog posts and more we're seeing about Egypt, provenience is often an afterthought. And perhaps I'm the only one who had the though, but that block lettering looks awfully well done.

So to, um, just put on our skeptical pants for a moment, let's ask, is the Facebook-in-Egypt sign for real? Or is this a joke on Malcolm Gladwell? It's the real deal, or at least all signs point in that direction.

As to what the sign itself actually reads, the Arabic-trained  Aaron Banks translates it as, "Thank you...youth [of] Egypt," then the Facebook reference, and then "Steadfast we will not go."

• Read the full article on techPresident

'Rio' Joins Forces with Angry Birds for Superbowl Sweepstakes

This Sunday, Twentieth Century Fox’s upcoming animated motion picture event RIO will make Super Bowl commercial history, when the 30-second RIO spot becomes the first-ever to air with an embedded code.

Super Bowl fans in the United States watching RIO’s new commercial spot are invited to find the frame with the embedded code that will in turn direct them to a special level on ANGRY BIRDS, Rovio’s blockbuster game, which recently entered into a first-of-its kind partnership with RIO.  That level will take you to a RIO sweepstakes.

 

The sweepstakes winner will attend RIO’s world premiere in Rio de Janeiro on March 22.  That same day, Fox and Rovio launch the highly anticipated “Angry Birds Rio” app.

The spot will be available across the web, including http://www.youtube.com/officialriomovie, after the Super Bowl.

When snow hit, one American U class moved to Facebook

"Setting up this Facebook page was one of the first things I did after I created my spring syllabus for this class, International Public Relations. It wasn't my idea; it was something I learned from students and junior colleagues when I returned from sabbatical.

After eight months of being in research la-la land, stepping back onto a high-speed, wi-fi campus was like moving from the cave wall paintings to, well, digital walls.

I attended a one-day university-sponsored teaching symposium and zeroed in on technology sessions to get myself up to speed. The line that really stuck with me was: "If you want to fish, go where the fish are." The fish, is seems, were all on Facebook, and I wanted to cast my net."

• Read more about how this professor used Facebook in a educational setting over on The Washington Post.

via voices.washingtonpost.com