The Three Screen Report, conducted by Nielsen, reports that "the average American watches approximately
153 hours of TV every month at home, a 1.2% increase from last year.
In addition, the 131 million Americans who watch video on the Internet watch
on average about 3 hours of video online each month at home and work.
The 13.4 million Americans who watch video on mobile phones
watch on average about 3 ½ hours of mobile video each month."Click here to read the entire report (pdf).
In an encouraging note for the television and cable networks, a recent survey found that only 8% of respondents (18% teens) watch TV online. So, at least for now, it seems network and cable TV will continue to be the primary screen--at least for a little while longer.
Economic Slump Slows Down Summer School: "The economic downturn has prompted many school districts to reduce
funds for summer school. That's bad news for students who need remedial
work and for those who are taking summer classes to advance a grade."[NPR]
Embracing the Twitter Classroom: Huffington Post blogger Jessica Gross takes a look at the battle over the use of social media going on in our schools between kids, parents and teachers. Jessica has a brilliant observation: "This argument is akin to that for abstinence-only education. Kids with
access to the Internet are going to use it whether or not their parents
decide they're "ready."" Amen. Also, check out my previousposts on using Twitter in education. [Huffington Post]
Student Uses Wikipedia to Punk World Media: Looks like the mainstream media (MSM) need to take a course on digital literacy and basic research techniques. I think this also points out that youth have a better understanding of web credibility that adults give them credit. [Irish Times]
Noika to Launch 3G Phone for Emerging Markets: Nokia has announced the Nokia 2730 classic, a phone that includes 3G data connectivity and tools for emerging phone markets. This should be a boon to educators to deliver content and instruction via mobile learning platforms. [MobileBurn]
The Rise of Social Music: Mashable has a great post tracing the history of audio on the web and the rise of social music services like Last.fm, Blip.fm and MySpace. It also takes a peek into the future and looks at the rise of mobile music. [Mashable]
The Latino Initiative: Between 2005 and 2006 the teen birth rate increased 3% - the first
increase in 15 years. This increase occurred among most ethnic groups -
among Hispanic teens, the increase was 2%. The National Campaign’s Latino Initiative focus on helping
the Latino community in its efforts to reduce continued high rates of
adolescent pregnancy and childbearing. Plus, Bristol Palin talks to People Magazine about teen sex and life as a teen mother. [People Magazine]
In February the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) released a position statement on media literacy, social technology and learning in the digital age. Their conclusion?
"These changes in society and the experiences the students bring into
the classroom challenge social studies teachers to change both how and
what we teach. One reaction is to fear these changes and try to protect
our students from things we don’t understand or appreciate. Such an
approach is neither helpful nor pedagogically sound.
Another response
is to take advantage instructionally of the wealth of experiences that
young people have making media choices by respecting those choices when
consistent with democratic principles. Whether we like it or not, this
media culture is our students’ culture.”
Today's Students Are Experiencing a Different Childhood
The digital age requires new skills for accessing, analyzing,
evaluating, creating, and distributing messages within a digital,
global, and democratic society.
The ubiquitous and mobile nature of information and communication
technologies has resulted in a world far different from that of those
of us whose childhood was once surrounded by large box televisions,
rotary dial telephones, and transistor radios.
What was once characterized as a digital divide has transformed into a
digital disconnect. Outside of the classroom young people regularly
engage with music and videos via MP3 players, constantly text their
friends with their mobile phones, check the latest videos on YouTube, and
even upload ones themselves. But, upon entering the classroom they are
expected to disengage from this interpersonal, producer-oriented,
digital world.
These changes in society and the experiences the students bring into
the classroom challenge social studies teachers to change both how and
what we teach.
Teaching students to think critically about the content and the form of
mediated messages is an essential requirement for social studies
education in this millennium.
Media literacy integrates the process of critical inquiry with the
creation of media as students examine, create, and disseminate their
own alternative images, sounds, and thoughts.
Media literacy includes the skills of accessing, analyzing, evaluating,
creating, and distributing messages as well as the cultural
competencies and social skills associated with a growing participatory
culture.
In the 21st century, media literacy is an imperative for participatory
democracy because new information/communication technologies and a
market-based media culture have significantly reshaped the world.
Media Literacy & the Social Studies Classroom
Teachers need to expand their notion of “legitimate texts” and realize that it includes popular
culture, advertising, photographs, maps, text (SMS) messages, Twitter, movies,
video games, Internet, all sorts of hand-held devices and information
communication technologies (ICTs) as well as print.
The ability to differentiate between primary and secondary sources or
distinguish fact from fiction is now intimately connected to the
ability to analyze and create media.
Social studies educators should provide young people with the awareness
and abilities to critically question and create new media and
technology, and the digital, democratic experiences, necessary to
become active participants in the shaping of democracy.
"Cole W. Camplese, director of education-technology services at
Pennsylvania State University at University Park, prefers to teach in
classrooms with two screens — one to project his slides, and another to
project a Twitter stream of notes from students.
He knows he is inviting distraction — after all, he’s essentially
asking students to pass notes during class. But he argues that the
additional layer of communication will make for richer class
discussions.”
"Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second
world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum,
the Guardian has learned.
However, the draft plans will require
children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more
freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in
classes.
The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest
change to primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of
specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical
knowledge pupils must accumulate before they are 11 to allow schools greater flexibility in what they teach.
The proposal would require children to leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts,
Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of
communication. They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard
skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell."
You may notice something new around here on the Barking Robot. Yep, I've got a new (totally awesome) header designed by BT Livermore over at BT Illustration. Pretty slick, eh?
I stumbled on BT's artwork a few years ago on Etsy. He had a fantastic linocut of Jack Kerouac, one of my favorite authors, for sale. I quickly bid on the piece and now it hangs over my desk.
I instantly became a fan of BT and have several more of his prints--ranging from robots, Abraham Lincoln, to Russian cosmonauts---hanging on my walls. Not to mention some robot buttons and a couple tee shirts to boot. BT also did the buttons featuring Earl the Owl for the Yahoo! For Teachers project.
If you're looking for some art for your home or need some illustration work done for your web projects, why not support indie artists and give BT a call?
Note:I recieved no compensation (goods or services) for this wildly enthusiastic endorsement of BT.Vote for BT. He's a good egg. That's all. Now carry on...
There's a brilliant editorial in today's LA Times by the editors of IvyGate, a blog that covers news, gossip and other tidbits from the Ivy League, all about lifecasting and Facebook.
"Imagine if the current crop of public figures had grown up during the
Facebook era. We might have photos of John McCain in Florida slurping
body shots off his stripper girlfriend.
Barack Obama rolling a joint on
a beach in Hawaii. George W. Bush passed out at a Yale frat party,
40-ounce beer bottles duct-taped to his hands. Hillary Rodham Clinton
at a Wellesley peace rally, locking lips with her husband's future
secretary of Labor, Robert Reich.
It's one thing to hear that your elected representative had a wild time
in college. It's entirely different to have pictorial proof. Would you
still vote for someone after viewing a photograph of him passed out in
his own vomit?"
Two takeaways: First, eventually there will be enough dirt on all of us that we won't really care what we learn about others. Secondly, perhaps it's time that everyone (not just students) should think more about what and why we post information on the web.
"One of my former colleagues at Yahoo! used to have a mantra: "We
can do good and do well." Gen Y students are totally wired and the
"Flat World" isn't an abstract view of the future, it's their reality.
Increasingly teachers are looking for ways to interject global, local
and other types of social awareness programs and curriculum into their
classroom.
Educational programs that provide avenues for teachers and students
to connect with other classrooms to "do good" can also provide you with
an opportunity to build brand awareness with youth and allow you to "do
well" at the same time. Tiger, Oprah, MTV, Target and Microsoft are already doing it, why aren't you?"
You can catch the whole post by clicking here. Thanks to Anastasia and the YPulse team for the opportunity.
The BBC New blog, dot. life, Rory Cellan-Jones has written a fascinating post investigating "how children used – and abused - mobile phones and they were knowledgeable, articulate and very demanding of the technology."
Among the findings:
4 out of 5 students had mobile devices with video, camera and music capabilities;
Students also said that the Internet, multimedia, music and
Bluetooth were all features they expect to have on their mobile device;
Out of the 480 students who responded to the poll, only 3 didn't own a mobile phone.
I feel that this BBC story is a good representation of how tweens and
teens are rapidly moving away from the PC-based Internet and rapidly adopting the mobile web. This trend will have huge implications throughout society and most especially in the education space.
Last summer, as part of my work on the Yahoo! Youth and Education Initiative, I conducted teacher workshops across the country. During the workshops I heard many teachers share both concern and misgivings about students using their mobile phones in the classroom.
Many of the teachers in our workshops where surprised to learn that you could, in fact, access the web via a mobile device. Other teachers shared stories of how students simply by-passed content
blocked on school computers, instead opting to use their mobile phones
to connect to the web and get the content they wanted on-demand.
The debate on whether students should or shouldn't have mobile phones in the classroom is becoming a moot point. The phones are already in the classroom, and as Cellen-Jones points out:
"The children of the mobile internet generation are getting used to
being connected – to their music, their videos, their social networking
sites – wherever they go. And that means we are all going to have to
think hard about how we rewrite the rules."
The use of mobile technologies is growing, especially among the younger generations, and represents the next frontier in learning.
Increasingly we will continue to see academic and corporate organizations research
invest, design and launch new mobile applications, many of which can be
used in a learning context.
While educators and parents might be a bit nervous to embrace this trend, the reality is that Gen Yhave already embraced the mobile web and now it's up to us to figure out how to use this technology in an educational setting to keep them interested and engaged in the learning process.
A couple days ago Jason Shellen announced that he has started a new web 2.5 venture called Plinky. Who's Jason? You may not know his name, but you do know his products. Among other things Jason was instrumental in launching both Blogger and Google Reader.
So when he gets involved in a new project, chances are good it's going to have a lasting impact. While there are precious few details on the service, Jason did post this intriguing blurb over on his blog:
"In short, Plinky will be focused on helping people have fun while creating great content...One thing I will say is that this is not a Blogger 2.0 or a
MySpace-killer but rather something that should help make using any
social site more interesting"
Hmm. Guess we'll just have to wait till this fall to get the full scoopage. But in the meantime, you should go sign-up for a invite for the Plinky beta, scheduled to go live this fall.
"Most twitterers use the service to send up-to-the-second news about the
minutiae of their lives to friends, but Rhea Borja, a member of Ms.
McGregor’s team, sees it as a way to spread NASA news to
twentysomethings. “To reach a new generation of folks,” said Ms. Borja,
a thirtysomething."(via NYT)
All the tweeting aside, if you stop and think about the technology behind this mission and how far away Mars really is ---it's just downright mind blowing.
Every day John offers up a dose of well-written (in regular English, not "tech speak"), in-depth (but not wonky) and interesting (for regular folks, not code monkey's) stories related to business, culture and latest news from the world of tech.
