Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Mind the Gap: American Teens Falling into the Digital Divide

The Center for the Digital Future has released the results their international survey of 25,000 people in Asia, Australia, North and South America and Europe on Internet usage.

Among 18-24 year olds, the top countries with Internet usage:

• 100% of British youth
• 98% of Israeli
• Czech Republic and Macao at 96%
• Canada at 95%

By contrast, only 88% of American teens of the same age had access, trailed by Hungary and Singapore, where more than seven in 10 young people use the Internet.

The big takeaway? According to the study:

"Fewer young Americans have Internet access than their peers in the Czech Republic, Canada, Macao and Britain, a survey of 13 countries around the world showed."

While we talk a lot about youth being wired and connected to technology, the reality is that there are also a lot of teens who can't afford computers, mobile phones/devices or Internet access.

For the last five years I've volunteered with a youth organization in San Diego. We've maintained a website, blog, Flickr and Facebook page for the last four years. At a recent awards dinner for the teens, one of the leaders mentioned that they would post the photos from the dinner on Flickr and our website. One of the kids raised his hand and asked, "What if we don't have a computer?"

During a quick survey of the 100 youth attending the banquet, we were shocked to find that only a couple had mobile phones, even less had access to a computer and/or Internet access at home. And while they had access at school, most reported that school computers blocked and filtered so much content, it made it an exercise in frustration.

We had been working on the assumption that because they are teens, they are "wired." The reality is, while they wanted to be totally wired, their economic status prevented them from fully participating in the information and social web revolution.

While I was at Yahoo! working on the youth and education project, I had the opportunity to collaborate with school districts both large and small. Time and time again, I heard from school administrators that their students (and many teachers for that matter) didn't have access to a computer and/or web access from home.

So while we talk about all the really great ways that technology can support learning, get youth involved in the political process or how Gen Y is totally wired, it's important to remember that there are still big chunks of this generation who are unable to participate in the shared experiences taking place in Facebook, MySpace and other virtual environments.

In terms of the digital divide, we've made leaps and bounds, but there's still a long way to go.

Related Resources

• Digital Inclusion: Content, Community & Technology
• Learning 2.0: Digital Social and Always-On
• How Obama Hooked Gen Y

CyberSurvey: What Kids, Parents and Teachers Are Doing Online

In the spring of 2007 The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative (CSEI) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) initiated the world’s largest cyber research project, which by January of 2008 involved surveying 40,000+ K-12th grade students along with hundreds of parents and teachers.

Here are some of the key findings among students, parents and educators:

Key student findings:

• Children have unsupervised access to a computer and the internet at home as early as age 5, and that by age 7, 15% report that someone was mean to them online, while 7% admit they have been mean to someone online;

• Contrary to public perception, the majority of cyber offenses involving children, t/weens, teens and young adults are perpetuated by their peers, not strangers;

• The onset of cyber bullying beginning in the second grade and it’s not always the adult predator. Reports show that 45% of the cases are friends victimizing friends.

• 23.2% admit to lying about their age online;

• 1 in 4 children between the ages 9-18 report that they have been victimized online by one or more forms of abuse within the past school year that was not reported to a grown up.

Key parent survey findings:

• 90% of surveyed parents report supervising the home computing activities of their children;

• 14% report they have caught their children visiting inappropriate websites;

• 61% parents report that their children access the web from a private place in the home;

• A majority of parents report that their children use the web to do research for school (78%), play video games (61%) and listening to music or watching movies (50%);

Key Teacher Survey Findings:

• Teachers report that they feel confident that their schools are well prepared to use technology to facilitate student learning;

• However, few teachers feel prepared or feel they are prepared to teach students about Internet safety, social computing ethics or digital literacy;

• Teachers report that there is a lack of or inconsistent professional development and/or training on information security, social computing and web safety;

• Educators are divided on the issue of using technology in the classroom and whether or not students know more about information technology than they do.

Overall, it looks like parents are doing a good job of keeping an eye on their kids and what they are doing on the Internet. That said, most safety experts recommend that kids use the computer and surf the web from public areas of their home.

While the good news is that the stereotype of the Dateline NBC-esque sexual predator is far from reality, the bad news is that students are being bullied online by their peers. This is a topic that should be addressed both at school by teachers and at home by parents.

In summer 2008, as part of the Yahoo! Teachers Tour, I had the opportunity with my colleague Karon Weber to lead workshops across the country and teach educators how to use web and social computing  technologies in their classroom. Time and time again we heard from teachers that this was exactly the type of professional development that was sorely needed.

Moreover, they reported that they were lacking hands-on, practical training on how web and social computing can be used in the classroom to prepare educators for the influx of digital learners filling their classrooms.

You can review the entire findings of the RIT CyberSafety report, including results broken down by grade level, by clicking here (pdf).

Related Resources

• Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
• Secret Lives of Teens
• Study Debunks Sexual Predator Myths
• Yahoo! Safely
• Cyberbully Pledge for Teachers
• Parents Guide to Social Networks

2009 Qwest Foundation Learning Technologies Grant

Washington State K-12 educators are invited to apply for a 2009 Qwest Foundation Learning Technologies grant. This grant application is the first step in a competitive process that will award $10,000 grants to individual public school teachers or teacher teams.

These grants reward learning projects that integrate technology into standards-based curricula. The grant is managed by Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Educational Technology unit.

Completed grant applications are due at OSPI no later than 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 21, 2009. For more information or to download the application materials, click here.

Thanks to Julia Fallon for the scoop!

Et tu, Brute? Ancient Rome comes to Google Earth

Read Write Web has some exciting information about a new mashup between Google Earth and theUniversity of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH).

Google Earth will feature a new layer, 'Ancient Rome 3D,' which is based on the IATH's 'Rome Reborn' model and which displays a 3D model of the city as it existed in 320 AD.

Overall, the Rome Reborn project recreated detailed models of over 6,700 buildings and monuments in the city, including some, like the Coliseum, which also feature highly detailed interiors. The new layer also adds a lot of new placemarks with historical information geared towards students.

Google For Educators announced a curriculum competition in conjunction with the release of the new Ancient Rome layer. Educators who create the most interesting curricula based around the Ancient Rome 3D layer will receive new Mac laptops, classroom projectors, and a digital camera.

Related Resources

• Juicy Geography
• National Geographic Society > My Wonderful World
• Geography 2.0: Google Maps Mash Up Mania
• Yahoo! Map Mixer

Ruminations: 2008 YPulse Mashup Boston

I just spent a couple days at the YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup East which was held on the campus of Boston University. As usual, it was a fantastic event! Congrats to Anastasia and the Modern Media team for putting together a really informative, fun and relevant event.

I have a few longer posts about the event brewing in my noggin that I hope to push out here on Barking Robot sometime next week. But I had a couple quick thoughts  and highlights from the event that I'd like to share while it's still fresh in ye olde noggin.

On Boston: The more time I spend in this city, the deeper I fall in love with it. New England in the fall is something that everyone should experience. One morning I took a walk along the Charles River. The tree's were heavy with orange, yellow and red foliage, the ground was still wet from the overnight rain and rowers glided silently up and down the Charles. Stunning.

On Boston University: Graceful old buildings, a deep sense of history and lots of energy oozing from the student body. Just fantastic. One morning on my way to the YPulse event, I passed the campus chapel and a beautiful sculpture of doves flying up into the sky. At the base of the monument, students had placed bundles upon bundles of flowers. I was curious, but I was also running late, so I didn't have time to learn more.

The YPulse event was opened by Dean Kenneth Elmore, Dean of Students at Boston University. He started with a super energetic and warm welcome to Boston the city and Boston the University. Dean Elmore was full of passion, energy and enthusiasm. As part of his keynote, he spoke about President-Elect Obama, collaboration, community and how great things can be accomplished when we work together. It was very inspiring.

Dean Elmore also took a moment to explain more about the bundles of flowers being left at the base of the sculpture I had seen earlier in the day. The sculpture is a memorial to one of the greatest alumnus ever to study at Boston University--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The morning after Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America, students began to spontaneously leave flowers at the MLK monument to honor Dr. King and his contributions, sacrifice and role in making the Obama presidency a reality. It gave me chills.

We need more people like Dean Elmore in the world.

On Virgin Mobile: Ron Faris from Virgin Mobile USA gave a really fantastic presentation on the Virgin Mobile Festival and Pro-Social Initiatives. He started by having everyone text "karma" to 68405. He then told us that for every text, American Eagle would donate a hoodie to homeless teen. Way to go Virgin Mobile!

Ron's presentation was really, really interesting. Virgin Mobile, and the Virgin brand, have done some really innovative, creative and interesting work in the music, pro-social, marketing and branding space. He also talked about the mobile and texting habits of Gen Y and how Virgin is leveraging mobile to engage and market to youth. You can read more on the live blog transcript.

At the end of his presentation, he mentioned that Virgin Mobile next pro-social cause is to become an advocate on the issue of homeless teens. Virgin Mobile will be launching an awareness campaign in the next couple of weeks. Want to hear something shocking? According to research conducted by Virgin Mobile, there are approximately 1 million homeless teens in the United States of America.

Yes....1 million.

These teens are homeless for a variety of reasons ranging from being kicked out by their parents due to sexual orientation, abusive parents or being abandoned. This figure just floored me. I've spent a lot of time working with homeless adults and mothers with children, but I was woefully ignorant on the subject of homeless teens.

I spoke to the Virgin Mobile team about their homeless teen campaign and I will keep everyone here at Barking Robot updated on how you can help out. I feel very strongly that the education technology community should be actively and passionately involved in this issue. Homeless teens are an education issue.

On SurveyU & MTV: Dan Coates from SurveyU gave a really interesting and relevant presentation titled, What Every Brand Could Learn from the Obama Campaign's Marketing to College Students. He shared lots of really good information, far too much to share here, but you can read more over on the YPulse Live Blog. SurveyU also had a very, very interesting report titled, What Happens to Media as Millennial Take Control?, that I'll blog about in-depth next week.

Dan Hart, SVP MTV Digital, also gave a very insightful presentation, Engaging Viewers Through Multiple Screens, where he talked about MTV's strategy to meet the demands and viewing habits of their (mostly) Gen Y viewers.

One example of how MTV was meeting the always on media habits of Gen Y was Backchannel --a social and interactive platform that allows "fans gather to talk about The Hills as it happens! Type your thoughts and don't hold back! Other players award points with a click of their mouse on the best comments. When it's your turn to click, earn points by predicting the comments you think will be the most popular." Mr. Hart said that this multi-channel approach has been wildly successful and popular.

On YPulse: As usual, this was a fantastic event. The next YPulse Mashup will be held in San Francisco on June 1 & 2, 2009. If you work with youth in education, technology, social services or marketing, you should--no you need--to attend the 2009 YPulse Mashup.

And now, time for that nap...

Related Resources

• YPulse.com
• Day 1: YPulse Mashup East Transcript
• Day 2: Morning Sessions, YPulse Mashup East
• Day 2: Afternoon Sessions, Ypulse Mashup East
• Twitter: #ymme

Pixton for Schools

I just received an update from Clive over at Pixton about their very popular Pixton for Schools product. Due to the current economic climate and the limited budgets available to teachers, Pixton has decided to level out the cost to be $1 USD per student per month.

This discounted price makes Pixton for Schools equally accessible to classrooms, large or small.

Remember that you can easily embed a Pixton comic into a wiki, blog or website. So why not grab your free PBwiki and use it as a virtual comic book where your students can easily and safely share their comics with their peers?

Related Resources

• Meet Pixton
• PBwiki 2008 Back to School Challenge
• Pixton Safety Tips

Obama on Education Reform

Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America's Teachers

* Recruit Teachers: Obama and Biden will create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a high-need field or location.

* Prepare Teachers: Obama and Biden will require all schools of education to be accredited. Obama and Biden will also create a voluntary national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively.

Obama and Biden will also create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.

* Retain Teachers: To support our teachers, the Obama-Biden plan will expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with new recruits. They will also provide incentives to give teachers paid common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices.

* Reward Teachers: Obama and Biden will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase.

Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.

Related Resources

• EdTech for Obama
• Seeding a New Community: Yahoo! For Teachers
• Yahoo! Teachers: It's About Relationships
• Research on K12 New Media Literacy

Call for Papers: 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology

Persuasive Technology is all about using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to change what we think and do. We are just entering the era of persuasive technology, of interactive computing systems designed to change people’s attitudes and behaviors.

The Claremont conference will assemble people from all parts of the world interested in such technologies by sharing their insights into how video games, mobile phone applications, web sites and social networking sites can be designed to motivate and influence people.

Academics and practitioners with an interest in research, theory, technologies, design, and applications related to persuasion are invited to submit their work for presentation at Persuasive 2009 to be held at the Claremont Colleges campus, in Claremont, California.

If you're interested in the mobile boom (and you should be!), be sure to check out Mobile Persuasion by my friend, Dr. BJ Fogg. This is a must read for anyone involved with digital media and education technology. BJ also is the founder of the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab.

Related Resources

• Mobile Persuasion 2009
• Persuasive 2009
• Book > Mobile Persuasion
• Book > Persuasive Technology
• Stanford Facebook Class
• International Journal of Computer Game Research

PBwiki 2008 Back to School Challenge

Don't forget! PBwiki is giving away a free premium wiki to educators as part of the 2008 Back to School Challenge. You can also win all sorts of prizes and other cool things. Plus, get a free online professional development course just for signing up!

Setting up a PBwiki is as easy as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! You can learn more about all the ways you can use a wiki in your classroom to enhance and support student learning over on the PBWiki Education page, or the PBwiki Educator Community. PBwiki's are 100% ad-free and totally private.

Educators can also use PBwiki Plugins to add multimedia content with a few clicks, including spreadsheets, calendars, chat rooms, videos, Pixton comics, maps, photo slideshows, and more. If you have other embeddable widgets (like Google Gadgets), you can also insert them in your PBwiki.

To claim your free wiki, simply sign up using the following URL where you will be automatically be guided through the process of creating your free premium educational wiki: http://pbwiki.com/?special=87937&refwiki=ningedu

Once you create your wiki, you will also be eligible to participate in PBwiki's Back-To-School Challenge, which will offer teachers like you a chance to win free school supplies and other prizes by sharing lesson plans, blogging, and offering tips on creating a collaborative classroom or library.

Related Resources

• PBwiki > Education
• PBwiki > Education Directory
• PBwiki 101 > Video Tutorial
• PBwiki Help

World Golf Tour: A Virtual Wonderland

Despite the growing body of evidence to the contrary, if you ask people to describe the stereotypical video game player, most would describe a teenage boy who spend hours a day playing violent video games in isolation. But as with most stereotypes, perception is usually very far from reality.

Take the video gamer described above. Would you be surprised to learn that the average video gamer is a 35 year old male who has been playing for 13 years? But wait, there’s more.

According to the 2008 Electronic Software Association’s 2008 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry:

• 40% of all players are women and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics;

• Adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (18%);

• 26% of game players are over the age of 50;

• 56% percent of online game players are male and 44% are female.

Clearly there is a huge market opportunity for the video and online game industry to meet the needs of this burgeoning casual gaming demographic. World Golf Tour (WGT) is a free online golfing destination whose goal is to be the premier virtual world destination designed to meet the needs of an affluent, dynamic and active community.

So, what exactly is World Golf Tour? Take the popularity of online gaming, mash it with the nearly 61 million golfers in the world, throw in a dash of Second Life and you have World Golf Tour. Like other virtual worlds, WGT has a variety of key features:

• Members of WGT can create a customized avatar, build a social network, create a user profile and friend other players;

• WGT also has multiplayer support, allowing you to challenge your friends or hit the greens solo;

• In addition, WGT has amazing 3D graphics that make you feel like you are on a real golf course.

• Members can also check their stats on the global leader board, participate in skill challenges.

• WGT members can compete in tournaments for prizes, sharing scores, testing out the newest equipment and reading the latest news in the golfing world.

All in all WGT is off to an impressive start. In fact the membership numbers have zoomed, with unique visitors up an astonishing 922% over last month.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW WGT CREATED THEIR AMAZING 3D IMAGES

A couple things worth noting:

• WGT has amazing 3D graphics, but it eats up a lot of memory. In fact, my browser (I’m using FF 3.0.3) crashed, slowed down and/or froze. This happened on both my Mac and PC. Other WGT users have reported the same issues. That said, the WGT does an amazing job of working the community forums and helping resolve issues.

• If don’t already have it on your computer, you’ll need Flash 9 or higher to use the game. You can download it here.

• Taking a monetization cue from virtual worlds aimed at t/weens, WGT will offer virtual golf goods for members to purchase. I assume this will include things like better clubs and/or branded accessories for your avatar.

• Credits are the in-world currency at WGT. In order to play in some World Golf Tour online tournaments, you will need to pay an entry fee with game credits.

Things I’d like to see:

• A WGT widget that you can slap on your blog, website, or Facebook page;

• I’d also like to see WGT use social web tools like Twitter or Get Satisfaction as community outreach tools beyond the borders of the WGT environment;

• I found the WGT music to be very annoying. There really needs to be a “Mute” button in the header. (Tip: If you go into your profile, you can turn the music and other sounds off.)

As the buzz around WGT continues to gain momentum, I have no doubt that WGT will continue to grow in popularity among golfers and gamers alike. In fact, if the economic meltdown continues, don’t be surprised if this winter’s hottest golf retreat ends up being virtual the links on The World Golf Tour.

All in all the team over at WGT has created an impressive virtual world that has masterfully combined the social nature of golf with online gaming and brought it to the social web.

Related Resources

• Older Internet Users Catching Up with Gen Y
• International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Stewart Butterfield on Games & Learning
• Japanese Schools Embrace Nintendo DS

ILC 2008: Meet Pixton

Last week I attended the Innovative Learning Conference (ILC) in San Jose, California. Despite what seemed like a very light turnout, it turned out to be a great conference experience. The educators attending ILC were engaging and it gave me a chance to meet up with some of my social networking pals in real life. I also had the opportunity to see some really good presentations.

Like most conferences there was an exhibition hall with lots of vendors touting their goods and services as the latest and greatest learning tool. All the usual ed tech suspects, with their big marketing machines, were there in force.

But what really intrigued me the most was a couple from Vancouver, B.C who have created a mind blowing, game changing and all around awesome web-based comic strip generation tool called Pixton. 

What is Pixton?

Simply stated, Pixton is a social community where anyone can easily create, share, remix and publish their comic strip stories with people around the globe. If you find a great comic in French, you can instantly translate it into English. Or German. Or even Greek. Pretty cool, eh?

There are three versions: Pixtion for Fun (public), Pixton for Schools (education) and Pixton Storyboard (private).

Pixton for Schools provides students with an active and fun learning experience. It's also a good way for teachers to tap into the multiple learning styles of their students. Teachers can also create accounts for students without requiring them to have an email address. Pixton is also an amazing digital tool for students to create digital storytelling projects.

In terms of the educational value of comics, the Pixton team emphasizes the following:

• Pathway to Literacy: Instantly capture students' attention and motivate them to learn, using a familiar medium they understand.

• Collaboration: Foster peer-to-peer interaction between students. Or between students and teachers.

• Visual Learning: Reinforce your lesson through the associative power of words and images.

In terms of teaching, Pixton for Schools has a Lesson Bank where educators can share their lessons with other teachers. Teachers can also create their own private, safe and secure virtual learning environment (VLE) right on Pixton!

Beyond the classroom, Pixton would be a great way to quickly and easily build professional development, training, tutorials or other pre or in-service materials. You can learn more about the how you can use Pixton in an educational setting or the educational value of comics by downloading the free Pixton for Schools information packet (pdf).

The Pixton tool set is very intuitive, easy-to-use, and really fun. If you browse the public gallery, you'll see all the creative ways people are using Pixton and your mind will quickly overflow with ideas.

And there are lots of ways for you to share what you create with others outside the Pixton community. You can embed your Pixton comic in a wiki (like PBwiki), blog, or share a link via email, Twitter or IM. And soon you'll be able to print out your comic too.

Clive and Daina Goodinson have created powerful and fun learning tool that is bound to be a popular and powerful learning tool for the digital and traditional classroom. All in all, Pixton is an exciting edition to the social web.

Following in the footsteps of Flickr, YouTube and Twitter, Pixton is poised to join the short list of cutting-edge, top-tier and truly innovative social web tools. The really exciting thing is that Clive and Daina are just getting started.

I can't wait to see what else they have planned for Pixton and beyond.

Related Resources

• Pixton
• Pixton on Twitter
• Pixton on Facebook
• Pixton Safety Tips
• Pixton > Gregory Corso

Microsoft to Fund Video Game Research

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that they would invest $1.5 million dollars in educational video game research. The investment is part of a larger, NYU led initiative to "to find scientific evidence that supports the use of games as a learning tool."

The games that are developed will be prototyped in several NYC schools. And while the games will be developed for use on the Xbox console, Microsoft is taking an open approach and has extended an invitation to other video game console makers to participate in the study.

Microsoft also announced a partnership with PBS to distribute digital content to the 12 million subscribers to Xbox Live. Also worth noting is that game maker Knowledge Adventure is bringing its Math Blaster game to Wii's WiiWare channel and the Xbox 360's Live Arcade. They are also working on designs for an iPhone version of the game. Given the mobile nature of today's kids, this seems like a great idea.

At the University of Michigan, a research team is looking into the potential that digital games have for teaching students concepts and skills. As part of their study, they have designed a web-based board game for teaching undergraduate students about Information Literacy Concepts and Skills. They chose a game for the task for many research-based reasons, but also because:

"Games can be with the student when an information expert cannot be. Games can be in the dorm room, at the coffee house, and anywhere else that the Internet can be accessed. Games are a way to bring information expertise to the users where they are already working."

All of this comes on the heels of a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that found that, when it comes to video games, "playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day."

Even more importantly, and defying stereotypes, the Pew Study found that  "game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time."

Related Resources

• Japanese Schools Embrace Nintendo DS
• International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Stewart Butterfield on Games & Learning
• 2009 Game Developers Conference

Mobile Filmmaker: Mankind is No Island

Mankind is No Island is a short film created by Jason van Genderen using his mobile phone. This 3 minute film cost $57 to make, was shot in New York and Sydney, and won first place at the New York Tropfest Film Festival.

While some schools are busy banning them, others are embracing mobile technology and integrating it into their classroom. For Gen Y, the mobile phone is about more than just personal voice-based communication.

This totally-wired generation views the mobile phone as an extension of their identity, status, social capital and view it as the cornerstone of their social life. Instead of banning mobile phones in the classroom, educators need to find creative and engaging ways for students to use them in project-based activities.

It's time to shift our thinking about millennial's and mobile phones.

Related Resources

• Kiwanja: Mobile Enabled Social Change
• Research on Hispanic Teens & Mobile Phones
• Generation Text: Gen Y & Mobile Phones
• Detrtius > Essentials
• Gen Y: Mobile and Ready to Learn
  

ILC 2008: Special Discount Offer

The Innovative Learning Conference (ILC) is an interactive three-day conference and exposition produced in partnership with CUE and FETC for the K-12 education community.

ILC 2008, is being held in the heart of Silicon Valley, will offer “hands-on” workshops, concurrent sessions, meetings and exhibitions.  I'm excited to be covering ILC 2008 as part of the education blogger and press corps.

I'm pleased to announce that now through Oct. 6, Barking Robot readers are eligible to receive an exclusive discount of $40 off of conference registration fees. To claim the discount, simply use the special promotional code ORG40 during registration.

See you there!

Related Resources

• CUE
• Upcoming > ILC 2008
• Flickr > Groups > ILC 2008

The Ultimate 21st Century Skill? Chinese.

A recent article over on The Motely Fool, How to Make Your Child Globally Competitive, makes the case that in order for today's Gen Y students to be competitive in the global workforce, they'll need have to have more than just a college degree and technology skills.

So what's the real killer 21st Century skill? The ability to speak Chinese. Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese to be exact.

"As Thomas Friedman outlined in his seminal work, "The World is Flat," technology has leveled the international playing field into one where the weakest fall by the wayside and only the brave, bold, and adaptable will survive.

Scary, huh? Until U.S. schools get their act together, it will be up to parents to ensure that their kids obtain the tools necessary to compete.

Fret not, moms and dads, you don't necessarily need to have these skills yourselves to help your children obtain them. Fortunately, we are living in an age where if you can't do something yourself, help is only a mouse click away.

So what's the first step for children with dreams of conquering the world?"

Why Chinese?

According to Goldman Sachs, by 2050 China is poised to be the leading global economy, passing the U.S., Japan, India and the European Union. Sounds like it's time to get those Gen Y kids speaking Chinese.

Or at least downloading the English-Chinese app onto their iPhone.

Related Resources

• Thomas Friedman
• China Open Core Resources (CORE)
• [video] Thomas Friedman: The World is Flat
• China Business Network >The Chinese Pod Approach to Learning Chinese
• ChinesePod