Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

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]

Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award

The Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award (sponsored by Dell) will honor a trailblazing teacher who has successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of technology, mobile technology, social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) in the classroom.

The award is inspired by Ypulse founder Anastasia Goodstein’s book, Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online, and the challenges she observed around integrating technology into public school classrooms. We will recognize a teacher who has overcome these challenges and is inspiring both students and other educators.

The award-winner likely had to overcome challenges from parents and administrators in order to use the technology, but because they understand how students use social media outside of school, they persevered with their initiative and worked collaboratively with students, ultimately sharing their insight and knowledge with the larger teaching community.

Representatives from Ypulse and Dell will choose three finalists to interview by phone. The selected teacher will be honored in person at the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup June 1-2 in San Francisco.

All three finalists will receive a IT solution from Dell to use in their respective schools. Teachers can nominate themselves. You can get all of the details about how to nominate a teacher (or if you're a teacher, how to nominate yourself!) over on Ypulse.

Related Links

• Dell > EDU4U
• Follow Dell Education on Twitter
• Totally Wired Teen Book
• Ypulse Interview: Josh Shipp, Advice Slinger, HeyJosh.com
• Video > Anastasia Goodstein on "Totally Wired" Teens
• Follow YPulse on Twitter

Global Youth: Miley Cyrus & Youth Service Day 2009

Miley Cyrus (aka 'Hannah Montana') has teamed up with Youth Service America to promote community service for the 21st annual Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) on April 24-26, 2009.

Global Youth Service Day is the largest service event in the world and draws the world’s attention to the amazing contributions young people make to their communities every day. 

Millions of youth in more than 100 countries will organize community service projects that address problems in health, education, human service, and the environment.

The online community gives kids the opportunity to  take action, share results, and support the YSA's goal of encouraging youth to get involved in their communities through service.

Related Resources

• Global Youth Service Day
• Twitter > Youth Service America
• Jonas Brothers Encourage T/weens to Volunteer

Report: Gen Y Wants TV to Get More Social

Research from Park Associates found that over one-fourth of broadband users ages 18-24 are interested in having social media features integrated on their TV.

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.

This should come as welcome news to companies like Yahoo!, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon and Netflix--all of who are actively seeking ways to push the web--and presumably our social networks--into our living rooms and television sets.

This research also dovetails with other research finding that Gen Y doesn't watch TV and when they do, they prefer to watch programming or access content on their own terms and time line. And given their

Other highlights from the Parks Report:

• Younger consumers appetite for social experiences don’t end on the computer screen, but are enhanced via their access on TVs and mobile phones;

• This expansion of social media has implications for service providers, advertisers, and CE manufacturers as well as the networking sites;

• 23% of U.S. broadband households want to view content from sites like YouTube and Flickr on their TVs.

• Forecasts 95 million social networking users by 2013.

What's next? Facebook or Twitter on your TV? Never say never, eh?

Related Resources

• TV 2.0, Social Media & Multiplatform Media Consumption
• On Demand Is in Demand by Millennials, Motorola Study Shows
• XBOX and Netflix Team Up
• Amazon, Netflix Get Another Streaming Partner: TV Maker Vizio
• Yahoo! Connected TV > TV Widgets

One Laptop Per Child: Join the OLPCorps Africa Movement

Active students spark revolutions and inspire movements. Our education movement is no different. With this in mind, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program has started the OLPCorps Africa project.

The OLPCorps will equip teams of students from around the world with 100 XOs, hardware, training, and financial support to expand learning in Africa for children ages 6-12.

The OLPCorps are looking for agents of change capable of leading the first global grassroots movement in learning. Student-led teams will:

* travel to one of the 53 African countries of their choosing for 9-10 weeks
* participate in a 10-day orientation in Kigali, Rwanda at OLPC’s office
* receive a $10,000 (USD) stipend to cover operating costs
* deploy 100 XO laptops, including hardware and support
* collaborate with up to 100 other teams as part of a life-long global network empowering a generation of children
* send one representative to MIT/OLPC’s all-expense paid summit from Oct 10th-12th 2009

For more information, or to apply, click here.

Related Resources

• OLPCorps Wiki
• Flickr Video > OLPC Mission
• One Laptop Per Child Program
  
• 1:1 Computing: Moving from Theory to Practice
• Gary Stager >> Laptops and Learning

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

Vicki Davis: Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom

The Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom workshop was created by Vicki Davis, recognized Web 2.0 expert and creator of the Cool Cat Teacher blog, for Atomic Learning.

In the Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom workshop, Davis herself utilizes Atomic Learning’s short, show-and-tell video tutorials to guide users through flattening their classroom by expanding it to include global communities and collaboration tools.

The workshop is a valuable resource for educators seeking to integrate technology and includes over 80 tutorials on topics such as Applying ISTE NETS standards to your project, Connecting Classrooms online, Digital Citizenship and Safety and many more.

View the workshop by clicking here.

Related Resources

• Flat Classroom Conference
• Atomic Learning
• PBwiki Back-to-School Challenge
• Flat Bobby Flickr Project

Animoto: Learning Made Musical (and Fun)

Animoto is a slick new web app that takes your pictures, mashes it with audio, and creates a music video that can be exported to YouTube or embedded in a variety of social networks or blog.

Here's a Animoto short video I created using moblog pictures I took on a recent trip to San Francisco. I uploaded my pictures from Flickr, picked a slick track by The Dimes, and Animoto did the rest!

There are lots of ways you can use Animoto in the classroom. Animoto is a natural fit for project based learning activities. This is a great way to get students actively interested in history, literature or even science.

And unlike the open web, Animoto provides teachers and students with a controlled environment for them to create and share video. Other sharing options include email to a friend, downloads (for Pro accounts) and some sort of iTunes integration.

Creating a music video with Animoto is also a great way to open the conversation about copyright and Creative Commons. One of the barriers for educators using this type of technology is fear about using music and all the copyright issues that pop up when using an audio track in a video project.

Animoto has done the education community a great service by providing a wide variety of music that can be used by students and teachers. Creative Commons also has a wide selection of music that can be used in an Animoto movie.

You can import your images from all the major photo sites, including Flickr, Facebook, Picassa Web Albums, and Photobucket. Film shorts are free, and full-length videos are $3 bucks. All in all, Animoto sports some really amazing technology.

I have no doubt that the education community is going to create some really amazing projects using Animoto. And towards that end, I've created a public YouTube group, AnimotoEDU, where you can share your classroom project with other educators.

Related Resources

• YouTube Group > AnimotoEDU
• Animoto: The Buzz
• Creative Commons > Audio
• Animoto Blog
• Education & Copyright

Survey: Microsoft Education & Digital Copyright

Microsoft has released the results of a study it conducted regarding teens, illegal downloads and copyright. Among the findings:

- American teenagers between 7th and 10th grades are less likely to illegally download content from the Internet when they know the laws for downloading and sharing content online;

- 49% of respondents said they are not familiar with the rules and guidelines for downloading images, literature, music, movies and software from the Internet;

- 11% said they understood the rules of copyright and illegal downloading of content "very well";

-  76% of boys and 68% of girls said that they would not continue after being told the rules to download or share content over the Internet without paying for it.

In conjunction with the findings of the survey, Microsoft Education has developed model curriculum and resources for educators to help them educate students on the issues around copyright, digital literacy and illegal downloading of content.

In addition they have created, MyBytes, a site where t/weens can learn more about copyright and "develop their own intellectual property and assign usage rights by mixing music online to create a custom riff that they can download as a ring tone."

I think it would also be interesting to survey teachers and see how well they understand "educational fair use" and other issues around copyright. My guess is that they are as confused about what digital content they are allowed to use as the rest of us.

Thankfully, organizations like Creative Commons are taking the lead on the copyright issue, providing a set of alternative licenses to traditional copyright while the lawyers and publishing/recording/movie industry figure it out for themselves.

Related Resources

• Microsoft > Teens Less Likely to Download Study
• MyBytes
• Teacher Guide to IP
• Creative Commons 101

Many Voices For Darfur Project

Learn more about the Many Voices for Darfur project. This is a great way to get your students involved in world events. This project was started by Mr. Mayo, a teacher from Rockville, Maryland.

Get Involved!

Related Resources

• Mr. Mayo Blog
• Flickr > tag > darfur
• Wikipedia > Darfur
• Yahoo! Teacher Document > Twitter Many Voices Project

Teachers talked. Yahoo! listened.

Film Credit: BAYCAT, a non-profit community media producer that educates, empowers and employs underserved youth and adults in the digital media arts.

In July of 2006, Yahoo! invited a cadre of teachers, media specialists, and librarians to come spend a week on the Yahoo! campus and talk about how together we could leverage the technology and social media know-how at Yahoo! to support teachers in the classroom. We called this group of educational pioneers our Yahoo! Teachers of Merit.

They came from urban, suburban, wired, not-so-wired, public and private schools located all over the San Francisco Bay Area. We had veteran teachers and newbie teachers. We had first year Teach for America teachers and teachers entering their final year of teaching. We asked this amazing and diverse group of educators to bring their teacher's eye, and plenty of advice.

We wanted to know what technology works, what doesn't work in the classroom. We also made it clear that Yahoo! understands it's about using technology to support instruction, not using instruction to support technology.

The result is Yahoo! For Teachers a free ePortfolio and global community for educators. We want you to join us! You can sign up for an invite over on the YFT preview site.

Related Resources

• WebProNews > Yahoo! For Teachers Shaping up Nicely
• Hacking Education with Yahoo! For Teachers
• Yahoo! For Teachers
• del.icio.us + Yahoo! Teachers
• Flickr + Yahoo! Teachers

Mashup Edu: A New Digital Pedagogy

Dr. Mercedes Fisher and I just finished a new book chapter titled "Pedagogical Mashup: Social Media, Gen Y and Digital Learning Styles" that will be published early next year. I'll have more details in a future post, but in the meantime I wanted to share the bounty of resources we culled together for the article.

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

If you have any questions, or know of a great Education 2.0 resource that we should include, let us know!

Related Articles by Mercedes Fisher & Derek E. Baird

• Making mLearning Work: Gen Y, Learning & Mobile Technologies
• Social Software & Online Learning Design
• Social Media & Digital Learning Styles

Digital Learning Styles, Gen Y & Yahoo!

Related Resources

• Yahoo! for Teachers + Slideshare 
• Slideshare Group > Yahoo! for Teachers
• Yahoo! for Teachers
• Learning Styles 2.0: Digital, Social, and Always On

Creative Commons: Wanna Work Together?

This is a great introduction to Creative Commons. I learned about this video from one of the amazing teachers attending the Yahoo! Teachers workshop in New York City a few weeks ago. Thanks Mr. Circe!

Resources

• Flickr + Creative Commons
• Flickr + Yahoo! Search
• Mr. Circe Blog

Collaborative Art 2.0: The Moo-Art Project

Have you heard about the Moo-Art Project? It's a collaborative (global) web-based art installation. I think. Actually, it's hard to figure out exactly what or who is behind this project. As best I can tell it's not affiliated with the fine folks over at Moo. But then I might be wrong. Don't hold me to it.

Sidebar: If you are a member of Flickr or Vox and haven't checked out Moo Cards, you're missing out. Go. Now! Well. After you finish reading this post will be fine. Thank you.

So back to the Moo-Art Project. I don't know what the heck it is, but i'm intrigued. So I plopped down my 10€ (approx $13 USD) and I'm now the proud owner of piece 37. I don't know what that means either. Sorry.

But like I said, I'm intrigued. I'll keep you posted when (or if) I figure it all out.