Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

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 it also did big numbers on 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, Ypulse Youth Advisory Board member Nina shares 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 character 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]

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 (thanks @tandrusiak!), 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]

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!

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]

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]

Mary Poppins Remix'd

'Expialidocious' originally uploaded by Fagoottron on YouTube. Download the MP3 here.

Related Resources

• Henry Jenkins > Convergence Culture
• Remix Culture
• Creative Commons > ccMixer
  

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

Social Networking Safety Tips for Parents & Educators

One of the things I enjoy most about my work is having the opportunity to talk with parents and educators and dispel some of the myths or fears around their kids' use of social media.  No matter the audience, my message is pretty consistent: Don't panic!

Time and time again, I urge parents and educators to arm themselves with knowledge and understand that blocking content and web pages isn't the answer. Here are some other tips:

• Talk to your kids/students about what is appropriate and not appropriate information to release on the Internet. Take an active role in their digital life.
  

• Protect your kids digital identity by creating news alerts for their name on Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

• Talk about the implications “lifecasting” can and will have on their future.

• Remind kids that the web is that "permanent record" we were all warned about. Even though you go back and change that blog entry or delete that embarrassing photo, the information is archived on the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine.

• Whether it's Club Penguin, MyYearbook or MySpace--make sure your kids learn how and why they should use privacy filters--and then double check to make sure they are using them.

• Visit the sites your kids use and read the TOS (Terms of Service) and/or Community Guidelines. Learn how to report abuse and share the information with your kids. And while you're at it, learn more about COPPA.

• Social networks are self-policing, if you find objectionable content, bullying or other abuse—report it! Think of it as a 21^st Century Neighborhood Watch program.

There are lots of great resources out there to empower parents and educators on social media safety & cyberbullying. The ADL, Yahoo!, Media Awareness Network, myYearbook and MySpace (to name a few) all provide free web safety guides for parents and teachers on web safety, digital literacy & social media.

Related Resources

• NetFamily News
• Texting Tips for Parents & Educators
• Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online
• Study Debunks Sexual Predator Myths
• Microsoft Wants to Help Families Get Game Smart

comScore Reports a Rise in U.S. Online Video Consumption

New data released today by comScore shows a 34% increase of online video consumption by U.S. Internet users versus year ago. A total of 12.7 billion online videos were viewed during November 2008.

Not surprisingly, Google/YouTube held the top spot with a 40% share of videos viewed online. Also in the top five most visited video sites were Fox Interactive (3.5%), Viacom (2.6%), Yahoo! (2.4%) and Microsoft (2.3%).

Other tidbits from the comScore report:

• 77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The average online video viewer watched 273 minutes of video.
• 97 million viewers watched 5.1 billion videos on YouTube.com (52.3 videos per viewer).
• 52.5 million viewers watched 371 million videos on MySpace.com (7.1 videos per viewer).
• The duration of the average online video was 3.1 minutes.
• The duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 11.9 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top ten.

Online video is growing by leaps and bound across all categories. If you look beyond the comScore report, you see huge numbers of people watching streaming video on the web and, increasingly, mobile devices like the iPhone or iPod.

And it's not just teens. Adults are also voracious consumers of online video.

A recent article, Younger Viewers New Media, provides an additional snapshot of the growth of online video content consumption (Thanks Anastasia!). Among the findings:

• In October 2008, Cartoon Network reported over 6 million users visited Cartoon.com, spending an average of 34 minutes.
• AdultSwim.com, users spent over 24.4 million minutes — about 25 minutes per person — watching videos and playing games.
• MTV Reports shows are being streamed tens of millions of times each month.

As the web increasingly moves to the mobile space, it will be interesting to see if mobile video follows a similar growth trajectory to video streamed via the web. MTV reports that it's "on track to deliver about 100 million videos to mobile phones."

So are kids only watching online video? Or are they still watching "traditional" television. Pick a study, any study. It's easy to find research to back up just about any corporate, academic or political agenda.

If I had to guess, I'd say that kids consume video content both online and off. They will use whatever device--tv, iPod, computer, Hulu, network tv--is readily available to them. Remember, this is the "always-on" generation. When it comes to content, the "how" isn't nearly as important as the "when."

Related Resources

• Generation V: How Teens Consume Video
• CBS News: Gen Y & Technology
• iGeneration: Always On

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

Microsoft to Embrace OpenID

TechCrunch is reporting that Microsoft (finally!) has seen the light and will begin rolling out the integration of OpenID into their network of cloud services. Sayeth the DasCrunch:

"Login standard OpenID has gotten a huge boost today from Microsoft, as the company has announced that users will soon be able to login to any OpenID site using their Windows Live IDs.

With over 400 million Windows Live accounts (many of which see frequent use on the Live’s Mail and Messenger services), the announcement is a massive win for OpenID. And Microsoft isn’t just supporting OpenID - the announcement goes as far as to call it the de facto login standard."

In other news, Yahoo! has announced that next week it will launch their open platform application. According to VentureBeat, the Yahoo! Application Platform (Y!AP) will "make Yahoo! more useful by giving third-party applications a way to plug into and link Yahoo services and user data."

Related Resources

• Azure: Microsoft's New Cloud Service
• Microsoft & Google to Join Open Content Movement
• Open Publishing: Oprah, Suze & Penguin
• On the Web, Even the Most Secretive Companies Eventually Embrace Openness

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

Google Docs, Education & Student Privacy

Online writing tools like Google Docs, Adobe Buzzword & Zoho are amazing free tools that are used by many educators. But who owns your online documents? Are there any laws or issues that you need to be aware of before using these tools in your classroom?

According to a post on the Open Sky Media Blog, "while your personal computer may not care about your tastes in fiction, the web service you choose to write and/or host your documents just might."

For example, did you know that the Google Docs TOS state that "“you give Google a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through the Service." Moreover, Google Docs further stipulate that "students must be 13 or over to use Google Docs."

Why?

Because Google, like every other corporation that is providing an online service to students, must comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law outlines how and what types of personal information may be collected and when and how to seek verifiable consent (written permission) from a parent or guardian. The law, despite it's quirks, is designed to protect the privacy of minors.

To be clear, Google is doing exactly what they are required by law to do. As tween site Imbee found out, failure to comply with COPPA can cost a company millions of dollars in legal bills and fines. If you do decide to use Google Docs in your classroom, be sure to obtain written permission from your students parent or guardian. Failure to do so could put your school and career in jeopardy.

To be clear, I'm not trying to knock Google Docs. It's a great product. My intent is to make sure that educators are aware of the issues. It's important that you, as the teacher, know all the associated issues and legal requirements associated with using this tool before using it in your classroom.

Related Resources

• Imbee.com Settles COPPA Violation
• Google Docs in Elementary Schools
• Collaborative Writing via Skype & Google Docs
• Making Across the Country Feel Like Across the Classroom

Get Lively with Google Labs

Look out SecondLife, Zwinky and Yahoo! Avatar Towns, here comes Lively, a new service from Google Labs.

Lively is a virtual world that allows you to create an avatar and then use it to chat and hang out in 3D virtual rooms that can be embedded anywhere on the Web.

You can also, just like the popular Yahoo! Avatars, get clothing, create and decorate your own virtual room and hang out with friends. Avatars and virtual worlds are a huge business, especially among the tween set who, not only love to create avatars, but also love to spend their parents real cash on virtual goods.

Right now, most of the items at Lively are free, but I'm sure that product placement and fee-based items will be showing up rather quickly.

This seems like a natural extension of the Google advertising machine, so it will be interesting to see what impact Lively has in the land of digital self representation (avatars) and if Google is able to topple the popular virtual worlds like created by Linden Labs and Yahoo!.

Related Resources

• GirlSense Joins the IAC Tweendom
• Tweens: A very tough crowd
• TechCrunch on Virtual Goods
• Moshi Monsters: Virtual World
• YPulse > Tweens

Adobe, Acrobat & Buzzword

Today Adobe launched Acrobat.com a new suite of web-based services that includes, Buzzword, an online word processor that will--especially in the education 2.0 community--go head-to-head with Google Docs.

According to the Acrobat blog the new Acrobat Suite is comprised of three distinctive applications:

• Adobe Buzzword for creating and reviewing documents together.
• Adobe ConnectNow for holding full-fledged online web conferences/video conferencing with up to three people.
• The Acrobat.com organizer for sharing 5GB of files with others online, including the ability to convert 5 documents to PDF and embed your documents in blogs, wikis or other web pages.

Buzzword is compatible with MS Word and also allows you to export your document as a RTF, PDF or MS Word file. It also includes many features to allow for easy web-based collaboration such as real time editing, version control and a slick interface that allows you to easily insert and scale pictures in a Buzzword document.

One of the issues we faced on Yahoo! For Teachers was creating a rich text editor that was easy-to-use, compatible with MS Word and easily allowed users to insert and manipulate images in a document. I spent some time this afternoon playing around with Buzzword and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with what Adobe has put together.

One feature that I didn't see (and if anyone finds it, let me know) was a Creative Commons plug-in (similar to the one in MS Office) that automatically inserts a CC license into a Buzzword document. I feel that the inclusion of this type of plug-in would provide teachers with an opportunity to discuss copyright and digital literacy issues with their students. I also believe that a CC plug-in for Buzzword would provide a boost to the open educational resources (OER) movement.

As education continues to move towards the web, these types of collaborative tools will be increasingly important. It's clear that Adobe has spent a lot of thought into this product and the result is an impressive suite of free tools that will surely be popular within the education community. This type of virtual collaborative environment also appeals to the digital sensibilities of Gen Y students.

The Acrobat suite of tools are very impressive and just may well provide the first real peek into the 21st Century classroom.Side out: Adobe.

Game on.

Related Resources

• Acrobat Blog
• Google Apps
• Mash Up EDU: A New Digital Pedagogy

Twitter & NASA: Meet the Martians

This has been a big week for Twitter. And no, I'm not talking about this weeks multiple outages stemming from its stratospheric growth spurt. I'm talking about the NASA Phoenix Lander and its Tweets from the Red Planet. NASA, using the Twitter handle Mars Phoenix, has been sending updates and findings from the Mars mission.

According to a NYT article, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is using Twitter along with other Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook, blogging and YouTube as a way to get Americans interested in science and space exploration.

"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)

Utilizing technologies that appeal to Gen Y students is a great way to introduce them to STEM careers and tap into their digital learning styles. The MarsPhoenix "tweets" are fascinating, humorous and thrilling.

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.

Related Resources

• Google Maps > Mars
• What Web Strategists Should Know About Twitter
• Microsoft World Wide Telescope