Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Youth Vote 2008: How Obama Hooked Gen Y

Since the election, there has been lots of attention focused on how the Obama campaign was able to leverage many types of new and social media to engage Gen Y to get out and vote.

At the 2008 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East, held at Boston College just days after the election, several of the panelists talked about Obama's use of social media. Some of the most interesting and detailed election research at the conference was presented by Dan Coates, co-founder of SurveyU.

Dan's presentation, What Every Brand Could Learn from The Obama Campaign's Marketing to College Students, outlined some of the key demographic and media consumption trends among college students that the Obama campaign leveraged to get youth more involved in the political process. Dan also explained how marketers (or educators!) can use these same strategies to engage with this increasingly influential generation.

In this video, taken at a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics panel, YES We Can producer Wes Hill and The Nation's Ari Melber discuss Youth, Politics, and Civic Engagement in the 2008 election year.

Also worth noting, and somewhat lost in the post-election euphoria, is the election of Aaron Schock (R-Illinois) to the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman-elect Schock is the first member of Congress born in the 1980s and he will be the first millennial to serve in Congress.

Related Resources

• A chat with the first Gen Y congressman (Thanks Anastasia!)
• Obama's Change.gov Adds OpenID
• The Obama Factor: The Net Generation
• Ruminations: 2008 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East
• Mind the Gap: American Teens Falling into the Digital Divide

Instant Messaging: The Secret Language of Teens

"Instant Messaging is a constant silent communique among kids about their feelings about the world, a bit like a Greek chorus always commenting in the background while kids are living in the world."
                -- Peter Lyman

Related Resources

• How Teens Use Instant Messaging
• NYT > Larry Magid > How Parents Can be IM Watchdogs
• IM on the Move

Demographic Research on Texters: Young, Multicultural and Ready to Spend

A new report from Scarborough Research found that El Paso, Texas is the top texting city in America with 57% of adults reporting that they use the texting feature on their mobile phone. In comparison, the national average of adults who text is 48%.

Rounding out the top five texting cities are Salt Lake City (UT), Dallas (TX), Memphis (TN), and Cincinatti (OH).

What makes these cities so text-centric? The study found that among adults who use texting features on their mobile phone, 49% are more likely to be young (18-24), 14% more likely to be Hispanic and 24% more likely to be African-American.

According to Scarborough, the youthful, multicultural texting demographics are a likely reason why El Paso, Salt Lake City, Dallas and Memphis are the top text messaging markets. Moreover, Salt Lake and El Paso lead the nation in 18-24 year olds.

Other key findings of Texters:

• They use a wide variety of phone features - such as picture messaging, streaming video and email -at a rate higher than that of the average cell user;

• Best Buy is their preferred retailer for audio-video purchases: 39% of Texters live in a household that shopped at Best Buy during the past year vs. 27% of all consumers nationally. Target (20%) and Wal-Mart (35%) are other important stores for Texter tech purchases;

• One-fifth (20%) of Texters spend more than $1,000 online annually, vs, 17% of all cellular users;

• Web-based services are a core part of their daily lives, from household tasks (such as bill paying) to entertainment (such as downloading movies or TV programs) to interaction (such as blogging and downloading a wide variety of content);

• They are 46% more likely than all cellular subscribers to typically spend $150 or more on cellular service monthly and are 12% more likely to plan to switch services;

• On average, they spend $87 on their monthly cellular bill. In contrast, all cellular subscribers spend an average of $75 monthly. This demographic are the highest spenders on cellular services.

One common stereotype is that Gen Y are too wired to leave their computer screen or video games to participate in other activities. While they are wired and hyper-connected, due to the ubiquity of the mobile phone and the mobile web, they are able to remain on the go and wired.

Scarborough Research found that:

• Texters are active, on-the-go consumers. They are 37% more likely than all cellular subscribers to have played basketball (as a leisure activity) during the past year; 29% more likely to have gone jogging/running; 29% more likely to have played tennis, and 23% more likely to have practiced yoga;

• Texters are 12% more likely to have attended a professional sports event, and 57% more likely to have gone to an R&B, rap or hip-hop concert during the past year.

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.

You can see the Scarborough Research report, by clicking here (pdf).

Related Resources

• Mobile Persuasion 2009
• Research on Hispanic Teens & Mobile Phones
• Generation Text: Gen Y & Mobile Phones

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

Truth and Consequences: Teens, Naked Photos & Mobile Phones

Anyone involved with Gen Y knows three things: they love their mobile phones, they are hyper-connected and they have no reservations about broadcasting their life across the social web. Very often they are lifestreaming without thinking about the consequences of their actions.

Take, for example, the mobile phone. They text, play games, take photos and oh yeah--they also occasionally use them to make a phone call. However, a recent investigative report by Emmett Miller and KTLA News found "a growing number of teens are messaging naked photos of themselves to their friends. Not only could it ruin their reputation, but it could land them in legal trouble."

One girl talked about how a guy at her school had a fight with his girlfriend and, in an act of revenge, blasted out nude photos he had taken of her to their classmates. The photos were forwarded on to more and more students, effectively making life at the high school unbearable to the point that she had to change schools.

Another student, commenting on the trend, said:

“I know in my high school that there was a a girl who took naked photos of herself and it went all through our school and it ruined her, 'cause everyone looks at her like a slut.”

But there are serious consequences beyond just being embarrassed or having to change schools. In his report, Miller interviews Detective Dan Morgan from the LA County Sheriff's Department who talked about the LEGAL implications:

"The detective says anytime a photograph is taken of a minor, a person under the age of eighteen, of their genital area involved in a simulated or an actual sex act, it is against the law, and considered child pornography. Detective Morgan says pictures and video clips of teens involved in sexual situations are becoming more and more frequent.

He believes the cases are under-reported, but has still dealt with quite a few of them. Sometimes the cases involve teens who have sent pictures or video to other teens, but other times it's adults who are enticing teens to take photos of sexual situations. And that is where the law is clear. "

Most teens interviewed for this report had no idea that there were legal implications for sending or forwarding nude photos via mobile phone or the Internet. In fact, while most told Emmett that they "would only send nude photo's to their friends," they were completely oblivious that their friends might pass these photos along to other people. 

This is an important topic that both parents and school officials should be talking about with teens. The stakes are even higher for a high school student who turns 18 and forwards a nude photograph of a boyfriend/girlfriend who is still a minor.

By doing so, they risk being charged for distribution of child pornography. Not to mention, if they are convicted, they face the loss of attending college, scholarships, and employment opportunities.

The important thing is for parents and school officials not to overreact. Banning mobile phones won't make these types of incidents go away. Teens will simply use another phone. Or have a friend take the pictures for them. The best approach is to sit down with your kids and calmly discuss the appropriate ways to use technology.

Think about it. You don't hand your kids the keys to the car without having them first go through a drivers education program where they learn the rules of the road. So why do we just hand them a mobile phone, computer or, for that matter, a social networking site and expect them to understand what behavior is and isn't acceptable?

As adults we need to also sit them down and outline how their so-called "personal information" can be sold to data brokers or passed around school by friends. We need to educate them on the consequences of lifestreaming and sharing too much information may have on their future.

Most importantly, we need to educate them that just because they delete that photo on their mobile phone doesn't mean that it isn't archived somewhere. Forever. After all, when it comes to the social web, your privacy is an illusion.

You can watch a video of Emmett Miller's entire report, The Naked Truth of a New Cell Phone Trend, by clicking here.

Related Resources

• Generation Text: New Research on Gen Y & Mobile Phones
• Book >Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing Online
• Stanford Study Looks at the Psychology of Facebook
  

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

Product RED, Dell & Seventeen Magazine

Dell has teamed up with Siobhan Gunning to create an exclusive (PRODUCT)^RED design for Dell's Studio 15 laptop line - only for Seventeen Magazine readers.

But here's the cool part. When you purchase a Dell Studio laptop with the (PRODUCT)RED artwork, Dell will contribute $20 to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.

Dell has a long history of supporting pro-social initiatives and been one of the leading and most actively engaged (PRODUCT)^RED  partners.

The Dell-Seventeen Magazine partnership is a great example of how to get those socially conscious Millennial's actively involved in your brand. Dell is one of many companies that have pro-social marketing programs geared towards Gen Y.

Last week at the YPulse Mashup East, Ron Faris, Virgin Mobile's Director of Brand Development and Partnerships talked about several of their own pro-social intiatives.

For example, at the 2008 Virgin Mobile Festival, the Charity Dome featured a gallery of various artists’ visualizations of homeless youth. 20 charities were represented and over $180K was donated. Their latest pro-social program, Homeless Youth TV, is set to shine a light on the nearly 1 million homeless teens living on the streets across America.

Dell, Seventeen and Virgin Mobile are all proof that a company can do good and still do well.

Related Resources

• Ypulse Toolbox: 10 Youth Activism Sites To Know
• December 1st: AIDS, Africa & Children
• Virgin Mobile Festival & Other Pro-Social Initiatives
• AFT Resources on Teaching About Darfur

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

Twitter Vote Report: Tweet the Vote 2008

 On November 4th 2008, millions of Americans will go to over 200,000 distinct voting locations and using different systems and machinery to vote. 

Some voters will have a terrific experiences, and others will experience the same problems we have been hearing about for years - long lines, broken machines, inaccurate voting rolls, and others will experience problems that we haven’t heard about before.

We voters are using Twitter and other texting tools to report on how the vote is really going during this election, and we’re urging everyone to use the common word (or “hashtag” in Twitter lingo) of  #votereport as they do so. If that happens, we’ll all be able watch on maps and graphs how the election is going across the country.

That’s why a new citizen-driven election monitoring system called Twitter Vote Report was just launched. Using either Twitter.com, iPhone, direct SMS, or our telephone hotlines, voters will have a new way to share their experiences with one another and ensure that the media and watchdog groups are aware of any problems.

And YOU can help!  Be a citizen journalist!  Submit a report about conditions at your polling place. Four ways to submit reports to Vote Report:

• Twitter: include #votereport and other tags to describe the scene on the ground
• SMS: Send text messages to 66937 (MOZES) starting with the keyword #votereport plus other hash tags
• iPhone: We have a Twitter Vote Report iPhone app in the App store!
• Phone: Call our automated system at 567-258-VOTE (8683) to report about conditions, using any touch-tone phone

And if you would like to talk to a human to report bad conditions you’ve observed, please call our partner 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Related Resources

• Twitter
• Twitter Vote iPhone App
• Tech tools tap into Web for election info
• BBC Report: Citizen Journalism

Text-or-Treat: UNICEF Goes Mobile

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is a program that began 58 years ago and has helped connect UNICEF to literally millions of donors, fundraisers, celebrities and partners. This year, UNICEF is embracing both the social and mobile web to engage even more people in their annual campaign.

"For the first time ever, we’ve launched both a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF MySpace page and Facebook Cause. If you use either of these sites, just add us as one of your friends. Then, when you’re writing on someone’s “wall,” or “poking” everyone you know, invite them to add us too, and help spread the word.

This year—for the first time—you can Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF with your mobile phone! Just text the word “TOT” to 864233 (UNICEF) to make a $5 donation* and help UNICEF save kids’ lives."

The Text-or-Treat initiative is a pretty clever program. When you visit the Text-or-Treat page, you can choose one of the virtual trick or treaters and help fill their UNICEF box by sending a text message. Cool!

I sent my text message to support Doogie. Which one will you support?

Related Resources

• Teach UNICEF
• UNICEF USA
• UNICEF: Trick-or-Treat Program

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

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

Tweet U: College Twitter Directory

CollegeTweetUp is a grassroots community effort to create a directory of college and university students who use Twitter. Anyone is free to add their @handle to the directory.

To add your name, just send a tweet with the message "college tweetup" and "school name" to @resawu or add it directly on the CollegeTweetUp PBwiki page.

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

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