I've recently partnered with Facebook and co-authors Linda Phillips and Dr. BJ Fogg to write the Facebook for Educators Guide!
The guide is also available in Spanish, Portuguese and German.
The Faculty Survey of Student Engagement surveyed approximately 4,600 faculty members at 50 U.S. colleges and universities in the spring of 2009 to see how they are using new media and social technology in their classroom.
Based on these findings, it doesn't seem like too many professors' are integrating technology into their classroom. What do you think? Do these results surprise you?
Thanks to Dale for the heads up!
Related: In Google We Trust: Young Adults' Evaluation of Web Content
Lonely Planet & Mobilizy Launch Android Mobile AR Travel Guides: Looking for the ultimate guidebook? One you can slip in your pocket? Lonely Planet’s Augmented Reality (AR) Compass Guides for Android give you interactive, personalized and fully searchable mobile access to Lonely Planet’s best-selling travel content.
Currently there are 10 Lonely Planet Compass Guides enhanced with Wikitude AR available for the Android market in the US: Boston, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle and Washington D.C. [Mobilizy]
Get Kids Doing Social Justice Projects: Often the most difficult part of getting your child to get involved in a social justice project is knowing where to begin. Here are a few ideas passed on from other parents on how to start kids doing projects of their choice. My take–the earlier you start the better. And there’s no time better than during the holidays. [Michele Borba]
YouTube Shows What Friends Share on Facebook: YouTube is pushing its Facebook Connect integration further by allowing its users to see the videos that their friends share on Facebook. YouTube users had previously been able to find their Facebook friends on YouTube as well as update their Facebook profile with their various actions from the site. [CNET]
Facebook to Generate Over $1 Billion Next Year?: If a new report from TBI Research is accurate, Facebook “is about to hit a $1 billion annual revenue run-rate”. We have been expecting Facebook to blast through their previously stated $500 million projection for this year, and surpass all the publicly available projected numbers for next year. If all goes well, Facebook could easily surpass $1 billion in revenue next year as the site grows beyond 500 million users. [All Facebook]
Television Dives Into Digital, Musical Offshoot to Secure Viewers: A TV show isn't just a TV show. These days, programming for
the tube is a multi-platform endeavour, encompassing online, gaming,
music, DVDs, toys and tours in a bid to keep budgets in the black and
eyeballs glued to the small screen. Related: Survey Finds Local Appeal for Mobile TV [The Canadian Press] [Barking Robot]
You Can Take It With You | Future Trends in Media: While still in the early stages of a digital media revolution, the consumer has entered an age of enlightenment with expanded options for devices, content, and schedule. The consumer has responded with expanded use of those media options. But changes in technology, regulation, pricing, content distribution deals, etc., will complicate predicting the future growth (and future winners). [Nielsen Wire]
8 Companies That Are Reinventing TV: Web television has matured significantly in 2009; we’ve seen the introduction of the Streamy Awards, Dr. Horrible seized control of the Emmys, and the launch of more internet TV-related start-ups than we can count.
TV-over-IP is starting to hit television sets thanks to set-top-boxes, TVs, and disc players with built-in streaming capabilities, and like print media before it, traditional broadcast television is beginning to grapple with the inevitability of an Internet-driven future. [Mashable]
Act Now AU: ActNow knows that the more you understand about an issue the more you’ll feel empowered to do something about it. Use ActNow to find information on social, political, environmental, lifestyle and topical issues for a non-judgemental and factual snapshot of the bigger picture. All the content you find on ActNow is written by ActNow members who are young people just like you. [ActNow]
Esquire Rolls Out $2.99 iPhone "Issue": There was the perforated cover, featuring 27 different cover combinations (while not technically digital technology, the magazine was at least willing to experiment with the print medium on what has long been considered sacred editorial real estate: the cover). Then there was the “augmented reality issue” in December. Now comes a slick $2.99 iPhone application that contains its January issue. [The Wrap] And what did we do with that free time? Well, mostly we spent it watching TV.
We did that for decades. We watched I Love Lucy. We watched Gilligan's Island. We watch Malcolm in the Middle. We watch Desperate Housewives.
Desperate Housewives essentially functioned as a kind of cognitive heat sink, dissipating thinking that might otherwise have built up and caused society to overheat.
And it's only now, as we're waking up from that collective bender, that we're starting to see the cognitive surplus as an asset rather than as a crisis. We're seeing things being designed to take advantage of that surplus, to deploy it in ways more engaging than just having a TV in everybody's basement.
Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not
be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change.
Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won't have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan's Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.
-- Gin, Television, and Social Surplus, Clay Shirky
Somewhere
between the turkey, decking the halls, lighting the menorah, and the
ushering in of a new year, countless family stories will be told and
retold.
Some of the stories you've heard a thousand times. And perhaps this year, some of the stories will be shared for the first time.
Telling the "WE story"
Storytelling is a collaborative, social learning practice
that strengthens family and cultural ties while also providing a
context for information to be carried forward to future generations.
These family stories (folklore, food traditions, and oral histories)
are a mirror of where we have been and shape where we are going as
families, society, and individuals.
Even things you wouldn't
suspect, like cherished family recipes, may exist only in a verbal
format. If you don't ask grandma how she makes that incredible pumpkin
pie, chances are it could be lost forever.
In his book, The Art of Possibility, Benjamin Zander calls the invisible threads that hold us together "the WE story."
As Zander explains:
By telling the WE story, an individual becomes a conduit for this new inclusive entity, wearing its eyes and ears, feeling its heart, thinking its thoughts..."
An Orange for Christmas
A few years ago I asked my grandma why she always put oranges in our Christmas stockings. I mean, we lived in Southern California, so we always
had oranges. We had an orange tree in our yard and even if they were
out of season, we could always just go to the store and get one.
So it always seemed strange to have that orange stuffed in the top of the stocking. Even stranger, nobody in the family--including her own children--had ever asked her why we always had oranges in our stockings.
My grandma explained to me that as a child growing up in Nebraska, during the Great Depression no less, an orange was an exotic, welcome, and indulgent treat. In the depths of a Great Plains winter, an orange from California or Florida was a reminder that the snow and frigid winds would soon give way to days filled with playing in the sun, tall prairie grass, and climbing her favorite tree.
At that moment, the family ritual was set in stone and the orange in the stocking became a necessary part of our shared Christmas experience. And this year, our first without her, we will put an orange in the Christmas stockings and share the story with my niece and nephew.
Families, History, & Digital Storytelling
GreatSchools.net, in conjunction with Yahoo! Education, have put together an oral history resource guide to help you collect, record, and preserve your family stories. GreatSchools has even compiled a list of interviewing tips and questions to help you get the memories flowing.
There are lots of digital technologies out there to help you save these stories--iPod, wiki, or even the good old tape recorder.
So this holiday, take some time to sit down and preserve some of your family stories. Engage in the dance of the "WE story." It doesn't matter how you preserve these stories, it just matters that you do!
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Header Artwork by BT Livermore
Social Icons Courtesy of Davide Di Cillo
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