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]

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]

Weekly Wrap: Gay Prom Queen, Mobile Music, SAFE Internet Act, Virtual Worlds Stats, Sexing Study & Princess Syndrome

Mobile Music to Hit $5.5 Billion by 2013: Despite the global recession, revenues from streamed mobile music services and full-track downloads are expected to exhibit strong growth over the next 5 years, according to a new report from Juniper Research. [Hypebot]

Gay Teen Voted Prom Queen at L.A. High School Prom: An openly-gay, teenage boy was just voted "Prom Queen" at Los Angeles' Fairfax High School in a campaign that began as a stunt -- but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and teen popularity. [NBC Los Angeles]

Student Converts School Locker Into a Covert Library for Banned Books: A student at a private school goes rogue and stocks her locker full of banned books that she lends to other students. Brilliant! Although she does a little book banning of her own. [Laughing Squid]

Social Media Case Study: We Are Social, a London based digital PR and social media agency, has put together a compelling case study of how Best Buy is using social media to engage and connect with customers. This is a must read! [We Are Social]

Students Say Tech Skills Are Crucial: College students pursuing myriad careers agree that high-tech skills will take them further, and a majority expect to encounter new technologies they will have to master in the workforce. [NetworkWorld]

The School and Family Education about the Internet (SAFE Internet) Act: A federal lawmaker has introduced internet safety legislation that, if passed, would authorize roughly $175 million--$35 million a year for five years--for internet safety education and training to help make children, parents, and educators aware of proper online behavior and the dangers the internet poses. [eSchool News]

Virtual Worlds Continue to Boom: According to research conducted by eMarketer, 8 million US kids and teens spent time in virtual worlds on a regular basis last year and they estimate that figure will grow to 15 million by 2013, estimates that 37% of kids 3-11 play in virtual worlds at least once a month, and 54% will by 2013. Also check out Jeremiah Owyang's (@jowyang) updated stats on the Social Networking industry in 2009. [eMarketer] [Web Strategy]

Princess Syndrome: "That’s especially true in tough economic times, when more parents are focusing on messages of frugality and humility that, they say, just don’t fit with the princess mentality that has become a rite of passage for many girls.” [Yahoo! News]

New 'Sexting' Study: Peter Cumming, an associate professor at York Univeristy in Toronto, presented a paper on children's sexuality at the 78th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences defending the practice as a modern variation on "playing doctor or spin-the-bottle." [Breitbart.com]

MTV Sues Kids’ Wireless Provider Kajeet Over Content Deal: Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks filed an $11.6 million lawsuit against a cell phone service designed for children, accusing it of using content without permission and failing to follow through on a ring-tone licensing deal. [Bloomberg.com]

 

Microsoft Vine: A Social Dashboard for Your Digital Life

Looks like the folks up in Redmond are getting ready to throw their hat into the social messaging ring with a new service called Vine. Vine is designed to make it easy for people to exchange information and stay in touch with friends and family during an emergency. Here's the official scoop:

"Microsoft Vine Beta connects you to the people and places you care about most, when it matters. Stay in touch with family and friends, be informed when someone needs help. Get involved to create great communities. Use alerts, reports and your personal dashboard to stay in touch, informed and involved."

Currently Vine is in closed beta and not yet open to the public. I took a look at the demo and I have to say it's pretty slick. It goes way beyond the 140 character text and link posting on Twitter.

Vine has a pretty slick mash up of Live Maps and News---effectively creating a very customized social news tool. But wait--there's more. MS Vine is also has integration with Facebook, email, as well as your mobile phone.

For example, I live in California and we are prone to a little shaking of the earth every once in awhile. Say we had a quake. I'd want to check in with all the members of my family.

I could use Vine to send a text to my sister, an email to my parents, and Facebook message to my cousin--all at the same time. Since Vine aggregates news, I can easily get the latest information on road closures, damage & other breaking news.

While the tech crowd will be quick to point out all the services that already exist that offer the same features as Vine, it's important to remember that outside Silicon Valley (aka the "real world"), there are lots of people who don't have the time, inclination or technical aptitude to seek out and learn how to use those tools.

There are also tons of opportunities for integration with Yahoo! properties if/when that deal ever goes through. It seems like Flickr, for one, would be an excellent addition to Vine. (Heck, just add Flickr now, not later!) I also think that, like Twitter, there are lots of interesting ways that educators could use Vine in an educational or mobile learning environment.

One other note to the fine folks at Microsoft. You've put together four fine video's showing how people can use Vine. However, you haven't included any way for people to share them with anyone else. Why not include the "Share This" button and allow folks to email, embed, post to Facebook, Digg, Stumble, Y! Buzz or Tweet about Vine with their friends? 

Vine is a pretty impressive effort. There will be those who, because it's a Microsoft product, won't give it a chance. But a good tool is a good tool. I don't care who makes it. I think Vine has real potential to be a popular choice for lots of people, organizations and families. I'm looking forward to taking a deeper look at it soon (hint! hint!).

Related Links

• Microsoft Wants to Help Familes Get 'Game Smart'
• Change the World, 500 Words at a Time
• Microsoft to Fund Video Game Research
• Educational Games for Microsoft Surface

Gen Y, Social TV & Multiplatform Media Consumption

It's no secret that younger viewers are more inclined to watch their favorite television shows online rather than sit in front of the television. Remember, this is a hyper-connected generation and to them sitting in front of the TV is a really passive, boring and disconnected media experience.

For younger viewers, television is a much more interesting and socially interactive experience when they can watch a show online, preferably with friends.

In addition to being able to choose when (synchronizing viewing with friends across disparate time zones) and where online (Hulu, YouTube, TV.com, FFWD) they view television content, younger viewers value the web because it allows them to simultaneously watch and exchange IM's with friends, participate in multiplayer online games related to their program, do homework, download music they hear on a show, check text messages, Tweet and/or update their Facebook status.

New research published this week by Integrated Media Management (IMM), points to the increasingly blurred lines between TV and the web. In their survey, IMM found that "viewers were online during roughly 9.3 percent of their prime-time viewing."

Other key findings from IMM on TV and the web:

• Simultaneous consumption of both television and web viewing doubles as the week progresses (5.8% on Monday to a high of 15.9% on Thursday);
• Women spend more time surfing the web while watching television (13% of women vs. 9% men);
• Twenty-somethings were more likely (20%) to watch tv and surf than thirty-somethings (6%);

As I blogged a few weeks ago, 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.

Networks like MTV and CNN are keenly aware of these trends and have responded by creating interactive  multiplatform opportunities for viewers to connect and snark together. For example, every Monday, 10,000 superfans play MTV's Backchannel, a multiplayer online game based on the popular reality show The Hills. 

Want a glimpse of this hybrid social networking-TV model of media consumption? Check out how Rick Sanchez over at CNN has created a real time, interactive mash-up between social networking sites, Twitter and television. And oh yeah, his show is drawing a younger demographic and blowing the ratings through the roof.

CBS has created Social Rooms a virtual environment where viewers can "join family, friends and fellow fans and watch your favorite episodes of your favorite shows together." The hit CBS comedy, How I Met Your Mother weaves real blogs into their storyline, further blurring the lines between TV and the web.

Yahoo! Connected TV is working on lots of TV widgets, including Twitter, that allow you to literally bring the web to your TV. And one need only look at Twitter to see perhaps the most basic and immediate social TV viewing experience.

On any given night, the "Trending Topics" on Twitter provide ample opportunities for viewers to actively participate in a shared social experience revolving around a television program or news event.

Twitter also moves multiplatform media consumption and social TV to a whole other level--mobile. In addition to SMS, there are dozens of mobile clients for Twitter that allow you to send Tweets from your smart phone via the mobile web.

Since people have their mobile phones with them at all times, this allows consumers to watch a television or news program to create a spontaneous, real time and instant mobile social networking experience via Twitter.

Related Links

• Conference: Enhancing Social Communication and Belonging by Integrating TV Narrativity and Game-Play
• Brits break free of TV schedule with digital TV but Gen Y still love it live
• TVLoop: Twilight DVD Drives Tweens Back to Facebook Community
• PARC to Make TV More Social

Teacher Encourages Students to Twitter in Class

"Cole W. Camplese, director of education-technology services at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, prefers to teach in classrooms with two screens — one to project his slides, and another to project a Twitter stream of notes from students.

He knows he is inviting distraction — after all, he’s essentially asking students to pass notes during class. But he argues that the additional layer of communication will make for richer class discussions.”

— Wired Campus: Professor Encourages Students to Pass Notes During Class — via Twitter | Chronicle.com


Related Resources

• Twitter College Directory
• Twitter Handbook for Teachers
• UK Students May Be Required to Master Twitter
• Directory of Learning Professionals on Twitter
• Yahoo! Partners with Universities to Advance Cloud Computing Research

Global Youth: U.S. Hispanic and Latin American Youth Trends

• A 2008 report by the Pew Hispanic Center forecast that "the Latino population, already the nation's largest minority group, will triple in size and will account for most of the nation's population growth from 2005 through 2050. Hispanics will make up 29% of the U.S. population in 2050, compared with 14% in 2005";

• According to Internet World Stats, Latin America (28%) has the highest rate of Internet penetration. The world average is 23.5%;

• The most wired Latin American countries are Brazil (67%), Mexico (23%) and Argentina (20%);

• At the 2008 ad:tech Miami  Conference, Fabia Juliasz of ibope/NetRatings noted that Internet access in Latin America (Brazil 22%, Mexico 22%, Argentina 26%, and Chile 41%) continue to expand at a steady pace;

• Research conducted by U.S.-based Bromley Communications finds that the Hispanic Latina is quickly replacing Anglo moms as the dominant consumer target from now to 2050;

• Hispanic trends firm Packaged Facts reports that Gen-Y Hispanics (ages 18-29) Gen-X Hispanics (ages 30-44) are particularly influential, because they control more than 60% of all Hispanic buying power;

• U.S. Hispanic mobile consumers have a subscriber growth rate two to three times that of the overall U.S. teen market;

• Hispanic teens aged 12-17 represent 2.5 million subscribers. By the age of 15, penetration of wireless services among US Hispanic teens is 64% - by the age of 17, the penetration rate rises to 78%;

• According to Politico.com, 76% of young Hispanic voters preferred Obama, compared to 67% of the overall Hispanic vote. That marks a 14-point rise in young Hispanic support for the Democratic candidate since the previous election, and a 10-point improvement with the Hispanic population overall.

Related Resources

• Demographic Research on U.S. Hispanic Youth & Mobile Phones
• Latin American Internet Population Stats
• McD's, Pepsi Score Best with Young Hispanics
• Hispanic teens set for strong mobile growth
• Exploring the Dora Uproar
• Hip Chicas Launches Beta for Latina Virtual World

Tweens Smoking Smarties: Is This a Trend?

I'm not sure if "smoking smarties" is actually a trend, but I've seen and heard quite a bit of media coverage on the subject the last couple of days and earlier today I overheard some jr. high school kids talking about trying it...the best way to describe "smoking smarties" is to take a look at this video.

I think Advertising-Age did a great summation of this "trend":

"In the latest example of a social-media world where any 10-year-old with a half-baked idea, your product and a cheap webcam can seek his or her 15 minutes of online fame, dozens of YouTubers -- mostly junior-high-school kids, it seems -- are posting videos of themselves and their friends crushing up the cellophane-wrapped, pressed-sugar candies, sucking the candy dust out and puffing it into the air in mock-smoking style.

Kids have been hip to the phenomenon for quite some time, apparently. Along with the dozens of how-to videos on YouTube, there are many MySpace mentions, a Facebook support group for "all you who are addicted to smoking Smarties," and countless bulletin boards and chat rooms full of smoking-Smarties confessions.

There is definitely a backlash as well, including comments rife with warnings and criticism about the stupidity of it. ("WTF?" is a very common comment.)"

So, for now, let's just put file this under 'so now you know', keep an eye on it and watch how it all pans out. Deal?

Related Resources

• Above the Influence
• Talking to Kids About Drugs & Alcohol
• Time to Talk
• Yahoo! Groups > Time to Talk
• Zac Efron, Tween King

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

Joan Ganz Cooney Center Study on Mobile Learning

Last week the Joan Ganz Cooney Center released a new report on how mobile technologies can be used in education titled, Pockets of Potential. You can access the full-length version on their site.

The Cooney Mobile Learning Study outlines some of the key opportunities for mobile learning:

• Encourage "anywhere, anytime" learning
• Reach Underserved children
• Improve 21st Century Social Interactions
• Fit with Learning Environments
• Enable a personalize Learning Experience

The Cooney study cites the need to create a Digital Teachers Corps to provide educators with the training and skills to integrate mlearning activities into the classroom. While I agree, I would also say that school administrators, both at the school and district level, need to provide the leadership, support and physical infrastructure required to make mlearning (mobile learning) a reality.

When I was working at Yahoo! on the Yahoo! Teachers project, I had the opportunity to spend the summer teaching educators around the country how to use web technologies in their classroom.

Time and time again I heard from teachers that their efforts to integrate technology into their classroom are stifled by district policy, draconian filtering policies and a lack of technological resources. Many times teachers get labeled, especially when it comes to technology, as unwilling to learn how to use new technologies.

While that may have been true a decade ago, almost every educator I met expressed concern that schools were working on an outdated model and that they recognized that the way kids learn has drastically changed.

They also expressed that there is a severe lack of professional development opportunities and support from district, state and federal administrators to provide leadership and change in their schools.

Since they work on the frontline, we also need to include teachers in this discussion. There is often a disconnect between theory cooked up by policy wonks and the reality of the classroom.

One of the other areas of concern, not just for mobile learning, is the lack of good, quality educational content. It's great if we outfit kids with an Apple iPhone or Palm Pre, but then what? When we talk about mobile learning we often focus just on the hardware and technology.

Quality educational content is often left out of the equation. The OpenCourseWare movement is helping fill this void in the higher education space, but the K-12 space suffers from a real lack of appropriate, relevant and quality content. In addition to the technology, we need to develop a repository of open content materials for our K-12 students, teachers and parents.

Finally, in addition to educating teachers, administrators and other members of the education ecosystem, it's vital that we also educate parents on the benefits of mobile learning. Many teachers are still trying to convince parents that the Internet is a relevant learning tool, that blogging has educational merits and that Wikipedia is a credible source of information.

Mobile Phones, Learning & Gen Y

For the most part, colleges and K-12 are just beginning realize the potential of mobile technology to improve the quality of student learning. In order to meet their students changing expectations and digital learning styles, instructors need to be provided with professional development opportunities to experiment with current and emerging web-based technologies.

Clearly, the spread of mobile technology into both the cognitive and social spheres requires educators to reexamine and redefine our teaching and learning methods. The future of learning has already arrived in the European Union, Africa and Southeast Asia, and if the United States doesn't act now we will be even further behind the rest of the world.

At the 2006 International Consumer Electronic Show, Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel outlined the explosive growth of mobile technology. According to Semel, there are 900 million personal computers in the world. But this number pales in comparison to the 2 billion mobile phones currently being used in the world.

Even more astounding is how mobile devices are increasingly being used as the primary way in which people connect to the Internet. In fact, Semel notes that 50% of the Internet users outside the US will most likely never use a personal computer to connect to the Internet. Rather, they will access information, community, and create content on the Internet via a mobile device.

The use of mobile technologies is growing and represents the next great frontier for learning. Increasingly we will continue to see academic and corporate research invest, design and launch new mobile applications, many of which can be used in a learning context.

Learning 3.0 will be about harnessing the ubiquity of the mobile phone/handheld device and using it as an educational tool. A few quick facts on mobile technology, Gen Y and education:

• A 2005 study conducted by the USA-based Kaiser Family Foundation found that, although 90% of teen online access occurs in the home, most students also have web access via mobile devices such as a mobile phone (39%), portable game (55%), or other web-enabled handheld device (13%). [link]
  

• Palm estimates that mobile and handheld devices for public schools will be a 300 million dollar market. A few progressive school districts in the USA have already started using mobile devices in the classroom. [link]
  

• Australia is emerging as a leader in mobile learning (mlearning). [link] [link]
  

• The National College of Ireland, University of Scotland and other European universities have already started experimenting and integrating mobile technologies into their classes. [link] [link]
  

• A study by the Irish National Teachers Organization (INTO) found that students are using their mobile phones for just about everything--except making phone calls.
  

• Some developing countries, like Kenya, are bypassing the use of desktop computers all together and using handheld WI-FI devices and open source software to reduce the cost of education in rural areas. [link] [link]
  

• Mobile School is a Belgian non-profit organization who is using mobile technology to provide educational opportunities for homeless children. [link]
  

• Mobile phones are in the early phases of being used for student testing and assessment. [link]
  

• YouTube, the popular online video community, has an educational channel that allows educational institutions to upload video clips via their mobile phones, PDAs, or other wireless handheld devices.
  

• SparkNotes are now available for download on both the iPod (text and audio format) or via SparkMobile, a SMS version for mobile phones.
  

• iTunesU & iPhone Apps have allowed an unprecedented amount of educational content, learning games, video & applications in the hands of students & educators.
  

• The Center on Media and Child Health predicts that 54% of American 8 to 12 year-olds in the US will have cell phones within the next three years.

Closing Thoughts

The Cooney research is a landmark study that I hope will move both the education technology and mobile learning discussion forward. Perhaps the release of this study, an education technology friendly president and education secretary is creating a "perfect storm" for real change to take place in our education system.

As a nation, we can no longer afford to sit back and watch schools in the U.K., Australia and Africa move forward while we continue to model our schools on an outdated agrarian, 18th Century education model.

Benefits of this learning space for the students are threefold: potential for maximum participation (all can be posting simultaneously), increased interest (authentic use of technology, so little technical advice or support is needed), and student motivation was noticeable and achieved possibly because of the increased peer feedback and collaboration.

The convergence of mobile and social technologies, on-demand content delivery, and early adoption of portable media devices by students provides academia with an opportunity to leverage these tools into learning environments that seem authentic to the digital natives filling the 21st Century classroom.

The future is here. It's time we act.

Related Resources

• Fisher & Baird: Making mLearning Work
• The Mobile Internet Generation
• BJ Fogg, PhD > Mobile Persuasion
• Mobile Learning & iTunes U
• YPulse > Mobile

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

Digital Storytelling: Sharing the "We Story"

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:

"The WE story defines a human being in a specific way: It says we are central selves seeking to contribute, naturally engaged, forever in a dance with each other. It points to relationship rather than to individuals, to communication patterns, gestures, and movement...Like the particle-and-wave nature of light, the WE is both a living entity and a long line of development unfolding.

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, YackPack, 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!

Links

• GreatSchools.net
• Center for Digital Storytelling
• Technology Kills Storytelling (...but wait!)
• Yahoo! Education
• Wes Fryer > Digital Storytelling

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

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