Latest Entry

Hi everyone,

Here is my latest blog entry with some responses. I would appreciate your feedback!

The 6 stages of Twitter media coverage hell

I hope this one will make you laugh! If you're a media buff it definitely will!
The 6 stages of Twitter media coverage hell

http://burnurl.com/CaZVuq

Next Online Session Scheduled for Tuesday April 7th

The next Adobe Connect session is scheduled for Tuesday April 7th. In the meantime, keep up your posts with this week's prompt!

This week's social media thoughts

This week there were no fewer than 4 great articles in Sunday's NY Times about social media, (styles section: celebrity Twitter ecosystem) and three others I'm attaching below. One of the comments that came out of the facebook article was about a teacher who wanted to friend his whole class to talk about rehearsals from a dance where parents thought it was 'creepy.' In Tuesday's online session we might envision another way he could have pulled off the same thing electronically without invading their facebook lives using another of the tools we've been using.

Also, in the same Facebook article, regarding facebook's connectivity, Mr. Zuckerberg recalls the story of Claus Drachmann, a schoolteacher in northern Denmark who became a Facebook friend of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark’s prime minister. The teacher invited his Prime Minister to speak to his class of special-needs children; and the prime minister did just that.

Do stories like this illustrate facebook’s power to cut through arbitrary social barriers or are they just good fodder for publicity ? Zuckerberg says “This represents a generational shift in technology,” and adds, “To me, what is interesting was that it was possible for a regular person to reach the prime minister and that that interaction happened.” Do you agree that this is more than a random exception or does this medium really allow for the public to get closer than ever to representation?

For other articles about participatory media this week in Sunday's NY Times you might want to check out 3 articles: the Wikipedia story from the Week in Review section, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/weekinreview/29cohen.html

the one about the fact that widespread anger and collective passivity exist side by side: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/opinion/29venkatesh.html

and and the article on Facebook's growing personality... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/internet/29face.html

Adobe Connect session

Hi guys,
Is anyone else having trouble logging in? It keeps giving me a message that the host has ended the meeting...
-Robin

What about the Prez Virtual 'Town Hall'?

Webcasting interactive press conferences- are our expectations changing? Is this virtual Town Hall the White house as Gatekeeper and simply another staged performance or is it participatory Media and government by 'advocacy'?

Is it the same message or different way its put forward that makes it important?
Is it what President Obama says or are the nature of the questions asked more important because its the public asking the questions instead of the media?
Can they discern the central interests of the public via questions posed on the internet?
Is it a 'sense' of participation or is it true participation?
What does the internet offer that network television doesn't? Is this 'transparency' in government?
Does the president risk overexposure?
Based on the Network television election coverage can you make comparisons to our discussion this week on Web 1.0 vs. 2.0?

What can we learn from this online virtual Town Hall experience? Is learning more interactive this way and how can we convert this experience to our own practice as educators?

Watch it on http://www.whitehouse.gov/ and lets hear from you!

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

I found this article to be extremely insightful and relevant to some of my own thoughts about Facebook newsfeed, Twitter etc. Indeed, there are more than one ways to look at this phenomenon. On the one hand there is a sense of reliance on those mediums instead of real, immediate communication; on the other hand, one cannot say for sure that the absence of such mediums would lead to any direct communication in the first place. Therefore, while it is true that personally, I don't care about 3/4 of the posts I see on those sites, there is this 1/4 that connects me to others, makes me feel like I have an outlet to discuss things, express opinions, promote creations through vids and links etc. Also, the term ambient awareness does capture this new, contemporary style of connection amongst people. We are close enough to feel part of a whole and removed enough so that we are not forced to share if we don't want to. 

More on Web 2.0 tools

My latest blog post. More on the tools we were asked to look plus many others...

You can also check out my entry all about Twitter.

Week 3 Web 1.0 vs. 2.0

Web 2.0 vs. Web 1.0 : “More than information, an experience”

Web 1.0 is more a technology of static web-sites; one
supplies many.

Web 2.0 is a participatory read and write s in practice based on open-source software, where content is provided by the users and the platforms on which to share it comes from Web publishers.

Differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0:
http://leighhouse.typepad.com/advergirl/2007/10/web-10-vs-web-2.html

A graphic representation:
http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/08/18/web-10-vs-web-20-the-visual-difference/

A Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BAXvFdMBWw&feature=related


Thoughts to ponder on the class blog this week:
The range is from ‘accessible’ to ‘personal’ and ‘expert voice’ to ‘peer credible’ – the web learning that’s available and can be categorized Web 1.0 and 2.0 each have its benefits and its drawbacks. Using the examples from Advergirl, the graphic and the video above, as well as your knowledge gained from using various sites, share your thoughts on the positives and negatives for the concepts behind web 1.0 and 2.0.

Figuring things out

Hello Everyone,

Here is a link to my first ever blog.

http://www.derekcressman.blogspot.com/

Derek

A small digression about Twitter

Internet celebrity/wunderkid Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) launched his Twitter directory service WeFollow at SXSW. Interesting. Link to original article here.

Marc Prensky- Digital Natives

Though I am not in the field of education, I have experience teaching and have experienced the dichotomy between what Prensky calls digital immigrants and natives. I consider myself to be a native, however, as with any skill, there is often a blurry line between proficiency acquired at a later stage in life and proficiency developed form an early age. In other words, one can learn something because they have to, as they are being thrown into it or they can learn it because of some motivation to do so.
In terms of legacy and future, a classroom can benefit from the introduction of new learning techniques that rely both on the utilization of philosophical reasoning, abstract thinking and logical analyses, and visual, fast-paced, immediate-goal-oriented techniques.
Social networks can facilitate the process of feedback from peers, exposure of ideas etc. Inter-connectedness can lead to the development of knowledge and skills that belong both in the legacy and future category. Social networks and interconnectedness can be the means and the end in themselves. Means to the spreading, feedback and exposure or traditional/nontraditional types of thinking and the end of improving the quality of communication.

Feedburner

Hi,
Last night we had a great online chat. For those of you who missed it we suggest checking out the recording here:
http://webconf.tc.columbia.edu/p97183472/

Among some of the questions that came up, from this week's activities a few might have become overwhelmed by all the things feedburner offers .

On Saturday April 25th we are all meeting live, and our guest Richard Jochum will illustrate the benefits of feedburner. This program becomes an important addition when using video and audio podcasting because it helps them syndicate correctly through a program called 'smartcast'. Hopefully the assets of feedburner will register with everyone when he does these elements together.

For a sneak peek at this go to http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/000812.html and look for the FAQ's

On Prensky article's

Hi everyone,
After reading the 2 articles by Prensky, I was inspired to add a post to my blog. Why? Because I don't believe that there is a clear line that defines a digital native versus an immigrant. In fact, I believe that I am in fact a digital nagrant. I put together a little chart to show you why I think so.

Click on the image to go to my blog and read more...
-Robin

Random thread for random yet great info on social media to pass on

We'll use this as a thread to post interesting relevant links we randomly come across. To subscribe or to add a link to this, just click on comment.

here's one from the WSJ online: Mars Snackfood says it redesigned the site to better connect with its core teenage audience, which spends a lot of time using social media. "The teen audience relies heavily on their peers for advice on products. This is a unique, unexpected way to engage and to be a part of the conversation," says spokesman Ryan Bowling.
Skittles Cozies Up to Social Media
Candy's Site Is Built on Consumer-Created Content From Twitter, Facebook on WSJ site: http://tinyurl.com/dcoc32

Sunday March 8-14 Lesson 2

Sunday March 8-14 Lesson 2

This week March 8-14: ‘Feedburner’, ‘Add This’ and ‘RSS Feeds’

We will subscribe to a number of other blogs and ‘feeds,’ and allow others to follow and subscribe to our sites.

What are RSS feeds? I see "RSS", "XML", and "Atom" out there, but I don't know how I might use these links when I find them.

Activities: to sign up for RSS feeds, making blogrolls and for this week's specific readings have been mailed to your columbia email accounts. Postings to these questions are due by Thursday morning March 12 so we can use them in our conversation March 12 evening. Please adhere to deadlines.


1. For this week, questions to respond to are based on some of the questions that come up with respect to creating blogrolls and using RSS feeds. How do they work and what are the benefits of adding them to my site? How can i use them as a classroom resource and to my blog's best advantage? Reply to this question after engaging in the readings and signing up for them.


2. Question 2 comes from classmate Brownie (http://djb44tc.blogspot.com/) who is posing his based on increasing student collaboration in the teaching of Music. Suggestions and responses to his questions and comments posted on his very thoughtful blog should be posted here as a reply:

how can we help one another to envision "collaboration with students to develop a model for online communication and reflection that gives students a more active role in the direction of daily rehearsals."



(please note, the following week March 15-21 there will be no formal lecture/activity for spring break though you may continue to post here and to your blogs)

Introduction

Hi All:
My name is Javon. I'm a in the Intensive Masters program for Technology and Education. I'm taking the class to get up to date and learn the various sites that people are using for personal and educational reasons. I'm not currently teaching, but when I get back into the classroom I want to be well equipped to teach my students. We are living in a age where this is part of their daily socialization so to be able to use it in an educational form is great.

A couple of interesting videos on social networks

Interesting short vid:

Social Networks: Everyone Knows Everything About Everyone:

http://fora.tv/2009/02/18/Conversational_Marketing_Conference#Social_Networks_Everyone_Knows_Everything_About_Everyone

Danah Boyd on Social Networks and Immersive Environments:

http://fora.tv/2008/07/04/Danah_Boyd_on_the_MySpace__Facebook_Phenomena_1_of_3#chapter_01

Oops

Hi -

brownied again -

Here is the link to my blog so you don't have to copy and paste...

http://djb44tc.blogspot.com/

My Blog and Intro

Hi, everyone -

Dan Brown (brownied) here, and I recently set up my blog.

http://djb44tc.blogspot.com/

You'll find my intro there. Look forward to working with everyone!

My Blog...

I almost forgot...

http://eap2103mstu5814.blogspot.com/

My blog for this class... Enjoy...

Facebook vs. Twitter: How will you stream your world?

Here is an article I found on Facebook AND Twitter about which will become the preferred platform for social notification...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10189959-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

EAP

Jon Stewart on Twitter

A funny look at Twitter through the Daily Show looking glass.

Marc Prensky, Social Networks and Interconnectedness

I've read Prensky's "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" article before. Over a year ago, when the concept was new to me. Since then I've developed some questions on whether there is actually a fine line that can be driven down the middle or rather a fuzzy gray area that most people sit in. I'll explore this in more detail in another post but for now I want to give you this background on my perspective while answering these questions.

— 1. How can we re-envision the educational potential which exists in the burgeoning number of social networks – the new media of interconnectedness? What role, if any do they play in education?

To answer this I started with a definition of social networks. I like this definition from LenovoSocial: "Social networks connect people, not just information. They power interaction instead of delivering information, giving participants the opportunity to do almost anything they would in a physical community via the Internet." Coupling this with some of the concepts I've learned in my Cognition courses, students (and people in general) learn best (remember more, transfer more) when they learn concepts in real-world situations with hands-on exploration. Sounds like a perfect match to me. Social networks, and their interconnectedness of peers and experts alike, offer a unique opportunity for educators to bring the classroom outside the school. Leverage the multitudes of virtual learning environments, imaginary worlds, multimedia self-publishing tools, interactive educational games and more to deliver an engaging teaching platform that develops higher level thinking skills critical for 21st century learners.

— 2. What has been the wider social, educational, cultural, and political impact of these new media for inter-connectedness?

In some ways I think this can be summarized best by Obama's campaign platform of CHANGE. I honestly believe that one of the biggest contributors to his win was that he was the first candidate ever to run a campaign on Facebook, Twitter and other social tools. Ok, maybe this wasn't the only way he won, but he did capture the votes of many Digital Native voters through these mechanisms. Political campaigns will never again be sucessfull without using these new social interconnectedness tools. The impact goes far wider than just politics though. As Prensky indicates in "The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native", these new media effects the way the future will communicate, share, shop, exchange, create, meet, learn, evolve and develop. his can't help but influence social, educational and cultural aspects of society. Another way that I see this interconnected already changing society is through the intense passion Digital Natives have for environmental cleanup and ecological reform. There are so many online conversations and organizations focused in this important area that it's easy for people to get connected to other people who care about these "Green" issues. More is yet to come...

Robin on Social Media - Part I

My latest blog posting begins the conversation on some of the Social Media tools that we were asked to sign up for. I'm posting in 2 parts because it started to get long. Part I is posted and contains my online presence and comments about some of the tools I'm already using.
Enjoy!
-Robin

Introduction

Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know that I just posted my introduction on my personal blog. Check it out! Looking forward to learning all about you too.
-Robin