Bits of Honey

The trip to Colorado couldn't have been any smoother. Everything worked like a well-oiled machine, including the airlines. Surprisingly enough, the return flights were ahead of schedule. While I was away, several interesting tech stories hit the virtual presses.

The Printed Blog: Print is dead they say, long live print! More on this experiment can be found here.

The latest addition to the Twitter family - Bank of America.

A virtual college debate match - St. Johns versus the University of Vermont: February 4 at 8 p.m. ET in Second Life! Go here if you'd like to attend this event.

Interested in elearning? This site includes a bibliography of 2007-2008 articles, and some are available online.

Are young people as tech-savvy as they are portrayed in much of the literature? Some Australian scholars say "No." Go here and here for the details.

The 2009 Horizon Report claims that the latest hot technologies are mobile technology, cloud computing, "geo-everything," and the personal web. In the coming years, watch for semantic applications and smart objects. What about video games and virtual worlds? No info on video games, but virtual worlds are mentioned in the geo-everything and smart objects sections.

A new critical case study also came out this week on social networking sites and electronic surveillance.

Enabling video game players to create games as well as play them. A fad or a new game genre that's here to stay? http://tinyurl.com/cymvrr

No online learning option for individuals taking advantage of the GI Bill. http://tinyurl.com/dz9mce

The mobile computing trend is on the rise, but "the era of the desktop PC is quickly coming to an end." http://tinyurl.com/bb9ab4

It's not just for entertainment anymore! YouTube is now a reference search tool. http://tinyurl.com/8rtver

A few little nuggets from the publishing world: John McMurtrie - editor of the San Francisco Chronicle book reviews - has plans to save it from the "deteriorating" pub. world. http://tinyurl.com/8kzkt9...and "The days of a 'newsmagazine of record'...are long gone." http:// tinyurl.com/a37992

Bits of Honey

Just returned from Chicago and head out to Colorado later in the week. While I've been jet setting, here's what's been happening in the world of elearning, the Web 2.0, and the publishing industry...just to name a few.

eBooks

• “I’m convinced...that students will read more and they will learn more, by using this medium [e-textbks].”http://tinyurl.com/84y5xm
• "So the eBook has landed. The printed book is not disappearing either..." http://tinyurl.com/88atvz
• Narrative is currently the "first and only literary magazine on Amazon’s Kindle." http://narrativemagazine.com/node/7786
  

Education and eLearning

• It's definitely not a good time to be a new college grad. http://tinyurl.com/894jfh
• The $$ being spent on instruction is going down, yet the $$ being spend on admin and support is going up. http://tinyurl.com/8xqvqd
• 21st-century learning - "Every kid needs to be able to critically think and problem-solve." http://tinyurl.com/7tktsv
• Rethinking higher ed: Kaplan U. - "learning online is a way to develop talent that could otherwise go to waste." http://tinyurl.com/8a7onx
• Sesame Street helped transform TV into a learn. tool & now mobile technologies are showing "enormous potential." http://tinyurl.com/9k98dl
• Florida Virtual School & U. of Central Florida have created the "first-of-its-kind training": virtual internships. http://tinyurl.com/846j4v

Serendipitously stumbled across two more new pieces on mobile learning....

• Mobile Devices Seen as Key to 21st-Century Learning
  
• Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning

Publishing, Reading, and Writing

• John McMurtrie - editor of the San Francisco Chronicle book review section - has plans to save it from the "deteriorating" publishing world. http://tinyurl.com/8kzkt9
• "The days of a 'newsmagazine of record'...are long gone." http://tinyurl.com/a37992
• "The National Enquirer and Star could theoretically be out of business within weeks." http://tinyurl.com/a8nbmu
• Reading on the Rise: 1st time in 25 yrs an "increase in rates and numbers of American adults who read literature.” http://tinyurl.com/9hyezd

Research & Academia

• When you use your kids as your research subject, you get to sign your own informed consent forms. Hmm....http://tinyurl.com/6tz298
• "The academic fast track has a bad rep...unrelenting wk hrs that allow little/no room for a satisfy. family life.” http://tinyurl.com/85jdgb..
• "Cellular telephones are perhaps the biggest threat to survey data that epidemiologists have confronted in years." http://tinyurl.com/8wsoko

Social Networking

• New Pew Report: The media may focus on young people's use of social networking sites, but the heavy users are adults. http://tinyurl.com/763vaf
• The latest on the Burger King-Facebook ad campaign: Facebook Blows A Whopper Of An Opportunity
• "The URL and passcode [for a free Carl's Jr. burger promo] spread faster than a Paris Hilton homemade porno." http://tinyurl.com/8wt7tv
• "Bullying among children...poses a far more serious challenge than the sexual solicitation of minors by adults." http://tinyurl.com/7hd3kc
• "By becoming entangled in...more social networks online, people are building up their own piles of revealing data." http://tinyurl.com/8npflk

The Web 2.0

• It's not just for entertainment anymore! YouTube is now a reference search tool. http://tinyurl.com/8rtver
• YouTube's attempt at launching a "TV Website” for Wii & PS3 video game consoles. http://tinyurl.com/a9xbfr
• For Yahoo, "buying Hulu would be a strategically relevant acquisition for the company." http://tinyurl.com/77b8fo
• "As the 111th Congress kicks into gear, many of your elected leaders are starting their own YouTube channels." http://tinyurl.com/6semt5
• TweetNews uses what’s most popular on Twitter as an index for determining the importance of news stories. http://tinyurl.com/92m6gh

Video Games and Virtual Worlds

• View digital reproductions of some of the Prado's "best loved masterpieces" through Google Earth. http://tinyurl.com/8h4xcv
• "The lines between the cell phone market’s 'mobile gaming' and true portable gaming are starting to blur." http://tinyurl.com/9wtzlr
• “WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games & other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior” http://tinyurl.com/7834ku

Bits of Honey

While the weather this week in the physical world made me want to hibernate, a counter feeling was felt in the online world. There was a blizzard of activity going on during the first full week of the new year. Here's what people were all atwitter about this week.

Gaming and Virtual Worlds

• 2008 education highlights from Second Life.
• Microsoft's Kodu: "We want to give them total mastery of the domain and yet unlimited expressive power." http://tinyurl.com/72nm5l
• "Electronic Gaming Monthly is going Web-only, and 30 of its staffers have been laid off." http://tinyurl.com/72hcdt
• Arlington County's Second Life office has a vending machine that sells virtual Cheez-Its and digital Pop-Tarts. http://tinyurl.com/7fufol
• "As Net-generation teachers reach out to gamers, classrooms across the country are becoming portals to elaborate virtual worlds." http://tinyurl.com/9c6cmj

Gender

• "Barbie reps. a confident and independent woman with an amazing ability to have fun while remaining glamorous." http://tinyurl.com/9b2mpb
• Women = ~ 1/2 of new physicians, but there is new concern about a "leaking pipeline." Will pt work/flextime help? http://tinyurl.com/856nsa

EdTech, Education, and Online Learning

• Online student dropouts: "40% failed to seek any help or resources before abandoning their programs." http://tinyurl.com/axzput
• “For the first time, [schools] are seeing students choose another college for its online program." http://tinyurl.com/76n9nc
• Laptops in the law school classroom = "higher levels of student engagement and other positive outcomes." http://tinyurl.com/9ngfvz
• iStanford: "College kids across the country will be demanding this." http://tinyurl.com/7jk3he
• Coastline CC is creating "an entire classroom that can live on a mobile phone." http://tinyurl.com/axcg73
• Online campuses-"They don't do a thorough market analysis...they just want to expand their enrollment/revenue." http://tinyurl.com/7vknzd
• Early data suggest "a combination of peer instruction and professor-led discussion produces the best performance." http://tinyurl.com/7f7zyx

Journalism

• Wired proposes 5 options to Google that might bailout newspaper. But should Google do anything? http://tinyurl.com/779bpl
• Newspapers are dying. Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, wants to save them...he just doesn't want to buy them. The answer? http://tinyurl.com/7n7qf2

Predictions and Trends

• EDUCAUSE's top 5 educational challenges for 2009.
• "No one can guarantee that these [5] emerging technologies will become widely accepted but the trends are clear." http://tinyurl.com/7bsldw

Social Networking

• "By becoming entangled in ever more social networks online, people are building up their own piles of revealing data." http://tinyurl.com/8npflk. A copy of the full report, written by Google researchers, is available here.
• YAs may have time for Facebook but "35% of males & 42% of females reported lacking time to sit down & eat a meal." http://tinyurl.com/98ucsp
• "Facebook announced that 150 million people across the globe are actively using Facebook—half of them every day." http://tinyurl.com/7zc5as
• A negative review posted to a social networking site like Yelp could lead to a lawsuit. http://tinyurl.com/9vxvx9
• SNS LiveJournal has laid off (no severance) 12 of its 28 US employees. So far, no layoffs at Facebook & MySpace. http://tinyurl.com/8927d9
• Get to know your kids thru MySpace & Facebook, and learn about the risky behaviors they discuss. http://tinyurl.com/a2un2d. The full report is available in the January 2009 issue of The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. [NOTE: Check your local library for free online access.]
• Celebrities who twitter "are being forced to pick a spot on the Gulbis-O’Neal scale of openness." http://tinyurl.com/9jrjx6

Technology

• Google cut some of its famously free cafeterias & canceled a big company ski trip. Oh, and there were layoff too. http://tinyurl.com/9a2u4p
• Due to the tough economic times, the One Laptop Per Child project is restructuring and cutting staff. http://tinyurl.com/8njz2a
• The Pre - it's a "killer Palm product" not an iPhone killer. But will it get Palm back in the smart phone game? http://tinyurl.com/72nnst
• Are desktop computers headed for the junkyard? Some analysts speculate that laptops are today's alpha computer. http://tinyurl.com/7pl9ms
• Best Buy is now selling refurbished iPhones for $149 and $249 (deps. on memory). Original price $199 and $299. http://tinyurl.com/axwtfq
• Hulu: "It was hazed as just another slick effort to upstage the fun, do-it-yourself YouTube" but not anymore. http://tinyurl.com/7u3r67
• On Jan. 15, 2009, 15,000 Microsoft employees (~17% of its total work force) may be without a job. http://tinyurl.com/9wqq4v

Writing and Publishing

• Of the 312 stories in the New Yorker from 2003-2008, 119 or 38.1% were penned by women--up from 37.4% last year. http://tinyurl.com/7ay8k2
• Secondhand books - "Away with 'Best Novels of 2009', farewell to 'the new faces of the new year': http://tinyurl.com/8t5qsg
• "There are only ten writers that you can be compared to in blurbs or publicity materials." http://tinyurl.com/6tkf37
• Reflecting on fiction that appeared in the New Yorker in 2008: http://tinyurl.com/8s7kf2
• "It is not just publishing’s flashy customs that are getting a tough look. Other sacred cows..are being examined." http://tinyurl.com/a8btbb
• "It brings the literature...back into a form that the students of the 21st century will be able to find it.” http://tinyurl.com/7kg8l8
• After 73 years, Librairie de France in NY's Rockefeller Center will close its doors in Sept. 2009. http://tinyurl.com/89mdm6

Bits of Honey

This was another quiet week, but there appeared to be a flurry of activity around the start of the new year. Much of the discussion surrounded year-end summaries as well as predictions for 2009. Here are just a handful of topics that made it to the cyberwaves...

Education, Elearning & Virtual Worlds

• "Schools do not teach the spark of creativity-[they] provide the tools for students to capitalize on that spark." http://tinyurl.com/7rvkl6
• "Classrooms of the future will certainly include a virtual component." http://tinyurl.com/6t464v
• Virtual world research pt. 1:" When a game comes to life, is life still a game?" http://tinyurl.com/9dosmw
• Virtual world research pt. 2: "Virtual worlds are like the utopian communes and artistic movements of the 1960s." http://tinyurl.com/9agg85
• The Metaverse Journal's virtual world top 10 predictions for 2009. http://tinyurl.com/95vz2v
• Ten e-tools for learning we may hear more about in the coming year. http://tinyurl.com/9fum5f
• These are a few of Jane Hart's favorite elearning things in 2008: http://c4lpt.co.uk/2008review.html
• Cyber-bullying, campus gossip, hackers, and low-cost laptops made the 2008 eSchool News Top 10 list. http://tinyurl.com/73cvhq

STEM & Geeks

• The readers have spoken. Wired's list of the top 10 sexist geeks of 2008. http://tinyurl.com/9gqt79
• Wanted: Math and science teachers. The US is "facing a dearth of future homegrown scientists and engineers." http://tinyurl.com/7ce2aj

Technology - Computers, Companies & Products

• On Jan. 15, 2009, 15,000 Microsoft employees (~17% of its total work force) may be without a job. http://tinyurl.com/9wqq4v
• Cooliris.com - "It transforms the browser into a shiny, black 3-D wall and scroll bar." http://tinyurl.com/9wccwf
• On tap for 2009: Nine hot IT skills for these cold economic times. http://tinyurl.com/a4pba4
• The move to expand the language of the web beyond English - one that would include multiple languages. http://tinyurl.com/8mehy2

Writing & Publishing

• The value of author websites: "An author is no longer a disembodied face on the back of a book jacket." http://tinyurl.com/9m38kz
• Recent publishing troubles got ya down? Try self-publishing. Here's a list of 25 tips to get you started: http://tinyurl.com/4z3wu8

And finally, this article in Friday's Telegraph (Jan. 2) borders on the ridiculous. A new primary school in the UK dropped the term "school" from its name. Why? Administrators believe that this term has negative connotations and prefers that the new structure to be known as a "place of learning." No matter what administrators call it, the name isn't what is important; rather, the key to making a school a positive place for learning revolves around the pedagogies that take place there. If the same, tired approaches are used, then calling it a place of learning does not make the lecture more exciting or unique.

Video Games - Are They the Solution?

In the current (January 1, 2009) issue of Scientific American, Larry Greenemeire ponders whether video games may be the solution to today's educational problems. According to Greenemeire, video games are popular with young people, and it is likely that the attraction to this form of entertainment will continue to grow. The author points to examples of successful educational game-like environments such as Chris Dede's River City project. Many educators, like Dede, contend that these multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) support critical thinking skills and foster interest in science and math. Further, technology proponents suggest that students have different learning styles, and this diversity is not always taken into account in the physical classroom setting. Thus, Greenemeire highlights the claims that MUVEs present students with multiple ways of learning. While educators do not believe that video games will replace traditional education, Greenemeire does conclude that "research into the effectiveness of video games as learning tools indicates that classrooms of the future will certainly include a virtual component." However, a common theme presented throughout the literature on video games, virtual worlds, and education is that more empirical research is needed. Currently, there are more questions than answers when it comes to determining the learning outcomes associated with virtual environments.

It is worth mentioning that the ideas presented by Greenemeire are based on work that appears in a special online collection of Science - one that focuses on education and technology. [NOTE: Science is one of those access via subscription only publications. Many libraries pay for an online subscription to this publication, and patrons can access the full-text articles for free.]