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