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

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.