SISummer11

another way to use social media: social networks as support groups. this article describes the author's attempts to quit smoking, and how she used twitter to hold herself accountable and receive praise from followers, which motivated her.

Part of me completely understand the solidarity and support that social media can offer- the other part of me still finds it extremely odd. I'm still trying to put my finger on what exactly makes me think that using Twitter and Facebook to update and get support is strange. Perhaps its just a persona; preference for live interactions...

I see this as a very productive use of twitter.

This interview with Rachel Sterne, NYC's first "chief digital officer," discusses plans for NYC to become a "digital city," that they hope to implement in the near future. (FINALLY, it let me post!)

We all just missed the 8th Annual Games for Change Festival held in NY last week....but here's a description of the workshops that took place. On the Demo page you can see some game samples...unfortunately, there's no link enabling you to play...

Well, someone is trying for the "librarians as info people" thing, let's see how it goes.

Per discussion topic 1--This article deals with the Canadian postal worker strike, which is still going on.

This Newsletter has many relevant articles on the topic of innovation in education. "Technologies to Watch" and "Game-based Learning" were particularly interesting. "Augmented Reality" is another interesting not-so-futuristic technology that makes me think, "Jetsons here we come!"

SEOUL | Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:48am EDT SEOUL (Reuters) - Apple Inc's Korean unit has paid compensation to a user of its popular iPhone after collecting location data without consent, lawyers and court officials said, the first payout by the company over these complaints.

The lawsuits have begun...

Yes, they have!

Please see my discussion board post for more about this article! By Jesse Washington, Associated Press When the personal computer revolution began decades ago, Latinos and blacks were much less likely to use one of the marvelous new machines. Then, when the Internet began to change life as we know it, these groups had less access to the Web and slower online connections - placing them on the wrong side of the "digital divide."

An article on the issues that the digital divide is having in online education

I can really see how digital divide can even apply to adult online learners. There is definitely a skill set that we must develop as online students, that is very different from the skills we had as traditional students.

Intriguing editorial on how our digital selves are lacking in complexity and narrative. Here's an abridged version of the Kenyon College commencement speech mentioned in the article delivered by Jonathan Franzen, written for the NY Times: http://www.edrants.com/what-jonathan-franzen-didnt-include-in-his-new-york-times-op-ed/.

Wind forward 10 years, and a lot of those same companies are now struggling with the next generation of online interaction, Social Media. That's Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums, the lot. And if they don't have a properly planned strategy to interact with the promptness and openness that people expect, there can be trouble.

Great example of digital divide narrowing.

My boyfriend works for Comedy Central and he helped with rebranding. I was very interested in how they came up with a logo that looked just like the copyright logo. It wasn't a coincidence. Comedy Central held a small press conference to herald its new clean, minimal logo: a small "c" enveloped in another larger, backwards "c" with the word "central," inverted. If it looks kind of like an "@" symbol, that's on purpose, says the network, which just released new iPad apps for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and "America's most horrific web videos" series Tosh.0.

This happened a few days ago now, but I forgot to post it until I went to talk about it in my journal this week! From the article: "Over the course of three days in June, artist Kyle McDonald captured the faces of Apple patrons in two of the company's Manhattan stores. He did this by installing a program on computers in the stores, which automatically took an image every minute." His idea was that the photos constituted an art project about what people look like when they engage with technology. The Secret Service confiscated his computers after an Apple Store employee traced where the photos were being transferred to. I thought this was interesting because it's an example of visual surveillance of people's physical presence/actions in public spaces like Greenfield talks about, rather than surveillance of their digital actions, which so much of the literature focuses on. I definitely think the artist's project constitutes a violation of the privacy of the people whose photographs he took, but I can't help thinking it's also a really fascinating project that wouldn't work if people knew their photo was being taken in that moment.

Mary had mentioned "Smart Communities" in one of the class discussions, which brought to mind this very cool teen website that I discovered last semester, called YouMedia, designed to support and develop media literacy skills......

Posting this to test Diigo...also because it was a GREAT find - a current study that provides information for both my digital storytelling project AND my group project on ethics....Here's a summary of what it's about. Also was wondering if "Sribd" is another sort of Diigo? The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning, published by the MIT Press, present Findings From current research on how young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. The Reports result from research projects funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of its $50 million initiative in digital media and learning. They are published openly online (as well as in print) in order to support broad dissemination and to stimulate further research in the Field.

"ABC News' correspondent Dana Hughes reports from the Mobile Health Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. More than 5 billion people in the world today have cell phones, and they are doing a lot more than just talking." This is an article about how people use ICT to get medical care in places where they wouldn't otherwise get it.

Brian D Loader and Leigh Keeble A review of evidence on the effectiveness of initiatives providing better access to information and communication technology for people experiencing social exclusion. This literature review examines current evidence on the effectiveness of public access centres and related community informatics (CI) initiatives in providing better access to information and communication technology for people who experience social exclusion.