EDUC 439/639 Social Networking - Fall 2012

On Saturday U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) spoke at Podcamp East in Wilmington, Del. The fact that he is one of the few elected members of Congress that not only "has" social media but uses it made him the perfect candidate to talk to a completely engaged and social audience about the use of social media in the political and government sphere.

Welcome to DElete bullying.com, a website designed to provide information about bullying prevention and what people are doing about it in Delaware. This website contains information, helpful tools and useful links about bullying prevention in Delaware for teens, parents and educators.

These are not small things but when I ask myself if they matter as much as the potential of a dangerous idea going un-noticed, un-documented, un-challenged in a public space I am inclined to think, "hell no."

""[I]t's presumptive to assume that we should share other people's work w/o asking," wrote @eetempleton, an assistant professor of English. "I would disagree," rejoined @alothian, another English assistant professor. "when I speak & others tweet, I learn a LOT about my own ideas." Some worried that having someone tweet their insights before they publish might increase the likelihood that they will be scooped by a colleague - although others regarded that notion as slightly paranoid.  "

" Educators also have personal learning networks (PLNs) enabling them to connect with other learners around the globe. If you're new to this world, personal learning networks are created by an individual learner, specific to the learner's needs extending relevant learning connections to like-interested people around the globe. PLNs provide individuals with learning and access to leaders and experts around the world bringing together communities, resources and information impossible to access solely from within school walls."

Before using information found on a web page for your research project, consider the following criteria to evaluate its credibility.

"An estimated 135 million people play video games, spending three billion hours a week glued to a screen. But that's not necessarily bad news. In fact, playing video games may be part of an evolutionary leap forward, according to Howard Rheingold, educator and author of the book Net Smart: How to Thrive Online. Rather than characterizing them as hapless drones wasting time, Rheingold's book contends that this massive population of gamers is part of a growing group of "supercollaborators," as described by Jane McGonigal, director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future, who's interviewed in the book."

This is true for digital natives...my grandson is always on- line playing games with people he has never seen in person. I am not quite there yet! I still like to make eye contact -:)

Kred Story is a visual history of your Social Media Influence. Explore the posts, pictures and links that make you influential. See your full influence story and zoom in on meaningful moments.

When we're making a snap judgement about a fact, the mere presence of an accompanying photograph makes us more likely to think it's true, even when the photo doesn't provide any evidence one way or the other. In the words of Eryn Newman and her colleagues, uninformative photographs "inflate truthiness".

This alternate version of the Marketing in the Round presentation was given on September 30 on Sunday morning to Podcamp East attendees. Marketing in the Round was co-authored by Gini Dietrich (spinsucks.com) and Geoff Livingston (geofflivingston.com). You can learn more about the book on integrated marketing communications at marketingintheround.com.

K-12math.info is the largest and easiest to use source of information on elementary and secondary school mathematics content.

The open-source world has learned to deal with a flood of new, oftentimes divergent, ideas using hosting services like GitHub -- so why can't governments? In this rousing talk Clay Shirky shows how democracies can take a lesson from the Internet, to be not just transparent but also to draw on the knowledge of all their citizens.

"Ahead of time set up a Pinterest account for your class that is separate from your personal account.  Make the same number of boards as the number of students in your class + 1 for yourself to use as an example when you are modeling how to do it.  Instead of naming the boards with the name of your students, number each board so you don't have to redo them next year."

What happens when 250-300 amazing, creative, forward-thinking people converge for one wild weekend in exotic Wilmington, Del.? Well, Podcamp East, of course! #pceast #netde

"An open online course, Current/Future State of Higher Education, offering in fall 2012 will evaluate the change pressures that face universities and help universities prepare for the future state of higher education."

This 12 week course, starting September 10, 2012 will explore openness in education - its roots, its growing influence, and economic and systemic impact. We have adopted an open online format (massive open online courses, sometimes referred to as MOOCs...though we expect this course won't hit that "massive" target achieved by initiatives like Coursera and EDx. For a quick introduction to connectivist courses and how they work, please view the videos below.

Great...a TO-DO list!

Learn how cellphones, e-book readers, and tablets are getting kids engaged with learning, focused on working smarter, and ready for the future.