Clipmarks | edtechnnorris's clips

The Media Equation - All of Us, the Arbiters of News

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:04:07 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: The impact of the Internet on news media isn't all bad.

Emerging technologies that threaten to destroy the current paradigm can have precisely the opposite effect.

The Web leaks of entertainment that NBC bought and paid for served as a kind of trailer for the real thing.

How much more powerful is that networked intelligence than a reporter with a phone, a Rolodex and the space between his or her ears?

For the last few years, the locus of control has been shifting and consumers not only expect to customize their media experience, they demand it as a condition of engagement.

Consumers have no issue with time-shifting content — in some younger demographics, at least half the programming is consumed on a time-shifted basis — they just want to be the ones doing the programming

NBC’s game of “whack-a-mole”

was doomed to failure because information not only wants to be free, its consumers are cunning, connected and will find a workaround on any defense that can be conceived.

7 Ways Your Email Can Get You Fired

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:18:53 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Email cuts down on productivity. In addition, employees need to know that they don't own their email. Companies have a right to monitor their messages. People should not use company email for personal reasons.

Clip Source: finance.yahoo.com

Though many companies include e-mail rules in their employee contracts, workers continue to send nonwork-related e-mails on the job. Of those who took an msnbc.com survey that asked how often workers send or receive personal e-mails on the job, 14 percent said they do "constantly." An additional 31 percent said "very often." More than 50 percent said they "sometimes or occasionally" use personal e-mail at work, and only 9.3 percent said they "never do."

Even if most workers may get away with it, companies are using e-mail as grounds for firing. According to a survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, over half of all employers fire workers for e-mail and Internet abuse. The survey also found that of the 43 percent of companies that monitor workers' e-mail, 73 percent use technology tools to automatically monitor it and 40 percent assign an individual to read and review the e-mail manually.

The Biggest Issue

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:32:46 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Blog about why US is falling behind.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Between 1975 and 1990, educational attainments stagnated completely. Since then, progress has been modest. America’s lead over its economic rivals has been entirely forfeited, with many nations surging ahead in school attainment.

In “Schools, Skills and Synapses,” Heckman probes the sources of that decline. It’s not falling school quality, he argues. Nor is it primarily a shortage of funding or rising college tuition costs. Instead, Heckman directs attention at family environments, which have deteriorated over the past 40 years.

there is a big debate under way over the sources of middle-class economic anxiety. Some populists emphasize the destructive forces of globalization, outsourcing and predatory capitalism.

America rose because it got more out of its own people than other nations. That stopped in 1970. Now, other issues grab headlines and campaign attention. But this tectonic plate is still relentlessly and menacingly shifting beneath our feet.

Facebook More Popular than Porn

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:53:07 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.time.com

where college students are going online is to assess which of the 172 web categories tracked by Hitwise get the most hits from 18- to 24-year-olds. Here's a shocker: Porn is not No. 1. I've actually been puzzled by the decrease in visits to the Adult Entertainment category over the last two years. Visits to porn sites have dropped from 16.9% of all site visits in the U.S. in October 2005 to 11.9% as of last week, a 33% decline. Currently, for web users over the age of 25, Adult Entertainment still ranks high in popularity, coming in second, after search engines. Not so for 18- to 24-year-olds, for whom social networks rank first, followed by search engines, then web-based e-mail — with porn sites lagging behind in fourth. If you chart the rate of visits to social-networking sites against those to adult sites over the last two years, there appears to be a strong negative correlation (i.e., visits to social networks go up as visits to adult sites go down). I

Technology Moral Panic: But Think of the Children!

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:00:01 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Hype about online predators based on completely bogus figures

Clip Source: techdirt.com

Recently I wrote about a dreadful article in USA Today hyping up the "oh-no-think-of-the-children problem" of predators using console games to seek out kids. This followed similarly bogus news articles hyping up the threats of predators on social networks. Yet, all the "panic" raised by those articles has politicians practically shoving each other aside to introduce legislation against those social networks, or just various Attorneys General threatening those social networks without any evidence that there's a significant problem, other than a few totally hyped up news articles.

Alice Marwick has recently published a paper discussing exactly this type of "moral panic," focusing on the situation in 1996 in which Time Magazine famously published a scare mongering article about porn online, now known as the Rimm Report.

Marwick's paper has a good analysis of the Rimm Report's ripple effects as well

It was almost entirely wrong.

Unboxed - If You're Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:37:03 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Relates to the article about over-praising your children. People who think success is based on talent, and not the willingness to grow, learn, make mistakes are not as successful.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

After three decades of painstaking research, the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”

“People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”

But Ms. Dweck does not suggest that recruiters ignore innate talent. Instead, she suggests looking for both talent and a growth mind-set in prospective hires — people with a passion for learning who thrive on challenge and change.

How the Google generation thinks differently

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:42:05 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: women.timesonline.co.uk

Digital natives
Like receiving information quickly from multiple media sources.
Like parallel processing and multi-tasking.
Like processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Like random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Like to network with others.
Like to learn “just in time”.

Digital immigrants
Like slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.
Like singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Like processing text before pictures, sounds and video.
Like to receive information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Like to work independently.
Like to learn “just in case”.

Why Gifted Isn't Everything

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:38:27 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: lifestyle.msn.com

Must parents today be more vigilant about their kids' preparation for the future than previous generations had been? Certainly contemporary parents seem to be more worried about their children's achievement, perhaps in part because the skills needed for the future are not as well-defined as they once were. There is a sense of urgency: start early; work hard at learning how to learn; strive for high scores on tests that may determine who will succeed someday. We seem to have concluded that, unless proven otherwise, those deemed "gifted" at learning will have the edge. It's a logical conviction, but one that needs some tempering, according to both anecdotal and statistical evidence.

Are You Turning Your Child into a Wimp?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:57:44 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Overparenting is a bad thing.

Clip Source: www.time.com

A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting

these kids lack coping skills because they've not been allowed to fully function. They are the products of parental anxiety and all the lumps and bumps have been taken out of life for them, so they have no idea how to manage the normal vicissitudes of life.

The world has changed on our watch. I didn't grow up knowing how to use a computer. So that instrument alone is highly symbolic that the world has changed. It's very fast, very dynamic, very fluid. A kid in Bangalore can come up with a program that could make Microsoft obsolete in two years. This is scary. This makes for great uncertainty. So what we're really worried about is the success of our kids. That's why we push them to achieve. And that's why we're focused on the Harvard, Yale, Princeton brand name education. In a world of uncertainty, a brand name carries some cachet and it's the closest thing you can get to a guarantee of some kind of success or achievement.

Educational Benefits of Social Networking Sites Uncovered

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:02:33 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

esearchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The same study found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their counterparts, going against what results from previous studies have suggested.

What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today,"

educators can help students realize even more benefits from their social network site use by working to deepen students' still emerging ideas about what it means to be a good digital citizen and leader online.

"Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout. They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology.

Britannica Goes Wiki

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:07:01 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: chronicle.com

But it’s not a complete free-for-all. The voice of Britannica adds that the core encyclopedia itself “will continue to be edited according to the most rigorous standards and will bear the imprimatur ‘Britannica Checked’ to distinguish it from material on the site for which Britannica editors are not responsible.”

Long a standard reference source for scholarship, largely because of its tightly controlled editing, the Encyclopaedia Britannica announced this week it was throwing open its elegantly-bound covers to the masses. It will allow the “user community” (in the words of the encyclopedia’s blog) to contribute their own articles, which will be clearly marked and run alongside the edited reference pieces.

Instant Messaging Proves Useful in Reducing Workplace Interruption

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:56:56 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

research showed that instant messaging was often used as a substitute for other, more disruptive forms of communication such as the telephone, e-mail, and face-to-face conversations. Using instant messaging led to more conversations on the computer, but the conversations were briefer,

“We found that the effect of instant messaging is actually positive. People who used instant messaging reported that they felt they were being interrupted less frequently.”

Instead of dropping in unexpectedly, many are using the technology to check in with coworkers to see when they are available. Many also use the technology to get quick answers to general questions or to inquire about current work tasks instead of engaging in longer face-to-face conversations.

Ease of use and similarities to e-mail could foster greater acceptance of instant messaging in the workplace.

Principle's Blunder a Teachable Moment

Tue, 27 May 2008 16:26:40 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: blogs.chicagotribune.com

Naperville Central High School Principal Jim Caudill delivered a speech last week at a school ceremony that included significant passages lifted without attribution from another source.

Caudill told Gregory he wanted to get permission from that former student -- Megan Nowicki-Plackett, now a communication arts teacher at the school -- but it was 10:30 p.m., too late to call her at home. And he felt e-mail was "too impersonal for such a request," to use Gregory's paraphrase.

It may sound harsh, but Jim Caudill has to go.

Even if he had received Nowicki-Plackett's enthusiastic blessing to recycle her speech, he was ethically bound to give her full and clear credit when quoting her.

"I'm in the middle of my speech," he told Gregory, "and I paused and I thought, 'Oh my God, I have not talked to her before.'"

That pause was the window into which he should have inserted a gracious and grateful footnote acknowledging Nowicki-Plackett, who was reportedly in attendance.

Clifford Stroll: Why Web Won't Be Nirvana

Wed, 21 May 2008 18:24:17 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: interesting perspective

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen.

Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness. Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don't know what to ignore and what's worth reading. Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them--one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a monument. None answers my question,

My Virtual Summer Job

Mon, 19 May 2008 21:11:52 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Kids working in Second Life making a boatload of money!

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Mr. Everest, of Durango, Colo., is among a new breed of young entrepreneurs seeking their fortune online in imaginary worlds. As the pool of traditional summer jobs shrinks, tech-savvy young gamers are honing their computer skills to capitalize on growing demand for virtual goods and services. Some work as fashion designers, architects and real-estate developers in Second Life, a fantasy world populated by digital representations of real people. These so-called avatars shop in malls, buy property, hang out with friends or sit "home" watching TV, all manipulated by their real-life counterparts with computer key strokes and a mouse.