The Caffeinated Carbivore

The French have quite a few odd rules, as Matthew Fraser points out, but this one strikes us Social Media bandits to the core: Not being able to say Facebook or Twitter on air?! The social media hold a great deal of power in today's society: 1. Political power, as evidenced by the Obama campaign and the rallies in Egypt 2. Social power (how many couples meet or maintain relationships online?!) 3. Educational power (interactive lessons, teacher immediacy...studies show that students may even learn better with social media. How many times has Google gotten you over that brainfart, "Who was the director of that movie...gosh I can't remember...this is going to keep me up tonight...better just Google it."). The evidence is in our culture. Language serves those who use it, and social media have certaintly taken the driver's seat in creating new turns of phrase like "I'd "Like" that","Tweet this" or "Facebook me". An even stron...

A few studies have begun to research the positive affects of students using social media. For example... From Mashable: Four sections (70 students) were given assignments and discussions that incorporated Twitter, such as tweeting about their experiences on a job shadow day or commenting on class readings. Three sections (55 students) did the same assignments and had access to the same information, but didn’t use Twitter. In addition to showing more than twice the improvement in engagement than the control group, the students who used Twitter also achieved on average a .5 point increase in their overall GPA for the semester. My original thoughts: Awesome-Positive correlation (as social media use goes up, grades go up). After a more critical glance, I noticed that the sample size was a bit small. Further, the study does not explicitly describe the terms it was trying to study, which minimizes the possibility that someone could accurately replicate the study. As if to answer t...

What place do politicians have on Twitter? The primary one (pun intended haha). We've heard a lot of complaints about the costs of campaigns, specifically where the politicians are getting their money from. A politician likes social media for two reasons: 1. It's cheap 2. With the help of your Facebook fan list, Facebook offers a highly targeted ad to a highly targeted audience. Recent research shows that Facebook users may become resentful of the presence of big business on Facebook. The degree to which a politician is considered a big business or a representative thereof has yet to be seen. However, the study did find that young users in particular were open to brands which they felt represented themselves. The takeaway? A politician's ad on Facebook is more likely to be accepted by young users if they seem to be "one of the in crowd"...aka youthful, earthy, and not corporately oriented. A great example of politics, via social media is Comedy Central...

A teacher's Personal Learning Network, or PLN, is a great way to gain knowledge. With the help of the internet and its many sources, you can stretch and strengthen your teaching knowledge base. Your PLN can benefit from quick, interesting updates. Teachers are tweeting, too ! Having trouble shortening your latest find into 140 characters or less? Try making that URL tiny ! Not only does Twitter save you time, it also broadens your outreach to like-minded professionals . Visit Classroom 2.0 Joining Classroom 2.0 or another Ning network is a great way to meet teachers and engage in teachers' chats.