The Caffeinated Carbivore

This new term has been flying across the internet, from creative to advertising mediums. So what exactly is a TransMedia project? A TransMedia project places content on multiple stages, such as Facebook or Twitter, and uses each medium to tell a part of the story. This type of storytelling offers a deeper appreciation for projects because of the varying strengths of these mediums. In this way, viewers often become more engrossed in stories or characters because they can interact with them on Facebook, get live and instant updates via Twitter, and watch new episodes on YouTube. This type of advertising offers strength in its variety; the message is sent to multiple audiences simultaneously and can be altered accordingly. One new TransMedia project is highly anticipated in the comedy world: I Made America . Particularly timely in light of the upcoming election, I Made America is a comedy sketch about a few founding fathers stuck in the mire that is our current campaign trail. The father...

Everyone loves a good story. In fact, we love good characters so much that they often re-appear. The step parent was evil in Cinderella, and that hasn't changed much in the new blockbuster Step Father . The media has always been a vehicle to tell a large story to a large audience. Now with the dawn of the digital age, we too can become story tellers. We share our personal narratives with our Tweets and add our voice to movements on Facebook and newstories on CNN. But who's story is NOT being told? Those without access to technology, either because of their membership in a lower economic group or a higher age group. Aka, those without the skills or the money cannot be cultural storytellers. This was not the case in Egypt, however. While the inernet was shut down, only outsiders could tell the Egyptians' story. BBC and American news networks innitially told the tale of the Egyptians without adding individual narratives. Instead, blanket statements about the protestes (not as ...

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...

I talk a lot about where I hope to see #EdTech end up...but what about where it started? As any good history student knows, you gotta study the past to understand why you're at the present moment. This slide show by Mr. Farber's Room explains: A Brief History of Educational Technology View more presentations from randommind . Another important note about technology and teaching is re-appropriation. I love social media and see an excellent source of educational value (lesson plans, teaching tools for students at home, etc) in Twitter and Blogs . Twitter and blogs already exist, so encourage their use in education. Once we have a few solid lesson plans , then maybe even cel phones (though I'm not convinced they can be "mobile education tools" just yet). Another great example is Skype. I used Skype to maintain a long distance relationship while studying in Greece. Why not use it for distance learning, or even linking to another class for intercultural stud...

I first started using a PLN, or Personal Learning network, this summer. I began a google bookmark list to compile great suggestions or online gadgets that I could use in my classroom. I've even joined the movement to re-appropriate social media for education, turning my Twitter account into a space for sharing and discussing educational technology, aka #edtech. Social media has come a long way these past few years. "Media culture" was once theorized to make national boundaries permeable; now it reinforces them . The need for educational technology is clear: our students are entering a more technologically advanced society which demands their interaction. More pressing still is the learning styles students adopt from their new media teachers, such as multitasking and visual presentation methods. We need to teach them to use these tools, but more importantly, the skills needed to read and discern their meanings. The media has a plethora of persuasive methods at ...

That's right. The Queen of England has a YouTube channel. Still trying to convince your students' parents that YouTube and Twitter are useful in the classroom? Brittany Spears has the largest Twitter following to date. Ashton Kutcher beat CNN to the million mark. We all know that the media influences our culture, and vise versa. Our culture has never been static, but with the dawn of the media age it's become increasingly mashed up and user-run. In a world where creative ownership is increasingly fuzzy and a great deal of humor comes from cross-media references, a good teacher must teach students how to use many mediums correctly and to their greatest advantage. Enter social media lesson plans. For example: Our current President's use of multiple mediums buttressed his campaign. We clearly need to teach our students how to use social media properly-it's influencing the world around them. More importantly-they can provide a piece of that influe...