The Caffeinated Carbivore

There has been a great deal of speculation of the years about how the Internet is effecting the next generation of students: does it shorten their attention spans? Do they expect different lesson plans ? While technlogy in the classroom offers new formats for education, not all students are more tech-savvy than their older counterparts , nor do they always prefer to use technology (this is a stereotype of their generation that teachers should avoid). The implications of technology may extend past new technique or preference, however. Recent studies presented by the BBC found a correlation between a persons' Facebook friends count and the size of the "social", "memory", and "emotional" areas of their brain. The social impacts of social media may not be suprising. Dr. Ryota Kanai of University College, London, states, "We have found some interesting brain regions that seem to link to the number of friends we have - both 'real' and 'vir...

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...

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...

Social media transmits and changes our culture-so can it be used for good? A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace higher education institutions in their use and monitoring of social mediums. Clearly, non-profit organizations making solid use of social media by creatively harnessing its power and potential. How do they do it? By identifying the most powerful ways to reach a large and diverse audience. 93% of the top U.S. charities have a Facebook page 87% have a Twitter profile 65% have a blog Big and small businesses alike have access to social media-it's free and easy to use for both the sender and receiver. As we've seen with previous online movements, the internet can help you create a new personality separate from that which exists in the "real world". In short, these social mediums give the little guys a voice just as big as the voice of billion dollar or staffed corporat...

I've often written here about how media has become increasingly plastic-we shape and reshape our social networks via social media, and vise versa. Even a teachers' pedagogical standpoint influences her social media choice...and the social mediums of her PLN influence her pedagogy! I do not believe this is due to our increased dependency on social media-I believe the plasticity of social media is due to the fact that it was born from a cyclical and self-motivated American capitalist media. Our society is smothered by a few voices repeating and rehashing status quo for the sake of feeding the media machine. The result? No fresh, new perspectives or ideas, and certainly no new voices. Our media is built upon money-making, and thus entertainment; even objective or factual news stories are scrapped if they are not entertaining. This has led to a degradation of traditional fact: even the most horrifying or logical of events is reduced to an ordinary and entertaining standpoint ...

Billboard top 100, that is. Remember Auto Tune the News? Well, they've taken another news story... ...and turned it into a song. Only this time, they've got a hit on their hands. And an article In the NYTimes ! Just another example of social media bringing people together. The media serves different purposes for us (news vs entertainment). Auto Tune the News is a sterling example of the permeable boundaries of the mediums since the dawn of social media-none are mutually exclusive, and each is connected by us, their users. Another trend exemplified by Auto Tune the News is the user-centeredness that mediums have adopted. Twitter and now the New York Times have monopolized on our desire to get quick and personalized information.

The economic down turn has negatively effected lots of businesses. While the news has a social duty to report the daily happenings, they are also a business. News papers have been altering their formats. Sunday papers are changing, and some aren't even printed! Then, of course, there's the online news sources. Not all businesses are suffering, however. Which business is booming, you ask? Social media. The New York Times has noted the change in how we read our news. Comedy Central for political knowledge , and a now a Twitter-style newscast for the NYTimes . The ap will be a more audience-focused reader. More backlash and evidence of booming social media? Our changing language. Words like " Islamophobia " describe a current social phenomena spread, and fought by, the media, and " Tumblr " is a social media company. These socially mediated terms have become such intricate pieces of our culture that they have made it to the Dictionary. A culture using...

"I’m not sure it’s always good to grow up surrounded by stability, immersed in affluence, and having had it drummed into you that you are entitled to be a member of the next leadership class. To have this background in the modern era is to come from a ghetto, the luckiest ghetto in the world, a golden ghetto beyond whose walls it can be hard to see." --Wall Street Journal The New York Times asks why it is taking the 20somethings so long to grow up . I ask why parents are having such difficulty letting go. We call this phenomena "Helicopter Parenting". We have a lot of teachers out there. We have few educators. This is a tough economy, and college students are looking it right in the face. What does that mean for college teachers? Relevant lesson plans taught by educators: those who teach us how to learn, not teach us a few facts. Things to know about my generation in the classroom: 1. Yes, we've all been shaped by our parents. Even the intonation of o...

New Newscasting. Comedy central is currently the main news source for teenagers. Some are appalled. I applaud it. John Stewart and The Colbert Report give us 20somethings the things we crave: comedy and news combined. Example from Auto Tune the News: Compared to a ethnocentric conglomerate news source, I find comedy central to be a great option. For example. Conglomerate news reporting lacks the ability to question what is being presented; it relates one point of view. Putting Democrats and Republicans on TV to battle it out is not critical thinking. Even with two viewpoints there is no supporting evidence or questioning on the part of the viewer. John Stewart provides critical thinking by asking viewers to question their sources. Watch the Parent Company Trap clip here . Some say that social media are degrading our cultures' knowledge base. First, social media has become news in and of itself. Don't have time to cruise the vast content of YouTube? Tosh.0 on comedy...

Chapter Three "B" is for "Blood". The previous entry was about books and reading lists - blood seems unrelated, right? Of course not-I wouldn't do that to you. Latest teen book craze: New Moon and the associated werewolves and, of course, vampires. I'm glad Stephenie (note, not like me, Stephanie) could inspire teenagers to read. Literacy, and reading in general, are very important to maintaining an educated society. I won't discuss the literary quality of these books, but hey, it got kids back into bookstores. The downside of the trend? Blood-sucking teenagers. Recent reports of skin infections originating from, you guessed it, attempts at Vampirism. According to a recent CBS report, the bites show devotion to someone. These modern-day hickies show the possessive side, or perhaps need, Middle Schoolers wish to associate with their relationships (including friendships). Apparently locker notes just don't cut it. I guess Middle School romance ...

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...

Despite my recent blog entry about Cyber Bullying , there is still so much more to say about the topic. As we educate our students on the benefits of social media, we should also alert them to the dangers. There are various approaches to cel phones in schools . As Wes points out , labeling is an important part of image. If the phone is to be used for education, it is called a "mobile learning device" to emphasize its educational importance. However, students, parents, and teachers should be aware of the technology's dark side. As exemplified in the case of the cel phone's educational name, "mobile learning device", parents should be aware of the differences between "bullies" and "Cyber bullies". The many phases of bullying. 1.Olden days: Size: large, often older or taller than the average kid. Skills: Cruel nicknames, stealing lunch money, extreme snowball accuracy. 2. New Wave Size: varied Skills: everything nice, note encoding 3. Cyb...

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...