This video is billed as

“From cell phone and video games to Facebook and YouTube, digital media are changing the way young people play and socialize in the 21st century. In this video, education experts say digital technologies could transform the way kids learn and participate in their communities.”

The 21st Century Learner

What I like about it is it’s simplicity, with extracts like;

“Probably the most important thing for kids growing up today is the love of embracing change.”

“They want to be measured because they want to see how much they are improving. In fact the most common mantra of a real gamer is ‘if I ain’t learning, it ain’t fun!’.”

“We find, when we talk about 21st century skills, people often reduce them to ‘skills for the work place’ and ‘skills involving technology’, and we really are thinking of skills for creativity, specific engagement, social life; the full range of experiences that young people will be involved in in the future.”

Related posts:

1. Learning Tools: for the Learner
2. Video: Digital Learners
3. Video: History in the making with Social Media and Clay Shirky

I am seeing and reading so many blog posts and tweets with someone trying to explain what is a Social Network, or what is a PLN/PLE.

Which is why I couldn’t resist showing you these Educational Social Media Diagrams from the HubSpot Blog;

This first one highlights, for those slightly confused about what exactly is Web 2.0, that we’re no longer in a broadcast medium where the big corporations tell us what is going on but rather that each of us is capable of finding out from our network (be they people or tools like Twitter or Facebook) about the world around us.

“Social Media Participation Chart” by Oversocialized

This next one is another really good and simple way of showing the uninitiated  about, in my mind, how Generation Y or the Millennials think about the digital world they inhabit. If, like me, you are not from the Gen-Y era (but either want to be or work with them) then this could help you understand their world – this is especially important for those of us who work in education, as this is what they want and expect from us, so we have to deliver on it .. yes?

Digital Mindsets by David Armano

Again, this is another very good and graphic way to produce the same information – in-roads and barriers to the network and information, nicely laid out like a city plan.

Welcome to Social Town by E Factor Media

Related posts:

1. Infographic: The Social Landscape
2. Policies for Staff use of Social Media and Social Networks
3. Presentation: ROI of Social Media

In my recent series of posts on QR Codes, I’ve dealt with how and why they are used, and what you need in order to join in. But what about when they don’t work .. or rather, when they don’t give the results you’re after?

I came across this blog post on the LinkMe Mobile blog; “FAIL: Accessing Barcode-Based Advertising Using a Mobile Phone“. It deals with the use of QR Codes in marketing, but the findings are equally important when dealing with these codes in a learning context.

“What’s the Return on Investment (ROI)? For an advertisement to be successful with the consumer, the end result had better be worth the effort! Unfortunately, both the Intel and Warner Bros campaigns missed the mark.  Intel’s ad ran in Wired Magazine, delivering up a YouTube video from the recent CES Las Vegas that showed how Intel technology could be used in the future … yawn.  Warner Bros did a bit better by delivering up some movie trailers via barcodes on pizza boxes during Super Bowl season.

“Today’s mobile consumer is savvy and sophisticated. If they’re going to engage with a new technology, they deserve a response that is tailored to them and pertinent to their needs.

“Japanese mobile campaigns regularly deliver up worthy promotional items to consumers — including valuable coupons & discounts, instant buying opportunities and often the opportunity to win even more prizes. In the U.S., after asking the consumer to engage, both the Intel and Warner Bros campaigns returned ho-hum responses of limited or no value — a negative ROI. Result: The campaigns failed.“

What the two campaigns had done (Warner Bros. and Intel) had just provided a link to an existing resource (web page, video, etc) that could be found by other means.

The rest of the article is the sales-talk about what LinkMe can do for you, but I’m interested in doing it for myself. Please feel free to read it yourself if you want.

Related posts:

1. QR Codes: Using the code
2. QR Codes and what to do
3. QR Codes: Learning Technology

Another inspiration and informative talk from TED, this time from Clay Shirky on ‘how social media can make history’.

“While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.”

Related posts:

1. Video: Social Media (in 2009)
2. Presentation: ROI of Social Media
3. Social Media and Social Network Educational Infographics

I found this list of 25 TED talk videos worth watching. I’ve already referred several times to the inspirational talk by Sir Ken Robinson on Educational Transformation, and I’m slowly wading my way through the rest of them. I cam across this one by Richard Baraniuk this evening … I liked it, I hope you do too.

“Rice University professor Richard Baraniuk explains the vision behind Connexions, his open-source, online education system. It cuts out the textbook, allowing teachers to share and modify course materials freely, anywhere in the world.”

Richard “has a giant vision: to create a free global online education system that puts the power of creation and collaboration in the hands of teachers worldwide. He’s realizing that vision with Connexions, a website that allows teachers to quickly “create, rip, mix and burn” coursework — without fear of copyright violations. Think of it as Napster for education.”

Related posts:

1. Distance Learning / Distance Education
2. 3D movies in your learning
3. Video: Digital Learners

“Since most of today’s students can appropriately be labeled as “Digital Learners”, why do so many teachers refuse to enter the digital age with their teaching practices? This presentation was created in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.”

Related posts:

1. Digital Native vs Digital Immigrant
2. More “Digital Immigrant vs Digital Native” Posts
3. Video: Marc Prensky & Digital Natives

Related posts:

1. Cartoon: Where do you sit in class?

Kathleen Gray has written this article on College technology ‘catching-up’ with students and has highlighted some of the short-falls many of us have witnessed. It’s nice to see our observations being taken notice of.

So, what’s interesting about it?

“Today’s college classrooms are high-tech marvels, with overhead projectors and grease pencils replaced by document cameras, handheld clickers and interactive white boards.”

Indeed. In fact it’s worse than this. My wife teaches in a primary school; all the teachers have their own individual laptop, every classroom has a high-spec PC and projector and (quite often) a smart board. Children of ages 5 and upwards are better equipped that the majority of Higher Education institutions.

“Faculty, for the most part, see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multitasking, apps-ready world.”

Not everyone is like this; some still view technology as something to overcome, something that gets in the way of doing the proper job.

“Jose Bowen says … today’s faculty should offer podcasted lectures, hyperlinks and online study sessions to prep the students with materials before class — leaving classroom time for discussion and debate.”

Yes, yes, and thrice yes!

Go on, read it and let me know your thoughts below please.

Related posts:

1. Reading: "Developing a better understanding of technology-based pedagogy"
2. Students: Using Technogolgy to cheat isn't cheating?
3. Reading: "Learning on the go with an iPod Touch"

If you have any question about whether you and your Institution should think a little more seriously about getting involved in iTunesU, then take a look through this amazing presentation below from Peter Robinson and Oxford University. It was presented at the 2009 Future of Technology in Education (FOTE) conference.

FOTE09 – Peter Robinson: A Pocket University: Open
Content and Mobile Technology – Oxford on iTunesU

Related posts:

1. Reading: “Self-learners creating university of online”
2. Mobile website: Oxford University
3. Presentation: Using iTunesU

This will get you all out of your seats and screaming … I hope.

I found this totally by chance just as I was about to close the PC down for the day. I got my weekly email from SlideShare and in it was a list of people who’d bookmarked a couple of my presentations.

“Interesting, ” I thought, “I wonder who else they’ve been looking at?”

That’s when I found this … “eLearning Sucks”. I did not write it … but wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments contained within. Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Presentation: Email is so 1973 (Google Wave)
2. Presentation: Why you want to use scenarios in your eLearning
3. Presentation: The evolution of the Internet