Many websites are looking to take advantage of Facebook’s social plugins. These pieces of code, when worked into another website, turn the site from static to dynamic, from isolated to shared, from old school to new, and from mass media to social media. At least, that’s what Facebook claims and web-masters hope. In reality, successful
M.I.A.’s Hypocrisy Problem
It’s no wonder when a celebrity represents herself publicly in ways different from how she actually lives. Celebrities sell an image as their primary way of making money. This is even true of music celebrities who have a blurrier distinction between their onstage personas and their actual selves. So for a Hip-Hop star to rap
Finding Resources in a Bureaucracy
Here’s a dilemma for you to consider. You need some information about a subject. The information is available somewhere in your workplace. But the information is not centralized in any way, nor is it localized. That means you need to find all the places the information resides and try to gather it all together for
Yet Another Terrible Auto-Generated Ad
This one isn’t quite as good as an ad for Arby’s in a story about someone getting hit in the face with a ham. Nor is it quite as good as an ad for the Nexus One in a forum discussing problems with the phone is. Nevertheless, it’s pretty good, mostly because it makes little
Where Does Facebook Go Next?
Facebook is free to hem and haw about the public backlash to their latest privacy changes. And the tech press is free to speculate on why it matters or doesn’t matter. But the fact is, when my local television news leads with a story about Facebook privacy, Facebook has some serious problems. The difficulty now,
The Benefits of a Social Networking Platform
As backlash builds against Facebook, many people may be thinnking about deactivating or deleting their accounts. I have been thinking about deleting my account and know many others who are thinking about doing the same thing. Still, as a Facebook user for the last six years, I can’t help but think about how not having
Is Facebook a Communication Paradigm Shift?
I’ve now given two presentations at area senior centers under the title “Understanding Social Media.” And until now, I haven’t recognized a major theme running through the questions that the audience has asked. The underlying query at both sessions: is Facebook actually different from other ways to communicate, or is it just really popular? In
Systematic Discrimination with New Tools
Today, I attended the first day of UW’s Teaching and Learning Symposium, which brings together educators from across campus to discuss techniques for improving teaching and learning at the college level. It’s been very thought provoking, both in terms of the ideas presented and in consideration of related concepts. One of the most thought provoking
Racial Diversity in Children’s Literature
I just finished reading the children’s book, and 1999 Newbery Medal Winner, Holes by Louis Sacher. Many people my age may recall with great fondness other Sacher books like the Sideways Stories from Wayside School series. He’s always been a writer willing to push certain boundaries, even if pushing them means clumsiness. For example, in
End of Semester Doldrums
This morning, I finished up my grading. Aside from small adjustments required to equalize systematic grading differences between TAs, I’m done with class stuff for the semester. And as I am working as a project assistant, most likely, all next year, I’m done with being a TA for over a year. I do have a
What Do New Tools Look Like? (Failing Students, Part 3)
For the past two days, I have argued that assessing the learning of failing students requires consideration of new assessment tools, rather than relying on regularly used tools. Because the tools originally used may not have measured the student’s learning, new tools should be investigated. But once a teacher, after careful consideration, has decided to
When To Switch Assessment Tools (Failing Students, Part 2)
Yesterday, I argued that teachers should not use the same assessment tools to evaluate failing students because the tools may not have worked the first time and because use of them again may not reflect learning as much as additional experience. But this still leaves many questions for educators, mainly how do you know when
New Assessment Tools Needed (Failing Students, Part 1)
There’s a saying–”only a poor craftsperson blames her tools”–or something like that. But what about in education? I’d say, “only a poor teacher blames his students.” Yet things go wrong all the time in the classroom, and no matter how hard a teacher tries, on occasion some students will fail. This is especially true in
Separating Information from Distraction
This weekend at Hampton University, while giving the commencement address, President Obama had some harsh words for modern technology. “You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth
Disturbing Facebook Privacy Invasions
Check this out. Let’s say I go onto CNN.com and read an article about British Parliament. CNN presents a box that tells me how many people have shared the article on social networking website Facebook.com. Click on the image to see the full version. Now let’s say that I log into Facebook and look at