Time for a Real Summer!

Wow what a fast paced semester! It’s funny that I really didn’t even know what LSC 597 was really going to be until the first day of class, yet signed up anyway knowing two things: Suellen was teaching it and Social Media 2.0 was in the title.
Cool, I thought. I am fairly deficient in the SMS except for FB and love classes with Suellen. What’s not to love right? Right! There was so much going on, FB and blogs and Twitter oh my! At one point I wasn’t sure if I was too ADHD for this class or not ADHD enough! It was tough to follow all of the streams of consciousness that were being let go in a day, particularly with so many students in the class! Thank goodness for the LSC FB account that helped us to streamline a bit!
I’ve decided that I am not a blogger or a Tweeter. I just don’t think that anything I have to say is really worth broadcasting to others for the most part. I guess I’ll still Tweet something that is fun but really, probably not use it for much more despite my paper being on the many ways it can be used in the classroom/library!
Thanks to all of my classmates for the many interesting articles and weblinks! You have overwhelmed me with my ineptitude (jk). Thanks especially to Suellen Adams, without whom I wouldn’t know a Twit from a Tweet. Blog on sistah!

Everything Bad is Good For YOU! Really?

I recently made a video book review of Stephen Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You published in 2005. An interesting thought provoking read. Check out the video on YouTube.

Everything Bad is Good for You Link

Transcript:

“Good Evening. I’m Veronica Cuttingstone and this is WLSC News. We begin our reporting tonight with our lead technology correspondent, Dan Fantana, who has uncovered a surprising theory claiming that modern media is actually making us smarter?! Dan, what can you tell us?”

That’s right Veronica. Bestselling author Steven Johnson claims that television, movies, and video gaming long criticized as time wasters are actually beneficial to the brain; which challenges the long held notion that they stupefy their users like a Harry Potter incantation.

In Everything Bad is Good for You Johnson declares that the so-called “dumbing of America” is a fallacy. In reality IQs have risen a surprising 13.8 points over the last forty-six years and Johnson says THAT is directly related to how media provides the brain with multi-layered thinking levels or as he calls them, “cognitive threads.”

            Social media--Facebook, Twitter, and blogging-- have exploded and this too has added IQs points. This high-tech socialization gives fans the ability to compare notes and synthesize the intricate plot lines video games and television dramas offer today; a stark comparison to simplistic bygone era offerings like “PacMan, or “Dragnet.”

Films such as Shrek, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo are examples of how today’s movie makers are enabling IQs to rise; providing multiple layers of entertainment so whether the viewer is 6 or 66 she is amused. Being offered wide-ranging humor, audiences are again given opportunities to construct those cognitive threads.

To try to give readers a fresh perspective on learning and playing, Johnson asks us to imagine a world in which video games were invented before books. In this case a mother may be anxious to see her child struggling to read a “barren string of words on a page” rather than engaging in a vivid, three dimensional storyline with moving images and sound in a game that he controls with his own complex muscle coordination often with comrades from around the globe.

The reward systems that designers have built into these games induce players to want to achieve yet players’ brains desire more, they crave a continued challenge. It is this addictive reward, challenge continuum that compels video gamers to persist in playing. No challenge and the player feels unworthy of the reward leaving the gamer to seek his challenges and thrills elsewhere. If they achieve they will be rewarded, and so on. It is keeping the gamer on the brink of what he or she can accomplish that produces better decision-making and strategizing skills.

So does all this mean we should be encouraging our teens to play video games, go to the movies, and watch television rather than reading a book?

No, of course not. Johnson readily concedes that novels offer unparalleled intimacy into the author’s universe and that there is NO replacement for the guidance and education that parents, teachers, and schools can provide our young people.

Instead he is challenges us to become educated in the media our children enjoy and then to reevaluate our preconceptions. Once parents acknowledge and embrace the trend toward media complexity they can then offer children choices of one game or show over another instead of a full blown embargo.

Finally Johnson would like us to know, “if your [media] selection principle is built around cognitive challenge and not content [there is] no need to limit your child’s media to Jim Lehrer and Nova, our popular culture is supplying plenty of cognitive work out….”

Although it lacks scientific credibility and substance Everything Bad is Good for You is fun, thought provoking, and entertaining; sort of like a video game in pages. (SMILE) I’m Dan Fantana and that’s the latest in technology.

Back to you Veronica.

Deli.ci.ous, Flickr, Clouds, Wordles...

It's official. I'm definitely impressing my kids. Not only have I caught up with them in the technology department, but now I'm teaching THEM some new tricks! One of the newest technologies for our house is the concept of a Wordle. I love the sound of that. Wordle. Cute. It's kind of a word cloud that moves in an artful way I'm told. To me it just looks kind of like an ADHD movie. Too fast to comphrehend.

I suspect that this is just one more piece of technology that I will be grasping to utilize in the school library to grab kids attention.

Wordle. I love how it sounds. Check out this YouTube video about a teacher who made a word cloud in her classroom. Cool...Wordle in the Classroom

What Makes Us React to a Tweet or FB Posting?

Kivi Leroux Miller offers great tips for writing interesting FB status updates and Tweets in her NonProfit Communitcations Blog; something to which anyone who desires a strong social media presence should pay attention. Her tips are simple. Postings should entice a reader to:

• Do Something: Call them to ACTION!

• Think Something: Share information, educate them.

• Feel Something: Build a rapport with them that causes them to CARE about what you've said. Make them laugh, cry, feel wanted... 

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  ~Maya Angelou

These simple techniques make even more sense if you go back through old Tweets or FB posts and see which ones received the most re-Tweets or comments. I went back through some FB postings to see which had received the most attention. I found that the most commented upon postings were those that included photos or information regarding someone's kid graduating, getting a first tooth, etc. as well as sporting events and memory joggers. Funny though, "going to the store" or "taking a shower" don't seem to resonate and receive responses because NO ONE CARES!!!

I'm going to the kitchen to make a snack and then will finish laundry, brush my teeth...

Stanley Cup Champions

Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus...Crap Detection 101

In his YouTube video, "Crap Detection 101" Howard Rheingold gives a great description of how we, as consumers of internet information, must learn to navigate the deep and treacherous waters we surf. Not necessarily an easy task. (I suggest wearing your swim floatees...)



He encourages that we must first evaluate the veracity of the author. Who is he or she; what do other people say about him or her; and who are those people? What are the author's sources, if any? Who links to the author? Check the website's credibility by finding out who is actually behind it by accessing an internet site like easywhois.com and then use a search engine to even delve deeper. Does this group or individual have an agenda? Does the language used indicate a bias? "Think like a detective...an active explorer." Not a passive recipient of information.

In the fall I will be teaching  research to a group of savvy 11th graders. One of the websites that I will ask them to evaluate is regarding a proposal to save the poor, endangered tree octopus shown below.

Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus from Extinction!!!

I wonder how quickly they will detect that the information provided on the webpage is nonsense. I think I may start showing this with faux concern to adults and see what their reaction might be...Click on the link and judge for yourself!

Shelfari

http://www.shelfari.com/

Has anyone else used Shelfari? It is a book community where you can post what you have read, what you want to read, etc.

Check on the link to see if it is for you!

Twitter

I don't really feel anything I do is Tweet worthy but when my friend said that she saw lobsters for $2.99 at Shaw's I said, "Now THAT is something to Tweet!" She agreed. Ok so maybe I'll get the swing of this soon.