Teachers and educators are vibrantly discussing if and how technology should be integrated into the classroom.  

Are students happy with this trend?

According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Ed, the majority of college students surveyed said  they are concerned about their technology habits. They admit to being constantly on Facebook and Twitter, but they’re not necessarily happy while being technologically engaged. One student quoted in the article said, "I don't realize how much time is passing while on my phone and computer. I'm so preoccupied, I'm not paying attention to what else is going on around me."

On the other hand, the New York Times recently spotlighted a teacher who is using technology in her classroom to give students a voice - resulting in her students spending more intentional time on their digital devices. The featured teacher has her students use a Twitter “backchannel” to ask questions and post comments during a class discussion. She says it has increased student participation by almost a third - contrasting dissenting voices that technology in the classroom is a distraction.

The article reads, “The real-time digital streams allow students to comment, pose questions (answered either by one another or the teacher) and shed inhibitions about voicing opinions. Perhaps most importantly, if they are texting on-task, they are less likely to be texting about something else.”  

Students asked about using the “backchannel” had positive things to say. “When you type something down, it’s a lot easier to say what I feel,” said Justin Lansik, 17, according to the Times.

Are students looking for an escape from the digital world? Or are students eager to have their social networks integrated with their education? 

By Noah Nelson, Turnstyle News

Tonight, all signs point to Sohaib Athar, a 33-year old IT professional living in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as being the inadvertent front line reporter for Twitter of the raid on Osama Bin Laden. Athar, who tweets under the name Really Virtual, began the possibly OBL-related feed at 1AM local time with the report of helicopter in the usually quiet city.

Talk about relevant curriculum. Emerson College in Boston now has a social media course that is underwritten by big companies, like Sprint Nextel Corp., Levi Strauss & Co. and Mattel Inc., in which students create social marketing strategies for these companies and implement them.

For example, Sprint supplied the class with smartphones and  unlimited service and the students returned the favor by tweeting, blogging, and pushing the company’s name through social networks, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Rubi Godinez promoted the class on the Emerson College Admissions blog, “As one of the semester-long projects, we are given a for-profit client. For this client we are to create a social media campaign to increase their social media presence.... I will be working with the Boston Symphony Orchestra working with Google Adwords. Google is sponsoring our class with a $10,000 budget a month to work with Google Adwords and create ads for our clients. This is big.  This class is allowing us to try out ideas with clients, use real money, fail, and succeed. Pretty good deal.”

Students get a good deal, but the WSJ points out, “Of course, some parents may be surprised to learn their tuition dollars are helping to underwrite corporate marketing in addition to their children's education.”

The number of 12 year-olds active on social networks continues to increase. According to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in 2009 73% of teens ages 12-17 subscribed to an online social networking site and only 82% percent of teens 14-17 admitted to using those sites more than younger kids. However, these numbers might vary with the fact that older teens are more likely to admit they use social network sites.

The study also points out that teens who come from low-income families that earn less than $30,000, are more likely to log on to social networking sites daily than those who come from  wealthier families.

“As of September 2009, 47% of online adults used a social networking website, compared with the 73% of teens who did so at a comparable point in time. The percentage of adults who use online social networks has grown from 8% of internet users in February 2005 to 16% in August 2006 to 37% in November 2008. On a typical day in 2009, just over one-quarter (27%) of adult internet users visited a social networking site.” via Pew Internet and American Life Project

Updating your Facebook is not just about keeping your friends up to date, but subconsciously, those profile updates can help boost one's self esteem. According to a study done by Cornell University researchers, the ability to share information through various ways on Facebook, like wall posts and updating one's profile and status can enhance one's self-esteem.

The study focused on the three parts: “exposure to a mirror, exposure to one’s own Facebook, and a control condition in which participants used the same room without any treatment.” Sixty-three Northeastern University students consisting of 16 males and 47 females, participated in the study.

The study found that being exposed to information displayed in one’s Facebook profile “enhances self-esteem, especially when a person edits information about the self, or selectively self-presents.” The study also claims that, “Facebook is a unique source of self-awareness stimuli in that it enhances awareness of the optimal self.” The results contradict previous studies that found that digital self-awareness can have a negative outcome on one’s self-esteem.

This is one more justification for being glued to Facebook.

A new study by the Pew Research Center shows that the online habits of teens are changing.  Instead of maintaining personal blogs, teenagers prefer to use social networking sites to quickly update their status, and check for status updates of their friends.

The study says teens have exchanged “macro-blogging” for “micro-blogging.” In 2007, 24 percent of 18 - 29 year-olds maintained personal blogs, and this number dropped to 15 percent in 2009. The study also reports that teenagers comment much less frequently on blogs than they did in 2006. 

The amount of wired American teenagers that use social networking sites has jumped up to 73 percent, while only 55 percent did in 2006.  However, only specific groups of people are taking advantage of Twitter. Check out some facts below:

* High-school-age girls are particularly likely to use Twitter. 13% of online girls ages 14-17 use Twitter, compared with 7% of boys that age.
* Using different wording, we find that 19% of adult internet users use Twitter or similar services to post short status updates and view the updates of others online.
* Young adults lead the way when it comes to using Twitter or status updating. One-third of online 18-29 year-olds post or read status updates.

 

By Denise Tejada

President Obama held an online town hall meeting last year in which users submitted thousands and thousands of questions that he pledged to answer.  Ranked high among them was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation. President Obama was quick to express his opposition. He said he didn’t, “think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”

Now, the president is set to hold another online town hall meeting on Thursday January 27. People can submit their questions to youtube.com/askobama or via Twitter using #askobama hashtag.

Dominating the polls is the same topic, marijuana. Here are some of the popular questions so far:

“Why are you not pursuing the legalization/decriminalization¬ of marjuana on a federal level when it is proven Mr. President that it would be a positive source of revenue for our dying economy and a positive source of safe treatment for the ill?”

“Dear Mr. President, Why are you against the legalisation of Marijuana? You yourself have admitted to smoking it, it can generate huge profits from taxation and people can enjoy themselves legally, as they're going to consume the drug anyway.”

“Mr. President, why is marijuana illegal considering that alcohol and tobacco kill millions of people a year, yet marijuana has nevery directly killed anyone?”

If you don’t like the questions being submitted then submit yours by midnight (ET) on Wednesday January 26.

A new fashion trend may be coming across the ocean, turning twitter language into an accessory.

A company in The Netherlands called TweetRings.com, enables you to submit your favorite 140 character tweet and have it engraved on a ring band.  The rings come in steel (89 Euros) , silver (99 Euros), and titanium (109 Euros). The company's slogan reads, "Your favorite tweet wrapped around your finger."

As Facebook works hard to amp up its privacy settings, a social-networking alternative has emerged claiming to provide ultimate security and privacy. Diaspora, the brainchild of four young programmers from NYU’s Courant Institute, intends to be an open source personal web server that allows users to own their personal content. The creators launched their alpha site just before Thanksgiving by inviting people who signed up on their mailing list to give it a test run.

The reviews are slowly trickling in.

The last time the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was updated the year I was born, in 1986. The ACLU DotRights video entertainingly demonstrates that a LOT has changed since then.   

We now share information through dozens of different media outlets, and that information is available instantaneously.  Facebook, Twitter, blogging, texting, eRomance sites, and instant messaging have made it so easy for us to get the information we want.  But how much information are we giving away for free?

The ACLU campaign, “Demand your DotRights!” aims to draw our attention to the state of online privacy laws.  One of the ways they do this by encouraging you to log in to Facebook, and take a quiz.  As you take the quiz, the ACLU shows you how much of your personal information the quiz developer can access.  And not only YOUR information.  The quiz developer has access to your friends’ information as well.  This means that any online developer can gain access to loads of information that you intended to be private.