Data & Society — The Promises, Challenges, and Futures of Media Literacy Contemporary media literacy programs–commonly organized around the five main themes of youth participation, teacher training and curricular resources, parental support, policy initiatives, and evidence base construction–have demonstrated positive outcomes, particularly in the case of rapid responses to breaking news events, connecting critical thinking with behavior change, and evaluating partisan content. However, media literacy efforts continue to struggle with a lack of comprehensive evaluation data, with some research showing programs can have little-to-no impact for certain materials, or even lead to harmful overconfidence in assessing media content. Report authors Monica Bulger and Patrick Davison make five recommendations to guide the future of media literacy programming for educators, legislators, technologists, and philanthropists in the space.
The richer lives of social media users There’s a perception that people who spend a lot of time on social networks actually aren’t very social at all, that they’re caught up in a virtual world at the expense of relationships IRL (in real life). But it turns out that perception isn’t really true. Heavy social network users are not any more isolated than the average person, and they are just as interested in real-life things as their Facebook-eschewing counterparts. That’s according to a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, which set out to discover whether technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships. The short answer was no. The study found that roughly 59 percent of internet users are also social network users, up from 34 percent three years ago, and the vast majority of those people are on Facebook. What did you find most interesting or most surprising about this study? Instead, we found that certain users have higher-than-expected levels of well-being.
Disclosure Statement The purpose of this Disclosure Statement is to position what you might find on my blog. This is heavily cribbed from David Weinberger who I adore and find to be a brilliant mentor. First things first, I am not speaking on behalf of my employer (Microsoft Research) and what I say on my blog may not reflect the beliefs or interests of my employer. This is a personal blog. I say what I want and no one pays me to write this blog or say particular things in it. I am not compensated for my blog – I do not run ads, no one pays me under the table, and I don’t sell Apophenia t-shirts or coffee mugs or chachkas of any kind. Attachments I am currently employed by Microsoft Research. I have advised or consulted for numerous companies over the years on short-term gigs, sometimes for pay and sometimes because they’re friends of mine. My research has been or is funded by many foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. Objects of Study Universities Conferences Free stuff Links Friends and Followers
The New Dinosaur: Why I'm Not on Facebook, and Why You Shouldn't Be Either - Culture I gave up on Facebook the day it kicked me off for using a fake name. I can't remember now if it was 2006 or 2007, but I do remember a Facebook support staff member asking me via email to verify that I was actually named "Snuffles Caulfield." I couldn't, and after briefly considering some mock letterhead, I thought, Screw this stupid thing, and that was that. Five (or four) years later, I'm still saying, "Screw Facebook." The only difference is that I'm in the minority. Facebook is one of the most ingenious time-sucks known to man. And speaking of lame people, who in their right mind wants to open up their lives to everyone they meet or, worse yet, met decades ago? Of course all those complaints are peanuts when you begin to think about the real privacy concerns associated with Facebook. This policy stands in stark contrast to several of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's more idealistic statements. That's Facebook in a nutshell.
Smart, dumb, candybar, flip, and brick: a visual history of mobile phones For most of their history, mobile phones have been shrinking. Small meant portable; it even, in the not too distant past, was a sort of status symbol. Remember Motorola’s runaway hit, the ultra-thin Razr? But something funny happened on the smartphone’s way to success. Years ago, your colleagues might have laughed at you if you couldn’t fit your phone in your pocket. If screen sizes continue to grow, you might want to invest in bigger pockets, a bulkier handbag, a man purse, or even a whole new way to carry your phone. Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the Razr was Nokia’s runaway hit.
Report: Facebook has 750 million members | Digital Media Last summer, Facebook announced that it had achieved 500 million users and counting. Now that figure is completely outdated. Though Facebook hasn't released an official statement yet, TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook retains approximately 750 million regular users who log in to the social-networking site at least once per month. That number, which is larger than the population levels of at least a few countries on the planet, isn't all that surprising. The rate at which 250 million more people joined is the staggering aspect. Facebook launched in 2004, and it took until 2010 to reach 500 million members. TechCrunch speculates that Facebook might wait to deal out updated official numbers until it reaches 1 billion members, which would be a bit arrogant on Facebook's part--but that wouldn't be surprising either.
How to Use 43 Folders A very simple guide to leaving here quickly so you can get back to making something awesome. Ask yourself… Why am I here right now instead of making something cool on my own? What’s the barrier to me starting that right now? This is not an insult or put-down. What Sucks? Looking for specific answers to what sucks for you today? More ideas Still sucking? Still Lost? Try a mental sweep, do a shitty first draft, or consider a modest change. Maybe just get away from the computer for a while by taking a nice walk. How to Know When You’re Done Here You’re done here whenever you’ve found just enough information to get you back on track for today. We love having you visit with us here, and we hope you’ll return many times — whenever you think we might have something that might help you get over the hump. The Only “Productivity” That Matters The best advice we can offer is to just put your head down, push yourself harder, and try to figure out what you need to change today to get a little better.
HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter Dan Schawbel is the bestselling author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog. Follow him on Twitter @DanSchawbel. Today, Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service. Last month we showed you a step-by-step process for building your personal brand on Facebook, and today we’re going to show you how to do the same thing on Twitter. By leveraging the Twitter platform to build your brand you can showcase yourself to a huge and growing audience. 1. Prime domain names, especially those ending in “.com,” have long been desirable, hard to find and extremely expensive. What happens when you don’t claim your Twitter handle: 2. 1. 3. 4. 5. 6. Group applications:
Datasets | Science On a Sphere Playlist Builder ../ftp_mirror/atmosphere/lightning/media/thumbnail_small.jpg Annual Lightning Flash Rate Map dataset.php?id=6 Annual Lightning Flash Rate Map Description Before scientists had satellites to detect and measure lightning frequency, it was thought that there were globally 100 lightning flashes per second, an estimate that dates back to 1925. It is clear from this map that the distribution of lightning flashes around the world is uneven. Notable Features Highest lightning flash frequency is 159 flashes per year in Central Africa Florida has the highest flash frequency in the United States The color variation indicates the flash frequency according to the color bar Use lighting Details Media Preview Interactive Sphere View Movie .. Is it Down - Check website status from this USA based server, you can confirm if a website is down or have any error
The future of data-driven decision-making Executive summary Today, successful digital enterprises in every industry require a digital strategy that recognises the value of data, and digital institutions now need to embrace big data too. Doing so will enable the institution to take advantage of emerging techniques and approaches such as Gartner's Insight Engines to generate actionable insights, improving equality and efficiency. Data strategies need to take account of how data is collected, processed, stored, and acted upon, as well as its governance, provenance, and quality concerns, and the data literacy of both staff and students. It is no longer enough for any organisation to rely solely upon data specialists working in silos. Data is everywhere. Of course, it is not sufficient simply to focus on exposing, collecting, storing, and sharing data in the raw. Learning analytics - the application of analytics in an educational context - is beginning to show real signs of success in areas such as student retention. Big data storage