Good news bad news, eh? I did the bad news in my last post. The good news for me today was Arianna Huffington’s article, Journalism 2009: Desperate Metaphors, Desperate Revenue Models, And The Desperate Need For Better Journalism and the added bonus of the “Shift Happens” video, Did You Know 4.0.  I read the article with hubby this afternoon and we had some lively discussion about the parallels between the state of journalism, the state of the games industry and the state of the world in general. I say for about the 5th time today (all unrelated) the microcosm is a reflection of the macrocosm; what is happening with print media, is happening with music, games, movies, writing in general, photography etc etc.

So I read Arianna’s very provocative article and sucked in all the information about the role the internet currently plays (and is projected to play) in respect to journalism and print media – and marveled again at how difficult it is for some folks to accommodate change; yes I’m pointing at you ‘old media’ but I could easily be pointing any number of other directions…. like emmm … my own sector at work ….

Curioser and curioser, I popped the link to above article and video and mailed it around the office and was a bit gobsmacked by some of the responses. I read the article and watched the video and came away with my ‘communication cup’ spilleth-ing over with possibilities; for my personal passions of writing and photography, of community building and connection but also,  professionally – oh yes, I can see possibilities for how we can put these amazing communication advances to work for the child protection sector, particularly at the Peak Body/non government level.

Other people at work saw the ‘communication cup’ as having being turned over, with all the good stuff seeping away. I was the Positivity Gal, which is an interesting turn of events, for little Ms Reality (moi), who really cannot abide trumped up positivity. But there we go, I feel incredibly positive about the progress of social networking, community building and the variety of social media platforms. I also feel more than a little bemused by all those who wish to halt progress and regress to a time and a place I really don’t believe ever existed.  Who will be the casualties in the wake of the swift and unstoppable force of change?  I dare say, it will be those people who refuse to progress or, as Arianna so beautifully metaphored, those intent on “merging into traffic riding a horse and buggy“.

Anyhoo, read and watch, see what you think… is the exponential growth of online-ness a ‘good thing’ or a ticking time bomb getting ready to blow the status quo to smithereens?

]]> http://playthink.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/did-you-know/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:59:27 +0000 J.R. Atwood http://playthink.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/did-you-know/

“The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010. . . [will not have existed] in 2004. . . We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist. . . using technologies that haven’t been invented. . . in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

In 2006, high school math teacher and technology coordinator Karl Fisch made a slideshow for his fellow teachers and administrators inspired by the disruptive effect of technology—”cell phones, video games, social networking sites, the Wikipediazation of information, the reach of YouTube and Skype”—on education. The slideshow was called, “Did you know?” and featured provocative statistics, observations, and predictions about future demographics, jobs, and education opportunities. From a great HuffPo article that explains the “anatomy (and meaning) of the ‘Did you know?’ video series“:

New technologies have ushered a seismic shift in education: how our kids learn, how our teachers teach, how curriculum is shaped and presented, how individual students, powered by technology, process and experience what they’re learning.

After having shared the slideshow on his personal blog, Fisch was contacted by a university instructor named Scott McLeod. Together, they turned the slideshow into a short video, which McLeod then posted on his own blog. Someone at the design company XPLANE came across the “Did you know?” video and contacted the two educators, offering to produce a free animated version of their presentation. Within a year, it had been viewed more than 5 million times.

That was version 2.0 of the series, produced in 2006. Version 3.0 is here and 4.0 below.

Says McLeod, a former 8th grade teacher:

“When you show some version of the video to corporate people, like the folks at Sony, they nod their heads and say, ‘yeah, this is the challenge we’re dealing with.’ When you show it to kids, to students, they nod their nods and say, ‘yeah, we’ve been waiting for you to catch up, we’ve been living through all of this.’ When you show it to educators, as often as not, the predominant reaction is withdrawal. They retreat like a turtle to its shell. Not all of them. But a lot of them. It’s too much. It’s too overwhelming. They don’t know what to do with it. This is our challenge.”

HuffPo journalist Jose Antonio Vargas concludes his article on “Did you know?” with “a call to action”:

This is a time for innovation in education, and technology in general and the Internet in particular are central to that. As President Obama and Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, continue to plan the future of our schools, Fisch and McLeod’s videos serve as resources—and, altogether, a call to action. Shift happens. It’s here. Lead.

I first came across one of these NSR (non-scooter-related)-videos on an import-tuning website called Skunk2 (don’t ask me why), then tracked back to YouTube and finally, the “originals“.  They really illustrate how they world around us is shifting and changing at a never-seen-before pace.  Oh, wait, we have a ride today, don’t we?  Better get offline and get ready!–Lorenzo

As noted in the opening video, we (at SCGT) try our best to be among the 54% of all bloggers who post daily.

And here is a progressive series of the “Did You Know?/Shift Happens” videos first created by an educator named Karl Fisch.  Enjoy!

And, wait, there’s a newer version!

(From DesignShare)

Bio:
Karl Fisch has been a teacher for eighteen twenty-one years*. He has taught middle and high school math and is currently Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. He is the project leader of Arapahoe’s Curriculum Innovation Team, leading the staff development efforts for 21 st Century Learners, a group of teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills.

He invites you to join the conversation at his blog, The Fischbowl.
Contact:
You can reach Karl Fisch by email at karlfisch@gmail.com

*Thank you Mr. Fisch for the update.

I was deeply impressed with the original ‘Shift Happens‘ video created by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman in June 2007.  I have shown this video to students, teachers, administrators, school administrators, and government officials at numerous conferences in several countries.  I think the video is powerful in which it helps raise awareness of the issues of globalization in our newly connected world.  The video was then remixed and became a very popular YouTube hit called ‘Did You Know?‘ and attracted over 6.5 million views.

A new/updated version of the Did You Know video, called “Did You Know 4.0?” was released at the Media Convergence Forum run by The Economist in New York City, October 20-21, 2009.  The latest video provides facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist.

This 4.0 version was created in the same spirit as the previous versions, but has less of an education focus and more of a business slant.  Some interesting statistics include:

• Newspaper circulation is down 7 million over the last 25 years.  But in the last 5 years, unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million.
• The average American teen sends 2,272 texts per month.
• 40 million people have been Rickrolled.
• 95% of all songs downloaded last year weren’t paid for.
• Wikipedia launched in 2001.  It now features over 13 million articles in more than 200 languages.
• The mobile device will be the world’s primary connection tool to the Internet in 2020.
• The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller than [the one computer at MIT in 1965].

After watching this video, what are your thoughts? Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments here.

Zahlen und Daten zum Thema Social Media und wie sich unsere Welt verändert, zusammengefasst in einem knapp fünfminütigen Video.

Another video in a series of really interesting data from the economist, one of my favorite publications.

Dear Political Candidate,

It’s great that you’ve signed yourself up for Twitter and Facebook, I could not be more supportive. However, please stop treating these new technologies as something you can just check off your list. Just being on Facebook and Twitter is not enough.

Social media is NOT mass media!

But don’t worry, this is a good thing. Campaigns (like most businesses actually) have very few forms of communication available where you’re given permission by the consumer to send them something. Until these new technologies became available we really only had the newsletter (the classic permission marketing medium). The big difference, of course, is that newsletters are still one directional communication. Social media is the first medium where campaigns have been pre-approved to start a bi-directional conversation with all four key audiences (voters, funders, volunteers, and influencers).

So don’t waste the opportunity…

Now that you’ve been given this pre-approved, bi-directional communication tool…don’t waste it. Most candidates will never get the chance to speak to even a small portion of the voting population directly. However, with social media you CAN talk to thousands of voters…and you can do it with your own personal touch. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Ask questions? This is a great opportunity to learn what’s on the voters’ minds and a great opportunity to show the voters you’re deeper than a stump speech.
2. Don’t and I really mean this…don’t reprint your press releases. No one cares. Take the concept you’re trying to get across in that press release and write it for real people (preferably in a link friendly blog).
3. Be real…most politicians have a personality and this is one of the few ways you can show it off. (note: being real does not mean stream of consciousness…no one cares what was on your subway sandwich)
4. This one will probably get some push back from some, but I don’t believe social media is a place to ask for money. However…
5. Do link back to your site often. If you have a good site, there will be a lot of great content to link to. It will also be very clear how to give money, volunteer, sign up for the newsletter, etc.
6. Oh ya, don’t forget to link to other sites/articles/blog posts as well. This is something that bloggers learned some time ago, but it’s still a good best practice for all social media.

Sincerely,

Your Friend

I would love to hear other good suggestions and examples of politicians doing a great job in social media.

UPDATE:

I came across an interesting article in the Washington Post (thanks to the NOI Blog for the link) about politicians using social media. A study run by the University of Maryland concluded that  80% of postings by Congressman on Twitter were self-promotional or just a running list of activities. The study outlines a few of the main points that I was trying to make. It’s not about broadcasting information, it’s about interacting with the voters in a conversation. You can read the article at the Washington Post.

This is another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist.

Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Design and development by XPLANE. You can follow them on Twitter.

Yes, you read that correctly. Teaching to the 20th Century is the intended title. It refers to the fear that some educators have of teaching towards what is to come. Our students have to live in a world that has yet to be defined or really formed: the world is changing and developing so rapidly that we don’t know what they will need to be able to do and how they will be accomplishing these unknown tasks. We are so accustomed to directly teaching what is already known at them. The idea that we need to guide them into a yet undefined world is frightening. It’s a step away from what is known and secure into a place where outcomes may not be predictable.

This video, Shift Happens, on Karl Fisch’s blog illustrates this changing world in a simple and to-the-point manner. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have, watch it again and examine what you are doing in your classroom.

Yes, you read that correctly. Teaching to the 20th Century is the intended title. It refers to the fear that some educators have of teaching towards what is to come. Our students have to live in a world that has yet to be defined or really formed: the world is changing and developing so rapidly that we don’t know what they will need to be able to do and how they will be accomplishing these unknown tasks. We are so accustomed to directly teaching what is already known at them. The idea that we need to guide them into a yet undefined world is frightening. It’s a step away from what is known and secure into a place where outcomes may not be predictable.

This video, Shift Happens, on Karl Fisch’s blog illustrates this changing world in a simple and to-the-point manner. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have, watch it again and examine what you are doing in your classroom.

Here are some interesting videos I stumbled upon today during my daily Youtube exploring. Do take notice, these might be old for some of you that live browsing videos.

First up we have 10 drugs you shouldn’t do before driving. It’s a very funny video, my favorite section is the LSD one, showing what a person would do if they took drugs before driving. There is a similar video of drugs you shouldn’t do before a date but that was full of meh. Check it out.

Next up we have Expialidocious, yeah that’s a mouthful,  a really trippy, cool and awesome video made up of scenes from the movie Mary Poppins. The music is real nice, check out the creators myspace right here, he has made many different songs which I think are pretty rad. Subscribe to him on Youtube, his videos are really entertaining and interesting pieces of work. Some of his notable most recent work, that I liked are Scrumdiddlyumptious and Bangarang.

Finally, it isn’t a trippy or funny video, instead is a really interesting and informative video about how today’s technology is moving forward so incredibly fast that what we grew up with as the mediums of technology and communications are going down in decline while the new technology is rising insanely faster than the old technology ever did. I can’t wait to see how the world keeps changing and technology keeps getting so much better, that is if we don’t get blown to smithereens in 2012. Note: you might want to stop the video every once in a while to read the text, it’s a little fast in some parts.

In our world that is always in a state of flux, we cannot expect a thing to remain the same for a long time—be it in our love lives, jobs, hobbies, and even in technology particularly in the world wide web.

While it is true that sh*t happens, we must also consider the fact that in this world… Shift Happens! Here’s a video presenting the various shifts in technology, our use of the internet, and life as a whole.. which are actually happening, yet, not a lot of people are aware of. Enjoy!!

I know many of you have already seen Shift Happens, the Flash presentation developed by Colorado educator, Karl Fisch. I still get requests for links to the video that are viewable in school, so I’ve embedded it here for easy access:

For me, the most salient point seems to be that teachers are preparing students for a jobs that do not yet exist.  The startling reality is that by the time students graduate and get an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they acquired in school, it will most likely be obsolete in the workforce? Cathy Gonzalez refers to this phenomenon as the half-life of knowledge. How exactly can teachers prepare students to thrive in a world that does not yet exist? The answer lies helping students to develop a set of skills that have always been invaluable: critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, collaboration, communication and information literacy skills. These skills have the potential to help our students thrive in the face of any seismic shifts that may come.

P.S.  If you haven’t checked out Karl Fisch’s blog, I recommend that you do so in your “discretionary time” There are some thought provoking reads posted by Karl and his teacher colleagues…

For the last few years there has been a series of videos put up on Youtube showing some of what has happening in the every changing world of technology and media.

The fourth has just been released. So here are all four if you haven’t seen them before. [Whats really interesting is how many times these videos have been reposted on Youtube, and how many people have re-edited  them]

Since last Sunday I have been contemplating today’s post and next Mondays.  I had a plan for this week and I thought that I would prepare a short post for next Monday as I will be conferencing. During my thinking and dithering, I came to the conclusion that what I was going to write for this week, a look at the conference program and what I will most likely be attending, would actually be better suited for going up next week on the first day of conference.

So now I am back to thinking about what I should write about this week. I was considering doing a “What I Read” post, reviewing one of the blogs out their, like The Librarian In Black or Stephens Lighthouse. I was also considering whether anyone would be interested in a review of some of the non library but book related blogs I read like Beatties Book Blog or The SciFy Guy.  But then I realised there would be a small problem with that.

You see, I do read these sites, some more than others, but not as much as I would like. There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment for me to read what I want to read, or do, between work, books, blogs, shows and being with the family. Some of that is of course a matter of priorities; I probably shouldn’t spend so much time reading dodgy political blogs when on the computer.

I have at various points tried using a RSS feed reader like Bloglines and Google Reader to manage my feeds, but I have never really got into the habit, and they always seems like more work than necessary.

So my question to you, is how do you manage your reading? How high is library reading on your priority list? Do you use blog aggregators?

While pondering that, I will leave you with the “Did you Know 4.0” video update of Shift Happens.

Yes, we all know how amazing the Obama digital strategy was during his campaign. However, I still find it to be interesting and there is still much to learn about what worked and what didn’t. One of my favorite parts of the video is when Joe talks about sending fundraising emails. Out of 10 emails you send, only 2 should be asking for money…the other 8 are there to set up the ask. Most campaigns will throw out the occasional endorsement announcement, press release…but 75% will be requests for donations. Give your supporters a reason to read your email, don’t just ask for money!

The work of the Swindon Ten is currently going though a review, but I thought that it would useful to explain the sort of things that we do, and how we work.

The project has a number of strands which look at different areas of education (such as Literacy, Parents & Community, IT, Gifted & Talented) and try to identify areas of good practice to share around the schools.  We also collaborate together to open up opportunities to the pupils that wouldn’t really happen if we just had one school trying to do it.

A good example of this is our upcoming Swindon Youth Festival of Literature (funded by our Literacy Strand) which will feature a number of achildrens authors and illustrators including Darren Shan.  He’s a very big name in children’s books, and he’ll be appearing at the Wyvern Theatre talking to Swindon pupils and signing books.  One school would find it prohibitively expensive to have such an event, but spread between the schools it becomes much more affordable.  So much so, we have been able to invite pupils from other schools in Swindon from outside the partnership to benefit from the event.

Other forthcoming events include an Arts Festival for primary Gifted & Talented students being run by Gifted & Talented students from the secondary schools, some curriculum development training and some very exciting Peer Mentoring work.

 As I mentioned at the start of this blog, our plans are very much up for review.  We need to ensure that the work that we are doing is going to really benefit all of the schools and their pupils.  We’ve got a big meeting next week with all of the Headteachers to agree our next strategic goals.

To help us get started, we’ll be using  this video to get our thinking started:

It was orginally created by Karl Fisch, of Arapahoe High School in the US. It’s been modified by a number of people and adapted to have more of a UK focus.

Some of the stats are pretty exciting, some are challenging and some are scary!  Hopefully it’ll generate some useful discussion…

Che cos’è Did you know? Nata inizialmente come una presentazione PowerPoint per un meeting dell’agosto 2006 alla Arapahoe High School di Centennial (in Colorado), la sequenza di dati e immagini contenuta nel video è diventata famosa grazie al passaparola via web, tanto che ad oggi si contano nell’ordine dei milioni le persone – 5 solo nei primi 5 mesi dopo la pubblicazione su Internet – che hanno visto almeno uno dei (finora) quattro capitoli della serie.

Il video spiega, con interessanti infografiche, come cambia nel tempo il mondo in cui viviamo grazie alla tecnologia, sottolineando dati significativi dell’attività globale online e le contraddizioni dell’era dei “sempre connessi”. La versione ufficiale #4 del video originale “Shift Happens” comprende fatti e statistiche focalizzate sul cambiamento del panorama dei media, con particolare attenzione al fenomeno della convergenza.

great “visual thinking” vid with amazing factoids about the media & the interwebs… from the folks who made the “Did you know?” videos

“The latest version of the “Shift happens” videos updated for autumn 2009, developed by XPLANE in partnership with The Economist. This Did You Know video focuses on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology”

Un altro splendido video della serie “Shift Happens“, sviluppato da XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod e Laura Bestler, e condiviso su YouTube, riassume in maniera sintetica ed efficace i cambiamenti mondiali dello scenario dei media.

Because you are reading this blog post, you are probably riding the wave of change which is sweeping through the world of media currently. But have you ever realized how fast these things are happening around us, and more importantly how we are causing it? Check out this video in which the impact is summarized in about four minutes, a MUST SEE for anyone with the slightest interest in knowing what is happening out there (which in my opinion is everyone):

Can you imagine there are still people out there who call themselves marketers which don’t use the internet?

As I’m a bit of a closet statistics junkie & as these videos have been bouncing around the web for the past 2-3 years, I thought I’d compile a post with some of the best.

Did You Know? 3.0 (Official Video) -2009 Edition

Did You Know 4.0

Did You Know 4.0 (Convergence)

The Social Media Revolution Fad

Did You Know 2.0 (SHIFT 2008 Edit)

Cela ne fait plus aucun doute, le social média est en train de révolutionner la façon dont nous interagissons avec les autres mais aussi la façon dont les marques et les entreprises interagissent avec leurs clients.

Les videos, qui à coup de chiffres clés, tentent d’illustrer ce phénomène se multiplient.

Pour les incrédules ou les curieux voici deux des vidéos les plus marquantes:

et la très sérieuse mise à jour #4 de “Shift Happens” de the Economist qui dépeint le nouveau paysage des média:

Toujours pas convaincu?