Social Media Facts and Figures

Need some statistics to convince yourself that you should be teaching social media in the classroom. Check out this YouTube video and I think you'll be a believer. It makes a great intro to social media for students too.

Viral Marketing Works...at Very Low Cost!

Integrating Web 2.0 tools into the classroom is not particularly difficult. Convincing students that they need to learn about these tools can be more of a challenge. I usually try explaining to the students that they can use these tools when they get out into the business world. To visually illustrate this point, try showing them this video which is sure to grab their attention!



Blendtec is a company that sells a fairly expensive ($400) high tech blender. The company stumbled on an inexpensive way to gain a lot of exposure for their product. The company made short, simple videos entitled "Will It Blend?" and posted them on YouTube. In these videos they attempt to blend a variety of objects, such as an iPhone, golf balls, glow sticks, a Nike shoe, a Grand Theft Auto IV cartridge, etc. According to the Wyoming Business Report, in just one year the videos garnered over 6 million views and the company increased their profits by 500 percent! And it costs very little money to make a video and post it on YouTube. Now that's effective viral marketing!

As a class project, have your students go out on YouTube and find other examples of viral product videos that have gained substantial numbers of views. They won't have to look too long or hard to find them.

Free Polling for Your Blog or Web Site

Micropoll provides bloggers and other web site owners an easy way to create and embed polls in their sites. As opposed to the poll tool that comes with Blogger, Micropoll offers the ability to have others easily embed your poll in their own web site or on a social networking site such as Facebook. This can substantially increase the reach of your poll. Want feedback on a question from more than just your current students? Have your students embed the poll in their Facebook or MySpace accounts and watch the results roll in!

Feel free to take the poll on the right that is powered by Micropoll to see how it works. The Micropoll features video shows you how to create your first poll and explains the major features of the polls. So try it on your web site today!

Seen This in Your Classroom?

Here's an advertisement set in a classroom that might remind you of a few students you've seen in your classroom over the years. Of course, this instructor is pretty irresponsible for not encouraging his students to set higher standards. Still, it is good for a chuckle.

Pictures Not to Include on a Blog or a MySpace Page

I'm always amazed at the pictures that students will put on blogs or social networking sites. They may be great photos to share with their friends, but if they are identified in the photo, is it worth jeopardizing your chances of being selected for a job? Just in case your students need some guidelines about what not to include on a web site, here are a couple of suggestions...

You may feel passionately about a particular cause...which is fantastic...get involved! However, a prospective employer may not agree with your views. In the majority of cases, you should keep your personal views separate from your work life.


Anything showing you with alcohol, partially clothed or in an embarrassing situation. It might have been a great party, but will it impress an employer?


It is hard to imagine how the ability to do a keg stand would impress any boss! Yet I constantly see these photos on the web.


Discussion Questions for Students:
1. Have you ever posted anything online that you feel that a potential employer should not see? Do you think it would affect your employment opportunities?
2. Should employers check the Internet for information before hiring potential employees? Why or why not?
3. Do you think that you should have a right to privacy regarding information you place on a MySpace or Facebook page? How would you ensure that your privacy was protected?

Fun With Hard Drives

Hard drives need to remain hermetically sealed otherwise they tend to stop functioning. But have you ever wondered what a hard drive looks like on the inside while it is running? Thanks to someone sacrificing a hard drive (they won't be able to use it again), now you can see what really happens.



And if you've never defragmented a hard drive, this is what it looks like in time lapse mode.

The Mom Song (William Tell Overture)

This is a good video to play for 8am classes while you are waiting for class to start. The William Tell Overture is very difficult to sleep through, IM through, etc. And Generation Y students can usually relate to this video as the comedienne does remind them of their mom!

How Not To Use PowerPoint

This is a humorous look at things you shouldn't do when you are creating PowerPoint slides to support a presentation. Even though it is funny, the video makes a lot of valid points that are worth pointing out to students.

A Vision of Students Today

This video gem is from the Cultural Anthropology Faculty at Kansas State University who have brought us so many other clever videos over the past couple of years. They asked their students to work on a shared document (sort of a wiki) and to comment on what was going on with each of them when they were in the classroom. They filmed the results and displayed them in a thought-provoking way (students holding up signs). The students' comments probably reflect many of the issues your students are facing.

Even though this video is designed more for faculty than for students, I still find it beneficial to show to my students. It gets them thinking and often sparks a good discussion about what they want to get out of my class. Often showing this video will spark student interest in using wikis. Two free sites where students can set up wikis are Wikispaces and PBworks (formerly PBwiki).



Discussion Questions for Students:
1) Which issues from the video are you facing in your classes? What solutions would you propose to the students in the video to address their concerns?
2) Have you ever used a wiki or Google documents to share information with a group or plan a project? Have you ever used these tools in classes at this institution?
3) Do you think you would find wikis useful in your classwork? What about in your personal life?

Sources of Videos Other Than YouTube

Can't find what you are looking for on YouTube? There are certainly plenty of other sources of free video on the Internet. Here are a few of my favorite sites:

Google Video - You would think since Google bought YouTube they would have combined the two sites by now (or at least made the functionality the same). But you would be wrong! Google Video, still technically in beta, hosts videos in a similar fashion to YouTube. But the real strength of this site is the search feature. As you can see from the image below, the search box default option is to search the entire web for videos, not just ones hosted on the Google Video site. Therefore, this is a superior search feature to the one offered on YouTube which only searches videos hosted on the YouTube site.



Lab Rats - Two technology journalists, Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers, started making video podcasts in October 2005. Fortunately for us, people loved them and now the Lab Rats website contains over 100 video podcasts on technology. These videos are well written, produced professionally and contain useful information on topics ranging from Web browser security to iPod hacking. There is something here for every level of student.

5 min - 5min is a site that offers short video solutions (all 5 minutes or less) to practical questions. Their idea, as explained on their site, is simple: "...any solution can be visually explained in no more than 5 minutes. Our goal is to create the first communal Life Videopedia allowing users from all over the globe to contribute their knowledge by sharing visual guides in areas such as arts, business, fashion, sports, health, tech, food, and much more." They have a technology section which contains some very informative videos such as Wikis in Plain English and How to Retrieve a Lost Windows Password. While not as extensive a collection as YouTube, the videos at 5min are very high quality and well produced videos.

If you know of any other sites that provide useful technology videos (for free, of course), mention them in a comment to this post and I'll add them to this list.

Increase Your Blog or Web Site Functionality with Mashups

Web 2.0 is all about functionality and user input. There certainly is plenty of data available on the Web, but sometimes it isn't exactly in the format you desire. This is why mashups were born. A mashup draws data (or functionality) from two (or more) different sources and deploys them within a single tool. An example would be drawing location pictures from Google Earth and adding them to house listings from a real estate agency. Lots of mashups are created using Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) methodology.

But for mere mortals, like your computer literacy students, Microsoft has provided a site which allows the easy creation of mashups with drag and drop functionality. Popfly is a cool site which you can access for free using a Microsoft Live ID (also available for free). Once you are there, there is a handy tutorial which will have you making your first mashup, which you can then deploy on a blog, social networking site or Web page, in just minutes. But to make things even easier, just watch the video below which shows you how to make a photo carousel mashup and include it on a blog.



So turn your students loose on Popfly and see what they can create. If you are using blogs in your classes (see the Blogging Across the Curriculum blog) or have students creating their own social network on Ning, require them to make a mashup and include it on their site. You may be surprised at what they design!

Alas...since I originally posted this, Microsoft has killed off Popfly. Well, it was fun while it lasted!

Web 2.0 Parody Video

Here's an amusing send up of Web 2.0 called Here Comes Another Bubble. It can be used to start a discussion of Web 2.0 in your classroom. WARNING: The darn song might run through your head all day!



Discussion Questions for Students:
1) What is Web 2.0? What are the key attributes of Web 2.0 applications?
2) Which of these Web applications do you use on a regular basis? Social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) wikis (wikispaces, pbwiki, Google Docs), blogs, social bookmarking (digg, del.icio.us). Which sites are most useful to you and why?
3) What types of activities can't you do in the applications you are using now that you would do if the functionality were available? (This usually produces lively discussion as students say, "Hey, you can do this on blahblahblah.com!")

Teen Texting - How Much is Too Much?

I'm sure you are aware that text messaging frequency has increased substantially, especially among young people. Teens text much more frequently than they use e-mail or even voice calls. But exactly how much are teens texting?

According to Neilsen Mobile's research, the average teen (ages 13-17) sends and receives an average of 1,742 text messages per month! My first thought upon hearing this tidbit of information was when do these children sleep!

But wait, that is an average number. So-called extreme texters, such as the young lady shown in the video below, send and receive over 30,000 texts per month. Now I know this young lady can't possibly be getting any sleep!



Discussion Questions for Students:
1) How many text messages do you send and receive a month? Have you ever bothered to check?
2) Did you ever receive an unexpectedly large texting bill? Do you have an unlimited texting plan on your phone?
3) When you were a teenager, what guidelines did your parents establish regarding texting and cell phone use? Did you adhere to those guidelines?
4) Did your parents ever confiscate your phone for using it too much? If so, how did you feel about their actions?

Evolution of the Dorm Room

When I was in college (back in the dark ages of the late 1970s and early 1980s), dorm rooms were very spartan affairs with cinder block walls. My dorm rooms (college name withheld to protect the innocent) resembled this:



(Image stolen (errr...borrowed) from Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi which is one of the most outrageous [and funniest] sites on the web).

But the spartan surroundings that I endured when attending college just won't cut it with today's college freshmen. With competition for students at an all time high, many colleges today are building high-end dorm rooms that feature amenities you would find in fine homes or 4-star hotels. Many campuses feature fitness centers, cybercafes, and even Cold Stone Creamery outlets to ensure that the modern campus experience is just as cushy as the lifestyle that students enjoyed while living at home. We wouldn't want you to have to walk off campus just to get a pizza now would we?

Time magazine has published a slide show that traces the evolution of the dorm room through the ages. This recently completed dorm room patio from the University of California at Irvine is nicer than the patio at my house! If you want to start at the beginning of the slide show, click here.

Discussion Questions for Students:
1) How important are dorm room amenities in your selection of a college?
2) What dorm room and campus features are important to your college selection decision?
3) Would you rather have palatial surroundings at college or lower tuition? What amenities would you be willing to do without to lower college costs and potentially your tuition bill?