Everloop, a new social site aimed at kids 8-13, is not just another virtual world. Or social network site. It's not a kids' Facebook or alternative to Whyville.net or LEGO Universe, contrary to what's being reported (see Mashable). But it's also not just an online space. What it is depends on who's looking at it. To kids and parents, it's like a virtual-world and/or social-network mall that's … [Read more...] about Virtual world ‘mall’ now has online-safety ‘store’
Social Media
Togetherville a great acquisition for Disney
Disney's smart to acquire Togetherville, which I called social-networking training wheels for families last spring, when the kids' social site launched. Why families and not just kids? Because kids under 13 hardly need training in online socializing – most start that at young ages, in online games and virtual worlds (like Disney's Club Penguin, which it acquired from a smart Canadian startup in … [Read more...] about Togetherville a great acquisition for Disney
How 2 teach w/ Twitter (esp. rt now!)
There's great material for a media literacy class (or dinner-table discussion) in Twitter these days – both traditional and new media literacy – especially if you and your kids or students follow Andy Carvin (@acarvin), NPR's senior strategist for digital media. I've seen hundreds of tweets and retweets by Andy as I've been following the protest movement in Egypt and around the Middle East. Today … [Read more...] about How 2 teach w/ Twitter (esp. rt now!)
Social media: Adapting to us, not vice versa?
In his review in the New York Times of MIT Prof. Sherry Turkle's "fascinating and readable" but "one-sided" book Alone Together – in which her mid-'90s optimism about digital media is "long gone," he says – author Jonah Lehrer makes an important point: "We are so eager to take sides on technology, to describe the Web in utopian or dystopian terms, but maybe that’s the problem [I think so; it's … [Read more...] about Social media: Adapting to us, not vice versa?
Facebook an antidote for shyness: Study
A University of Texas study found that Facebook is helping people on the shy side of social. "Surveying 900 current and recent college graduates nationwide, Craig Watkins and Erin Lee of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas examined the impact of Facebook on users’ social lives," the New York Times reports. "Four to five years ago, Dr. Watkins said, young people’s … [Read more...] about Facebook an antidote for shyness: Study