The Stats On “The State Of The Internet” And More

Via the Twitterstream and other sources have come a couple of interesting sets of figures around how the internet is used and valued in a couple of different contexts. From Focus comes an infographic on The State Of The Internet that purports to look at

……..exactly who is using the Internet the most, how they are using it and how much the amount of usage is increasing.

Drawing from a range of sources including Pew, Technorati, Internet World Stats and Akamia, the information is notable not only for the statistics contained in the graphics but also for the manner in which the graphics have been reproduced.

How Old Are The Bloggers

The data related to age groups of bloggers is fascinating in that the majority of blog users are not the “tech savvy Gen ??’s” but rather those heading towards grey hair and beyond. These stats are backed up by the latest Pew Report on Social Media and Young Adults. Pew finds that though the numbers of adult bloggers has remained steady over the past few years.

Blogging has declined in popularity among both teens and young adults since 2006. Blog commenting has also dropped among teens.

Instead teens are now using social networking sites though strangely, (at least to this commentator), these same teens shy away from using Twitter with only some 8% adoption. Amongst a slew of other figures the fact that 93% of American 12-17 go online and 62% of these seek their news and current affairs online suggest that if it isn’t already apparent, schools wishing to educate about media will need to make significant changes in emphasis.

The figures also suggest that getting students blogging or using social software cannot be an end in itself. Indeed for a significant group of students blogging may be as much anathema as is doing calculus, it might just not make sense. That there are other online media options for engaging students is just another challenge for teachers to take on board. Commenting on the report Martha Irvine from Associated Press reflected that..

Tech experts say it doesn’t mean blogging is going away. Rather, it’s gone the way of the telephone and e-mail — still useful, just not sexy.

Now as if these statistics weren’t enough to send your head into a spin, there’s also 20+ Mind Blowing Social Media Statistics revisited to consider. This article is a six month comparison of trends related to the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and other online spaces.

Okay now I’m off to count sheep, zzzzzzzzzzzzz…………

Microsoft Privacy Safety : Microsoft Releases a Study on Data Privacy Day

To mark the 4th Annual Data Privacy Day Microsoft has released details of a survey conducted with a range of HR professionals and job seekers in the US, UK, Germany and France. The survey makes concrete what has been spoken about for some time now regarding the need to guard your online reputation jealously. For those yet to dip their toe in a personal online milieu the disadvantage of not building an online persona is also highlighted.

The report comes with a companion vox pop video with some US citizens speaking about online reputation. The report and associated information may well be of interest to careers advisers and teachers in later secondary school especially as the trends identified in the US will no doubt emerge here in Australia.

Online reputation is becoming inseparable from the other ways in which employers and professional contacts judge us. In a challenging economic environment where job hunting is top of mind and online information is playing a pivotal role in the hiring process.

Our study found 70% of surveyed HR professionals in U.S. (41% in the UK) have rejected a candidate based on online reputation information. Reputation can also have a positive effect as in the United States, 86% of HR professionals (and at least two thirds of those in the U.K. and Germany) stated that a positive online reputation influences the candidate’s application to some extent; almost half stated that it does so to a great extent.

via blogs.technet.com

Edmodo Chalks Up Another Pad??

The continuing saga that is the on again off again accessibility to etherpad clones, (netherpad and piratepad have come and disappeared again and Etherpad is not guaranteed beyond March). has taken another turn with the news via Twitter that Edmodo are testing pads under the name of Edmodo Chalk. Early indications from respected testers are that as with the Edmodo microblogging service, Edmodo Chalk is

Simple, elegant, and perfect for classrooms.

I can’t wait to give it a try.

Whilst on the topic of Edmodo, there have also been some significant upgrades to the Edmodo microblogging service with an in space document reader and a replies filter. To keep up to date things Edmodo then check out their blog. If you want to read and hear more about Edmodo and Jeff O’Hara one of the Edmodo co-founder then look in at this Parents as Partners post. Jeff can be found on Twitter as @zemote.

Another etherpad outlet, (though for how long as a totally free service), is PrimaryPad. A UK based service PrimaryPad are providing some free pads alongside a pay for service. It seems the free service is groaning under the strain and will need to be curtailed somewhat which is fair enough given the way the concept of using etherpad type services is taking off.

The Edmodo Interface

What the Web of Tomorrow Will Look Like: 4 Big Trends to Watch

From Mashable comes another of the prediction pieces that appear around the start of each new year, this one is different in that elements of each of the predictions are already apparent. It will be interesting to review the article 10 years hence just to check the progress, or lack there of, towards these expected outcomes. Each prediction brings with them some major collateral considerations for schools. The ubiquitous wireless connectivity will pose considerable problems for education authorities wishing to restrict student access. Catering for multiple access devices will cause pressures on school budgets if traditional strategies of having all students using common hardware persists. Alternatively if schools embrace multiple devices, pressures on teachers who are unable to “learn” how to use a range of devices will increase. Touch and voice input challenges traditional instruction based around text based paradigms and that’s all without considering whether students will allow schools to embrace social media use or whether they will resist educationally based iterations for “non-tainted” versions.

Did you know that it’s been nearly twenty years since the first website was placed online? Have you ever thought about how the Internet and the web have evolved in time?

Ponder it: the Internet, a complex series of interconnected networks, protocols, servers, cables, and computers, has evolved from its early days as U.S. Department of Defense research project into the foundation for the World Wide Web, what we use today to interact with one another via browsers, email, Twitter, Skype, and millions of other online tools.

As we approach the imminent launch of the Apple Tablet and analyze new trends coming out of out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (our full coverage), now is good time to reflect on what the web will look like in the next decade — and beyond.

via mashable.com

YouTube You Choose Really Useful

From yourphotofate comes this really neat use of YouTube. It’s interesting on a couple of levels one because of the message that is portrayed and the second in the use of YouTube annotations. For those unfamiliar with YouTube annotations, this feature allows movie uploaders to add text and other features to the movie from within YouTube. These annotations can also have attributes added to them such as hyperlinks. This means that movies can not only be “cartoonised” but they can also be made interactive which is what the yourphotofate folk have done.

As always Google has some notes on adding annotations and werneroi has a great video on How to use YouTube Annotations (though alas video embedding for the latter has been disabled).

Anyway check out yourphotofate and see where your image would have ended up……….

New projectors make any wall an interactive whiteboard | eSchoolNews.com

Could this development presage the end of the age of the IWB even before it has enveloped every classroom? Just as with the case of netbooks, education based satellite television, video recorders etc will schools be caught with redundant equipment and be left without the funds to maintain and update? Potentially yes. It makes one ponder on the efficiency or lack thereof with systems electing to back one size fits all solutions that are implemented in a staged manner over a long term time-frame when embracing technology. How often will such a process leave schools at the end of this process in a cul-de-sac? Perhaps it begs the bigger question of whether it is the technology or the teacher that makes the difference.

In a move that could shake up the interactive whiteboard (IWB) market, two projector manufacturers have just released new products that can turn virtually any surface into an IWB.

The development means schools no longer have to buy separate hardware to enjoy the benefits of IWBs, whose interactive surface and ability to engage students have made them quite popular in classrooms.

“We would certainly consider this projector a game-changer,” said Claudine Wolas, project manager for Epson Electronics’ BrightLink 450Wi. “It’s not just the newest and latest in projectors, but in whiteboards as well.”

The BrightLink projector, introduced Jan. 13, can be mounted to any type of classroom wall (of course, the smoother the better—and old-fashioned, non-electronic whiteboards work the best). Because it’s an ultra short-throw projector, it can project a whiteboard surface image from a very short distance, meaning that as a teacher or student interacts with the surface, no shadowing exists.

via eschoolnews.com

The Top 5 Google Alternatives and Why You Should Use Them

If only for the short lesson in the history of the idea that has become the burgeoning Google empire this is a really interesting read. By exemplifying the “Top 5″ alternatives to Google the article highlights the many reasons why relying on only one strategy/source is usually not the best option. Any search strategy is only as good as the assumptions underlying the algorithm or formula that underpins how it works.

As always there are lots of other suggestions and links in the Comments that are appended to the article.

Google has been the leading search engine for as long as I can remember. Launched as a small beta start up in 1996 at the domain google.stanford.edu using inexpensive hardware, you wouldn’t think then that it would ever become the success it is today with so few useful Google alternatives available.

In fact, in 1998 when it first went live on the official Google.com domain, the beta was publically labeled by its creators as a “might-work-some-of-the-time-prototype”.

via makeuseof.com

Mashable Facebook Guide: My Diigo Links 01/05/2010

• Facebook Guide Book – How To, Tips and Instructions by Mashable

  From Mashable comes this Facebook “How To” which in essence is a collection of articles published by Mashable related to Facebook. Though it is loosely organised around a series of themes and has quite a lot of pertinent information it isn’t a completely definitive guide. It’s worth noting nonetheless.

  tags: Facebook, Mashable, How To, guide, edtechcrew

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Adopting Technology All A-Twitter: My Diigo Links 01/04/2010

Many of the major changes in society, especially those associated with technology, bring with them all manner of high expectations and dire cautionary tales with few of either being completely realised in the final washup

• Kindlemania could suffer from bite of the Apple | Technology | The Observer

  Though this article is primarily speculating about the possible iTablet and what effect it may have on the Kindle it also contains some interesting observations on the effect of the adoption of other technologies. Far from rendering obsolete the practices they are meant to supplant, new technologies more often than not enable new or modified practice whilst significant or even greater elements of the previous practice are enabled. The article uses the example of email actually stimulating more paper based activity rather than replacing it. It then goes on to explore how the initial iteration of a new technology is very often replaced by variations that can aggregate uses in easier or more satisfying ways. This position them is used to suggest that the Kindle whilst being important isn’t likely to be the final word in e-readers.

  tags: kindle, apple, e-reader

• The trouble with Twitter | James Harkin | Comment is free | The Guardian

  As if to rain on the Twitter parade comes this cautionary article from The UK Guardian. A good read for all tweeps.

  tags: twitter, Guardian

• Why Twitter Will Endure – NYTimes.com

  An interesting article from the New York Times on the virtues and other of Twitter.

  tags: twitter, nytimes

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Texting was never actually designed for consumer market

It’s always interesting to look back on the intended use of technological innovation and compare the current iterations with the presumed uses and benefits when the innovation was first instituted. It reminds me of the story I was told re the development of the original telephone which was intended solely as a serious business aid. So the story goes, initially uptake was slow and new subscriptions were stalling and it wasn’t until some businessmen began to install phones at home and their wives began to use the “business device” for social purposes that sales finally took off. In the end it was the desire to be connected socially rather than a utilitarian need that made the difference.

For a technology that has become so all-pervasive that texting has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary, SMS (short message service) was not designed as a mass market consumer communications service at all.

“It was designed to use some spectrum and provide an internal messaging service for engineers and maybe become the beginnings of a Teletext-type service,” explains Mike Short, chief technology officer for Telefónica O2 Europe. “In the early 1990s we had Teletext and Ceefax on the TV, and in some countries people said ‘maybe we could do this on a mobile phone one day’. But in the early 1990s the screens were so tiny that people could not envisage it, we had no connectivity to the internet so people experimented a little bit.”

via guardian.co.uk