I’m going to TribeCamp

On Saturday, I’m going to TribeCamp.  What’s TribeCamp?  Here’s what the organizers have to say about it:

TribeCamp is a daylong conference with sessions about Web Content Creation, Social Media, Online Marketing, and “Tribes”, which are really professional groups of people with some commonality (think Designers, Entrepreneurs, Marketers, etc…). However, the sessions are just half of the day.

The other major benefit of the day is the numerous connections you’ll make with a sphere of professionals. TribeCamp is a unique experience by LaunchMemphis and LunaWeb designed to foster the community of entrepreneurship in Memphis.

It’s going to be a blast.  Coming off the high of Project Showcase and then going to TribeCamp, it’s like “learning-crack.”  I’m going to be floating all the way to AERA next week.  Wanna go to TribeCamp, too?  I hear you!  There’s still time to get registered.  It’s not expensive, and there’s lots of discounts.  Here’s the link to find out more:

http://www.tribecamp.com/

Bookmarks for November 24th through December 7th

These are my Jumptags for November 24th through December 7th:

• Instructional Design and Development Blog » Blog Archive » Teaching Frustrations: Why Don’t Students Follow My (Clearly-Labeled, Logically Organized, and Bold/Highlighted/Flashing) Instructions? – Instructors who teach in online environments often devote extensive time and energy into designing a Web space that is inviting and useful to students. But frustration inevitably ensues when, despite the careful consideration given to the most logica…
• MIT Uses Social Networking to Win High-Tech Scavenger Hunt – Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a social-networking scavenger hunt over the weekend, locating 10 red weather balloons tethered across the country in less than nine hours, The New York Times reports. And all it took was …
• 108 Mono Icons: Huge Set of Minimal Icons | Tutorial9 – This icon pack comes with 108 gray icons, but feel free to customize the color. In Photoshop, use layer styles and apply Color Overlay to customize. In Fireworks, simply apply Filters → Adjust Color → Color Fill and choose your color!
• The_Personal_Learning_Environment: A report on the JISC CETIS PLE project – This report details the findings of the investigation into Personal Learning Environments conducted by CETIS between March 2005 and July 2006 and commissioned by JISC. In our work we considered the phenomenon of the PLE from a number of different asp…

400 friends? Confirm or ignore?

I recently had a facebook friend post a celebratory post about reaching 400 friends. Of course, comments of congratulations followed this. However, I could not help but wonder how many of the people he would recognize or speak to if he met them on the street?

A recent blog posted by Dion Hinchcliffe lists the twenty-two power laws of the emerging social economy. I found it interesting that number 3 was Dunbar’s Law that states we can only have 150 active connections. With more than 10 social networking options available, I think of people who have more than 150 connections on each network. For example, on my LinkedIn network, I only have four connections with two group memberships.

So, how many connections do I need? Personally, I have 148 friends in Facebook. In September, Wired published an article explaining where you could purchase Facebook and Twitter friends. Most of my connections are personal connections made through education and church settings. However, I did use my friends list recently to distribute a survey for a course. Because of their feedback, I was able to focus the instructional design of my unit.

The Facebook Song seems to summarize the feelings of the growing population of social networkers. With the number of social networking sites and connections increasing, are social interaction skills beginning to suffer? I love the thought of being able to connect with high school friends or college friends. However, when you begin to suffer withdrawl symptoms because of lack of Facebook time, there is a greater problem.

• Have you suffered facebook or social networking with drawl?
• How many social networking connections do you have?
• How do you use these connections personally and professionally?

Guest blogger:  Jamae Allred is a former preschool teacher of six years. She enjoyed working with children from three to five years old. After completing her Masters of Science in Education in Early Childhood, she taught undergraduate early childhood courses for one year. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in instructional design & technology at the University of Memphis. Her research interests include online education and e-Learning influences in the early childhood arena. She plans to teach in higher education after completing her degree.

Bookmarks for October 9th through October 13th

These are my Jumptags for October 9th through October 13th:

• PowerPoint Design in 2009: Six most recommended tips : Speaking about Presenting – But in this project, there was a striking consistency with the advice given. I’ve outlined below the six tips that were recommended most often. I’ve also noted the research that backs up a recommendation – where it exists.
• PowerPoint slide design – the basics : Speaking about Presenting – These design tips are for the Assertion-Evidence format – this is gaining ground as the brain-friendly yet easy to put together alternative to bullets.
• New evidence that bullet-points don’t work : Speaking about Presenting – At last, we have some scientifically rigorous evidence to show that slides full of bullet-points don’t work.
• STUDY: 75% of Small Businesses Are Not Engaging In Social Media | Penn Olson – According to a survey conducted for Citibank Small Business, 75% of small businesses revealed that they have not found social media sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn helpful in generating leads or business expansion.
• Learning Circuits Blog Big Question – PowerPoint – The Learning Circuits Blog considers the use of Powerpoint in learning.

Bookmarks for September 19th through September 21st

These are my Jumptags for September 19th through September 21st:

• Videos – Worldbuilder – Welcome to Worldbuilder: A Fourth World Media, LLC Educational Community Committed to the Advancement of Social Media Literacy
• Did You Know? 4.0: The Economist Media Convergence Remix – The Economist Magazine is hosting their third annual Media Convergence Forum in New York City on October 20th and 21st. Earlier this year they asked if they could remix Did You Know?/Shift Happens with a media convergence theme and use it for their c…
• YouTube – Did You Know 4.0 – The Economist Magazine is hosting their third annual Media Convergence Forum in New York City on October 20th and 21st. Earlier this year they asked if they could remix Did You Know?/Shift Happens with a media convergence theme and use it for their c…
• Tinychat – Disposable chat rooms for up to 12 people at once. Text, audio and video. Free.
• Freckle – The personal plan is 1 project and 1 user for free.

Bookmarks for September 8th

These are my Jumptags for September 8th

• The Five Design Elements Every Website Needs – Discover the five design elements that every well-built website needs. Includes tips and tricks for content and navigation design.
• How To Jump Start The Website Design Process – Discover a simple four-step process that can help any web designer squeeze inspiration out of a competitor's website design.
• Project2Manage – Free Project Management – Project2Manage is an Online project management system that allows you to stay up-to-date, on task and connected with your team. We’ve taken the hard work of staying organized and simplified it for you.
• 15 Essential Web Tools for Students – It's time to head back to school and there are a number of web-based and social tools to help you get through the school year. Here are 15 essential ones.
• Microsoft Launches Tools For Teachers – Microsoft's Education Labs launched a new project this afternoon and it's better on trees and the environment. The group just announced a new Math Worksheet Generator where teachers …
• Kineo – Tip 27: Tear down the visual wallpaper – It is time to tear down the e-learning wallpaper and take heed of some top tips on using graphics for instructional use.
• 30 Amazing Alphabet Recreations | Tutorial9 – The Alphabet dates back to the Egyptian era and forms the basis of our language, through the years people have experimented and created a wealth of interesting and unique alphabets. This is a collection of some of the best examples.
• 3 Successful Small Businesses on Social Media – To help you see how social media can work no matter how big or small your business, I’ve found some great case studies of small businesses that get it and are seeing results!

Bookmarks for September 4th

These are my Jumptags for September 4th

• GIF, PNG, JPG. Which One To Use? – If you're starting out in web design, you may be familiar with the different types of file formats used for images, but it can be confusing trying to figure out which file type you should use.
• The Ultimate Round-Up of Fireworks Tutorials and Resources – Fireworks was originally created as an image editing and web design application by Macromedia, for quick web mock-ups, and optimizing images for the Web. It
• Social Media Network Icons – Over 80 refined, amazing social networking icons for the top networks around. In PNG format.
• How to Use Twitter for Business: An Official Guide Finally Arrives – ReadWriteEnterprise – Twitter has launched Twitter 101, a special guide to the 140-character network aimed businesses.
• The Big Picture – The Big Picture is an online organizer that sets to make organizing more intuitive.
• 25-point Website Usability Checklist – Use this simple, 25-point checklist to assess critical website usability issues. Includes free download (1-page PDF).
• Download Helveticons – A great set of free folder icons based on Helvetica Bold.

The role and future of social networking

Yuri Quintana

Increasingly social networks are being used in business, education and by non-profit groups. Which social networks do you use? Which one is your favorite? Why is it your favorite? How should educators be using these networks? How can these networks be used in the classroom? What kinds of student projects could be done for course credit?  Here’s a list of some popular and some niche networks.  Add your thoughts in the comments below.

Professional Social Networks
http://www.linkedin.com/ <http://www.linkedin.com/>
http://www.xing.com/ <http://www.xing.com/>
http://www.talkbiznow.com/ <http://www.talkbiznow.com/>
http://www.plaxo.com <http://www.plaxo.com>

Wireless Social networks
http://www.whrrl.com <http://www.whrrl.com>
http://www.snaptell.com <http://www.snaptell.com>
http://trutap.com <http://trutap.com>
http://taptu.com <http://taptu.com>

Social Networks for MDs
http://www.sermo.com
http://www.socialmd.com
http://doc2doc.bmj.com

Networks for Scientists
http://labroots.com
http://sciweavers.org
http://scientistsolutions.com
http://network.nature.com/

Create  Your Own Social Networks
http://www.ning.com
http://www.crowdvine.com

Self-Publishing and User Contributed Content
http://lulu.com
http://beta.yudu.com
http://scribd.com
http://www.ireport.com
http://www.wikipedia.org

Video Publishing
http://www.youtube.com
http://video.google.com

Guest blogger: At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Yuri Quintana has led the development of several international online projects, including www.Cure4Kids.org, an online pediatric cancer education Web site used by thousands of health professionals in 164 countries; Pond4Kids, an online system used for international pediatric cancer protocol research; and Consult4Kids, a Web-based system used by health professionals for clinical consultations. Prior to coming to St. Jude, Quintana was a principal investigator in the Canadian HealNet Research Network focusing on consumer health informatics; while there, he designed breast cancer decision support systems for the Canadian Cancer Society. Formerly a faculty member at the University of Western Ontario, Quintana also served as director of the New Media Research Lab. He has held high-tech positions at IBM Canada Limited, Watcom Inc., WATFAC, and the University of Waterloo. The chair of four international conferences on medical informatics, Quintana earned master’s and doctoral degrees in systems design engineering and an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science, all from the University of Waterloo. Quintana is currently focused on the development of innovative Internet technologies that empower communities of health care professionals and consumers to communicate, learn and collaborate on a worldwide basis.