Thanks to my Entrecard Pals

I have been a fairly active member of Entrecard, a link-sharing community of bloggers from around the world. You can see my Entrecard space in my sidebar. Every time someone “drops” a card from my site, the blog displayed in my card that day gets Entrecard credits that they can continue to use by advertising on other participating sites. I finally got around to participating in their latest contest, and I’m happy to write about the blogs that were my “top droppers” this month. Here they are:

BMWF1Blog — This blogger writes almost exclusively about racing the BMW Sauber F1. Lots of news and reviews for lovers of racing.

Inspector Electra – I’m an avid reader of this blog, because it’s about technology and gadgets. Lots of recent tech news here that comes in handy.

Serian Man — The Serian Man and I have a lot in common. We both write about education. He’s a teacher in Borneo, though, which makes him a lot more interesting than me.

Freeware Gadget –Another favorite blog of mine because of the writer’s keen sense of what’s news both in computers and on the web.

Bingo Sites Online for Women — The Bingo Lady is a recent Entrecard friend, but I like her blog. Bingo is big in the UK!

Picture to People — A blog about computer graphic design. A lot of interesting information here.

Best Freeware Files — Another tech blog, with the latest information about free software on the web — everything from Opera to Firefox to Openoffice.

Things About Computer — I’ve learned a few things from this site, especially about computer viruses, security and more.

Diet Recipes Blog — I’m always looking for great diet recipes, and you’ll find plenty here. I’ve tried the carrot muffins and they’re great!

Melissas Homeschool — A Florida homeschooler’s blog that’s chockful of useful information for homeschoolers and parents.
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Confounded Blateration! Savethewords Expands Your Vocabulary

A funny little Web 2.0 site out there will literally beg you to broaden your knowledge base and expand your vocabulary.

Savethewords will make you chuckle, yes, but you might learn something in the process. Try these words on for size, for example. (I’ll provide the definitions at the end of this post).

Lubency
Sophronize
Blateration
Eicastic

The website offers a collage of dozens of little-known words, and when you get there, you hear cute little voices saying things like “pick me” and “over here.” The point is to “adopt” a new word. When you do, savethewords provides you with a definition of the word you’ve adopted and emails you a certificate of adoption. By accepting the certificate, you “promise to use the word, both in conversation and correspondence, as often as possible” and to the best of your ability.

It’s all in good fun and encourages us to expand our knowledge of the ever-evolving English language. As a former journalist, taught to write conversationally, I might never use the word “eicastic.” At the same time, can it hurt me to learn something new?

Check out savethewords and have some fun.

As promised, here are those definitions:

Lubency: noun. Willingness: pleasure. He is running for office, hence his sudden lubency to help little old women cross the street.
Sophronize: verb. To instill with well-grounded moral principles. Strangely, the Paris Hilton book “How to Sophronize Your Child” never found a publisher.
Blateration: noun. Blabber, chatter. I had to listen to my mother’s blateration for 30 minutes just because I got back at 2 a.m.


Eicastic: adjective. Imitative. The parrot’s eicastic abilities caused the maid to believe that someone was actually starting the car.

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Academic Earth: Get an Ivy League Education

I continue to be fascinated by what the Web offers up these days, and the latest site to catch my undivided attention is Academic Earth, which provides you with dozens of lectures by professors at some of this country’s best universities – Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Berkeley and Harvard – on topics ranging from English to Entrepreneurship.

This site is a god-send for anyone interested in continuing their informal learning, and I won’t hesitate to recommend it to a number of retired people I know who are spending their most formative years reading, auditing courses and taking adult education classes. But Academic Earth is for anyone, including current students who need research sources and just about any adult who never quite got his foot in the door to an Ivy League institution.

The lectures, available in video form, provide us with the chance to peek in on a class or even take a complete course from start to finish. All of the videos are available for embedding and sharing with social networks. Along with each video, you’re provided with citation information in case you’re using the video as an academic source.

As a former English minor, for example, I was drawn to The American Novel Since 1945, the course taught at Yale University by Prof. Amy Hungerford. The 26 class videos include two lectures on Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, one on JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, and one on Richard Wright’s Black Boy. There’s even a review of the course before the final exam.

I’m going to spend some quality time with this website, wistful for an Ivy League education but happy that I don’t have to take notes.

The lecture I’ve chosen to show you at random is Yale history professor David W. Blight’s first class in his course, The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877:


Immaculate Reception — Vatican Goes Video

VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - JANUARY 08: Pope Bene...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

OK, so maybe I shouldn’t be sacriligious about this.

But you have to admit, it’s pretty Web 2.0-cool when the Vatican launches its own YouTube channel, and that’s exactly what happened on Friday. Pope Benedict XVI joined President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II in launching his own channel, the latest effort by the folks in Rome to reach out to the digital generation. (It probably won’t work on my college-age kids, however.)

At a Vatican news conference, an executive of Google Inc., parent company of YouTube, joined with the Catholic clergy to announce that the Vatican had posted its first 12 videos on the pope’s new YouTube channel. The Church hopes to publish three new videos each day.

“This is in particular directed towards the young, but not exclusively,” said Father Federico Lombardi, director of the press office of the Holy See. “This is a step toward better communication. The pope encouraged us to adopt new ways of communication in order to reach out to the people who are interested in the pope’s message.”

Initially, the new YouTube channel will post videos in four languages — Italian, English, German and Spanish — and more languages will be added later.

Way to go, Ben!

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Public Engagement – The Obama Way

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Those of us in the public information business, particularly the non-profit public information business, should rip a page out of the Barack Obama public engagement manual. The lessons are many.

A case in point – the new whitehouse.gov website, a clean, well-organized, interactive place that makes the previous White House website look like your grandmother’s kitchen cabinets. Old, outdated and hard to open.

The new site invites you in. After all, you are the owner. With videos of Obama’s Inauguration address and the whistlestop tour, a White House 101 Fun and Facts page, a frequently updated blog, and the Briefing Room, a way to keep tabs on the President, whitehouse.gov has been overhauled for the 21st century.

Prominently displayed on the home page is a link to the Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs (OPL-IGA), “the front door to the White House through which everyone can participate and inform the work of the President.” When you reach the Public Liaison page, you’re invited to email your thoughts and ideas to the White House. When was the last time 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue asked you for anything? Other than taxes?

It’s a new day indeed. Check out whitehouse.gov.

BlogSpine

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Adults: All Aboard for the Web 2.0 Train

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According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, social networking has become more mainstream among adults. That includes me, at least the last time I checked the crow’s feet in my 10x magnification mirror.

According to the folks at Pew, the number of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years — from 8% four years ago, to 35% now. That’s amazing, and encouraging. I have conducted a number of workshops on the subject of social media, and I still get attendees who look like deer in the headlights when I talk about Facebook, LinkedIn, and the whole sphere of social networking and social bookmarking.

On the other hand, I get plenty of people — of all ages — who are eager to dive right in.

Although those of us over the age of 18 stumbling through the social networks should be proud of ourselves for trying, don’t get cocky. We’re still light-years behind those lucky kids between the ages of 12 to 17. A whopping 65 percent of those crazy kids have an online profile on one of the big social networks — Facebook and MySpace, primarily.

It seems that the older we get, the less use we seem to have for social networks.

According to the Pew study, 75% of adults ages 18-24 use these networks, compared to just 7% of adults 65 and older. “At its core, use of online social networks is still a phenomenon of the young,” the study says.

Other age groups and their use of social networking sites:

– 57 percent of those aged 25 to 34

– 30 percent of those ages 35 to 44

– 19 percent of those aged 45 to 54

– 10 percent of those aged 55 to 64

Another interesting finding: We adults use social networks for professional and personal reasons, and we often maintain multiple profiles, generally on different sites.

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A Web 2.0 Kinda Day

I just had an interesting day that focused an awful lot — surprise! — on Web 2.0. First, I did a telephone interview with a writer from Texas School Business, who’s writing a piece about Web 2.0 technology and its use in public schools. We talked about the Facebook Phobia I encounter a lot from business people and school officials, the use of social networking and bookmarking sites (or lack thereof) by public schools, and just where we seem to be in the transition that separates print information from digital. A long, great conversation and I’ll be eager to read the story.

Second, Tom Dunn of the New York State Education Department sent out an email to public school folks he knows, asking about their Facebook experiences. It seems the state is investigating the possibility of creating a Facebook page to reach out to students.  As Tom writes: “In developing the state technology plan we are doing outreach to all the stakeholder groups.  Facebook is jumping out at us as a possible means to hear from kids about technology in education. ” A great idea that I hope comes to fruition.  As we’re always saying in my office, “Remember — it’s about the kids.”

The final clincher in this interesting Web 2.0 day — news that a Facebook page has been created to salute U.S. Airways Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot of Flight 1549, which — as we all know now — landed safely in the Hudson River yesterday. I agree with the Facebook fan, one of 55,000 so far, who wrote: “Sully — you rock.”

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Learn More About the Inauguration

Gosh, the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama has been a major topic of conversation everywhere — in my office, at home, on line in my local Stop & Shop. Seriously.

So why not jump on the Inauguration learning curve with me and research both this Inauguration and the history of U.S. Inauguration ceremonies? Thanks to the Web, you can learn more than imaginable. Here’s a list that’s by no means exhaustive, but might help in your quest for lifelong learning. It’s also a great list for teachers yearning to make this landmark event a teachable moment.

1. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies: This is the official site for information related to the inauguration. The Joint Congressional site features slideshows of previous inaugurals, a look at all the inauguration day events (morning worship service, swearing in, parade, etc), and inauguration trivia. You can also watch the progress on construction of the platform for the inaugural ceremony.

2. The Smithsonian Presidential Inaugural Photographs website provides you with online photo portfolios of previous Presidential Inaugurals.

3. Check out the Obama/Biden Inauguration website, which provides loads of great information, including an Inaugural Schedule, a timeline of the day’s activities for the new president; an Inaugural blog, updates and news, and a live video of the Neighborhood Ball event.

4. Steep yourself in inauguration history at PBS’s Inauguration website, which focuses on the history of the Presidential Inauguration. You can learn about past Presidents and notable Inauguration events from the Library of Congress, read the Inaugural Addresses of our past Presidents, look at Presidential portraits, and more.

5. Take a look at the Presidential Inauguration Committee’s photostream on Flickr. This is a great resource for anyone wanting to know how things are progressing in D.C. and can’t make the real event. That would be me, folks!

6. If you’re a sucker for memorabilia, try visiting the Official Inauguration Store website, where you can scoop up buttons, T-shirts, artwork, clothing, kids’ items and more. Then again, if you do a search on eBay for “inauguration,” more than 2,300 items will turn up. Happy hunting!

Enjoy the Inauguration, even from afar.

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College and Plagiarism

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One of my favorite websites, makeuseof.com, is a great resource for anyone looking for the latest Web 2.0 tools and technology available. This week, they listed two interesting sites that sort of cancel each other out. One of those sites, wePapers, is an interactive platform for students that provides searchable student paper databases of study related notes, articles and course work. Students can upload their own papers, or search and browse papers submitted by other users. Any paper on the site can be viewed, printed out or saved to your computer. wePapers also provides a messaging system so students can communicate, ask questions, and work together.

As tempted as I might be, I probably won’t tell my two college-age students about this site. Although chances are, they’re way ahead of me on this one.

I will, however, tell them about the next site mentioned by makeuseof. ThePlagiarismChecker is an online tool that allows anyone to check student papers for plagiarism.  While students can use the site to check their papers for missing citations before submitting them, educators can also use it to check papers for stolen information.

These two sites are interesting and juxtaposed examples of how Web 2.0 has made a huge difference in the world of learning and academia. On the one hand, my college kids have information at their fingertips that I never had access to as a college student, hunched over mountains of printed resources in my college library back in the dark ages. But the reverse is true as well — college professors are able to detect, at the touch of their keyboard, plagiarism and downright laziness. Ah — the information age!

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A Long Break and Brain Mush

Call it holiday bliss, call it writer’s block, call it whatever you like. But a month-long vacation from this blog has been psychically healthy, financially disastrous, and a boon to my free time.

Still, I walked around New York City; Wilmington, NC; and other places I visited during the holidays with a guilty conscience. What about the blog? What about the blog?

Suffice it to say, School Communications 2.0 fell by the wayside while I scrambled through department stores looking for gifts, did the annual Yankee Swap with my work colleagues, decorated the tree, baked pecan pies and red velvet cupcakes, entertained friends and family, drove to North Carolina, and soaked in quality time with my college kids and my extended family.

There were several highlights during this break, a few of them bordering on the surreal:

I joined with the townspeople of Kure Beach, NC, as they gathered together on New Year’s Eve to welcome 2009 with the annual dropping of “the lighted beach ball. ”

I toured a gorgeous home in Wimington that whispered “retirement,” “golf and tennis,” and “quality of life” into my all-too-eager ears.

I wrote a piece about tracking Santa Claus on Google Earth.

I ran out to buy “just one more thing” for my kids at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and was the only person in the store. Then I walked out empty-handed.

I played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture with my kids, and came in last.

I did virtually no work for two weeks.

But alas, all good things must end. The vacation is a distant memory already. And I’ve returned to the thinking, working world. My body has, anyway.

So yes, my next post will return to the subject of education and technology — I promise. That is, if my brain hasn’t turned to mush from inactivity.