Twitter stirs lazy journalism

I understand newspapers and their desire to vilify the disruptive technologies that will one day lead to their demise or render them irrelevant. This is what people who aspire to jobs that may no longer exist when they graduate think of new media. Let's reduce it for you:

• Talking ain't what it used to be.
• Telephones are cool, even though it ain't face-to-face.
• IMs are cool, even though there's no voice.
• But SMS (oh, my!) is the bane of our existence and the demise of Westen Civ.!
• And Twitter! Don't get me started! I don't get it, but don't get me started!
• If we had a Twitter account, we would wear our Luddite tendencies on our sleeves!

Let me help you out on the Twitter part. Dr. Donna Murphy of the Edinboro University of PA had a very interesting take on this struggle in education and conferences recently in the SLED discussion list:

"There's some misunderstanding here...twitter, backchannel, etc. isn't necessarily multi-tasking. When you're focused on the topic that you're hearing about, and thinking/responding to it through various media, it's the same task for you. It's just a different way to take notes. I find it interesting that people rarely see taking notes in a lecture as multi-tasking, but twitter is. For some of us, our brains don't stop asking questions during a lecture. These other media allow us to ask those questions, and in some ways declutter our brains and capture our reactions. As a bonus, I can also get some response to that process (say, another expert telling me that the information I'm listening to has been debunked already) with the same ease as glancing at the clock in the room."

Interactive note-taking. Funny that journalism students (or their advisors) wouldn't think of that.

Of course, that may be why newspapers are failing.....

SL in Education on CNN (Again)

Caught this video while working out @ the RUSH this weekend:

Some good examples educational tools that can be deployed, some universally.

Simon the STUD!

My youngest has the intestinal fortitude of my wife!



Did the ran-too-fast-fell-flat-on-my-face-and-bit-a-hole-in-my-lip thing @ the gym play area while my wife was working out...not a peep, apparently! How did the gym employees find out? They noticed a big splotch of blood, and followed the red trail until they found him...playing as though nothing had happened!

Took him to East Tennessee Children's Hospital, and he had to get 3 stitches deep into his mouth. Oh, he cried, but not because it hurt...he was mad that 5 people held him perfectly still and immobile for about 5 minutes while the sewing took place!

Levi, the yin to Simon's yang, is more my temperament. Had the same thing happened to him, all of Knox County would have known about it!

Simon rocks!!!