Click!

Yeah! My kids have a new TV channel to watch and get addicted to these days. Billed as a “fun destination that brings kids and their families together to enjoy clever stories and engaging characters in new and classic comedies, animated adventures, movies, and live-action shows”, the channel is brought to us by two of the best names in entertainment: Discovery Communications and Hasbro, Inc.

But, of course, in this day and age, when a cartoon is never simply a cartoon, the channel has an accompanying website and online community for kids to explore.

HubWorld.com  is a playful and transformative world, where kids and families can explore endless, play-driven opportunities. Here you can watch clips and full-length videos, play a variety of games and activities, solve challenging puzzles, or vote in polls and take quizzes, all based on The Hub’s shows and the best brands in entertainment (enter Hasbro ads and advertisers such as Toys ‘R Us).

The Hub Club is their virtual community where kids can complete challenges to earn HubBucks, as well as virtual prizes and rewards.

As for safety concerns, the site states that: “We’ll never ask kids for personally identifiable information. Instead we encourage kids and their families to create fun usernames — or “Hub Handles” — that add to the playfulness of this site.”

While, as a parent, I appreciate more wholesome TV viewing opportunities for my toddlers, I struggle to see the educational value that The Hub brings to the table – unlike its counterpart channels such as Sprout, Noggin, or even the Disney Channel.

In this case, I think we’ll be taking the remote, clicking the TV off, and doing something else with our play time.

What do you think? How much TV/computer time is too much for kids? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.

Mobile Magic

I am in the midst of planning a family dream vacation for next fall to Walt Disney World. In fact, I have been pouring over guidebooks and websites for the past several months (my husband thinks I am becoming slightly obsessed!) trying to get as much information as I can in order to plan the perfect first trip to the “happiest place on earth” for my little ones.

During my research, I came across Mobile Magic, a new application for Verizon users that lets you access up-to-the-minute information straight from your cell phone while in Disney Parks.

It offers useful information to help make your visit even more magical. It works at all 4 main Walt Disney World parks and even both water parks, Downtown Disney, and ESPN Wide World of Sports.

While on our trip, Mobile Magic will give us detailed info regarding attractions: height requirements, Fast Pass availability, and wait times. Since Mobile Magic is the only official Disney parks application, there is a distinct advantage because the wait times you see for the attractions reflect the same time you would see if you were standing in front of the attraction at that very moment.

 Other cool features include:

-Suggestions for what attractions to see next based on the proximity of your location.
-Character locations/times for meet and greets that just can’t be missed.
-Dining help, from locations to selections to costs.
-Games and trivia.
-Show times for parades and fireworks.
-Park hours and weather for the day.

The application seems very easy to use. The only downside is that it is currently only available for certain Verizon Wireless phones. The current list includes:

– LG Glance
– LG VX Chocolate
– LG Chocolate 3
– LG Decoy
– LG VX 8700
– LG Venus
– Moto Adventure
– Nokia 7205
– Samsung Renown
– Moto 325
– Samsung 540
– Samsung 550
– LG 5500
– Nokia 6205
– Moto 755
– UT Starcom 8950
– UT Starcom GC1-c711
– GZ1 – S Boulder
– Moto K1 -M
– Moto – L7c
– LG 8350
– Samsung Trance
– Moto V3m
– Moto Barrage
– Moto VU204
– LGE VX-8360
– Motorola RIZR Z6TV
– Motorola VU30 (Rapture)
– Motorola Z6c
– Samsung SCH-A990
– Samsung SCH-U620
– Samsung SCH-U900 Flipshot
– LG VX 9100 – enV2
– LG VX 9200 – enV3
– LG VX 8300
– LG VX8370
– Motorola V9M
– Motorola W766 Harmony
– Motorola VE
– Samsung U640 Buddy
– Samsung SCH – U650 (Sway)
– Casio Hitachi Exilim C721

– Nokia 6315i
– Nokia 2705 Shade
– CDM – 8975
– LG VX 8600
– LG VX9400
– LG VX9800 V
– LG VX9900 enV
– Nokia Twist 7705

– LG VX8575 – Chocolate Touch
– LG VX 9600 – Versa
– LG VX 9700 – Dare
– LG VX 10000 – Voyager
– LG VX 11000 – enV Touch

Hopefully, Mobile Magic will compliment my vacation experience and make life even easier for this media mamma.

Cooking up Something Tweet

I just walked in the door from work and my three-year old (not to mention my hubby) is hungry. What can I cook for supper that is quick, easy and healthy? Suddenly, my cell phone buzzes. I have a tweet.

FRT@O-R Readers: Fab new cookbook Eat Tweet by Maureen Evans srvs up > 1k user-friendly twecipes; ez 2 tote & share.

Translation:

Retweet at Observer-Reporter Readers. Amateur cook and tech-savvy Maureen Evans has gathered more than 1,000 of her recipe tweets to create “Eat Tweet,” the first-ever cookbook written in Twitterese.

However, by utilizing Twitter, that means every recipe must be 140 characters or fewer. And that is no small feat, even with the use of symbols and abbreviations. Surprisingly, the recipes read naturally and intuitively for cooks (and Twitter users) at all levels of experience.

Here’s an example.

“Brwn,rmv1/2c lardon, 2lb beef,carrot&onion. Flr,s+p. 8m@450Fº; +2c pinot &Stock/T tompaste/BqtGrni. Cvr3h@325ºF.”

Recipes are down to what’s critical – ingredients and method – while results and details are left up to the readers’ intelligence. This works marvelously well, it turns out, because people are capable of making judgments about food! We all have a sense of how browned, how peppery and how saucy we’d like our stew to be.

The author’s tweets have been met with great enthusiasm, and soon she was receiving responses from some of her 3,000 followers. She discovered that Twitter enabled her to swap recipes and ideas and encourage people to be adventurous in the kitchen.

The tweet that generated the most feedback so far was the recipe for homemade root beer.

In any case, it’s answer to this busy mom’s prayers and to the never-ending question – “What’s for supper tonight, Mom?”

I’m Attending. . .Maybe. . .No

 If I was her mother, I’d ground her for life.

14-year-old Javeleau probably prays most of her RSVP’s are no-shows, since 21,000 responded to the English teen’s birthday party invitation, which she mistakenly posted to the entire Facebook community.

Her mother has now stripped away her daughter’s computer and Internet privileges and rightly so. She’s also had her daughter’s mobile phone SIM card changed.

Her party is also cancelled after she was given permission to invite 15 friends along to the party and 8,000 people had said on Facebook that they were coming.

The daughter did not realize she was creating a public event. Now her Facebook account is locked down, thanks to engaging those privacy settings, but not before a final total of 21,000 Facebook users had clicked the RSVP button in the affirmative. While it’s a good chance most of the accounts were fake, they did boast some A-list names, including Justin Bieber, Stephen Hawking, Stevie Wonder, and Susan Boyle.

Local law enforcement is on alert and on extra patrols as they look out for would-be revelers on Oct.7, when the party would have taken place. They are concerned because even after the birthday posting was taken off, other events were created: pre-party, after-party, clear-up party and “hang-over” party, with some using the teen’s photograph.

So, what do you think? Who’s to blame here?

Is it Facebook’s fault for not taking more responsibility by making it more obvious that when an event is created it’s not just going out to your friends but everyone else on the site? Should Faceboook administrators have immediately shut down the group when they realized that thousands of people were responding to a 14-year-old’s birthday party?

Or, is it mom’s fault for not setting those privacy settings ahead of time and having a better awareness of what her child was doing on the Internet and educating her about using Facebook responsibly?

Tell me what you think!

I Want My. . .Newspaper!

I don’t mind walking out to the paper tube each morning in my robe and bare feet to retrieve the newspaper. I don’t mind getting a link on my fingers. So, sue me. Besides, I’m a mom, I need my coupons! So, sue me.

Still, these days others prefer to read their newspapers online.

So, as a sat down to relax with a cup of java and my Sunday paper over the weekend, the front page, above-the-fold story caught my attention.

On Sept. 26, my local paper will launch an electronic edition that will give computer users the opportunity to see everything their paper-preferring counterparts (like me) do. It will be an exact replica of the print product, including advertisements, supplements, and (thank goodness) the comics. None of which you can get online right now.

In that case, maybe I can be persuaded.

The paper’s current free website will move to the next level, doing everything the newspaper can’t lie feature breaking news and post interactive calendars, videos, public documents and searchable databases.

Once you’re an e-edition subscriber, you’ll receive an e-mail about 5 a.m. each day indicating that the product is ready to view. Click on the provided link, submit your log-in and password information, and there’s your newspaper, without the bare feet and inky fingers.

Unless, of course, that’s what you prefer.

Aristotle Fully Loaded

I love to read – always have, and one of my favorite ways to escape after a long day at work followed by a round of baths and putting the kiddos to bed, is with a good book. But, I just can’t get used to the idea of e-books. There is something about holding a brand new book in my hands, curling up under the covers or in my favorite chair, and turning each crisp page. Call me old-fashioned.

Still iPads, Kindles, and other e-book readers are popping up everywhere including college campuses, including the one I work at, are experimenting with them in the classroom. Our bookstore is even selling them now.

One college, however, St. John’s College, is fighting them. Much like my own resistance to give up my novels, faculty at St. John’s voted “to discourage students from loading up Homer or Aristotle on their Kindles or iPads and bringing them to class.”

The faculty stopped short of banning the devices, but professors made sure the college now has a policy that says that faculty members are “concerned that electronic reading devices also may present a distraction,” and students can be asked to keep them out of the classroom.

Professors worry e-readers will draw students’ attention away from classroom discussions at the college, known for a Great Books curriculum that requires students to read more than 100 texts before graduation, as well as opt for free digital versions of classical texts.

Is St. John’s doing a disservice to its students by taking such a strong anti-technology approach to classroom learning? I am missing the boat by not swapping out my paperback for an iPad? Let me know!

Putting It into Perspective

On August 23, we welcomed around 2,700 students to the community college campus where I worked for the Fall 2010 semester. It made me feel old. Most of the students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1992.

After a short pity party for myself, I got to thinking. The students that are entering our college campuses today have never lived without much of the technology that we “older” people consider new or emerging.

Each year, Beloit College compiles a list of cultural markers that should frame the freshmen mind set and help instructors to craft meaningful lesson plans.

Consider this:

• Few know how to write in cursive.
• Email is too slow and they seldom use snail mail.
• They have never twisted a coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
• Unless found in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
• Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
• “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV.
• The fist computer they probably touched was an Apple II. It is now in a museum.
• The dominance of TV news by three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.
• Having 100’s of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

As a marketing director in a collegiate environment, I find Beloit’s list intriguing and telling. It speaks volumes as to how best to recruit and communicate with both current and future students who grew up in a world completely different from my own.

View Beloit College’s complete Mindset List for the Class of 2014 here.

Facebook U

My college’s president is always passing along “academic reading” for his staff to peruse. Most of the time, I am so busy doing a million-in-one other tasks, that I barely give them a passing glance. However, a recent article from the Chronicle of Higher Education caught my eye and I stopped what I was working on at the time to read it.
The article was addressing all those headlines about social-network uprisings among Facebook’s old student base and how Facebook has now thrown a bone to students, in the form of a new “Universities on Facebook” page. The idea is to help students better use the site for campus activities like newspapers, dorm groups, and student government.

Such a response clearly demonstrates how even new and emerging media already need to look at reinventing themselves as a way to stay connected (or to re-connect) with their audience.

Oh, how you’ve changed Facebook! Where it was once a site designed by and for universities, they are now a specialized audience with a page catering to their specific needs.

Perhaps niche social networking sites could, in the long run, effectively compete with Facebook’s services. Agree or disagree?

Proud Parent of a 3-Year-Old Computer Genius

Some parents boast bumper stickers that read “Proud Parent of an Honor Roll Student” or other such academic or athletic accomplishment. However, while my children are not of the school-aged set yet, I have decided I want my own bumper sticker only it will read: “Proud Parent of a Baby Computer Genius”.

After having my first child, it quickly became apparent to me as he began to grow and develop that he was living in a very different world that the one I grew up in. From the time he could walk and talk, he was on the computer quickly picking up lingo such as “web site”, maneuvering a mouse with ease, and navigating the online environments of Elmo, Thomas the Train, and more of his favorite television and movie characters. His dad and I had to quickly adapt to this new world where books, TV, and movies extended to the Internet and to put ourselves on high alert should he ever innocently stumble onto something he shouldn’t out there on the World Wide Web.

In most cases, we have found Noah’s early exposure to media and technology to be a good thing, serving as a supplement to his learning. But, when is it too much and where as parents do we draw the line? And, what happens when the child becomes smarter than the parent? Living in a society that is as media saturated and as technologically driven as ours , that can be a scary thought for this media mommy.

Socializing

I didn’t want to do it. The college administration didn’t want to do it. But, we did it anyway. When Community College of Beaver County launched its Facebook page a couple of years ago, it was with much trepidation. Who would manage it? What would we do if someone post (GASP!) a negative comment about CCBC on our wall? And, the list went on and on. However, I desire to build a sense of community among students soon outweighed the bad, and we jumped feet first into social marketing.

Engagement is a hard to come by goal at community colleges like the one I work at in western PA. Our students and faculty are busy. We want to build a sense of belonging though because it makes our students more successful in the long run, and lo and behold, we have found social media is a great way to do just that.

Here’s why:

• Facebook and other social media sites give colleges a place to be authentic. It’s a different perspective than what a Web site or admissions view book can offer. Showcase activities, events, and students who represent the very best of the campus. It’s really all about sharing and listening. Social media doesn’t work if you try to be something you are not. Our students aren’t dumb.
• It turns information into entertainment by sharing important stuff students need to know in a casual manner. The last thing you want to do on your Facebook page is come off sounding like their parent or their English professor! To become the go-to destination, keep your audience engaged and amused and you will keep them coming back and have them sticking around when you have something important to say.

In my own experiences, I have found the greatest benefit to social media for any college is simply getting the chance to be a part of the conversation. After all, if they are talking about it on Facebook, they are probably talking about in the cafeteria, the classroom, or the parking lot. Social media gives the institution a chance to respond.

Here’s a look at CCBC’s Facebook page. Class dismissed!

 http://www.facebook.com/CCBCedu