Friday, December 5th, 2008
I picked up an article from Read Write Web in my feeds talking about how education is evolving, and basically that the availability of data on the internet suggests that we may not even need to memorise things for education like we used to.
To some, this might suggest that Gen Y might be getting lazy, but to me, it’s freeing up the brain to really work on other issues that can’t be as easily solved with a Google search.
One thing I never understood in my freshman year, was why I had to memorise how to create a balance sheet, when I wasn’t even an accounting student. Even if I was an accounting student, I refuse to believe that graduates leave school, get a job at an accounting firm, and sit down to create balance sheets without referring to anything because they memorised it in freshman year.
What I find more challenging, and relevant, is asking my how things apply. Or I might have all this data, but what does it mean? How do students analyse a situation from different angles and begin to think critically about issues.
Perhaps there will be some professions where memory work is still the key, but for the rest of us, probably not so.
More importantly, in response to this issue: are our educators ready to face the new wave of students who have mountains of information at their fingertips?
[Mark also picked up on the same issue and you can read his take on it here]
Tags: accounting, availability of data, balance sheet, digital natives, education, Gen Y, google search, millennials, read write web
Posted in education | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Lots of awesome stuff this week, let’s get into it:
Social Media For Beginners
I’m always conscious that everyone’s visit to my site could be a first visit. If you’re looking for a great resource for how to dip your toes into social media’s waters, how about 35 tips for getting started with social media? Very beginner friendly.
Online Influencers
No secret, this is a pet topic of mine. Read Write Web says research suggests influencers are alive and well on social media sites. John Bell of Ogilvy also talks about working with word of mouth influencers and the ethics involved.
RSS
RSS adoption at 11%? I wonder if the numbers are accurate. It would seem lower than that, just from my personal friends.
Research
Two interesting articles on the usage patterns of Africans, particularly with respect to mobile. Might be of interest to the Comm215 Wiki at some point in the future, I suspect.
Community Management
Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and hire a community manager. Consider the job hazards of the community manager as told by Jeremiah Owyang before diving head in.
Finally, for education, The Edublogger asks if you’re making your life easier with Google Calendar. Vastly underutilised tool in classrooms and project groups for collaboration and it’s time you get started! Although my online tools have expanded to include reQall and Remember The Milk, I started with Google Calendar (or GooCal, as I affectionately call it), and it’s a great starting point.
As always, do share interesting links you read about this week with me, you can find me on delicious.com/uniquefrequency or simply leave the link in the comments!
Tags: african mobile usage, blogger outreach, community management, community manager, edublogger, google calendar, jeremiah owyang, job hazards of community manager, john bell, online influencers, read write web, rss, rss adoption, social media for beginners, tips for getting started with social media, wom, word of mouth influencers
Posted in Icio | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 20th, 2008
Oh so much good stuff this week from my favourite writers. Let’s get right to it!
Plurk
I’ve talked so much about Plurk, I really hope you’re on it by now! Make Use Of tells you how to become a star in the Plurk Universe. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a nice read, especially for those thinking about signing up. (ps: Don’t forget to add me as a friend too).
Recession Opportunities
It’s the wrong move, but ad spend, marketing and PR are the first things to go when budgets get cut, especially in recessions. Which means it’s never been a better time to look at social media tools as a great alternative.
Christopher Penn (of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast) gives us opportunities and predictions for the recession and Chris Anderson of the Long Tail tells us what the recession meant for “free”. I would pay attention to the “freemium” model, which isn’t yet hugely popular back home.
Twitter
In those small pockets of time that Plurk is down, some of us still go over to Twitter, and Brian Solis gives a great rundown of tools available, which is worth reading if you’re using Twitter for business or community management. (ps: I’m on Twitter too)
Community Management
Speaking of community management, Corvida over at Shegeeks.net recounts her lessons as community manager for Read Write Web. Most important for people thinking they’re community managers, “Everyone wants to be our friend” is a very terrible misconception. Get with the programme.
Word Of Mouth
Andy Sernovitz aka the word of mouth guy has a post called “Give away your buns” which brings home the lesson: “Every spoiling asset is a marketing tool”. I’ve seen this – or rather the lack of this – at work too many times. It’s time for companies to start utilising word of mouth more effectively.
Did you read anything mindblowing this week? Would you care to share? Share it with me on Delicious.com, or post it in the comments below! Did you find the links useful? What type of links would you like to read more of? Love to hear from you as well.
Tags: ad spend in recession, andy sernovitz, brian solid, chris anderson, christopher penn, community management, corvida, delicious, free, freemium, make use of, marketing over coffee, Plurk, plurk universe, read write web, recession opportunities, shegeeks, social media during recession, the long tail, twitter, wom, word of mouth
Posted in Icio | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 13th, 2008
In line with generating some social capital, I thought I’d go back to my link-sharing ways to both spread stuff of value, as well as generating some nice linklove.
Corporate Social Media
Social Media For Business – Who’s Doing It Well & How – In addition to some common social media case studies, I really liked breaking down the social media strategy to a four step process, and being absolutely clear who your target audience is. Too many people have the misconception that social media reaches everyone, and reaches them quickly. False on both accounts.
Don’t Be Boring – Ten Company Blogs Analysed – by who else but Hutch Carpenter from May’s blogs worth reading. What I appreciate is the attempt to distill blogposts and empirically count them, what I enjoyed was hearing that companies include silliness in blog content. And why not? Brilliant, I say.
5 Competencies of the Connected Corporation – For the people working in social media enabled workspaces. I think being in the loop and being nimble are traits that you need to have in this new world. The sooner companies realise this and try to get there, the better.
RSS
I’m Evangelizing RSS With Google Reader’s E-mail Function – Haven’t linked to Louis Gray in awhile (though I am still reading him frequently), but this post is great because I honestly have never used Google Reader’s email function. Now that I know how useful it is, you can bet I’ll be using much more of it. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Louis has emailed someone content from my blog. Thanks!
Music
What Would the Perfect Streaming Music Service Look Like? – Although I usually blog about music over on my personal blog, I think this link is good just to share good stuff about the music world, and how it’s not driven by the labels. I feel their legal nonsense and DRM issues in general are the biggest threat to music innovation.
I’m always on the lookout for great blogposts to read and share. If you have any, feel free to post them in the comments, or send them over to my Delicious profile.
Tags: being in the loop, being nimble, competencies of the connecting corporation, corporate social media, corporate social media case studies, drm, evangelizing rss, generating social capital, google reader, hutch carpenter, louis gray, music industry, read write web, record labels, sharing links, social media for business, streaming music service, uniquefrequency on delicious
Posted in Icio, case studies, social media, social media business | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
You might remember my “Why Students Should Blog” post in response to HackCollege’s contest. I finally caught up with episode 26 of the Hack College Podcast today by Chris and Kelly, and was thrilled to find that I made the final four to win a Hack College t-shirt!
The segment starts at about 18 minutes and I think the collection of answers are really good. I appear in the episode as a tweet. I know people go on about how social media and blogging and whatnot in North America doesn’t always apply here, but this one does.
In any case, I didn’t win that t-shirt, but dammit I’ll keep trying. Failing which I’ll just buy one for myself when I head up there later in the year. (But that’s not an excuse to not let me win, HackCollege!)
If you want to discover more, check out “The Case For Student Blogging” by HackCollege, I think it’s pretty good stuff. If you’ve been agonising over the perfect phrasing of your resume since forever, why not take a look at this and find a better way to supplement your case for future employment.
By the way, need more case studies on Blogging Yielding Fruit? Look no further than my Social Media Breakfast co-hoster Derrick Kwa who scored one with the one and only Seth Godin, as well as Corvida aka Shegeeks who scored one at ReadWriteWeb.
It’s happening people. Stop ignoring it.
Tags: benefits of blogging, corvida, derrick kwa, hack college, read write web, seth godin, shegeeks, smb singapore, social media breakfast, social media breakfast singapore, social media resume, student blogs, why students should blog
Posted in Blogs, social media | No Comments »
