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English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Misunderstandings happen. They happen on Twitter. They happen on Facebook. They happen in our lives. Case in Point... A few weeks a go, a teacher, Shawn White contacted me through direct message on Twitter. He and I had exchanged a tweet on a Friday night. Then, I got up Saturday and started continuing to write a post I had started earlier in the week. This post turned into " Questioning Rigor " and was prompted by Dave Burgess ' ponderings in his book  Teach Like a PIRATE . Meanwhile, Shawn had messaged back and somehow the conversation had turned to this term of Rigor. Shawn feels that "vigor" is a better word to use and expresses it well in his blog post and also at the beginning of this recording. I understand his argument. Well, our tweets, and my post were all sort of happening at the same time. He had texted me a link bu...

Pinterest is a new network that revolves around pinning photos. If a website or blog does not have a photo, it literally cannot be "pinned" to a pinterest board. (Listen up bloggers and website owners, powerful sharing is going on at Pinterest, if you want to be included, you should have nice graphics.) I'd like to help you get started just like I did with QR Codes, Web 2.0, wikis, etc. 1 - Get an invitation. Anyone can view Pinterest boards, but if you want to start pinning, you'll need to get an invitation. Option A (Stealth method for getting an invitation)  If you're on Facebook, this is simple. Just go to the Pinterest app  on Facebook and look on the right (as shown in the graphic below) to see if you have any friends on Pinterest. If they've taken the time to like the Pinterest page, it is likely that they not only use it but like it. Message a friend or two and ask for an invitation if you don't like to be open about it. Go to https://ww...

Searching for Facts image from Bigstock . Social media impacts lives. When you have someone in a controversial matter like the wrong thing or say the wrong thing it can cause a snowball that can influence and even harm. I've seen this first hand. I know people who've lost jobs, seen marriages destroyed, and organizations teeter on the brink of nonexistence through poorly thought-out likes, unfriending, and comments. Perhaps it is because I live in a small town where there are no secrets. It makes me angry when people who should know better casually post or comment and assume things that just aren't true. So, I'm going to get these lies out on the table. Every one of these 11 has a example  that I have personally witnessed. This is real and real life. Please wake up and understand what social media is and is not. #11 Social media is free. Everything comes with a price. Facebook is funded by advertising. In the advertising model they need to sell advertising a...

Social media has added to my life because there are incredible people in my sphere of socializing.What you get out of your time engaged with social media is directly proportional to the number and kind of people you socialize with online. I've seen teachers get on Twitter and follow no one and say, "I don't get Twitter." That's because Twitter isn't solo. Find the people who are using Twitter, like Jerry Blumengarten ( @cybraryman1 ) and Angela Maiers ( @angelamaiers ), and you'll learn a lot from them. If you don't get Google+ (and I don't really... yet, but I will) then follow people like Peter Vogel  or Chris Porter who do. If you don't understand Facebook, I've really found that Mari Smith has helped me get it. And in the last month or two, I've been enjoying my twice daily visits to Facebook. (5:45 am and 7 pm ;-) These people help us understand how to have effective conversations. Cool Teacher Conversations on ...

The Washington Post oped is live The greatest teacher incentive: The freedom to teach   and full of thoughts and words that echoed through my head as a result of the surveys you completed on Monday. How it was written Over 130 of you took the time and energy to share your thoughts. Your passion to teach and do what is right took my breath away. NONE of you asked for no accountability. You want to teach well and you want to be held accountable but you believe that the assessment of your proficiency as a teacher is unfair. The overarching theme If we told students that we would give them ONE test a year and that their entire grade for the whole year rested on that ONE test, nothing else. What would we see? We would see parents yelling. We would see students crying. We would see legislators acting against those "horrible teachers" who don't teach. Well, right now we're not teaching and it is because the assessment of learning happening in schools is not fair e...

Funny how fast things change. I'm finding that some incredible information and graphics are coming to me via Tumblr (see the Beginners Guide to Tumblr I produced a few weeks a go.) I sent out this quote yesterday: In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim. Linton Weeks, Washington Post (via mountainplainslibraryassociation )(via infoneer-pulse ) My posts from Tumblr automatically go to Twitter. So, then I got a tweet back this morning from Diane McKenzie, librarian extraordinaire in Hong Kong @dimac4: .@ coolcatteacher something I whipped up with inspiration from you http://t.co/qIoUTLC (with many other things to do as well!) Thus was born the graphic above. Ah, how fast information moves and mashes up. I find that the graphics and videos often spread faster than plain text but perhaps that isn't the case. There is no doubt that librarians have been taking a hit lately. I think that more librarians li...

Tumblr is a blogging platform that is sort of a cross between Twitter , Facebook and full-scale blogging. While some might use Tumblr as a full blogging platform, from reading a free e-book I picked up on Kindle about the topic (the book isn't free any more btw.) The growth of Tumblr is surprising. "Facebook and Twitter have dominated social media in recent years, but a study released by Quantcast Media Analysis has revealed that Tumblr is growing at an outstanding rate, now bringing in more than 250 million views per day spread across almost 19 million blogs. Perhaps even more interesting is that 51% of those views come from males as opposed to females. Read more: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/could-tumblr-rise-above-facebook-and/#ixzz1NGSq3iAL "  When I mentioned working with Tumblr, I got back several tweets like this one from Leslie Healey Why  Tumblr? How is it different from blogging? Those of you who read this blog know that I always h...