Colleges Build Hubs to Track Social-Media Buzz About Their Institutions - Wired Campus - The Chronicle #yam

Looks like a really important aggregation tool. Do we have anything like this?


Colleges Build Hubs to Track Social-Media Buzz About Their Institutions

October 6, 2010, 4:05 pm

Chronicle of Higher Education

Colleges are increasingly sending out announcements on Twitter, Facebook, and other social-media services, hoping to build a positive buzz about the institution and keep people informed. As the list of departments and officials adopting the services grows, some institutions are building Web sites that aggregate college-related social media in one place.

The Ed Techie: An open Open University course on openness #yam

Opening your online course to the world...


Business and Management competencies in a web 2.0 world, which is taking registrations now for a 1st Nov start. It says:

"openEd 2.0 is a FREE/OPEN course targeting business students and practitioners alike. The course consists of two strands: an academic and a professional practice based strand, though both strands can be taken together. Furthermore, the openEd 2.0 course is MODULAR, thus learners can also “pick” the individual modules they are interested in."

Microsoft Lightspace – any surface in a room is your desktop | Tobias Wittur's Blog #yam

Impressive research video found by one of my students. Next step up from interactive whiteboard or interactive table surface.


Microsoft Lightspace – any surface in a room is your desktop

Microsoft research

“LightSpace combines elements of surface computing and augmented reality research” (2010 Microsoft Corporation). Surface computing is used in a 3D environment. Any surface in a room can be fully interactive.

More Professors Are Using Twitter—but Mostly Not for Teaching - Wired Campus #yam

More Professors Are Using Twitter—but Mostly Not for Teaching

Twitter is getting more popular with professors. But they're largely using it for a purpose outside the classroom—sharing information with peers, according to a recent report about Twitter in higher education published by Faculty Focus.

Of the 1,372 people surveyed this year—the majority of them professors, but also some administrators and other college employees—35.2 percent were using Twitter. That's a nearly 5 percent increase from 2009. The survey found that Twitter was most popular as a way for people to share information with colleagues and get news in real time. Less popular were teaching uses like communicating with students and using Twitter as a learning tool in the classroom.

Rainmaker | Supercharge your Google Contacts | Add Social Media to Your Contacts #yam

Free only for 25 contacts or less


Supercharge your Google Contacts™

Automatically pull from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more.

Goo.gl Goes Public #yam

Goo.gl initially debuted last December as a feature integrated into other Google products. Google’s newly public URL shortener competes with a myriad of other popular services, Bit.ly being the most notable of the bunch.

The company claims that its shortener boasts stability, security and speed. The former two are especially important as several other services have been plagued by both downtime and malicious parties masking deceptive links. Goo.gl features automatic spam detection, and “near 100% uptime since our initial launch,” according to the company’s announcement.

The Open Education Open Debate « Unlimited Magazine #yam

A one-sided discussion but as usual George makes sound sense.


Question: In the future, will your reputation matter more than your degree in getting a job? If so, how far in the future do you project this to be? Conversely, what jobs should not switch to open accreditation practices?

George’s opening volley:

In response to your question, both degrees and reputations are basically the same thing: a statement of competence. As long as society continues to grow in complexity, a degree will be the primary requirement of getting a job – particularly in a creative/knowledge economy.  A degree is essentially a value statement from a trusted source (the university or college granting the degree and the accreditation systems that “underwrite” that degree). As such, a degree is a higher level abstraction or statement of competence than reputation.

Android Tablet = Price of 2 Netbooks? | Lifehacker Australia #yam

Android tablets haven’t yet flooded the market, so Samsung’s Galaxy Tab will be one of the first to be available locally when it appears in November. But is its $999 outright buy price tag reasonable?

Samsung revealed the local launch pricing at an event yesterday. There’ll also be contract options with the four major local telcos (3, Optus, Telstra and Vodafone), but details on those haven’t been announced yet.

Whoa! I'd rather have 2 Win7 netbooks at this point in time.

Useful things you can share on Twitter/Yammer | Social Media Today #yam

40 useful things you can share on Twitter besides blog posts

  1. Flag up a hashtag you are following for the day and why (or list a few that you think are worth a look)
  2. Discovered a new app / tool that's useful? Provide a brief description and share the direct link i.e. MyTweeple.com is a great follower manager tool
  3. A link to a Wikipedia entry from your niche can be very useful - especially if its been updated
  4. Link to someone's Twitter favourites - they are usually full of hidden treasures both for you and your followers
  5. Spotted a glitch or alteration to a platform you're using? Let people know what it is and how to address it
+ lots more …