Increasingly, children are accessing mobile applications via cell phones and tablets at younger ages. Recent Pew Internet studies find that 68% of children aged 12-13 own a cell phone and 71% access the Internet via a mobile device (phone, tablet, or other mobile device). Within this age group, 66% report downloading a mobile app. These…
In coverage of Adrian Peterson’s alleged abuse of his 4 year old child, TMZ has crossed the line by posting close-up images of the child victim in his underwear. A website known for its sensationalism has gone too far, exposing an already victimized child to further publicity to which he cannot consent. TMZ might argue…
Please visit the Macarthur Digital Media + Learning blog for my recent post about re-considering MOOCs beyond classroom comparisons. Feel free to share your own insights about MOOCs as something more than courses and more than textbooks…. Image credit: tomdz
My study of university students’ digital literacy practices “Knowledge and processes that predict proficiency in digital literacy,” written with Richard Mayer and Miriam Metzger, has been published today in Reading and Writing. A summary of my dissertation research, this article in many ways shows the challenging messiness of measuring digital literacy. Motivated by a need…
Please visit the Macarthur Digital Media + Learning blog for my latest post about the societal challenges facing education. I posit that we are expecting too much of technology if we believe it will single-handedly fix problems with education. Image credit: Brad Flickinger
Planet Money just ran an interesting story about Xerox using predictive models to determine best hires for call centres. Motivated by high turnover rates, Xerox contracted with Evolv to determine employees best suited for call centre work. Prospective employees take an online test that asks questions that may seem unusual for a typical job application.…
Any parent or teacher will tell you that, while sharing some similarities, each kid is different, even within the same age group or the same family. The same kid will be different at different times of the day and in different contexts, just like adults. It seems an obvious point. Yet, as adults we are…
I confess that over the Thanksgiving holiday, I didn’t check Twitter. So, the day after, when the hubbub over Elan Gale’s imaginary interlude with an irate and inconsiderate airline passenger was shown to be a hoax, I was interested in the unfolding drama. Reading Gale’s tweets, it was difficult to determine whether they were true…
In September, 25 media literacy experts from academia, policy, and regulatory institutions met as part of the COST Media Literacy Task Force to discuss the current state of media literacy research and policy in Europe. Organized by Professors Sonia Livingstone and Geoffroy Patriarche, we discussed the broadening context of media literacy in light of increasing…
To honor George Eliot (Mary Ann Evan)’s birthday, today’s post is about words and movement… At a college dinner with a bunch of tech folks, we joked once that people have a poem or two in their conversational arsenal to quote at toasts or to reference when discussion warranted. The few times I’ve been asked…
Also posted at DML Central: http://dmlcentral.net/blog/monica-bulger/trouble-testing It’s obviously summer because my news alerts are no longer steadily reporting concerns about education, our children’s future, the problems with teachers, etc. Perhaps now, then, is the perfect time to address the issue of testing and its troubles, while a little distance might provide perspective. So, why do…
As an Internet researcher, I know the answer to this question: no. That’s right: no. Try as we might, we cannot completely control who views parts of our Facebook profiles. Using avatars and not posting an identifying photo may help ensure privacy, but in my experience, most friends use their real names or post an…
“It’s the great thing about code,” he said of computer language. “It’s largely merit-driven. It’s not about what you’ve studied. It’s about what you’ve shipped.” –Jade Dominguez quoted in NYT, 27 April 2013 Gild, a San Francisco start-up, is taking the Money Ball approach to identify potentially overlooked talented programmers. As reported in the New…
Today I will be co-convening a session with Ray Siemens at the Modern Language Association’s annual conference on the topic of using and adapting research methods typically associated with social sciences to research in the humanities. Our panelists include colleagues Eric Meyer (OII), Lindsay Thomas and Dana Solomon (UC Santa Barbara), James Kelley (Mississippi), and…
Today I’m giving a lecture about learning environments that promote interdisciplinary dialogue in Internet Science. After 10+ years working in an interdisciplinary space, I take for granted how much easier it has become, I forget the many times I sat through lectures that were like a foreign language where every third word made sense. I…
