Tag: blogging
Twitter to be taught to ten-year-olds
The UK government announced today that it wants to teach Twitter in primary schools as part of a campaign to make online communication and social media part of the national curriculum. Kids will also be taught to use Wikipedia, how to blog, and proper typing skills alongside traditional handwriting skills.
The plans, which also remove the Victorians and Second World War from the primary syllabus, were going to be launched next month, but leaked early in the Guardian. Analysts and teacher groups have cautiously welcomed the moves, though they wonder why current trends are being given so much weight.
Personally, I’m glad that Wikipedia, blogging and proper keyboard usage are being taught – all of those are, for the moment, here to stay. I’m a little confused, though, as to why Twitter has been singled out. It’s not that revolutionary and, even speaking as a heavy user, it’s current prominence in the news is surely no more than a passing media fad caused by high-profile celebrities joining up. Students should certainly understand online communication, but I’m not convinced Twitter is the best way to show them.
What do you think? Tell us on Twitter – and no, the irony of that isn’t lost on me – @techdigest.
Guardian (via Techcrunch UK)
WordPressDirect – quick, easy, and spamtacular
Ever wanted to create your own blog, but you’re far too lazy? WordpressDirect is for you. It’s a third-party site (not affiliated with Wordpress) that will create a blog for you, based on a few search phrases. It’ll then pull content in from the rest of the web, and automatically post it for you. Voila. A blog, with zero effort.
Except that this is the spammiest thing ever created. It’s essentially a make-your-own-spam-blog tool. What’s a spam blog? Well, if you’ve ever run a blog over the years, you’ll know that there are sites out there that flat-out copy your content, word for word, and put up ads next to it. This service does exactly that, at its basic setting. It doesn’t add anything – it’s just making money off other people’s hard work.
So for that reason, I’m not going to link to it. Here’s a link to a far better website instead:
PuppyCam (Original subject of post via Mashable)
Related posts: Spam makes loads of money, apparently | Sir Spamalot – Colin Wells is UK’s most spammed person
Midori-san – the world's highest-profile blogging houseplant
A company called KAYAC has developed a kind of “botanical interface” that allows plants to speak and emote with us little humans. And, as is any sentient life form’s right, the plant has now started up a blog to air its inner angst.
Midori, as the plant is known in the Japanese blog-o-sphere, has an auto-generated blog which can be found here. It’s in Japanese, so won’t make much sense, but should you have an understanding of the squiggly language you’ll be able to read Midori’s feelings…
OPINION: Exams haven't met the 21st Century yet
It’s easy to forget sometimes that the 21st century is now. Information is the currency that the world runs on, and is far more transferrable and globally relevant than actual cash. However, despite its focus on knowledge, the education system is hopelessly out of date. The traditional “exam” involves sitting down with a pen and some dead tree, and trying to remember when the battle of Sevastopol was. A school in Australia is trying to change that…
UK visits to blogs on the rise: 1 in every 84 web sites
June’s UK Internet usage statistics suggest that blogs are enjoying a massive surge in popularity, with one in every 84 web site visits landing on a blog. That’s up 101% in the past three years, which is greater than more traditional web sites such as news and media sites.
Rather optimistically, some are suggesting that this proves that blogs are proving more popular, or that the UK populace suddenly understands blogs and deliberately seeks them out…
Fring's free phones for Olympic Beijing bloggers – air fare not included
If you’ve already booked your trip to Beijing this summer or you’re really desperate for a free phone then, mobile VoiP service Fring is offering you your very own 3.5G handset with GPS, camera, local SIM card and an unlimited data plan in return for micro-blogging the Olympics…
Facebook gets cross-platform blogging application: Blog It from Six Apart
Hoping to appeal to high-powered bloggers who own multiple blogs and have a strong presence on Facebook, Six Apart has launched the Blog It application to let users update their blogs and “microblogs” directly from Facebook.
Six Apart are the creators of TypePad, amongst other services, but wanted to create an application that allows a wide range of platforms to be updated. Around a dozen popularw blogging platforms — including WordPress, Movable Type, Vox, and Blogger — can be updated, as well as microblogging services such as Twitter and Pownce…
Famous blogger says Internet is dead, continues blogging anyway
According to Mark Cuban, a billionaire who made a lot of his money on and because of the Internet (and who now spends a lot of his time pissing off bloggers who try to report on the Dallas Mavericks) the Internet is dead.
Speaking at the CTAM (Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing) conference, he announced, “The Internet’s dead. It’s over.”
Funnily enough, though, Cuban still appears to be blogging, and that’s even after he grudgingly let amateur bloggers back in to his sports team…
BBC launches widgets for Radio Times, Good Food, and Top Gear web sites
The BBC is certainly keen to get their content out beyond the gogglebox in the living room. Last month, they put classic TV clips on MySpaceTV, they’ve put classic Parkinson and EastEnders on YouTube, and their iPlayer is booming, so it’s probably no surprise that they’ve now developed widgets which can be used on the desktop, on social networking sites, and popular blog platforms.
RadioTimes.com, BBCGoodFood.com, and TopGear.com, all now provide widgets which give regular feeds of the latest news and information.
Opinion: Creating our own content will never replace traditional media
Jonathan Weinberg writes…
2012, the year London is set to host the Olympics and also the year Nokia reckon a quarter of all entertainment will be created and consumed within peer communities. They think that in five years time, traditional media as we know it now, will begin to die out further with personally-created content becoming the must-read and must-watch for Internet users within their friend networks and social community sites.
But I just can’t see it. There’s no doubt it’s becoming more and more popular to make your own videos and post them on the web for all to see, but 99 per cent of it is absolute tosh – like the man who can juggle dogs while standing on his head drinking a glass of water and playing the harmonica! PS: Don’t try that at home, it doesn’t exist and we don’t condone cruelty to animals, I just use it as an illustration…
