It seems that one group that has been less than thrilled with the success of Twilight is the Quileute Nation, of which the fictional Jacob is a member. It seems that extraordinary attention is being paid to the tiny reservation with no commercial benefits. Just last month an MSN.com crew trespassed on a Quileute ceremonial burial ground while filming a Twilight virtual tour. Additionally, Quileute products are now being marketed - jewery, hoodies, and half the Quileute families continue to live in poverty, receiving no payment for this commercial activity. Read a full editorial about this situation from the New York Times here.
There was an interesting article in the "Room for Debate" section of the New York Times on Wednesday. The question posed is do school libraries need books? The context - an independent high school in Massachusetts recently transformed its library into a digital center and gave away most of its 20,000 books. Read the full article here.
The Economist magazine has a special feature on social networking in the new edition (January 30th - February 5th 2010). Here's an excerpt:
"What will the future of social networking look like? Imagine this: your digital video recorder automatically copies a television show that several of your friends were talking about on a social network before the show went on air. Or this: you get into your car, switch on its navigation system and ask it to guide you to a friend's house. As you pull out of the driveway, the network to which you both belong automatically alerts her that you are on your way. And this: as you are buying a pair of running shoes that you think one of your friends might be interested in, you can send a picture to their network page with a couple of clicks on a keypad next to the checkout counter." When I first read this I couldn't decide if it was fascinating or just creepy. There is something very Big Brother about these scenarios except for the fact that people willingly share anything on social networking sites. Also, I kind of like the idea that our friends recommendations for sneakers or TV shows will have more influence than ads from the companies themselves. Read the full special report in The Economist in the library. PBS is currently running a really interesting program called Digital Nation - it's a Frontline program. I've been watching it in parts on the website, it's divided into nine sections. The overall theme of the program is an exploration of how the Internet and the digital world is changing our culture. It has brought up many questions for me about technology, especially with regards to education. Just how wired to we want to be? Is it inevitable that everyone will be super connected and online all the time?
It's a show worth watching for teachers and students alike. What a cool new feature Google has now in its search options. It's called Wonder Wheel, and it shows great visual results for your searches.
How it works is that you type in your search term and then click where it says "show options". A menu opens on the left side of the page and you go under standard view to find wonder wheel. I've pasted a screen shot below of one I did for black holes. Wonder wheel does a kind of circular map that categorizes the results in a visual format. You can click on the different spokes of the wheel and get another off-shoot with more sub topics. I tried it with To Kill A Mockingbird also and got some great websites. It's really fun to play around with. You will also see all these other cool features like the Timeline on this side menu. Think of all the possibilities! |
AuthorMs. Arkans is the library media specialist at New Paltz High School. LinksArchives
October 2010
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