Archive for July, 2010

Meeting of the Minds: Youth, Social Media, and Education

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Monday, June 21, 2010 HomeworkNYC presented “Meeting of the Minds: Youth, Social Media, and Education” a panel discussion with guest speaker danah boyd.

Dr. boyd is a researcher at Microsoft Research and a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her research investigates everyday practices involving social media, with specific attention to youth engagement. She recently co-authored Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. She is currently co-directing the Youth and Media Policy Working Group, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. She blogs at zephoria.org/thoughts and she is on Twitter @zephoria.

As an audience member and a user of social media, I found the presentation interesting and insightful. So many questions were answered:

  • Why do teens really use social networking?
  • Myspace vs. Facebook?
  • Do teens use twitter?
  • Who is looking online?

So, I’m sure you are reading this wondering, “okay, great program, why write a blog about it?” I wrote this blog because of the overwhelming responses from this event. I figured I should keep the conversation going, create a forum for questions, and hopefully move us all in the same direction.

To watch the panel discussion click on the link “For Librarians> Tweens, Teens, and Social Networking” or “For Parents> Tweens, Teens, and Social Networking” or “For Teachers> Students and Social Networking”

Get Your Badge!!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Summerreading.org has launched a great interactive website that allows everyone, young or old to participate in summer reading!

In case you haven’t checked it out, go to the url http://summerreading.org and click where it says, “Register now!” (When registering you do not have to fill-in first name, last name, or email address). Once you have created your account the fun begins. You get to create your virtual person, by dressing it, changing the hair, and picking facial features (trust me, time will escape you when doing this). The next great part is getting your badges. Everyone receives a badge when signing-up. Other ways in getting a badge is by logging in the times you read, going to library programs, etc.

HomeworkNYC has recently created a badge for students and parents to add to their summer reading page.

Here is how to get the HomeworkNYC badge:
• Students must add a homeworknyc app to their social networking page

How to get the Apps in 3 easy steps:
Sign-up for i-Google (if you have a gmail account then you already have an i-Google account)
Click on the link “add stuff” type in homeworknyc in the “search for gadgets” bar and click “search”
The HomeworkNYC app will appear. Click on the “add it now” button

That is it! The apps will appear on your i-Google page.

• Parents must look at the new HomeworkNYC website http://homeworknyc.org/

The badge code is HomeworkApp

**You can also watch screencasts on how to add the HomeworkNYC Apps to your Facebook page on YouTube- type homeworknyc**