Has learning evolved? Has education evolved? Have students evolved?
This thought provoking video by Kansas St. students asks these questions and more.
What does the future of education look like: In your company? In your school?
At Word of Mobile we help clients succesfully navigate Learning 2.0.
Call us to learn more: 518-320-2613
David
Dawn Dawson of DANCIN’ TIME DJ and DANCE ENTERTAINMENT a Saratoga Springs based company is implementing a web 2.0 marketing strategy.
Dawn says DANCIN’ TIME has had videos on their website for years and receives about 50% of her business from the website.
She adds, “Blogging is a way to increase our search engine placement and build relationships with our customers by providing answers to commonly asked questions.”
We’ll check back with Dawn in a few months to determine how her business has improved through the practice of blogging.
You can read and subscribe to her blog at “The best Albany DJ for all your needs!.”
As an evaluator of web based tools for marketing and promotions I feel Mixpro is at the top of the game.
Mixpro really understand what is needed in the online advertising and marketing space and have created a great platform for filling that need.
Here is a demo video of their platform. Scroll down to see why I think it’s so great.
Why is this tool so great?
1. It is completely web based. Edit videos online and track results.
2. It is template based - they don’t require you to higher a high end graphics team.
3. It meets many of the requirements of a successful web 2.0 application: shareable, actionable, measureable tool that is cross-platform. They also promote providing value to customers, not just talking at them with promotional messages.
4. It meets the technical requirements of the user: adjusts for connection speed and enables photo, audio and video inputs.
5. No paper - an environmentally friendly solution.
They seem to have really thought of the their customers.
I look forward to learning more about their offering and sharing it with you.
Enjoy,
David
Hi folks, I’ll be doing a podcast interview next week with our local Chamber of Commerce.
In new media fashion I figured I would put out my ideas of what I should talk about and get your feedback.
Here is an example of the questions and answers I have suggested.
What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment.
Bio of Word of Mobile Tech Valley’s New Media Consulting Company.
Word of Mobile was formed in January 2006 to help Tech Valley and National companies make the profitable transition to the new media age.
We provide new media consulting and services in the form of market research, strategy design, implementation and proving out return on investment.
New media refers to online and mobile media produced, consumed and monetized by the masses not the mass media. It is communication by and for the people.
Companies need to communicate in ways that consumers relate to and new media is the way consumers relate in 2008 and going forward.
David, What is new media?
Well, Anna Maria that is a good question.
Currently there are:
112 million blogs
100 million views of videos on YouTube everyday
44,000 podcasts
Over 150 million registered MySpace users and over 70 million on Facebook.
84% of Americans have cell phones, sending and receiving billions of text messages every day.
All of this activitity is part of the new media landscape and represents consumer driven communitcations enabled by the new version of the world wide web we call web 2.0. In addition, virtually none of this activity existed just 5 years ago.
There are 2 primary pieces to the new media puzzle:
The first piece are the new mediums of blogs, podcasts, social networks and wikis for example.
These web based software tools are designed to imitate face to face style communication and therefore are changing the way we use the world wide web.
A wiki for instance can be used for group collaboration from any location, a podcast like the one we are recording now creates the ability for people to listen to our conversation from anywhere at anytime.
It is this time and space shifting principle that makes the Internet and portable media such powerful mediums.
The second piece of the new media puzzle is the way people are communicating. In the one-way mediums of mass media and first generation websites it made sense to put a ton of energy into getting the wording and presentation exactly right because change was infrequent and it was easy to stand out.
In today’s information packed world where things are changing fast it is harder to get someone’s attention. We help businesses communication adapt to reflect and be more effective in this new environment.
At word of Mobile we facilitate this change from impression based to relationship and value based communications.
What do you mean by the profitable transition to the new media age?
As consumers become more educated, because they have access to more information via the Internet, the past strategies of hiding information from your customers are no longer effective.
We work with companies to help them understand, profitable companies in the information based society in which we live are open, transparent and working with their customers in the new mediums.
We help our clients talk With their network instead of talking at them. When I say network I’m talking about customers, potential customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders.
Who can benefit from new media communication strategies?
Everyone benefits when we work together and communicate more effectively and openly.
Consumers get more straight forward answers and a sense of being heard by the companies that serve them. Companies get valuable feedback from customers and partners.
To more directly answer your question our clients are companies with 5 or more people and marketing budgets of $2-5,000 a month to put toward building stronger relationships with customers and the community.
Our current clients include CDTA, Gore mountain, and The Mortgage Network.
Any takeaways for our listeners today?
Yes, the best thing you can do in the next month to help profitably transition your your business to the new media age is read a book called Wikinomics - How Mass collaboration changes everything.
Where can our listeners learn more about Word of Mobile?
They can call us at 518-320-2613 or visit Word of Mobile.com for more helpful information, videos and podcasts.
Thank you for your time today.
Enjoy,
David
Here are some great resources to help teacher’s and administrator’s get a quick understanding of the web 2.0 in the education landscape.
Videos
Wikinomics of education by Don Tapscott
Podcasts
EdTechLive - These are some of the best podcasts I’ve found. Steve does a great job asking questions that get answers that matter to educator’s and learners.
Connect Learning - David Warlick provides insights on EdTech integration from around the country, reviewing hot topics and tools.
Educause - This national organization is right on top of educational trends, technology integration and everything to do with raising achievement in these challenging times.
Online Communities
Classroom 2.0 - The most active social network for resources and conversations on web 2.0 in education.
Saywire - The safe free academic and social networking environment for schools.
EdTechTalk - Live and recorded weekly conversations about 21st Century pedagogy and educational technology solutions.
Blogs
CoolCatTeacher - Vicki Davis provides a contagious energy around innovative educational tech solutions that drive participation and achievement.
Karl Fisch - Staff development, constructivism and 21st century learning.
Student centered learning - wikipedia entry
I hope these resources are engaging and helpful for you. We’ll be back with more in a few weeks. Thank you for participating and spreading the word.
If you are in the education industry and would like some help understanding what this means for your students, please give us a ring 518-320-2613 or send us an email david@wordofmobile.com.
We love to help education evolve.
This is post #2 in a series about the quality of free web 2.0 tools. The first post discussed Skype the free phone calling, video conferencing and instant messenging tool.
YouTube has the lowest quality video encoding (conversion to flash format for cross platform viewing) on the web. Who has the largest engaged participant base (users)? YouTube.
What is this audience worth? In 2006 YouTube was purchased by Google for $1.65 Billion in Google stock. (Source)
Corporations may choose to understand that quality is definately achieveable but not always the highest value placed on things from the consumer’s perspective and it is the focus on the consumer that wins business.
For example 100 million videos are watched on YouTube everyday by consumers. How many are corporate messages?
Why would corporation not use the most popular, free distribution and participation system in the world?
One simple solution to YouTube’s quality issue is using Google branded video hosting service. This service allows for unlimited bandwidth and file size (you can publish as long and big a video as you want).
Google video does not have as easy to use sharing features and participant comments. In order to send this video to a friend, click on the Google logo in the bottom right and go to the Google webpage where the video is hosted then you can access the email a friend or embed code features.
Here is a Google hosted video from one of our clients Capital District Transportation Authority, CDTA.
On the flip side Apple the premier quality technology company (in my opinion), can survive by charging 3 times as much as it’s competitiors for a similar product is doing quite well.
There is clearly a niche market who are willing to pay for quality above other values.
The time is right for corporations to catch up to consumers behaviors or be left behind.
You are not in this alone, we are here with the experience and team to help.
We look forward to your comments.
In harmony,
David
New Media Benefits David's Interview with Ann Marie French of the Saratogian Newspaper [30:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadA few weeks ago I met wtih Ann Marie French from the Saratogian newspaper. She did a great job interviewing me and writing a very good article about new media and how it is being applied to business growth today.
At the top of this post is a recording of my answers to her questions. Click the triangle, play button, to listen to the interview. You can also download the file by right clicking and choosing save from the menu. To subscribe to the podcast feed and receive updates of interesting and valuable new media information click Subscribe with iTunes.
If the triangle does not show up you may need to install a free flash plug-in for your web browser, you can download it here.
Enjoy,
David- 518-320-2613
www.WordofMobile.com Word gets around!