Visualizing a chunk of text into a word cloud, which sizes and styles words based on their frequency, is a versatile technique. The idea likely first emerged on blogging and social networks in the mid-2000s as “tag clouds,” which visualized social media metadata mainly as a navigational aid. (You could click on the word “Technology” […]
Is Amazon’s eBook Subscription Service a Big Deal?
July 22, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Last week Amazon launched a subscription service called Kindle Unlimited, immediately dubbed the “Netflix for ebooks” by just about everyone. It costs $9.99 per month to subscribe, which works out to be $120 per year. For that reasonable price you get unlimited access to a library of over 600,000 books as well as around 2,000 audiobooks. That […]
Can Our Mobile Devices Enhance, Not Distract Us From, Our Surroundings?
June 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Recently, we looked at location-based mobile apps and their ability to allow us to interact with our surrounding environment. Examples of this trend include “checking in” to a business, finding other people nearby or redeeming a special deal. Beyond possible issues with surveillance and ad targeting, this business of walking around using our smartphones raises another crucial […]
Taking a Google Field Trip: What’s the Appeal of Location-Based Apps?
June 14, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Location-based mobile apps are a hot trend these days. These services allow people to use a smartphone to interact somehow with their surrounding environment, such as earning rewards and discounts for “checking-in” somewhere using the popular platform Foursquare. Other big-name apps that incorporate some location-aware features include OpenTable, Fandango and Yelp. And still others allow […]
Are Digital Gifts Less Special?
March 31, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Today it’s easy to exchange gifts completely digitally, and there are certainly some advantages to going this route. You can shop from the comfort of your own home. You don’t have to pay for shipping. You even help the environment by not driving to the store or generating waste in the form of envelopes, boxes […]
Website “Hits”: a Useless Way to Measure Traffic
March 22, 2014 By Leave a Comment
When you’re working to promote a website, you might hear about how many “hits” the big name bloggers get. And you’ll no doubt be trying to come up with ways to increase your own number of “hits.” But in reality, hits isn’t a metric you should ever give serious thought to. It’s a holdover from […]
Are Facebook, Twitter Preventing Students from Being “Good Digital Citizens”?
February 6, 2014 By 3 Comments
The digital age demands new competencies in order for us to be fully literate citizens. With information now being created by everyone on various web platforms, we need to critically think about what and how we consume. Today we are also all content curators whether we like it or not, as we decide what we […]
How to Be a Good Monotasker: Rejecting the Pull of Multitasking
January 3, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Multitasking has become a way of life and is often believed to be a great strategy to get more done in less time, especially when aided by new technological tools. But a growing body of research is showing that multitasking is in most cases a myth or a delusion that we harbor. The vast majority […]
How Facebook Guesses What You Want to See (And How to Tell It Directly)
December 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Ever wonder how Facebook chooses which of your friends pop up frequently versus those who seem to stay buried? The social networking giant employs a carefully-designed algorithm (which used to be called Edgerank) to determine what shows up on your newsfeed. Based on your personal information and click history, this algorithm attempts to guess which […]
Friday Quote About Online Education
November 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Today’s entry in the almost cliched but nevertheless interesting “quotes that sound recent but turn out to be from a long time ago” style: “The continual rise in the cost of a college education has led to a growing educational gap that is likely to be filled by the concept of the college without walls […]
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