My favourite teen girls blogging

I was checking quickly the web for references on teens, especially girls, and how do they use social media nowadays. Having an opportunity to spend time with my nieces every once in a blue moon, it's fun to see how they embrace social media.

14% of online teens now say they blog, down from 28% of teen internet users in 2006. (Pew, 2010)

Teens are now beginning to resemble their elders in their likelihood of blogging, as about 12% of adults have consistently reported blogging since February 2007. This decline is also reflected in the decline of the number of teens (Pew, 2010)

Last summer I helped my god-daughter (11), to start her own blog. Today, I received an email saying she had started a new one and had deleted the old one. This one is about her favourite receipts, she likes to bake muffins. A few hours later came a mail from her older sister (15) about her new blog, on nails, a topic she is, ehem, rather obsessed with.

Even before starting their own blogs, they've been reading blogs from other teens a lot. Mostly about hobbies, like pets and nails. It came out last summer, kind of a roundabout way, that my god-daughter would maybe be interested in starting her own blog. I asked her if she wanted us to do it together, and so we sat down to get it started, check how to post, choose templates, etc. By now, she's taught it to her older sister, who after a long time contemplating on the name of her blog (this was a major discussion item over the Christmas), finally got started with hers.

I enjoy seeing them as "doers" on the Web rather than as just readers and passive receivers. It's also fun that it's something that I can help them with. I think it's funny, though, that they are interested in blogs! No one blogs these days anymore, after all, everything can be expressed in 140 characters! - but I guess teenage girls - and me...wonder if this is a start of a new trend?

Open and Social Technologies for Networked Learning (OST '12)

30.July – 3.August 2012
Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

Read more: http://ifip-ost12.tlu.ee

In 2011, Tallinn (Estonia) is the European Cultural Capital. In 2012, Tallinn will host an IFIP open conference on “Open and Social Technologies for Networked Learning”. Sponsored by IFIP Working Group 3.4 (Professional Education), the conference is jointly organized by Tallinn University and University of Tampere (Finland).

Open and Social Technologies play an increasingly important role in many educational settings. Social technologies are naturally entering primary, secondary and higher education where they blur the boundaries between formal and informal learning. Social technologies also enter
the workplaces where they connect learners and bridge the boundaries between individual learning and organizational knowledge processes.

Not only do these technologies connect learners independent of place and time, they have also been found to exert emergent properties. For example, wikis or social tagging environments are increasingly used for collaborative knowledge construction where new knowledge emerges
from a large scale interaction of individuals. These properties and their impact on individual, group and organizational learning have only started to be researched.

Open Source Software (OSS) and Technologies have received extensive
research attention due to some favorable properties contrasting with a
traditional understanding of software development and the use of those
systems. Many OSS issues are motivations for OSS developers and
licensing bodies. However, important research areas in OSS are product
and implementation success and the use of OSS in different educational
and enterprise settings. OSS can also serve as a platform for
providing services to user communities. Especially in developing
countries, OSS provides an attractive opportunity.

We invite Contributions for the following topics

• Social Technologies in Education (Weblogs, Tagging, Wikis, Microblogging, Social Networking)
• Open Technologies in Education (Open Source Software, Standards, Licensing, Linked open Data)
• Technologies for networked learning (Personal Learning environments, Virtual Learning environments, Mobile Learning)
• Collaborative and networked learning (Collaborative Knowledge Building, Community-based Learning)
• Socio-Technical Systems and Digital Ecosystems in Education,
• Models and Networks (Learning Analytics and User Modelling, Emergent Properties, Social Network Analysis, Educational uses of data mining)
• Design, Development and Evaluation Methodologies for Open and Social Systems
• Application of Technologies in Educational Settings (Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Schools, Higher Education)
• Application of Technologies in Professional Education and the Workplace (Workplace Learning, Learning in Business Networks and Alliances, Learning and Knowledge Management, Learning and Innovation)

Revised full and short papers will be published in the Conference Book
to be published by Springer Publishers as a special volume in
accordance with the high standards associated with IFIP publications.


Important dates

15 January 2012: Submission of long (8 pages) and short (4 pages)
papers, submission of symposia (2 page description)

28 February 2012: Notification of acceptance for long and short papers
and for symposia

15 March 2012: Submissions for Doctoral Consortium, Posters, Demos,
Discussion Groups

15 April 2012: Submission of Revised Camera Ready long and short
papers, Notification of acceptance Doctoral Consortium, Posters,
Demos, Discussion Groups

29 July 2012: Meeting of the Doctoral Consortium

30 July - 03 August 2012: Conference at Tallinn University

Conference Chairs

* Tobias Ley, Tallinn University, Estonia
* Mikko Ruohonen, University of Tampere, Finland

Local Organisation Chair

* Mart Laanpere, Tallinn University, Estonia

Chair of the Editorial Board

* Arthur Tatnall, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

Workshop on Learning Technology for Education in Cloud (LTEC'12)

In conjunction with KMO'12 Conference
11th -13th July, 2012
Salamanca, Spain

Read the full call: http://ltec.usal.es/

The use of technology for learning has grown tremendously in the last decade. The need for continuous just-in-time training has made learning technology an indispensible part of life for workers. Learning technology is a type of system that provides educational services to students. Cloud Computing is perfectly placed to enable the learning technology providers to have an infrastructure that enables growth and at the same time save them considerable cost. Furthermore, it allows providers to deliver affordable solutions to universities along with the tools students require to maximise their time and their employability. Nowadays, we are living in a world of increased mobility where proliferation of mobile technologies is creating a host of new anytime and anywhere contexts. The emerging social media of Web 2.0 are more flexible, sociable and more visually attractive. We live and learn in a connected world. Schools, colleges and universities must change to adapt to these new needs and expectations. This highlights the need for innovative solutions in education and learning.