Students are no longer chained to stacks of books at their school’s library. The “library” can now be found at their fingertips on their favorite search engine. Teachers are no longer confined by the traditional four wall classrooms. They now have the ability to tweet or IM their students, many of whom may be several cities or states away.

Another great development is that we are moving away from an obsessive preoccupation with content and moving towards an affinity and total appreciation for the ability to collaborate and share new ideas.

It’s not content that controls how effectively our kids are learning in school or how you’re learning at work. It’s the way that we collaborate that is the most important.

Collaboration is the key. It’s really what matters the most.

This is why I’m loving Dim Dim so much. I found it one day when I was looking for a cheap (read: free) way to brainstorm some ideas about new curriculum I had been creating for a specialized career training program for adults currently out of work. I just didn’t want to forward the materials over to someone randomly, have them read it and then email me back in red all of their suggested revisions. Boring. I wanted to get a group of like minded individuals together, review the curriculum simultaneously and get real time ideas on how to improve and make this program something really great that could truly make a difference for the people who needed it.

Dim Dim made that happen. I got a group of awesome teachers and trainers together online and we rocked that curriculum. After two hours, we had 20 pages of great, relevant material.

Dim Dim lets you run a live meeting or webinar. I know that’s not really that unique because WebEx and GoToMeeting let you host meetings online too.  But if I were to combine those two sites together to form one massive super site on steroids you would have Dim Dim. It’s that cool.

You can chat. There’s a whiteboard in which everyone can access and use together. You can upload documents to share and review. Have a website that you want everyone to check out and discuss? You can upolad the URL and poof, it’s there in your meeting room. Dim Dim has audio and video capabilities. Sessions can be recorded for future use. It’s mind boggling to think about the impact that it could have in classrooms.

There’s no software to install and this is free. Free people. Now if you plan on having larger meetings, it’s $25 bucks a month which is still more affordable than the other sites.

Dim Dim places the focus on collaboration. If you have a computer and have access to the internet, you have the ability to connect and share. It’s that simple.

It truly is an exciting time for education and learning. Excited to see what comes next…

It seems I can’t go a day without hearing about Foursquare or one of the other location based social media tools that everyone seems to be using.

On little sleep and a lack of sugar, I am really impressionable and easily convinced so I did it. I joined the Foursquare revolution.

After a couple of days of trying it out, I realized that not only has social media brought us an impressive wave of cool tools and information, but it’s also ushered in a new form of annoying narcissism.

Now I can honestly say I am partly responsible for contributing to that narcissism. Today, I did a location update to my local grocery store. Really? The grocery store? How sexy.

Did I need to share with everyone that I was going to the store to pick up mustard and aluminum foil? Why oh why did I get excited when I got points for this?

These located based sites are really creating a false sense of importance for many people.

Normal activities that we never cared about telling complete strangers before are now so freakin’ commonplace. On the surface, it would seem that sharing where we are with the world would make us more connected but on the contrary, it may be doing the opposite.

As we feverishly type “Hanging out with friends at party”, we’re not actually doing that. We’re actually hanging out with friends at party updating our phones, while our friends do the same. Nothing is stranger to see a group of people at a bar for happy hour communicating through twitter rather than just chatting face to face.

Yes, you are important and special in so many ways.

But I don’t really need to know THAT much about you do I?

Let’s make a truce. I will stop sharing my trips to the grocery store for aluminum foil if you promise not tell me about that trip to the post office to buy stamps. Cool?

I have found yet another way to take my procrastination to the next level. Please don’t blame me if you get hooked.

Dogbook allows your pet to have his or her very own Facebook page. Ok, I know you’re thinking “nerd alert” but hey, there are currently 45,579 Facebook fans doing this, so there are a lot of other nerdy people who sometimes treat their pets like human beings like me wasting time on this thing. But the thing is, it wasn’t a complete waste. There were some useful things on there.

Ok, you basically create a profile like you would for yourself on Facebook except there are a couple of  interesting features that are unique to Dogbook.

You can invite friends for him or her as well as update their status. You can “pet” your dog, buy toys for him or her and remove or defriend people from your dog’s family. Yes cheesy, but fun if wasting time is your goal.

Once you put in your dog’s location, you can also find dog parks in your area. I found 4, all less than 5 miles away, that I didn’t even know existed.

My dog’s name is Raisin. She’s a  needy, miniature Cocker Spaniel that snores. There’s a Groups tab on her profile that lets me find all sorts of dogs groups filled with other dog lovers to connect with. I know there’s a group out there for needy, snoring Cocker Spaniels. Still looking.

Familiar with Amber Alerts? Dogbook has “Arf Alerts”, a place for people to post notices of their missing animals which is great.

You know that you’re going to procrastinate. You know that you’re going to waste time. Check out Dogbook.

Updating my dog’s Dogbook status makes me laugh, which is a good thing.  Dogbook 1 Farmville 0.

Ok maybe that’s not accurate. I really like Twitter. I constantly update and I’ve connected with some really awesome people so I guess I shouldn’t complain. There are some things about Twitter, however, that annoy me a little.

I go on Twitter to connect with like minded individuals that like some of the things that I like: education, social media, Dallas, technology, football. My following is based on reciprocity; generally speaking, if you follow me and have something interesting to say and aren’t spamming , selling or undressed, I will usually follow you back. This means that I sometimes i see the most random, completely useless tweets in my feed such as “8 Foods To Hide Your Bad Breath” or my personal favorite “People on my team average An EXTRA $800-$5000 WEEKLY! No SELLING, So EASY, ANYONE Can Do It!”.

When Twitter created lists a couple of months back, I was totally stoked because it gave me a way to weed through all of the clutter and noise and get to the people and information that I really wanted to connect with. It’s that continuous Ferris Wheel of interesting people and info that keeps me coming back to Twitter.

Enter Sprouter.

Sprouter looks and feels a lot like Twitter except that it was specifically created with the collaboration of entrepreneurs in mind. An entrepreneur at any level ( start-up or established) can join Sprouter for support and relevant resources. Writing a business plan and need assistance? Reading a cool article on search optimization tools for small businesses that you think other business owners might find useful? Sprouter wants you to share, collaborate and network with other innovators. It’s not just about self-promotion but rather building a cool, little community. I find this pretty cool.

How They’re Alike:

Same micro blogging platform with 140 word count limit

News feed format

Still have the ability to follow and be followed back

#hashtags used

Similar to twitter “lists”, Sprouter allows you to create and name a “Filter” to organize your followers around a specific topic, idea, location,etc.

A Couple of Differences:

Instead of asking “What’s happening?”, Sprouter asks “What are you working on?”

Follow topics, not just people.

With Sprouter, you have the ability to claim #hashtags. If a hashtag is in green, then it means it’s been claimed.

You can still contribute to that topic, you would just click on the link. If a hashtag happens to be in white, then it means it’s up for grabs. The reason why this is cool is that claiming a hashtag definitely gives you the ability to establish yourself as an authority on the topic because all “sprouts” or posts on that topic will originate from you.

Sprouter allows you to create your own “sprout-ups” or search for events in your area.

Sprouter is still fairly new but with a recent Twitter integration & 4 different ways to connect with friends on other social media sites, it won’t be long before it gets a nicely sized fan base of entrepreneurs looking for relevancy & value not always found in tweets.

Yes, she’s a good friend.

It was started just three months ago by this 17 year old Russian kid, Andrey Ternovski. First of all, when I was 17, I was stressing out about acne and the SAT’s, not starting a social media phenomenon but I digress…

Basically how it works is there is no log in and no registration. The site actually activates your web cam. When you click “start”, you’re staring in front of someone who is also starting back at you. You have the option to chat via text or voice or if bored, click  “next” and a new face is staring at you. You can chat with as many different people that you want.

You know how you could kind of hide behind an avatar or 5 year old pictures and have a good amount of anonymity? Not any more. Chatroulette completely removes that barrier and puts you front and center. Although you aren’t required to log in or fill out any registration form like with the other big social media sites, you pretty much know exactly what you’re getting. Which can be a good and a bad thing.

Let me go ahead and warn you that the online masturbaters have already found Chatroulette and have made it their home so there’s a chance when you click “next”, something more than a hand might be waving at you. You’ve been warned. I unfortunately wasn’t lol.

But there are lots of people on there who are actually wearing clothes. I actually had a cool conversation with a girl from Seattle, one of my favorite cities. She gave me three restaurants to check out the next time I’m there so that was a win win.

Another conversation I had was with this guy Ben, a teacher from Atlanta. As a person who loves learning and education, we had a pretty good discussion about using social media in the classroom. I was for it, he was against it, so a nice little debate ensued. No creepiness at all there.

It is that complete randomness and unexpectedness that appeals to most people who have checked it out and who return back for more.

Not sure if Chatroulette will be the next Facebook but it’s worth taking a look. With your clothes on please.

I am not your typical girl.

I watch football, drink beer and use pretty foul language. Especially when watching football. And drinking.

Thanks to my dad, I have never felt confined to what society deems as “girl stuff”. I may get a manicure and have tea with my mom one day and then go to Hooters and a car show the next. I’m just that kinda chick.

Along with all of the above mentioned things, I am also a lover of technology and social media. I love buying new apps and gadgets. I remember the day when I first synched my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Gmail accounts together. It was like prom. Ok maybe not my prom because I didn’t actually have a date. I went with a group of girls and one of the girls was wearing my same dress after she totally pinky swore she wouldn’t.  So not prom but it was definitely a momentous occasion nevertheless.

Anyway, with my huge love of technology comes a pretty good understanding of it as well. I am not a tech goddess by any means, but I can hold my own in conversation. This leads me to this point of this rant.

I recently went browsing at the Apple store. I am currently a Blackberry loyalist but wanted to check out the iPhone 3GS.  Nope, wasn’t cheating on my BB, just doing a little flirting and seeing what was out there. Anyway, a salesguy came over and began selling me on the awesomeness that is the 3GS. “Did you know that there is a built-in compass? I bet you didn’t know that you could make calls or play music using just the sound of your voice? If you buy this phone, you will lose 10 pounds this week!” Ok, he didn’t say that last one but man, wouldn’t that be awesome if it were true!!

So after a few minutes of this, I really started to seriously consider making the switch over. Jumping on the proverbial Apple bandwagon. Just as I was about to tell him ring it up, the sales guy says “Unfortunately, it doesn’t come in pink ma’am hahaha”.

WTF. Why would he assume I’d want it in pink? I bet you he doesn’t make that same lame ass joke with guys. So why assume that I’d want it in pink? I’ll tell you why. It’s because I’m a freakin girl!

According to a “Women &  Digital Life” study conducted by the Solutions Research Group, about 36% of women polled have bought a new gadget (cell phone, computer or digital camera) in the last 6 months. More specifically, 42% of women 25 to 39 have made such a purchase.

Technology can no longer be seen as just a “guy thing”. Both men and women equally are wasting time on Facebook, playing online games and buying crap we don’t need.

The Apple sales guy probably felt he was doing his job in “warning” me about the lack of pink phones at his store.  He probably didn’t want me coming back to the store later that month crying with a raging case of PMS demanding a pink phone. Because that’s what girls do right?

Who knows.

I actually was offended and left the store. I started wondering if that’s all my twitter friends and social media buddies saw me as was a pink phone. With boobs.

I told my girlfriend this whole story hoping to get some support and what was her comment?

“Hey, don’t be upset, Blackberry makes pink phones!!!”

Here me out.

I believe that education and how we learn as a society has reached an awesomely creative apex due to the use and implementation of social media in course and curriculum design as well as in just overall communication between individuals. People who never had access to learning before, now have an abundance of useful and useless information at their fingertips.

Now that I’ve spread a little positivity and sunshine your way, I’d like to throw something a little radical out there: If i were to cast social media and education in a movie, social media would be Ike Turner and Tina Turner would be played by, you guessed it, education. There’s a lot of love there between the two but their relationship is often complicated and sometimes completely jacked up.   Let me explain.

Ashton Kutcher would have you believe that the whole world has jumped on the social media band wagon. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with this.

My mom has now become a twitter snob (“You didn’t know that you could #Follow Friday your twitter lists Jasmin?”) and has started using “defriending” in normal everyday conversation (“I am going to be a little late meeting you for lunch. I went in to defriend one person and ended up defriending others”). Seriously, she said that to me last week.

With regards to learning in an educational setting, you have some institutions, teachers and training professionals that are vocal members of “Team Social Media”. They embrace the flexible, unpredictable nature of informal learning and really get off on the instantaneous often Tourette’s like communication that takes place between instructors and learners.

On the other hand, you have “Team I hate change and innovation. It scares me. I mask that fear with my disdain for anything that starts with the word “social”. Not sure how they would fit all of that on a t-shirt.

In my professional life, I often work with corporate trainers that share with me in confidence that they think social media is the devil. Ok, they don’t actually call it the devil but they sincerely believe that it’s ruining the traditional classroom structure that has existed for so many years with the instructor or trainer positioned as the bearer of all information,  the owner of intellectual power essentially.

I think at the core of this love/hate relationship lies a real fear of being replaced,of not being needed. As we continually shift to a culture that looks to technology rather than teachers for answers, many in the education world wonder what place, if any, they will have.

In the case of Ike & Tina Turner, Ike felt that he held all of the power in their relationship but it really was Tina that held them together through that tumultuous relationship. Ike needed Tina. Social media needs education. Social media needs all of those teachers, trainers and institutions who champion learning to come on board to really do some amazing things in education for people.