What I Learned From Maya Angelou’s Mark Twain Media Moment

May 28, 2014 Update Sadly, this time it is true. Dr. Maya Angelou has died at age 86. Original Post: Oct. 4 2009 "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" is a Mark Twain classic, which this Google research feed shows gets its own share of media morphs and revisions to suit the occasion. The hodgepodge of misinformation on that quote alone exemplifies and keenly … [Read more...]

Storybird Kids Online Book Community Hatches Creative Fledglings

 Update 11-19-2014: Storybird Studio (Q&A here) launches for educators today, as a "suite of easy-to-use creative, administrative, and social tools for writing, reading, and storytelling" adding to their already successful platform reaching over 300,000 global schools. Post forthcoming, if I can reach some teachers to interview and chat about the new features! Sounds … [Read more...]

Teen Webby Winners Talk About Old vs. New Media

May 12, 2009 Hat tip to Ypulse for linking these Webby winning student journalists who reinforce that this blog fits into my own "don't do as I do" persona of 'long form blogging' in a microblog era. I'm adding a 'must read' by Jerry Bowles on Social Media Today titled, "The Internet is Killing America's Free Press & Why It Matters" and I also agree with On Living By … [Read more...]

In Bed With Branding: Virtual Worlds Pair With Children’s Hospitals

May 3, 2009 What's with all the children's hospitals partnering and news-making so much as of late? This spring, “Operation Teen Book Drop” gave bed bound kids across the country over 8000 titles from young adult book publishers to support Teen Literature Day, sponsored by YALSA, readergirlz, and GuysLitWire. A tad earlier, Dell Children’s Medical Center in Texas became … [Read more...]

Kids@Play: Elf Island Unlocks the Secret to Parent Approval

I was AWOL at CES as my IBM went MIA. Translated? You're SOL (simply outta luck) if you're seeking a fresh thread on the big Consumer Electronics Show toys and tactics targeting kids at the Kids at Play summit, until I can reconvene with colleagues or TechMamas that were present to interview them and/or pitch a guest editorial. I tried, I really tried to get there. The … [Read more...]