By Chris A. Heidelberg III, PhD., Publisher & Producer
As I was reading All Things Digital on The Wall Street Journal online portal, I noticed that my Facebook friend Rafat Ali had sold the popular digital news site paidContent for approximately $25-$30 million dollars to English publishing conglomerate Guardian Media. Under the terms of the deal Guardian will take a hands off approach and let Ali and his team do what they do best: keep us informed on the latest technology news. What a concept! Guardian Media is a UK firm and they appear to get it: if it is not broke, don't fix it, buy it and get paid. Here is the link to the interview with Kara Swisher of All Things Digital and I also added a snipet of Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates together at the D6 Conference before Gates retired from Microsoft, but you have to read further down to get to it. Speaking of getting it, I have to give to give credit to The Wall Street Journal for a similar approach to All Things Digital and this is why Swisher and Walt Moss produce such great work and are not afraid to be transparent about their industry ties and investments. Great job Kara and Walt!
Normally, I am not a fan of media consolidation; however, my concerns are usually when big companies merge. I actually am more of a fan of deals like this when social media pioneers and gurus like Ali are financially rewarded. Why? First, it will encourage more blogging teams to produce quality content that draws eyeballs if they want the same financial rewards. Second, it brings new players into the media game with new ideas and approaches to reporting that is sorely needed. Third, it demonstrates that the big companies are willing to pay real dollars to become real players in the digital media world.
Media consolidation is not always evil; however, it has to be regulated. Now I know that this may not be popular with
To be sure, the media conglomerates are finally beginning to understand that social media is different and cannot be controlled and manipulated as easily as traditional media because of the democratizing effect of the Internet and social media. Politicians and big business are just beginning to learn these lessons, but the Google mantra of "do no evil" is a start. Even though, Google and these companies are far from perfect, the idea of dealing with the public in a forthright and transparent manner is what is driving the web. I guess the moral of the story is don't hate, congratulate and one day your day will come to get paid. I sure would not turn down $25-$30 million for this family of publications right now LOL!
By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, Ph.D., Publisher & Producer
I was sitting around enjoying the holiday when I realized that because of convergence technology like my cell phone,
As I sat here for a moment after being busted by Facebook for unknowingly adding too many friends too fast. Hey, I am a popular guy with a huge family and friends and they ought to set a limit and make it transparent. Yet I digress!
My good friend Jack Yan in New Zealand and I may live worlds apart physically, but we are definitely of the same mind. Jack recently wrote a scathing post about the practices of large bank in New Zealand. After reading Jack's post on Facebook, I was instantly re-routed to Vox where we are also friends and wrote a comment.
Think about that, I sent a message across the globe to comment on an article by a person who has become a friend all through the global village of the Internet as McLuhan (1968) predicted. Yes, the medium is the message, but I also believe that people are increasingly becoming the message. Jack's stance against the bank, and my current problem with Facebook, illustrates the power of the web for one to voice one's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with goods and services. While I have an issue with Facebook's policy, I wish when you receive a warning that it told you what the limit is. This is what I like about Apple, they give you the limits for computers upfront so that you can make an informed decision. Microsoft has a similar policy, so does Google, and so does Amazon.
Where am I going with this argument? The point that I am making is that ordinary people, even those of us with PhDs, do not fully understand all the agreements that we have to sign in order to use online services. I am a Facebook fan and they are by far not the biggest offender when it comes to being transparent, listening to your customers, and communicating with customer in non-legal language. What bothers me is that the law is supposed to interpret against the drafter of an agreement when there is a dispute according to my old contracts teacher Professor Korzack. The rationale is that when you draft an agreement, you know exactly what you want, but the other side may not understand the totality of this want.
So I guess I will serve out my punishment like a good cyber bad boy, but I want you to consider how the magic of the Internet has enabled us to literally have a freedom that was totally unimagined, yet hoped for by the Founding Fathers as we celebrate the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The Internet has provided us with wonderful freedoms, but if we are not careful to insist that the companies that we do business with are held to a high standard of transparency.
If we do not make our voices heard through cyberspace, we risk becoming victims of the same type of tyranny that the Founding Fathers did anticipate that is why we have a Bill of Rights. Even though the Constitution has been diminished in recent years by both corporate and government interests, often acting in concert together, we still have the right to question authority en masse to protect our privacy, our sense of fairness and our basic sense of human dignity. Which is why the embedded videos on this post are all people questioning authority and the policies of big companies. Some of these videos are classic! This will become a regular feature on Edutainment & Convergence so send me links or your video protest here or on my Facebook page.
In final analysis, when you deal with online companies it is a lot like the large bug trying to talk its way into your home from the extermination company ad: you never know what you are letting into your life and how much pain they can you once you let them into your life. Remember, freedom is not free, and it is not for free or for wimps! So while I am serving digital timeout based on no due process, you just remember that freedom is not free. Enjoy your holiday and never give up the right to protest or peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances! Fight back! Unless you love Facebook like me! If you like this post make it viral and send it out!
Now that's edutainment!
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D.
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the new iPhone yesterday in San Francisco, I had a "eureka moment" where the impact of the iPhone has really impacted two of my favorite things higher education and entertainment. For the purposes of being contrarian I will deliberately start with the field of entertainment.
Despite the fact that there is a real fight between Apple and NBC, the iPhone and the iPod Touch have enabled television viewers to view NBC, MSNBC, and USA Networks programming for free. NBC willingly gave up $15 million dollars in iTunes revenues from Apple because they wanted variable pricing from Apple which insisted on the old $1.99 download model (Apple, 2008; NBC, 2008). Ironically, Apple has begun offering variable pricing to the movie industry now, so maybe the two companies should mend fences for the sake of consumers. For NBC, this is really a lose-lose proposition because NBC and Fox just started the HULU network online to distribute their television and cable shows online (Apple, 2008; Hulu, 2008; Fox, 2008; NBC, 2008; Newscorp, 2008).
The iPhone changed the debate in favor of Apple because even iPodTouch owners can view NBC content for free rather than downloading. NBC may have created more iPhone and iPodTouch owners who can view NBC content and save money during tough economic times. The fact that many young viewers of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann are becoming very politically active and are tech savvy has benefited the Obama Campaign which has relied heavily on podcasts, blogs, YouTube and the Internet to campaign and to raise record campaign donations from ordinary Americans. The fact that the new iPhone will operate on AT&T's 3G network which will make the device a fully functional convergence device with less problems than its predecessor which operated on the notoriously slow EDGE network.
The iPhone and competing devices will make it possible for new entertainment content that can air on iTunes,
Amazon, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the Zune Marketplace. Smaller content creators now have outlets for their program offerings, and major networks can also air programming on the third screen first and wait for programs to get popular before airing them on USA, MSNBC or NBC. The iPhone and the iPod have been critical to transforming the political process and the entertainment business from a revenue generating and a pure entertainment perspective.
However, the iPhone and the iPodTouch has already impacted the biggest entertainment business of them all: higher education. If higher education can extend the best parts of its NCAA model to the academic side, it will create a business that will rival the major networks, publishers, and music content providers. Furthermore, this organization would also be a major online player too, since most of the people from the tech world have higher edudational roots.
Finally, the most important reason that higher education will change higher education is the delivery of content. Apple delivers more digital content than anyone in the world, and the company has created a future gold mine with its free podcasts which inevitably will be branded with ads from NCAA corporate sponsors on the academic side. The day will come when Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will all benefit from residuals of ads placed strategically within podcasts. Apple's new iTunesU has been extremely successful in its first full year of operation.
Did you hear that sucking sound? That is the
sound of big media publishers screaming when colleges begin to create
their own digital publishing outlets that will enable professors to
teach and publish online simultaneously.
Administrators are going to
have problems with the whole tenure process since they love hiring
adjuncts on the cheap! The real question becomes this: what will they
do when the first academic rockstar professors are born! Even if they
win the intellectual property war, which is not a given, many
professors will simply jump ship and sign better deals with
universities because of the new crop of intellectual property
attorneys. Stay tuned because I hear a storm coming!
Now that's edutainment!
For the past five years I have been researching, writing about and speaking about edutainment and convergence. Somewhere around 2005, I began to find that edutainment and convergence is all about creating a learner-centered environment (Heidelberg, 2007, 2008; McCombs, 2003, 2005). I may sound like my colleagues Dr. Bill Spady (2001), Dr. Barbara McCombs (2003, 2005) and Dr. Reid Cornwell (2008) but they are absolutely correct in their assessments that the currrent educational system from K-20 is n ot learner-centered.
Why does the military utilize gaming? Because they are relevant to young people and they work! Video games are relevant to young people because the y are interactive, exploratory, competitive and fun. Young people are digital natives with a natural affinity for all things digital (Gee, 2004, 2005; Prensky, 2001, 2006). Video games create relationships between the players, the game and the knowledge embedded in the game (Gee, 2004, 2005, 2007; Prensky, 2001, 2006). Finally, video games are full of the rigor that increases as the learner advances through the game, and video games can be played online and updated for the gifted students (Gee, 2001, 2006; Prensky, 2001, 2006). Video games of every stripe have the ability to digitally access students (Wisher, 2000).
There are other convergence tools with edutainment capabilities that can also be utilized by learners. For example, i
By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, PhD.
If you have never been to the wonderful state of Colorado, you may not understand why many people who see the greater Denver - Breckenridge area call it God's country. Viewing the Rocky Mountains for the first time up close is simply a breathtaking and awe-inspiring sight! I also had the opportunity to travel to the Continental Divide in the snow for the first time and it made me think about edutainment and convergence.
While scheduled as a speaker at any event is an honor, I was simply happy just attending the conference as a member of the board of directors of The Center for Internet Research and the Focus On Education Foundation.
Since I am at Denver International Airport and preparing to leave for Baltimore, I cannot finish this post in my usual style. However, I would like to state for the record that Innovation 2008 was one of the finest gatherings of intellectual energy that I have ever been privileged to experience. The unique mix of academia, government and private industry in the fields of education and technology shed light on importance of technology in the field of education.
The critical message that Innovation 2008 was able to promote is the notion that educational reform is a micro-effort rather than a macro-effort that can be mandated by government. Individual professors, administrators, businessmen, government leaders and students will be crucial to the adoption of edutainment and convergence on a massive level. At the end of the day, educators, politicians and businessmen must stop blaming the students, and look in the mirror! If students are not learning it is a problem of the education system which has failed to massively update the current system to meet the needs of a digital economy.