New media education resources

Two new media education resources crossed our desk recently: Totally Wired by Anastasia Goodstein and Children's Learning in a Digital World, edited by Teena Willoughby and Eileen Wood. While they are extremely different, both are useful additions to any media education library.

A laptop in every pot

The old saying that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer applies to cyberspace, too: these maps comparing router and population density show that the developing world has a long way to go to catch up to North America, Western Europe and Japan when it comes to getting online. The One Laptop Per Child project aims to change all that, designing, constructing and distributing Internet-ready laptops to children in developing countries.

Viral marketing alert

Ads like the one above have been appearing in public transit systems in Ottawa, Toronto and other Ontario cities over the last month, supposedly promoting a drug called “Obay” which prevents teenagers from having their own thoughts, hopes and dreams. It's a classic example of viral marketing: an ad campaign that doesn't actually name the product or service being promoted, but rather tries to get people talking about it in the hopes that when the product is finally unveiled the effect will be greater than a traditional ad campaign could have managed.

Airing this week

Two programs on Internet issues are airing this week. First, a three-part series (from Monday. March 3 to Wednesday, March 5) on CTV News Ottawa (Cable 7, Bell ExpressVu 196, Starchoice 311) on cyber bullying; you can watch the trailer here. Also, on Tuesday March 4 TVO's The Agenda is airing a discussion on how being online changes the way we socialize.