Apparently “Astro Turfing” was first coined by Lloyd Bentsen to describe fake grassroots campaigns to sway public opinion.  Not only was LonelyGirl15 a fake, but now The Wall Street Journal has fingered the dirty PR company DCI for posting a parody of Al Gore to take the sting out of An Inconvenient Truth.  You see it’s true what teachers have been saying about the Web, you can’t trust anyone (like Zaire, Microsoft, Wal-Mart…).

Here’s what I think: I’ve studied it a lot for almost a full minute and I’m certain that as hot as it is right now, YouTube must be adding to Global Warming.

Take a creative and talented alternative folk singer who’s tuned to Web 2.0 and you’ll get Jonathan Coulton’s “Flickr” (16 mg Quicktime movie).  It had to happen and it couldn’t have come from a better source.  You can also get just the song (which is lovely as is).  Thanks.

According to one study at Coventry University:

the use of text message abbreviations is linked positively with literacy achievements.

Perhaps just like the pundits who said videos would spell the end for movies attendance (wrong) and music file sharers would never pay for music (not!), maybe the obvious isn’t true with text messaging? Could be that literacy skills cross boundries of text types? Could be, but note that this study also had a sample size of 35 andf that

the children who were better at spelling and writing used the most “textisms”.

Which could mean that like their ability to spell accurately, these kids were also tuned into the different grammar of SMS. It cuold aslo maen taht clihredn are celver.

Hello. Welcome. Below are some Web links and a few ideas for activities. Click on the ones that interest you. Chat with a friend about what you see and think.

1. Blue Poles is the most famous painting at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Look at a picture of it. Then go to Jackson Pollock.org and try clicking around. Discuss one of these questions: “How come my creation is disposable and Pollock’s are worth tens of millions?” or “What is the point of ‘action painting’?”

2. Pick a topic you’re interested in (really!) and then see what each of the three online encyclopedia have to say about it: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, and the Simple English Wikipedia. Could you contribute new information in the last one? Write out your contribution in the Task below.
3. What does it mean by “The World is Flat” (see the BBC article), then see about the Miniature Earth. What does either of these sites make you think about your place in the world?

4. Take this online quiz about the Internet and see how many right answers you get.

5. Write a message in SMS speak or translate this famous document:

dad@hvn,
urspshl.
we want wot u want
&urth2b like hvn
giv us food Give us food
&4giv r sins
lyk we 4giv uvaz.
don’t test us!
save us!
bcos we kno ur boss
ur tuf
&ur cool 4 eva!
ok?

Task - Thanks for trying out these links and questions. Please write me a two page letter about things you saw or thought about from this activity. Include your ideas or feelings from the presentation and the response from one of the questions above. Only write the letter in binary code if you send it digitally! Optional extra - in your lesson book, draw a cool picture that shows you in ten years time with all the gadgets pointed to with arrows and explained (see an example).

Realizing that a culture of sharing can create overnight successes like YouTube, Microsoft has started to (sort of) sing a different hymn. Hoping to tap into all that teenage talent out there among young Gamers, Microsoft has created a new platform for developing Xbox 360 games. A quick look at any site that lets users hoist their work knows how active these can be. But here’s the old think - and it so dang obvious! MS is charging $99 (no, not $100!!!) for the developer’s software so that they can own the buzz from underage workers… Peter Moore, head of the games business at Microsoft, said,

My dream is that a high school student will get a royalty check from Microsoft some day for a game that sells on Xbox Live.”

Wow, and then maybe these kids can get a job as an Electronic Arts employee. And then maybe a “bright future” in the Hi Tech industry.