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Choose 3 resources from this column to view. There are several resources to choose from, and they are all good, but you only need to look at three. Your job is to get an understanding of today's student through use of video.

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Choose 3 print resources to read from this column. Again, all the resources are good and should give you an understanding of today's student, but you only need to look at 3.

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1. Look at 6 resources from this page (3 from each column). Add a brief comment under each choice that would show your understanding and also your reaction. You should have 6 short comments in total.

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Premieres on MTV, August 19th at 10pm! THUMBS follows the lives of 6 of the 32 competitors from around the country as they travel to NYC to compete for $50,000 and the title of 'Fastest Texter' at the 2010 LG National Texting Competitionship.

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By

Selfie-hypocrisy or self-deprecation?

A large majority of millennials (64%) rated the photo-filter app Instagram the world's most narcissistic social media platform. Instagram received more votes than Facebook (10%), Snapchat (15%) and Twitter (11%) combined, the survey of 3,700 college students released Wednesday by LendEdu, a consumer finance comparison site, found. "With just a few filters, a little saturation, and a clever caption, social media can make even the most average Joe look like an esteemed socialite," the researchers noted. "They use these platforms to boast of their daily tidings, carefully craft their public image, and feed their egos in this interconnected digital age."

A backlash against selfies is afoot, and not just from those who are most likely to take them and post them on social media. Disney is cracking down on selfies. In recent years, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland took the lead from Disney's U.S.-based theme parks by banning selfie sticks. The Sistine Chapel in Italy and Palace Museum in Beijing have also banned them. The Coachella music festival in California, which takes place next month, and the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, which takes place in July, have banned them too. In fact, Coachella's rules echo the results of the latest survey by LendEdu: "No Selfie Sticks/No Narcissists."

Also see: The perils of being a social media child star

These venues may be doing these selfie-lovers a service. People who post selfies on social networks like Instagram and Facebook are more likely to exhibit what some psychologists call the "dark triad" of personality traits, according to two previous studies of nearly 1,200 men and women who completed personality tests and answered questions on their online habits. This dark triad consists of narcissism (extreme self-centeredness), Machiavellianism (manipulation of others) and psychopathy (acting impulsively with no regard for other people's feelings), they noted. (Spokespersons for Instagram and Facebook were not immediately available for comment.)

Constantly posting selfies not only intensifies peer pressure, it also provides an unrealistic mirror of our own lives, experts say. "It's not a wonderful personality constellation," says Jesse Fox, assistant professor of communications at Ohio State University, and co-author of the aforementioned studies of 800 men - " The Dark Triad " - published in the April 2015 edition of "Personality and Individual Differences," a peer-reviewed journal, and a similar paper studying 400 women. Narcissism, self-objectification and psychopathy predicted the actual number of selfies posted on sites like Instagram, as did how often people edited photographs to be posted online.

Don't miss: Lonely people are more likely to share on Facebook

These findings are supported by yet another study published the previous year in "Social Networking," a peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal that studies social relations. Posting, tagging and commenting on photos on Facebook were associated with respondents' self-reported narcissism for both men and women, the study - " Is Facebook Linked to Selfishness? " - found. And posting frequent status updates and sharing links with a greater frequency were specifically linked with more narcissistic tendencies in women. The participants answered questions about both their social media habits and the Narcissistic Personality Index, a standard psychological test.

But sharing images on social media can have a positive impact on social networkers, too. It exposes people to the lives of others, their good times and bad times, says Tracy Packiam Alloway, associate professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and co-author of the study on Facebook and selfishness. What's more, the ability to promote oneself with photos feeds narcissistic tendencies in those that are already very self-involved rather than actually turning selfless people into selfie-obsessed people, she adds. And correlation isn't causation: These studies may show a connection, but don't suggest that social networking actually causes people to be more narcissistic.

Read also: 10 most annoying Facebook users

Others caution against drawing a connection between people's behavior online and their behavior in real life, and say everyone has a little bit of narcissism. "You can see traits or tendencies to endorse certain things based on questionnaires," says Julie Barnes, a New York-based clinical psychologist, "but you can't diagnose anyone through them." In psychological circles, she says, there is "healthy versus unhealthy" narcissism. The latter could damage relationships, the former might be useful to get ahead in the workplace. In the era of social networking, "everyone - whether consciously or unconsciously - is becoming a brand of themselves," Barnes says.

You're invited: MarketWatch is hosting a free panel discussion on the future of robot - and human - financial advice on April 5 in downtown Boston. RSVP required, continuing education credit available. Learn more or email here.

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Instagram users admit they've created the most narcissistic social network on the planet

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By Selfie-hypocrisy or self-deprecation? A large majority of millennials (64%) rated the photo-filter app Instagram the world's most narcissistic social media platform. Instagram received more votes than Facebook (10%), Snapchat (15%) and Twitter (11%) combined, the survey of 3,700 college students released Wednesday by LendEdu, a consumer finance comparison site, found.

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Technology Addiction and What you Can do About It. | Ben Halpert | TEDxSaintThomas

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My Favorite Teacher uses Social Media Article

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My Favorite Teacher uses Social Media Article

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Commentary

If teachers want to better understand how social media can affect a student's desire to learn, they must first look inside the mind of a student.

When I entered high school this past fall as a freshman, I was like most students entering middle or high school. To us, everything feels unfamiliar-strange and new, full of promise. To succeed, we are told, we must do our homework and study for tests. This is true, but teachers often fail to give sufficient consideration to one important roadblock: social media. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Kik, Vine, and Snapchat all rule the lives of most middle and high school students. Walk through the halls of any high school during lunch or passing period and you'll see a massive number of students with their eyes glued to their phones. More than nine out of every 10 teenagers has a social-media account.

To comprehend why students spend so much time on social media, the compelling appeal of Facebook, Instagram, and the like has to be understood. With that understanding, teachers should be able to consider the possibility of using social media to enhance learning. Unfortunately, this has been rare in my experience and that of my friends.

As teens, my peers and I feel the constant need to stay connected to everyone around us, and the main way of doing this is through apps like Instagram and Facebook. But social-media platforms have gotten so addictive that they slowly direct students' attention away from schoolwork and toward the screen. When you're in middle and high school, a lot depends on your status in social media. Where you fit into the large, seemingly mysterious network of school cliques is directly related to how many followers or friends you have online and how many "likes" you get on your social-media accounts. Getting a large amount of likes on a photo posted on Instagram or Facebook secures your status. It makes you feel important, popular, and well liked. Once students have a certain number of followers or likes, it's easier for them to feel they have control or power socially. Someone who's "popular" on social media can be incredibly intimidating. What they say goes.

Social-media apps are a frequent topic of discussion for my friends and me, along with school. Both subjects are relevant in our everyday lives, although they rarely intertwine. After class, we usually discuss school and homework for a few minutes before the conversation quickly turns to social media. "Wow, I'm really going to have to study for that vocab quiz!" turns into "Oh my god, did you see what Sophia posted yesterday?" Understanding how to harness the power that social media have over the lives of most students is an important first step in incorporating it into teaching.

Because of the constant appeal of social media, students tend to use their devices during class in order to stay connected 24/7. This is an issue when it comes to engaging kids and making them interested in learning. For me personally, the main distraction is Instagram. I'm not alone in this, either-a study from last fall reveals that 76 percent of teenagers have an Instagram account, while now only 45 percent of teens use Facebook. Instagram takes little effort to maintain and is quickly accessible through my smartphone or iPad. I feel the constant need to refresh my feed to check for new pictures. Posting a picture is a whole different story. I constantly hear, "I only got 50 likes on my picture!" or "I only got 10 likes in the last seven minutes-do you think I should take it down?" from my friends or even in the conversations I overhear in the hallways. The obsession with being well liked can overshadow schoolwork very quickly.

Learning how to use social media and technology to engage students is potentially very beneficial for our learning, and some teachers have taken the first step. At my former middle school, one math teacher has her own Instagram page where she posts homework assignments and things that she taught that day in class. This way, when kids are checking their feeds, homework assignments and reminders will inevitably show up on the screen. This is a good way to get students' attention and remind them in a relatable way about upcoming tests or homework. Although this teacher is using social media and other technology in a smart way, she is a minority in a sea of teachers and educators that I have known.

The PowerPoint presentations that most of my teachers have used in the past to give lectures and to instruct students are not especially beneficial. They're not interactive or engaging. No wonder students' minds wander, and they resort to social media as a means of keeping themselves entertained.

In my current high school, Smart Boards have been put into almost every classroom. These boards have seemingly limitless and fascinating capabilities, and they aren't cheap. I was impressed with the fact that my school spent a bundle on furnishing so many classrooms with them. In fact, all of my teachers have a Smart Board. But here's the thing: Out of my six classes, only one of them uses the board on a daily basis. The other five leave the boards to gather dust. The teacher who took the time to figure out the board and use the technology to his advantage has made his class one of my favorites. Watching him use the board to write out the lesson plan and make certain points in class is engaging. Seeing his thinking unfold on the board in front of us holds our attention.

The best teachers I've ever had have used technology to enhance learning, including using Facebook pages for upcoming projects or planned online chats about books we read in class. These teachers were interesting to listen to, and the projects were fun and challenging. Online discussions using code names replaced book reports. And the thing is, participating in a discussion with other people didn't require any less thought about the book than writing a book report would have. It actually made me think about it and understand it better, because I was listening and responding to other people's opinions that were backed up with evidence, instead of following the same strict book-report format that I had been required to do for years.

I hope that educators will consider experimenting more with technology and social media in their classrooms in a way that will be intellectually challenging to students. Believe me, your students will appreciate it, even if not every attempt is successful.

Published in Print: April 22, 2015, as Social Media: Benefit or Hazard to Student Learning?

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My Favorite Teachers Use Social Media: A Student Perspective

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Commentary If teachers want to better understand how social media can affect a student's desire to learn, they must first look inside the mind of a student. When I entered high school this past fall as a freshman, I was like most students entering middle or high school.

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The Internet Cultivates Love of Reading Article

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The Internet Cultivates Love of Reading Article

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Are young people losing the ability to read properly? Actually, I heartily wish they were since I might then have got a decent desk today at the British Library, which becomes overrun with undergraduates during the university holidays. But what about young people in general who are Facebooking and Tindering all day and can't concentrate on anything more than a soundbite? This alleged ADHD generation, as well as its elders who have been sucked in to the internet lifestyle, may be responsible for the human species losing its "deep-reading brain". At least that is the worry expressed by a group of writers and neuroscientists calling themselves the Slow Reading Movement.

In our culture of excitable neuroscientism a lot of such arguments employ the sexy word "brain" and so sound scientifically objective, but they are really socio-cultural arguments. No doubt there are many kinds of task-specific neural developments (ie "brain" types) that have been lost in the mists of evolutionary time, and whose absence we have no reason to regret. Not many people in advanced industrial societies today, for example, grow up developing the mental skills required to kill tasty large mammals with a well-hurled spear. But we don't read hand-wringing stories about how we have lost the antelope-hunting brain. So there needs to be a further demonstration that the "deep-reading brain" is something worth valuing. And this is never going to be a (neuro)scientific argument; it's a cultural argument.

As it happens, I value deep reading - and so, perhaps, do you. And so, quite obviously, do all the youngish people I see everyday on London transport reading 700-page printed books such as the Game of Thrones series, 50 Shades of Grey or the new Donna Tartt. Stuart Jeffries has written persuasively about the popularity of such doorstops, as well as complex modern TV series. This might be a culture not of attention deficit but of "a wealth of attention focused more readily on the things that warrant it".

Of course the internet can be distracting - you're reading this, after all. It's true that skimming is tempting, that being overwhelmed with information is in some quarters worn perversely as a badge of pride; and that the request to express the "take-away" (or, as some say, the "tl;dr") of a lengthy piece of writing bespeaks a philistine data-age instrumentalism, according to which the only possible function of writing is to transmit bite-sized facts. And the new wave of speed-reading apps such as Spritz won't help, since it is well established that the faster you read the less you retain about whatever the hell it was that just flashed by.

And yet the assumption in such doomy pronouncements that we might all be slaves to skimming and thus be allowing our brains to atrophy sounds fantastically condescending, just as it did when expressed in Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows. This kind of paternalistic fatalism seems ably refuted by sales of Young Adult blockbusters, as well as by researchers who bother to find out what young people actually do.

According to John Palfrey and Urs Gasser's Born Digital, for example, a teenager's "news-gathering process" alternated skimming or "grazing" with a "deep dive" when she found something she could really get her teeth into.

And such nutritious, dense, lengthy pieces of writing are, of course, becoming ever more popular on the very same internet that pessimists blame for destroying our attention spans. More and more online magazine startups are devoted to in-depth reportage or cheerfully non-topical discussions of ideas over many thousands of beautifully typeset words. Ideal, you might even say, for slow reading.

For me, the only fly in the ointment is my insuperable allergy to the kitschy, infantilising generic term for such pieces, "long reads". (We don't call albums "long listens" or epic dinners "long eats".) The alternative, "longform", is simply oxymoronic - sheer length is not a form. What was wrong with "essays" again? Presumably the old-school littérateurs of the Slow Reading Movement could approve of that one.

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The internet isn't harming our love of 'deep reading', it's cultivating it | Steven Poole

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Are young people losing the ability to read properly? Actually, I heartily wish they were since I might then have got a decent desk today at the British Library, which becomes overrun with undergraduates during the university holidays. But what about young people in general who are Facebooking and Tindering all day and can't concentrate on anything more than a soundbite?

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2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination (13 Minute Cut) Part 1

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A short version of 2 Million Minutes for presentations.

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2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination (13 Minute Cut) Part 2

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A short version of 2 Million Minutes for presentations.

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What does your selfie say about you? Turns out, if you take a lot of them, you might be a psychopath! Read More: Addicted to selfies? Why you could be a psychopath http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11330225/Take-too-many-selfies-You-could-be-a-psychopath.html "Men addicted to posting selfies online more likely to be narcissistic, impulsive and display other anti-social characteristics, university researchers find."

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The Common Sense of Dependence on Smartphone: A Comparison between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

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The Common Sense of Dependence on Smartphone: A Comparison between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

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Download as PDF to Read

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Is Facebook Linked to Selfishness? Investigating the Relationships among Social Media Use, Empathy, and Narcissism

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The rise of social networking sites have led to changes in the nature of our social relationships, as well as how we present and perceive ourselves. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship among the following in adults: use of a highly popular social networking site-Facebook, empathy, and narcissism.