Social Media Comparison Chart

	Facebook	Twitter	YouTube
Active Users	1,712 (million)	313 (million)	1,000 (million)
Daily Users	1,130 (million)	135 (million)	Only referred to as hundreds of thousands
Foreign Accounts	85%	79%	70%
Pros	Easy for business start  up to reach customers	Anonymity, fast reach	Entertaining for longer periods of time
	Integrates other media (videos, photos, slideshows)	Status updates in  real-time	Educational/Instructional
	Instant messaging and calls	Brings/sends users  across sites	Livestreaming available
	Cost effective customer  service for businesses	Integrates video and  gif playback	Free hosting/high quality
Cons	Expensive to advertise	Word limit to posts	Ads ignored via adblocks software
	Privacy Concerns	Need to stay active daily for reach	Limited user interaction (comments)
	Potentially hurt you  professionally if employers search for your information  and see anything negative	Takes time to build audience	Difficult to make money from ads; must be partnered with an outside network or use Google Adsense

Sources:

Donchev, D. (2016). Youtube Statistics - 2016. Retrieved from http://fortunelords.com/youtube-statistics/ 

Harden, S. (2016). STATS | YouTube Company Statistics - Statistic Brain. Retrieved from http://www.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics/

Ingram, M. (2016). Snapchat Now Has More Daily Users Than Twitter Does. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/06/02/snapchat-twitter/

Millward, S. (2015). Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. Retrieved from https://www.techinasia.com/facebook-surpasses-half-billion-monthly-active-users-in-asia-for-first-time 

Statista. (2016). Facebook users worldwide 2016. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

Statista. (2016). Twitter: Monthly active users 2010-2016 - Statista. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/

Twitter. (2016). What's Happening. Retrieved from https://about.twitter.com/company

Tynan, D. (2016). Facebook's journey 'only 1% done' after surge in revenue, Zuckerberg says. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/27/facebook-ad-sales-growth-quarterly-results

YouTube. (2016). Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

Zephoria. (2016). Top 20 Facebook Statistics - Updated July 2016. Retrieved from https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

Technology in the Classroom

The video “Did You Know 2.0” touches on a number of interesting facts. One of these are that children are being given technology sooner in life. The example shown was that of the One Laptop per Child Project.  For my first discussion post this week, I have used the shifthappens wiki to search for a related topic. I came across a post where a teacher was asking what other educators were doing to help children be successful growing up in the 21^st century. She mentioned that she was one of the teachers using Moodle in her class. At her institution, this program is voluntary. (XPLANE, 2007; Jennifer_Kolb, 2007)

I saw one response that mentioned focusing on social media. Personally, I think it is a bit scary to think about young children engaging on the social media sites of today, but I can see how it could be useful, if heavily moderated. Individuals and companies across the world use this method of engaging (a big factor in web 2.0) each day. I wasn’t able to look more into the course provided on Moodle, but there was one in socially networked learning. It claims to offer help as far as teaching and learning through the use of social media in classrooms. Perhaps this is an example of how she could visit this topic further. (Jennifer_Kolb, 2007)

Another person made a good point on the argument of technology’s side, mentioning that as long as students are taking the time to learn the material, it shouldn’t matter what way they are doing so. I can see backing this statement up as well. Personally, I am not very keen on classroom settings and learn better in a comfortable and solitary environment. This is a huge reason why online learning has been successful for me. I don’t have the hang up of classroom anxiety, the pressure of needing to make it to class on a specific day or time, and I have many more materials to help my learning process on the internet. (Jennifer_Kolb, 2007)

Overall, I think that learning along with using technology will only be of benefit to children growing up – it’s the way the world is heading non-stop. The challenge is how to not make it such a huge part of their lives, where they are missing out on social interaction and life experiences.

Sources:

Jennifer_Kolb. (2007). Shifthappens - Preparation of students for the future? Retrieved August 31, 2016, from http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/share/view/1658333?replyId=2000827

XPLANE. (2007). Did You Know 2.0. Retrieved August 31, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

Brag About Your Tech Skills

While searching YouTube videos for Web 2.0 related content, I came across this class project video. It is a parody of a popular song. They exchanged the original lyrics to talk about social media and technology. While it isn't the most informative media about the subject, I couldn't pass up sharing this!