Instagram - Share Your Life with Photos

Instagram is a free app (yes, always looking for great free apps) that allows you to take a photo with your cell phone or iPad.  The photo can be modified with a variety of digital filters and then shared with the world using Twitter, Flickr or Facebook. You can use a geotag to provide a map where the photo was taken.If you are a photography buff you can have followers or be "followed." To use the app, all that is required is a user name and password.


I can see some implications for education, for example, using the photos to create a "cookie trail" for a treasure hunt.  The software allows for learners to "tell their story" and has the potential of sparking curiosity on a topic.Instagram is fun and easy app to use!

Transnational Distance Learning and Marketing Opportunities for Universities

I co-authored a chapter with Lynn Aaron and Laura Franklin in 2011 for a book entitled, Transnational Distance Learning and Marketing Opportunities for Universities.  The book was edited by Bob Hogan.  Our chapter was titled, Open Educational Resources and the Impact of MERLOT on Transnational Education. The book was just released by IGI Global Publishers.

The most interesting part of my research for the book related to people who have Internet access via mobile devices (primarily cell phones), but who live "off the grid" meaning that they do not have electricity.  Although there was no electricity, there was cellular service access.  According to Cisco, as of 2010, there were 48 million people in 32 countries using mobile devices, but who had no electricity (p. 179). How?  

• Pay for charge stations where the user takes the phone to a shop that charges the phone for a small fee, for example $0.25 USD
• A charger attached to a bicycle wheel spokes which transforms the energy from the turning wheel to power a“smart charger”
• A device placed in a shoe that captures the energy when a person walks or runs 
• Solar charges for mobile phones

Cisco. (2011). Cisco visual networking index: Global mobile data traffic forecast, 2010-2015.
Cisco issued an update to the growth of networking in 2014.  
Cisco (2014, June 10). Cisco visual networking index:  Forecast and methodology, 2013-1018.  It provides an insight into how Internet use is rapidly increasing around the world.