Sometimes when trying to show a real life scenario by searching for videos on YouTube or other sites, it becomes quite difficult because you might be satisfied of what you get but never be content. This article explains how the new video sharing app Vine has made recording live events, editing them and sharing them more easier. Along with Vine, apps like Viddy and Socialcam have helped trying to get a point across easier by creating your own video which addresses what you are trying to prove.

In comparison to Vialogues, I think the option of depicting a life event gets hard because there is no built-in feature in Vialogues, which makes it easier to upload a live video. Vialogues is mainly created to depict a video scenario where students can learn from and sometimes YouTube doesn't provide the user with content they really need. I think Vialogues should create a built-in feature which allows the user to create a short video and edit it in order to get a specific point across.

One of my young family members was using my phone and I realized that they were very energetic but wasn't putting that energy to use. He was wondering through apps on my phone and playing games that were fun, but in my opinion useless because they did not teach him anything. It made me wonder how many apps are actually fun to play while learn from it at the same time. Through some research, I didn't find many that satisfied me. Most games are educational but not fun, or fun but not educational. Some didn't teach certain things well, and others didn't explain what they were doing.

I started thinking of an idea where a child can play a game and have them prove to the game that they have learned something through playing it. It can be in any subject and also have them compete against others around the world through the app by collecting scores. In my experience, most kids focus better when there is something to win and stay ahead of the competition. Now that summer is coming and some parents are too late with signing their children up for summer camps, playing and learning isn't such a bad idea.

American high school students complain about the SAT exam, but students in China take a similar test called Gaokao. The Gaokao is the "high test" in China, which students and determines what university they will attend or if they will be able to attend college at all. This test is known to be very challenging and it consists of Math, Science, English and Chinese sections. This test also lasts nine hours in over two days. The worst part of the exam is the 800 word essay that tests the student's writing and thinking ability. The hardship of this test has caused many Chinese students seeking to study abroad to increase in the United States. The number of Chinese studying abroad in the US alone surged 23 percent, to nearly 200,000 in 2012.

This article caught my attention as I did not know much about this test. It seems that the test is very challenging and I thought the SAT was brutal. The test seems to challenge many Chinese students which is causing many to study abroad in the US.

I came across this video which compares the ideas of both Karl Marx and Adam Smith and the effects their ideas and theories left on our society. Marx's theory concerning a new system of government eventually saw the rise of socialism and Smith's theory, forever immortalized in his seminal work the Wealth of Nations, laid the seeds of modern day capitalism.

Please jon the conversation and share your thoughts on the two theories and its impacts.

People always say that Google is the best engine search because it has all the answers to almost every question in the world. One thing that I have always pondered about is how they are able to provide people with the answers to their questions. Sometimes you can search about a particular topic on Google, and when the search results appear, you realize that the first to third link have the answer to your question.

In the Vialogue video, a Google representative, Matt, explains how Google search works, essentially what goes on backstage of Google's search engine that helps people obtain the best answers to their searches and questions. Join the discussion.

This seems particularly timely since we just heard Michael Groenendyk's fascinating seminar on the new opportunities created by evolving 3D printing and 3D scanning technologies yesterday.

3D printing giant Stratasys acquires MakerBot in $600M deal

MakerBot Sells to Stratasys for $403M

Supposedly, Makerbot will continue to operate as an independent company... but I'm skeptical. Still, good for them, I suppose.

Today's topic in the SMM Series is...Random Facts about YouTube! YouTube has more than 1 billion users that visit the site every month, so many businesses have created their own YouTube accounts to showcase their people, products, promotions, and giveaways to reach out to their fans.

In my course, I like to add random things I find for each chapter, and today I will share with you some interesting facts/stats about YouTube:

• YouTube was started by 3 former PayPal employees
• More than 4 billion videos are watched every month on YouTube
• 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute
• 70% of YouTube activity comes from outside the U.S.
• There are millions of subscriptions to channels every day

Don't miss this bus on the nascent innovation described very credibly in the article, "Forget MOOCs--Let's Use MOOA."

So, what would you task your MOOA with?

Abstract:
Emerging tabletop devices can offer new means to enhance teachers' classroom control and awareness. These technologies can help them orchestrate activities, and capture, analyse and visualise students' collaborative interactions.MTClassroom and MTDashboard, that were designed, deployed and tested to support the teacher in orchestrating collaborative learning activities at an authentic classroom. MTClassroom is an enriched multi- tabletop environment that captures aspects of students' activity as they work in small groups. MTDashboard is an orchestration tool displayed at a handheld device, giving the teacher control over classroom activities and providing ‘real-time’ indicators of participation and task progress of each group. We analysed teacher’s attention by triangulating quantitative evidence captured by our environment with qualitative observations and teacher’s perceptions.

Justine Cassell
Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

In thinking about the ways in which computers can support learning we often concentrate on the task or cognitive aspects of the collaboration between human and machine. However, the social nature of some of the best kinds of human-human learning interactions does not need to be left behind in human-computer collaborative learning, and understanding the social nature of human-human peer collaborative learning can help us to design computational systems that are most effective in real world contexts. To that end, in this talk I report on a series of studies that look at the building of rapport between humans over time, and between humans and computational systems. I look at the effects of this rapport building on peer learning among young children, junior highschool students, and adults, when the learning partners are actual human peers and computer peers. From