 | Ypulse Daily Update 07.17.09
Directory and more at Ypulse.com | |  | Quick Links Ypulse Essentials: State Farm Goes Guerilla, Nike Takes Over Fuel TV, 'Rock Band' Adds Unsigned Bands To The Playlist Posted by meredith  State Farm goes guerilla (with the help of strike teams to connect with young adults in the Midwest. Plus Southern Comfort sponsors Playboy's new music web series And how marketers can work with a financially strapped Gen Y... or against them (Ad Age, reg required) (MediaPost, reg. required)
- 'How Morgan Stanley Got It Wrong..' (17-year-old Business Week intern takes issue with the "representative views" in 15-year-old Matthew Robson's media report. The only consensus? No love for Twitter. Also check out the feedback from Mobile Behavior. And a new study in the UK finds that music fans of all ages still appreciate CDs, just for ripping and burning vs. purchasing) (ars technica)
- Sex [mis]education (teens not talking to their parents about sex may be one of the factors contributing to the rising rate in sexually transmitted diseases among teens. Plus a BBC documentary crew follows two teens considering pregnancy) (Reuters) (BBC News)
- Millennials' role in ending the culture wars (with support for progressive politics) (Center for American Progress)
- Nike takes over Fuel TV (for a major promotional push of their new line of action sports gear. Plus Taco Bell falls flat with rap parodies. And the discussion around marketing to lifestyle versus race continues) (Ad Age, reg. required)
- The magic touch[screen] (TechCrunch reviews the official and unofficial Harry Potter apps)
- X-girl (a cool Japanese teen fashion site. Plus a debate over Malia Obama's peace sign t-shirt. Tween trend or political statement? Hmm..) (Adverblog)
- MTV launches track upload program for 'Rock Band' (so any aspiring artist, unsigned act or major-label superstar will be able to submit songs for the game. Very cool) (Billboard)
- Campus cuisine (as students' taste become more sophisticated, dining options make an effort to keep up. Also an unsettling study findsone in five students, of both genders, has encountered violence on campus) (AP) (Science Daily)
- BBC moves a comedy web series to TV (on the teen-branded programming block. Plus Innovation Films picks up where MTV dropped off with a film adaptation of Bad Girls, a book described as "Heathers" meets Lord of the Flies. Oy) (Variety) (THR)
Posted in: Ypulse Essentials The Rise Of Techno-Cheating & Fall Of Memorization Posted by anastasia I'm doing an interview on Monday related to the Common Sense Media survey released in June about teens using tech to cheat, and thought I would use a post to sort out some initial thoughts about the results. Just to recap, here are the main findings nicely summarized in eSchool News:
According to the poll, more than a third of teens with cell phones (35 percent) admit to cheating at least once with them, and two-thirds of all teens (65 percent) say others in their school cheat with them.
Of the teens who admit to cheating with their cell phones, 26 percent say they store information on their phone to look at during a test, 25 percent text friends about answers during a test, 17 percent take pictures of the test to send to friends, and 20 percent search the internet for answers during tests using their phones.
Also, nearly half (48 percent) of teens with cell phones call or text their friends to warn them about pop quizzes.
What's more, just over half of students polled (52 percent) admitted to some form of cheating involving the internet.
Twenty-one percent of students say they've downloaded a paper or report from the internet to turn in, while 50 percent have seen or heard about others doing this; 38 percent have copied text from web sites and turned it in as their own work, while 60 percent have seen or heard this; and 32 percent have searched for teachers' manuals or publishers' solutions to problems in textbooks they are currently using; while 47 percent have seen or heard this.
Even more concerning is that many students do not consider this behavior as cheating. Only about half of students polled admit that cell phone use during tests is a serious cheating offense, and just 16 percent say calling or texting friends to warn them of a pop quiz is cheating; instead, they believe they're simply helping a friend.
Students who cheat using the internet generally view plagiarism as more serious an offense than other types of cheating, yet more than a third of teens (36 percent) said downloading a paper from the internet was not a serious offense, and 42 percent said coping text from web sites was a either a minor offense or not cheating at all.
Most of the media have picked up on the disconnect between what we consider cheating and what teens consider "helping a friend" or using their phone to reference past notes or other answers. While the helping a friend response feels like a creative spin on what they know is questionable, this generation has certainly grown up learning to depend on the internet for instant answers (just as many adults have). It might feel like a waste of time to have to memorize information we can all easily find by typing key words into Google or Wikipedia. Accessing the answers digitally during a test may just seem like an extension of how they do their homework. Maybe they think being able to FIND the right answer is just as valid as being able to memorize the answers in advance.
When I interviewed an English teacher for Totally Wired, I remember her talking about the lack of teaching about what plagiarism actually is at her school. My guess is that some students literally don't realize copying and pasting text from the internet for a paper is plagiarism. Still, students I interviewed also told me stories about how easy it was to use "the technology excuse" to get out of situations like not having completed assignments. Instead of "my dog ate my homework," it's "didn't you get it? I emailed it to you?" when they really didn't.
Are today's teens bigger cheaters than teens from previous generations? Have we as a society become more comfortable cutting corners and being less ethical? According to Josephson, it sounds like the answer is a resounding yes. But I would also argue that teens aren't raised in a vacuum. They are learning behaviors modeled not only by their peers but by adults and our society as a whole.
As for the role of technology, it appears to be amplifying this behavior (making it easier and faster for more teens to cheat), though I would also question the paradigm of memorization and challenge educators to focus on developing the important 21st century skills around searching smarter and thinking critically about information sources (i.e. information literacy) as well.Posted in: Ypulse Essentials | Web Will 'Whip It' Bring A New Era Of Grrrl Films? Posted by meredith  Yesterday I indulged my inner teen with multiple viewings of the trailer for "Whip It," a.k.a. Drew Barrymore's new coming-of-age indie film starring Ellen Page. I have to admit I pretty much bought my ticket then and there. In the two minute teaser we follow Bliss, an outcast in her conservative family and small town, as she gets welcomed into the fold by a feisty bunch of roller derby chicks. Add to that flashes of a quirky supporting cast (SNL's Kristen Wiig and "Arrested Development's" Alia Shawkat) and a sampler for a soundtrack you know you'll have to buy and/or download, and there you have one solid primer for hooking teens (and former teens) with alternative sensibilities.
Obviously it's a little soon to get excited, but both the cast and the snippets of dialogue were promising. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of "Juno" and although the two will inevitably be compared with Page playing a similar angsty character, it looks and sounds like "Whip It" will lean more towards the "Nick and Norah" side of the realism spectrum in terms of the way teens talk and act. All in all, it looks like a film that delivers a major dose of girl power. One commenter on YouTube even suggested that between this and the Joan Jett biopic starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, we might be in for a season of Grrl films.
I admit it's a lot of build up for a movie I haven't seen yet. But that's the power of a good trailer. Especially one you watch multiple times. A pastime I still indulge in, and one that is only becoming more popular with teens today and subsequently more important to movie marketers. Now excuse me, I'm going to go watch that trailer again. Feel free to take a look and agree and disagree with me in comments.
Analyzing Whip It's Comfortingly Familiar Teen Angst [Jezebel]
Posted in: Ypulse Essentials | Web | Movies
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