Clearing the cache, part 2

More links:

We watched 11.5 online videos in March — a new record. Is this a good thing?

Summize goes all out on Twitter. The tweet search engine adds a local search option.

Web analytics: the heat is on. .eduGuru extols the virtues of heat-mapping to track web usability data.

How higher ed uses Facebook. A review of the Facebook presence of 420 colleges and universities by Academica.

Twitter less, blog more. These days I’m not doing much of either.

Will higher ed websites become irrelevant? This is an old post from Mark Greenfield that I meant to discuss here but never got around to it. But there’s plenty of thoughtful commentary at the original post, so check it out.

the revenge of e.e. cummings. We had to LOL when we read how txt-msg lingo is replacing stndrd english in student academic pprs.

A wake-up call for U.S. higher ed. InsideHigherEd.com analyzes how Europe’s “Bologna” movement could pressure American schools to better define what their own degrees and credits mean.

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Now playing: Various Artists – Cruel Girl – The Red Button
via FoxyTunes

Gradzilla vs. Facebook

godzilla.jpgAs Karine Joly pointed out a few days ago, U.S. News & World Report — already the monster of the college ranking games — has unleashed a new Facebook application on the world, Gradzilla.

The magazine says this new app is designed to help students find grad schools by accessing data from the magazine’s rankings for graduate programs. U.S. News blogger Alison Go probably pegs it to Facebook culture with her post/announcement: “Keep track of schools, and—in that quintessential gen Y narcissistic way—tell all your friends about it. The polls are probably the most fun; designed for you to ask friends which school you should attend. But the polling questions aren’t limited to that (or anything, really). The possibilities are endless—and not necessarily so innocent.”

grad_zilla02120x120.jpgWill Gradzilla be a killer app for undergrads looking to further their education? Time will tell. But so far, according to the Gradzilla Facebook fan page, the tool isn’t necessarily tearing up Tokyo (30 users and 23 fans as of this morning). Perhaps this social media experiment will meet the same fate as so many other Facebook apps. To misquote Blue Oyster Cult, “History shows again and again how fickle social networkers point up the folly of apps.”
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Now playing: Blue Oyster Cult – Godzilla
via FoxyTunes