Tag Archives: MakeUseOf

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

5 staggering factoids about email

sumall_email_stack_campaignWhether you love it or you hate, you can’t deny that email is a part of life. But did you know that there are about 2.4 million emails sent every single second? That’s just one of the mind-blowing facts MakeUseOf recently dished out about email. Here’s the list:

1. Approximately 205 billion emails are sent every day.
2. 91% of all email users check their inbox at least once a day.
3. At least 72% of U.S. adults manage personal emails by smartphone.
4. Gmail has close to 1 billion active users.
5. Skilled email marketing returns around $44 for every $1 spent.

And the great thing about the article is that when you click into each fact, you get documentation on the source of the information!

Check out the whole article now!

Image credit: from SumAll - Free Marketing Images
General

Best Booklover Podcasts

3a8bd6d2Podcasts are hot! Last year we wrote about what teens can learn from podcasts but what about book lovers? Certainly book recommendations are a popular topic, but MakeUseOf highlights 10 podcasts that take you past just books to explore publishing, authors, and audio books. So if you have impending “windshield-time” check these out!

Read more current content from CMLE

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Juan Di Nella), licensed under CC0 1.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Get your Chrome Extensions

animotoDid you know Google Calendar had an official Chrome Extension? Thanks to MakeUseOf we all do! From Dropbox to Discoverly extensions can be a quick way to use a tool right in your browser.

Need some school specific extensions? Check out Alice Keeler’s blog posts for even more ideas.

What’s your favorite Chrome Extension? Are there any new ones we should know about?

General

Enhance your YouTube experience!

YouTube logoYouTube fans, start the celebration!  Mark O’Neill of MakeUseOf has a great resource for you – his list of 5 Useful Tools For The YouTube Enthusiast.  O’Neill highlights apps and other programs that are designed to work with the YouTube website and making your tubing experience easier (and more enjoyable).  Whether you’re listening to music or want to send a friend just a part of that funny video, he’s got a tool for you!

 

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Social Media: History Lesson

Image by Jason A. Howie. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by Jason A. Howie. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Do you consider yourself to be a history buff? Would SixDegrees, Friendster and MySpace come to mind when you think about social media? In Trivial Pursuit, the 20th Anniversary Edition, it would probably fall under the category for  “Innovations.”

Take a moment and breeze through Matt Smith’s quick history lesson about start-ups that built the foundation to what we refer to today as “social media.” In his article, October 2013, Smith gives a nod to early innovations such as the BBS (Bulletin Board System) and IRC (Internet Relay Chat.)  These technologies predated the World Wide Web in the mid-90’s; opening a market for other platforms which ultimately bolstering sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest.  Smith predicts, “While Facebook is king, there’s still room for niche alternatives, particularly those that emphasis images or video rather than an infinitely updating news feed.” Click here to read the full article, Social Media: Did it really start with Facebook? [Geek History Lesson], MakeUseof.

Tip: CMLE often highlights ways teacher librarians can incorporate forms of social media into classroom and instructional processes. Here are two additional free resources for you to consider;

  1. Facebook Guide for Educators: A tool for teaching and learning, made available online by The Education Foundation 2013. Click here to download the pdf.
  2. 15 Cool Ways Libraries Can Use Vine to Create Social Videos by OEDb (July 2013.)