GEM or The Gateway to 21st Century Materials is getting ready to launch a new design that promises to engage educators with updated social media tools.

Members who use the Gateway want to engage--want to be engaged! They're using Facebook, Ning, and other social media tools to manage their work in and out of the classroom. GEM is an important resource to our members and, therefore, should be an interoperable component to the social media tools they’ve become accustom to using every day!

Check out this presentation to view GEM's new look and "social media" feel!

Social Media Challenges Component Leaders
Component Relations, August 2009
By: Cynthia D’Amour
[Thank you to Sara Gjerdrum, MWRO Staff, for sharing!]

Social media is here whether your component leaders want it or not. Described below are four scenarios—all real-life examples of components turning to social media—and advice from three component relations professionals concerning each scenario.

The CRPs commenting on these examples are:

AUGUST, 2009--New site to launch soon, new features, new technologies, more choices!

Behind the scenes at the Gateway we are busier than ever preparing for the pending return to “business as usual” for the nation’s schools, students and educators. We have added some great new learning resources as you will see in our “What’s New?” section. But, the biggest and most exciting effort has gone into a “ground up” rebuilding of the Gateway to 21st Century Skills.

12 Words You Can Never Say in the Office

by Carolyn Duffy Marsan
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Repost from Yahoo.com

If you're old enough to understand the reference in this headline -- George Carlin, anyone? -- then you're old enough to need a refresher course when it comes to talking about technology.

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

College students say social networking makes them more narcissistic, a national survey reports today — and they also believe their generation is the most narcissistic of all.

That's what a majority of 1,068 college students said when asked about narcissism in a poll on social networking sites in June by Ypulse.

NEA enters fall season with just under 3,000 Facebook fans, double the number of fans from just 6 months ago.

Followers on Twitter just as encouraging: