Greg Ferenstein at Mashable blogs about How Social Gaming is Improving Education. The article discusses how schools are replacing textbook learning with social video games, and improving learning outcomes.

“Social gaming has a come a long way from the days when a dozen students would squint at a 10-inch screen of Oregon Trail. The 2000s seemed to be the decade of case studies: Bold educators willing to experiment with developing technologies. But now, the involvement of major funders, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, points to an industry that is on the cusp of freeing education from its 2D textbook prison.”

“Owners of the Amazon Kindle, an ebook reader device, will be able to view well known works by writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy, as well as works by thousands of less famous authors.

The library’s ebook publishing project, funded by Microsoft, the computer giant, is the latest move in the mounting online battle over the future of books.”

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Kathy Ishizuka at School Library Journal presents an article about People Who Need People: How 11 intrepid users get the most out of social media. The article is made up in entries by 11 contributors “from a publisher of multiplatform books and a passionate educator to an Internet pioneer and a children’s book author” who share the ways they make use of new media tools.

1. What is it?
2. Who’s doing it?
3. How does it work?
4. Why is it significant?
5. What are the downsides?
6. Where is it going?
7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?

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The Economist has a special report on social networking titled Privacy 2.0. The article explores the use of privacy controls within today’s hottest social networks.

“If there is one thing that could halt the ascent of social networks, it is the vexed question of privacy. This is controversial because it goes right to the heart of the social-networking business model. In order to attract users, sites need to offer ways for members to restrict the information about themselves that gets shared with a wider public. Without effective controls people would be reluctant to sign up. But if a site allows members to keep too much of their information private, there will be less traffic that can be turned into profit through advertising and various other means, so the network’s business will suffer.”

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The folks at Webdigi have posted a tutorial for Creating a Custom Facebook Fan Page on their PHP, Web and IT stuff blog. This detailed guide provides step-by-step instructions and code snippets for creating custom tabs, a carousel, and web forms on your Facebook fan page.