We often hear complaints about what students say and do online, but we often neglect to look into educators helping them manage their online reputation. This infographic is geared toward adults, but it can serve as a great starting point for conversations and activities that educators can engage in with students to help them to establish an active digital footprint that represents who they want to be perceived as online.

Early rumors of a $75 million round for the anonymous messaging app Yik Yak that were first reported by TechCrunch turned out to be a $62 million round led by Sequoia Capital. Though there is no official statement of the round, TechCrunch dug up the SEC filing yesterday. It’s the second funding round for Yik Yak this year, having raised a $10 million Series A in June led by DCM. From the start Yik Yak made people’s eyebrows raise, mine included. An anonymous messaging app for students seemed to be an invitation for disaster, making it easy for bullies to target their next victims. TechCrunch just reported on a copycat app called After School that was banned from the iTunes App Store today due to cyberbullying and bomb threats posted using the app. The app also targeted high schoolers, a demographic Yik Yak pro-actively banned from using the service earlier this year as a result of similar events. In the end, the way Yik Yak managed to more or less contain cyberbullying through geo-fencing and other precautions to prevent younger users to access the network while still maintaining a fast growth track has surely been one reason the team attracted sizeable investments. Nevertheless, $62 million for a messaging app that lets college and university students post anonymous updates that can be seen by everyone in a 1.5 mile radius must be a sign of a tech bubble, right? It’s either this or another clever bet by Sequoia as it surely is not about what Yik Yak is today but about what it might become. First of all, I find it very hard to understand the need for Yik Yak, and I suppose this is a generational issue. The app seems to make a lot of sense to college students though as the adoption rate of Yik Yak does not show signs of a slowdown, and it now covers 1.000 colleges and universities in the US. Taking a look at Sequoia’s portfolio you will find a ton of tech companies that in their early days surely didn’t look like the next big thing. Apple, Google, LinkedIn, YouTube, Zappos, Instagram and PayPal are only the tip of the iceberg. And even though Sequoia missed out on Facebook the fund already turned a profit on the social network twice as it acquired Instagram for $1 billion and WhatsApp for $22 billion. The latter racked in a return of over $3 billion from a $60 million investment. Is Yik Yak the new WhatsApp? Hence, there is of course speculation if Sequoia thinks that Yik Yak might turn out to be a second WhatsApp. Jim Goetz, the partner who made the deal with WhatsApp will now also join Yik Yak’s board of directors. Is Yik Yak the new Facebook? I think here it gets really interesting. In an interview with GigaOm’s Carmel DeAmicis in October, Buffington and Droll stated they were building Twitter for the next generation. And the way Yik Yak works today is indeed pretty similar to Twitter’s stream of updates. The major difference is that updates are tied to certain locations which makes Yik Yak a hyper-local version of Twitter which could be used in many ways to drive revenue down the line. If a student shares an update about a craving for tacos, restaurants in a 1.5 mile radius could offer coupons to give you just one fairly obvious use case. Like Facebook pivoted from a location based social network for universities into a global social network, it is not that much of a stretch to predict the same for Yik Yak. It has the potential to become the next big social platform, natively mobile and anonymous. Mobile First and Anonymous Facebook is currently having a hard time making the switch from web based app to mobile. If unbundling its different services like messenger and groups on mobile devices will help Facebook to stay relevant is one question, the other one being whether its users still trust the company with their data. In every survey about trustworthiness and customer happiness Facebook is getting bad results. The only reason people still use it is because their contacts are on there, as well. Looking at the fast growth of Yik Yak one can see that this does not need to be the case five years from now. One of the reasons Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp was to prevent users from switching to other forms of social networking, may it be around pictures or messaging and the more users Yik Yak will attract, the more relevant it will become over time. Which leaves us with three scenarios. Either Facebook will shell out a couple of billions and acquire another potential heir to the social network throne, Yik Yak will become a fierce competitor for Facebook, or it will burn out and die. Further Reading Yik Yak Is Close To Closing On Roughly $75 Million | TechCrunch Yik Yak, Big in Schools, Is a Hit With Investors Too | WSJ Yik Yak’s New Funding Round Confirmed As Sequoia Leads $61M Investment | TechCrunch Yik Yak raises funding to face a surprising competitor: Twitter | GigaOm The dark horse rises: Could Yik Yak be the real winner among anonymity apps? | GigaOm Yakety Sax: Why Yik Yak's Huge New Funding Round Isn't As Ridiculous As It Sounds | Fast Company After School Is The Latest Anonymous App Resulting In Student Cyberbullying And School Threats | TechCrunch

In an effort to clear the way for an upcoming separation of its College bookstore and Nook business from its retail business, Barnes & Noble bought out Microsoft’s from their joint venture for $120 million in cash and common stock. Announced in April 2012, NewCo was planned as a spinoff of Barnes & Noble’s digital and college business and fueled by a $300 million initial investment from Microsoft, representing 17.6% of the joint venture and setting the valuation north of $1.7 billion. Microsoft also agreed to invest another $300 million through 2017. The separation is planned for August 2015 and Barnes & Noble hopes that the clearer structures will attract new investors for its struggling digital business. Pearson, which acquired a 5% stake in Nook Media in 2013, has also received a buy-back offer under the same conditions as Microsoft. Both companies state changed circumstances for ending the partnership. For Barnes & Noble the Nook business did not turn into a strong sales channel as initially hoped. In the last quarter, Nook sales fell 41%, digital sales like ebooks 21%. Barnes & Noble also announced a partnership with Samsung to sell color tablets under the Nook brand while laying off most of its own tech staff. For Microsoft the Nook partnership does not seem to fit into the new focus on its core businesses, either. Signed under former CEO Steve Ballmer, the partnership falls in a time before the acquisition of Nokia and the launch of own hardware like the Surface tablet. Further Reading Barnes & Noble, Microsoft End Nook Pact | WSJ Barnes & Noble and Microsoft End Nook Partnership | New York Times Here’s How Much Money Microsoft Lost Per Day On The Nook Deal | TechCrunch

Do you struggle to keep track of all your favorite websites and other online resources? Have you ever lost your folder of Internet bookmarks from your Web browser or wished you could access them from ANY computer? Would you like to share the links to your favorite online resources with your colleagues or students? Social bookmarking is a technique of storing, classifying, sharing and searching links through the practice of folksonomic tagging using a cloud-based service. During this online session on 10/31/2012 I introduced several popular free social bookmarking tools (Diigo, CiteUlike, Pinterest) and explored practical applications for implementing social bookmarking activities in the classroom. | view podcast in iTunes | view mp4 | view slides

When Albert Einstein died in 1955 he left the world a treasure trove of more than 80.000 documents, from postcards to notebooks and love letters. Over the past decades Princeton University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which is disposed of the copyright by Einstein’s will, have worked together to collect, sort and publish these documents in 30 volumes. Curated by Dr. Diana Kormos-Buchwald, The Einstein Papers Project already published 13 volumes, covering the work and life of the physicist until 1923. The 14th is planned for early 2015 and will contain 1000 documents. Last Friday Princeton University launched Digital Einstein, a central place on the Internet for everyone around the world to browse the vast archive in digital format. Digital Einstein will also enable visitors to switch between the German and English versions of his texts as well as to download them as all documents are published under open access. Currently the archive features 5000 digitized documents including Einstein’s birth certificate and violin test results. via The Verge | New York Times

Here’s a handy timeline that highlights the "social" nature of the Internet and the fact that social media has a much longer history than one might initially realize…

Everspring, a Chicago-based edtech startup that helps universities to get their courses online, has raised a $10 million venture round from Park Loop and existing investors Carrick Capital Partners and Accretive reports Crain’s Chicago Business. Everspring raised another $10 million earlier this year and currently counts University of Kansas, Kent State University, the College of William and Mary, and Auburn University as its customers. Founded in 2011 by the former CEO of Kaplan Higher Education Jeff Conlon, Everspring follows the business model of 2U, which was founded in 2008 and had its IPO earlier this year. Both companies invest large sums upfront in the creation and marketing of the online-degree courses and then get a share of the tuition cost. 2U just celebrated its most successful quarter so far with $28.4 million in revenue, 39% more than last year. At a recent talk 2U’s co-founder and CEO Chip Paucek attributed the success of his company to the business model. "If you are not focusing on the business model, it's easy to innovate yourself to death. I will not take credit for everything at 2U, but I will take credit for keeping it focused." Paucek told the audience. The Landover-based edtech company now has nearly 800 employees but Everspring is also growing fast. One year ago the startup had 10 employees, 30 in May 2014 and today Everspring has a staff of 50. Other than MOOC platforms like Coursera, edX, or futurelearn and iversity in Europe that add new courses to their portfolio on a regular basis, 2U and Everspring grow much slower based on their selectiveness in terms of partner universities and degrees. Therefore, it will also take a while until they saturate the market and grow into being direct competitors. For now there seems to be enough room for both companies to grow and an Everspring IPO in 2016 or 2017. If 2U does not acquire its competitor, that is. Further Reading Ed-tech startup Everspring gets $10 million more | Crain’s Chicago Business 2U co-founder Chip Paucek tells techies to stay true to the business model | Washington Business Journal

Cross-published on Fair Languages. Skype today officially launched the Skype Translator Preview with a video showing how the technology can be used to connect classrooms across the globe. In the demo a class from Tacoma in the USA and a class from Mexico City play a game of "Mystery Skype", asking each other questions to determine in which city they are located respectively. Of course, the technology works very well in the video but we have to keep in mind that this video has been shot in a controlled environment. Nevertheless, the excitement and fun the kids have during the session clearly shows. At today’s launch, Skype Translator Preview supports two spoken languages: English and Spanish. 40+ other languages work with instant translation in the Skype text chat. As we mentioned in November, Skype Translator Preview currently only works on devices running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 and you need to register for the waiting list. The Verge points out that entering the registration code MTT1724 might get you a quicker invitation. For those who are interested in knowing more about how the technology behind the Skype Translator works, Microsoft shared some additional info on the Skype blog. Essentially, the more people will use the product, the better it will become as it is based on machine learning and with a global user base of 300 million, Skype will have no shortage of data to mine. During the preview period, Skype’s algorithm will be trained in the tasks of Speech Recognition and Machine Translation which are essential to translating the spoken language correctly. The algorithm has to learn how to notice and remove disfluencies like "ahs" and "uhms", how to recognize sentences and where to add punctuation. For a more detailed overview about the process you can head over to the Skype Garage blog or watch the video below. Those who are worried about what happens to their data on the Internet have to keep in mind that with the Skype Translator Preview their translated calls will be recorded and analyzed as part of the machine learning process. Though the data is not attributed to a Skype ID there will still be a recording stored on Skype’s servers for analysis. Further Reading Skype Translator Preview - An Exciting Journey to a New Chapter in Communication | Big Blog Skype Translator - How it Works | Garage & Updates

Social media has been seeing quite the boom in terms of, well, every aspect of your life. But just how many people are actually using LinkedIn? How many blogs are there? Who uses Google+ and why? A new infographic spells it all out in a fun scrolling visualization!

TAL Education Group, a Chinese K-12 after-school tutoring provider, led a $20 million Series C round in the online science community Guokr. TAL Education led the round, investing $15 million, the remaining $5 million came from existing investors IDG and others. Guokr is an online community for people interested in science and technology where they can share and discuss articles written by scientists, the Guokr staff or community members. Guokr claims to have 25 million visitors per month on its web portal and related mobile apps. In 2013 Guokr launched a MOOC platform and partnered with Coursera to translate and promote the courses to its user base. The Guokr MOOC platform currently has over 800.000 registered users. With the new investment Guokr plans to bring more courses from overseas providers to its MOOC portal. Other MOOC platforms in China include XuetangX which is based on edX and Kaikeba. The company is also expanding into other verticals. Guokr has published a series of books covering science, science-fiction and children books, launched a maternal and baby health app and an air purifier. TAL Education Group is currently one of the most active edtech investors coming out of China. Besides investments in Chinese edtech startups TAL participated in LTG Exam Prep Platform’s $3 million Series A in August, and in Minerva Project’s $70 million Series B in October. Commenting on the investment, TAL's co-founder Yachao Liu states "Through Guokr we can also extend our reach to a complementary customer base, the mostly college-based technology enthusiasts. This extension will solidify Guokr and our common ground in building a social community through MOOC-based science and technology content for young demographics. In addition, we will leverage the Guokr MOOC platform to connect with world class education resources, which is consistent with our recent investment in the Minerva Project, a revolutionary new provider of undergraduate education in the US, as well as our angel investment in Sharkpark, a science education company. Our investment in Guokr is therefore an outstanding opportunity to share our vision and align our interests in building new education models for the future and incorporating self-education on Internet and mobile Internet." Further Reading TAL Education Group Takes Strategic Stake in Guokr | PR Newswire Science Networking Service Guokr Secures US$20M Series C Funding Led by TAL Group | TechNode Coursera partner in China secures $20M funding to make more MOOCs | Tech in Asia Links guokr.com