UPI.com reports Facebook Personalities Are Fairly "Accurate"

According to a study conducted by psychologist Sam Gosling of the University of Texas at Austin, Facebook users' profiles' "actually capture a person's true personality, instead of an idealized virtual identity."

The findings also suggest that social networking profiles covey such accurate images of their users because those users "aren't trying to look good or because they are trying and failing to pull it off."

Gosling collected 236 Facebook profiles of U.S. and German college-age adults for the study. He used questionnaires to assess the profile owners' actual personality characteristics, as well as their ideal-personality traits. A second group of people, strangers to the first group, rated the first groups's Facebook profiles. These ratings were then compared to the profile owners' actual personality and their ideal-personality.

The study found personality impressions based on Facebook profiles were accurate and were not affected by profile owners' self-idealization. The study is set to be published in Psychological Science.

The CU Online Handbook: Instructional Uses of Twitter

Twitter, a web 2.0, microblogging tool, is now being used as an educational and instructional tool. The CU Online Handbook, published by the University of Colorado at Denver, offers some instances when Twitter can be used as an educational tool. In a 2008 study, students were asked to participate in an experiment where instructors used Twitter as an educational tool. The following two scenarios played out as a result of using Twitter: "A student is reading something in the textbook and has a question about the chapter on multi-modal learning. She immediately tweets her question to the Twitter community, and gets three responses within ten minutes - two responses from classmates, and one from her professor."

"A student sends a private tweet her professor regarding a difficult situation with a project team member. While in the middle of a meeting, Joni immediately tweets back, arranging a time to talk with the student outside of Twitter."

According to the researchers, by using a tool that enables just-in-time communication with the local and global community (Twitter), they were able to engage in sharing, collaboration, brain-storming, problem solving, and creating within the context of the moment-to-moment experiences.

For more information, check out the Mobile Libraries blog at http://mobile-libraries.blogspot.com. To read more about The CU Online Handbook on the Mobile Libraries blog, check out http://mobile-libraries.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-chapter-instructional-uses-of.html.

New e-Readers Take On Textbooks

Although many people are now using e-readers (e.g. Amazon's Kindle (pictured below), Sony's Reader) to read newspapers and novels, textbooks have yet to find a suitable electronic home. Textbooks can be downloaded to e-readers, laptops, and smartphones, however, the small screen displays can have negative effects on a person's eyes.

In an attempt to ease the backlash, some companies are now developing two-screen e-readers that feature an e-paper display on one side and a liquid-crystal display on the other to render graphics and color.

In February, enTourage Systems will release a two-screen reader called the eDGe (pictured above). The device will be priced at $490. The eDGe device uses Google's Android operating system, so other applications like word processing can be added, according to enTourage Systems' vice president of marketing and business development.

Other companies seem to be following suit. Barnes and Noble just released its version called Nook priced at $259. Nook features a small LCD touch screen beneath the reading display to be used primarily for navigation. Spring Design will also be releasing the Alex, which will featue a 3.5-inch LCD screen for browsing the Internet and interacting with the e-reader content. Pricing for the Alex will be announced in January.

For more information, check out the article "Devices to Take Textbooks Beyond Text" by Anne Eisenberg from nytimes.com.

New Kindle App for the iPhone and iPod Touch

For those of you who are iPhone and/or iPod Touch users - and bibliophiles - Apple has recently introduced a FREE Kindle Reader application. By downloading this FREE app, you can read Kindle books - some FREE, others a small cost - on your iPhone or iPod Touch.