Derek E. Baird

Barking Robot > About > Publications > Recommendations

Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn’t know the first thing about either.” —Marshall McLuhan

Derek Baird has consulted with companies and non-profits like Yahoo!, Facebook, Disney Interactive Media, Pearson, Kia Motors, Salt Lake Olympic Committee (SLOC), Simon Wiesenthal Center, United Nations GAID Program, Stone Yamashita Partners, PBwiki.com, Digital Outlook, Yahoo! Southeast Asia, Togetherville and others on the use of educational technology media.

He also advises clients on social product development, digital + social media strategy and conducts consumer insight research on the way that teens, kids and their parents use digital + social media in their daily lives. Derek also helps his clients to navigate and market their products in the digital media, education, non-profit and entertainment ecosystem.

He also has background experience in human resources, corporate training, eLearning, staff development and historic preservation.

Writing + Publications

Derek has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on new media, web strategy, social media, user-experience/design, educational technology, edutainment and online communities.

His writing has appeared in journals, magazines and books in the US, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore and Sweden.

Derek’s blog, Barking Robot, was named by Youth Research Partners (formerly mobileYouth), a leading international consultancy focused on media culture & trends as one of the Top 20 Youth Marketing Bloggers.

View a list of my publications and presentations.

Speaking + Media

Derek has presented at several national educational media & technology events including the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Conference, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Conference on Cyberbullying and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Technology Conference.

He also a frequent guest speaker at colleges, talk radio shows and has been quoted in numerous print and digital publications.

Contact Derek

What Derek Has Done. (So Far.)

• He is a member of The Purple List, PSFK’s network of independent designers, journalists, marketers, trend experts and entrepreneurs.

• A contributing author to Didactics World, a leading publication focused on digital + social media and education technology trends in the Middle East and India.

• Worked as an adjunct instructor teaching social computing courses at Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

• His Barking Robot blog posts’ have been re-published in several leading publications  including Business Week, Ypulse.com and Chicago Sun-Times.

• Educational Media Advisory Board for the Digital Alliance, Yackpack.com and the National Advisory Board for the 2010 Ypulse Youth Mashup.

• Collaborated with the Library of Congress, The National College of Ireland, The Simon Weisenthal Center, United Nations/UN-GAID to develop digital and social media, digital literacy, online community & educational programs.

• At Yahoo!, Derek was part of a small internal start-up team that designed and launched a social networking community and user generated educational content (UGC) project for teachers, parents and kids.

• Derek led social media workshops for Yahoo! at the University of Chicago, University of San Diego and the University of Texas, Austin as well as Yahoo! HQ’s in both NYC and Silicon Valley.

• Curates the ‘Social TV’ topic on the Business Exchange social networking site sponsored by Business Week.

• Collaborating with singer-songwriter Samantha Murphy on the web series The Highway Girl. The show is available on the web , VOD through Comcast, and via Roku.
  

• Blogged since 2002, first at BlendedEdu and then Barking Robot.

• Produced video segments on social media and parenting issues for CBS News 9.

• M.A. in Education Technology from the Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) at Pepperdine University.

• Holds Masters Certificates in both Project Management (University of Utah) & Online Digital Strategies (University of San Francisco).

Charities I Support

• Charity Water
• Save The Tiger Fund
• Donors Choose
• St. Jude Children’s Hospital

Recommendations: See what clients have to say about Derek's work.

Consulting: Derek Baird is the founder of Barking Robot Media, a full-service digital media, edutainment, technology and culture consultancy.

Derek consults with organizations to design and launch multi-platform media (web, VOD, tv & mobile), print, social media training and product strategies.

PLEASE NOTE: Everything written here is my personal opinion and not that of my employer(s) and/or clients.