Hopkin Green Frog

I sat at my computer, cup in hand, prepared to get into something really deep, namely researching Hopkin Green Frog. I figured it had something to do with "new literacies" knowing Dr. Dana, but just what, I had no idea. I asked both my husband and my daughter if they had ever heard of Hopkin Green Frog before I started my research but they both replied no. Prior to this class, I had always thought of my husband as my computer tech genius. I was pretty computer illiterate and went to my husband with all my technology questions. Lately I have been discovering that we are both out of touch with many of the new literacies. I have been the one exposing my husband to such things as blogging, MySpace, Facebook and You Tube. Although he had heard of these things from his students, he too just felt that it was something that the kids were into. I am now passing on to him how important it is for us to stay abreast of the things that the young people are into.
Anyway, about Hopkin Green Frog... I must say I am once again amazed by the power of the Internet. I found out that Hopkin Green Frog started out as a hand drawn flyer that was hung in various places in a Seattle in 2004. It was initially thought that a child had lost a pet frog. The flyer included a name, address, and phone number. The flyer was later scanned to the Internet and it's interest and circulation widened. The interest and curiousity that was generated caused some from the internet community to research the frog and its owner. It was discovered that the frog's owner was a 16 year old autistic teen named Terry, and the frog was a free toy that had been included with a McDonald's Happy meal. Surprise, surprise, surprise!!! I didn't see that coming! It has since become a very successful meme. A web site called Lostfrog.org was set up in November of 2004. It hosts blog posts, discussion forums, and archives of photoshopped images of the lost frog. The sucess and huge popularity of this meme is contributed to its simplicity and ease of which we can remember its content, as well as our relatability and compassion for a child and a lost pet.