Even though everyone in the tech world has been checking in with Foursquare and Gowalla for what seems like forever, does anyone outside of our bubble know what our darling location applications are, and what they do?

via Reality Check – Nearly No One Knows What A “Foursquare” Is.

After reading this article at thenextweb.com, I started thinking about conversations I’ve had with teachers this past summer. I feel safe saying that educators represent a middle ground of tech know how and nearly all that I spoke to about location based services gave me that deer in the headlights look. Similar to reactions over Twitter (I don’t get it!), I dive further into the social aspects of the service and get a mild, “That’s cool!” reaction. Then I move into the data mining aspect of it and discuss how these companies can provide immense amount of data for a geographic region based on user generated input (Repeat the deer in headlights look).

So what can we do about this? I suppose not much more than keep using it and keep sharing interest mash-ups that come from people interested in location services. One of my favorites allows Foursquare data to be visualized in Google  Earth. I’ve been working some possible ways to present Foursquare to others in meaningful ways that will impact our society. But I have to admit, I have not used any other services (aside from Buzz). So which services should I compare and why?