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"1.5 Million Lessons And Growing: ShowMe App Emerges as Leader in iPad Digital Education Revolution"

Australian outfit Bridge 8, who have the admirable mission of devising "creative strategies for science and society," and animator James Hutson have created six fantastic two-minute animations on various aspects of critical thinking, aimed at kids ages 8 to 10 but also designed to resonate with grown-ups. Inspired by the animation style of the 1950s, most recognizably Saul Bass, the films are designed to promote a set of educational resources on critical thinking by TechNYou, an emerging technologies public information project funded by the Australian government. The animations - which are part Minute Physics, part The Dot and the Line, part 60-Second Adventures in Thought - are released under a Creative Commons license and cover the basics of logic and the scientific method, as well as specific psychological pitfalls like confirmation bias and Gambler's Fallacy.

"When you see as many apps as we do at RWW, you begin to feel like it's all been done. So many of the everyday jobs for apps to do can already be done by at least one app (if not dozens). How many ways can you share photos with your friends? How many social networks and check-ins and restaurant-discovery services do we need? Lately, we've started to see a new class of app emerge just for managing these tasks across their various apps. The idea of apps for our apps sounds ridiculous, but some of them are neat, and some are downright lifesavers. Here's a round-up of apps you should use if you want to bring your many social networks into one dedicated place."

" These days, college students are burdened by higher costs than ever before. Tuition is at an all-time high and continues to skyrocket, making it more and more difficult to get a diploma without incurring serious debt. The incredibly unaffordable cost of textbooks just adds insult to injury. With textbook publishers holding a virtual monopoly in the market, students often have little choice in the matter. Luckily, a new paradigm is beginning to emerge: open textbooks. Giving the students the option of print or free digital copies, costs drop precipitously. The only problem: textbook companies don't want them on the market."

So Facebook was basically used to facilitate a discussion group, which can certainly be done with an LMS like Blackboard or Moodle or with various other tools, but the nice thing about Facebook is that many students are already familiar and comfortable with it - it's a "known entity" to them. Another positive thing, which addressed a concern of mine in this environment, was that there was a 'wall' between this academic use and the personal uses students have for the tool - by being in the group you didn't have to friend anyone or expose your personal information.