Group items tagged

In a group of 125 students at an anonymous medium-sized public college in the Midwest, 70 students used Twitter to access information and complete class assignments; the remaining 55 students used a more typical Internet-based course-management system and billboard.

I spoke about Open Educational Practices, (including Open Educational Resources and Open Scholarship) a subject which I am learning more about all the time as the movement grows and gains traction. You see, the idea behind open practices is that anyone can gain access for free, at any time and in any place - courses, software, ideas, knowledge, people... OEP requires everything to be open - for access, scrutiny and repurposing. So whether it's licensing agreements such as Copyleft or Creative Commons, or open access journals, or even massively online open courses, the open educational practices are gaining ground and influence in the academic world.

It's not going to be easy to change a model where knowledge has become a commodity though. Too many powerful people and organisations stand to lose a lot if everything becomes 'free' and open. But things are changing slowly. The publishing houses who once had a strangle hold on academic journals are beginning to lose their grip. Some are having to change their business models. Google Reader and Google Books for example, are giving us all more than a glimpse of the pages of just about every book that has ever been published. And open access journals are opening up knowledge for all without payment. So when a student comes up against a paywall - what will they do? They will go elsewhere of course - to the free versions that are out there on the web.

Social learning has taken on a kind of religious fervor among learning practitioners during the past couple of years—and not without good reason. It often creates more powerful and enduring learning experiences; it helps people establish and leverage social connections to accelerate the distribution and sharing of experiences, content, and guidance; and it allows learners to be more productive, learn faster, and work smarter.

it’s easy to lose focus on what matters, and to assume the end game is the technology

A social learning strategy should paint a compelling picture of the future state, clearly articulate the business case for change, and outline the roadmap for how you will get from “here” to “there” (including what must change, stop, and continue)

Twaining in Twitter, Terence Wing, Learning solutions magazine, 3 February 2011

Twitter in education, what next? presentation by Dave Hopkins, 11 September 2010

A framework for teaching with Twitter, Mark Sample, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 16 August 2010

App Store Icon 512x512 (scaled down to 175x175 for display in the store)

Application Icon 114x114 (iPhone 4) 57x57 (older iPhones) 72x72 (iPad)

Spotlight Search Results and Settings Icon 58x58 (iPhone 4) 50x50 (Spotlight results for iPad) 29x29 (settings for iPad and older iPhones)

The problem is amplified when saving for Retina, where there’s twice as many images, and the 1× images must match the 2× images precisely. The best solution I’ve come up with so far is: Build your design at 1×. Use copy merged to save all the 1× images. Duplicate the entire folder containing the 1× images. Use Automator to add @2x to all the filenames. Open each @2x image and run the Scale by 200% Photoshop action. This gives you a file with the correct filename and size, but upscaled content. Scale your main Photoshop design document by 200%. Use copy merged to paste the higher quality elements into each @2x document, turn off the lower quality layer, then save for web, overwriting the file.

There has been a lot of buzz about MOOC, the free Massive Open Online Course.  To date, many learners have signed up and participated in this form of super-sized open education course

Screen sizes and densities of emulator skins included in the Android SDK.

These apps will help get you started with digital storytelling

Prototypes allows you to turn those designs into prototypes that you can interact with through the mouse on your Mac or by tapping on your iPhone. You simply draw and link hotspots and set animations, share your interface with other stakeholders, and get testing. To get a feel for the output Prototypes creates before spending the cash, head over to ptyp.es on your iPhone, follow the instructions presented to you for installation, and enter the PIN 1234 5678. You’ll be able to try out a Prototypes-generated interface yourself.

Facebook explanation of the best way to engage brands Facebook Head of Brand Solutions, Chris Pan talks about: Fan pages as an authentic voice | Brand fan pages by fans | Content is king | What people want to hear vs. what you want to tell them | Facebook marketing solutions

New study reveals the prime motivators behind why people follow brands If you’re still looking to justify your social media activity to the board, perhaps the following stat will help: 97% of people say that social media has influenced their decision to make a purchase of a brand or product. Pretty emphatic. And one of several very interesting findings from the team at get satisfaction. They’ve recently released a new infographic on why people follow brands. If part of your role is encouraging people to follow your brand, then it’s worth having a look.

GeekCamp Singapore   1st October, 2011 at Microsoft   Venue: Microsoft Time: 10:00am - 5:00pm How to get there: Exit Raffles Place MRT station on the North-South/East-West Line What to bring: Laptops, 3G dongles, power extensions   What is GeekCamp? Conference for the geeks. Technical topics only please.