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10 Essential Plugins Every Modern Wordpress Site Should Have Essential Wordpress Plugins One of the many benefits to WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platform and Content Management System (CMS), is that it is open source software with a very large and dedicated community. There are so many great developers working to make WordPress the best that it can be, that there are thousands of free plugins available to enhance the platform's default functionality.

Twitter: it's a medium not a platform It tweets but it ain't Twitter It tweets but it ain't Twitter So I am on a panel talking about Twitter, while Jemima 'mistress of multi-skilling' Kiss is Tweeting to the few enterprising students who are Tweeting while another is broadcasting it on Qik. Then Anthony Thornton from IPCmedia says "Twitter is a not a platform, it's the medium for short-term communication". And he's right. I have been active on Twitter for a month or so. It is a micro-blogging service that limits messages to 140 characters, but you can link out to other webpages and thus include video/stills.

Towards a Process for K-12 Students as Content Producers Beyond the Blog - Leveraging Wikis for Curriculum & Instruction I am frequently asked to clarify what I mean by "students as producers of content", and how that would fit into a school district's curriculm. This outlines in brief fashion an approach doing just that using wiki-based collaborative writing technologies. Our primary use of wikis in the district started out with collaborative curriculum content production. It's what we've been referring to as our "Currwikulum process" for a few years. We crack ourselves up, and can only imagine Elmer Fudd as our spokesmodel.

Voices Carry I was feeling really restless early last week about our ability to run and manage new and emerging services in a World where change happens at a pace that is nearly out of control. I thought my post, Why Run a Service would be a signal that I've come to a conclusion that there are real reasons to try and keep up. I didn't honestly expect it to strike the chord it did, but when you ask people interesting questions you sometimes get more interesting questions in return that demand to be explored. Lots of killer conversation going on in the comments of that post … one particular thread emerged about how encouraging open writing and blogging can generate greater depth of connections within our community. That last word is the really important piece to us - how we work to engage our community to embrace these emergent trends is what we think will ultimately make what we do more interesting and important. The more they participate, the more we can contribute opportunities to change teaching and learning.

Create a video site in seconds Build a video blog, the next YouTube or just a private place to share videos.

"These are three VLE related learning technology blog posts I have read and pondered recently: * http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/a-five-stage-model-for-using-the-vle/ * http://eduvel.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/building-vles/ * http://loujak78.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/from_repository_to_interactivity/ It is perfectly fine to reflect what is observed in models. It helps to take stock and put things in order and into perspective. In this sense, the models proposed by James Clay, David Sugden and Louise Jakobsen are entirely valid because they reflect fairly accurately what I currently see happening around me. That said, I very much disagree that these models make particularly good role models for developing a VLE."

"With each new wave of technological innovation, the traditional way to explore the evolution of the educational model is to focus on how to best integrate the new technology into the learning process without influencing the traditional pedagogical principles and policies imposed by formal educational institutions. Recently, with the rise of new Web 2.0 tools and services (e.g. blogs, wikis, RSS, mashups, social tagging), many researchers are going the same way by exploring how to best include these tools into the traditional academic and corporate learning process. I believe however that in doing so, educational Web 2.0 technologies will go the way of previous technologies (e.g. LMS, LCMS, CMS, LO, LOR); i.e. much hype followed by a slow death. "

"Twitter in the College Classroom: Engaging Students 140 Characters at a Time By: Mary Bart in Trends in Higher Education * * * ShareThis If it seems like everyone is tweeting these days, it's not just your imagination. In 2007 Twitter users, as a whole, made about 5,000 tweets a day. By 2008 the number had increased to 300,000 per day, before growing to 2.5 million per day in January 2009. Just one year later, in January 2010, the figure jumped to 50 million tweets per day. I think that is what people mean by the phrase "hockey stick growth." Despite its rapid growth, however, Twitter can be a bit puzzling to someone on the outside looking in. With its quirky lingo, written (and unwritten) rules, and very real potential for being a classroom distraction, some instructors feel Twitter is a can of worms that's better left unopened. And yet, as an educator, you can't help but be curious to see what all the fuss is about, not to mention the desire to add something new to your student engagement toolbox. For more content like this, be sure to download the FREE REPORT: Distance Learning Administration and Policy: Strategies for Achieving Excellence In an effort to demystify the Twitter universe for faculty considering leveraging the power of the micro-blogging platform in the classroom, Kerry Ramsay, a professor at Loyalist College, presented a seminar on Using Twitter to Enhance Collaborative Learning."

"Institutional approaches to curriculum design Curriculum design blog JISC Curriculum Design & Delivery1 * The Future of QA & QE2 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:25:50 +0000 Various group discussions and the panel session at the QA & QE in e-Learning conference at the Unive... * QA QE Toolkit3 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:03:22 +0000 A toolkit created by the QAQE SIG was the subject of discussion & consultation at the QA & QE in e-L... * Review of QAA Code of Practice4 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:41:27 +0000 Brief notes from the QA & QE in e-Learning conference at the University of Hertfordshire on 2nd July... The aim of the JISC e-Learning programme is to enable UK further and higher education to create a better learning environment for all learners, wherever and however they study. Its vision is of a world where learners, teachers, researchers and wider institutional stakeholders use technology to enhance the overall educational experience by improving flexibility and creativity and by encouraging comprehensive and diverse personal, high quality learning, teaching and research."

Google or You? Who Would You Rather Control Your Digital Identity? While many users of the internet have accepted a passive digital footprint over which they have not taken control, Dean Shareski recently presented at #BLC10 on ideas for managing and manipulating what Google says about us. To do this, first it makes sense to 1) Get in touch with what your digital footprint says about you, 2) Determine if that is what you would like your digital footprint to say and if not, determine what you do want. 3) Start establishing your digital footprint. Here's how.

Welcome to elearnspace! This site and blog explore elearning, knowledge management, networks, technology, and community. Many resources exist for elearning, yet a model of how the pieces fit together is often missing. elearnspace has been organized to present a whole picture view of elearning.

Personal Knowledge Management: A way to deal with ever-increasing digital information. Requires an open attitude to learning and finding new things (I Seek). Develops processes of filing, classifying and annotating for later retrieval. Uses open systems that enable sharing. Aids in observing, thinking and using information & knowledge (I Sense). Helps to share ideas with others (We Share). "You know you're in a community of practice when your practice changes" (We Use). PKM prepares the mind to be open to new ideas (enhanced serendipity).

Many educators in successful schools are involved in their school's professional learning community and perhaps they even collaborate with other schools in the district, city, state, country or beyond, but Innovative Educators also have personal learning networks (PLNs) enabling them to connect with other learners around the globe. If you're new to this world, personal learning networks are created by an individual learner, specific to the learner's needs extending relevant learning connections to like-interested people around the globe. PLNs provide individuals with learning and access to leaders and experts around the world bringing together communities, resources and information impossible to access solely from within school walls.

"Personal Learning Networks are all the rage at the moment. As with a lot of "modern" things, they're existed for a long time but have now got a snappy new name. It used to be called "advice from friends and colleagues". But in the era of social media the word friend has taken on a new meaning. Social media has provided me with a lot of friends who I've never met and never spoken to. I've exchanged a few tweets with them, commented on or received comments on a blog article, or maybe read a few forum posts, and as a result these people are, in Web 2.0-speak, friends."

"Productivity's not hard. Sometimes you just need a kick up the ass and pointing in the right direction."

"This is a moodle book I've put together to give people an introduction to open learning at UPEI… It still needs some work… but there it is. This topic considers the concept open learning and explores how being open as an educator can increase the chances for collaboration, access to knowledge and promote lifelong learning in students."

Elearning is growing and evolving hand in glove with a constellation of technologies that have their roots in a number of places. One is in collaboration software. If we look back to the origins of the internet (ARPANET) through to today's big emphasis on "Web 2.0" tools, there is a constant thread of the dynamic interplay between technology and the groups using it. The early software was written because scientists needed better ways to collaborate. Usenet evolved as more and more people started using it, creating both technological and social demands on the system. Personal publishing - while easier today with blogs and wikis - has been around since the early nineties, giving voice to people in new ways that ranged wider than their geographic communities, creating learning connections that span the globe. Community influences technology and technology influences community. This is true in the application of technology for learning.

Add Multimedia to Your Site with One Click. Apture provides the first rich communication platform allowing publishers and bloggers to easily turn flat pages of text into multimedia experiences.

Networked Learning: Why Not? So there seems to be a little string of really good blog posts that are laying out some definite re-vision of what schools can look like. This one, by Bill Farren, fits nicely with those Mark Pesce posts that I've been drifting in and out of here and here. But with Bill's post the graphics are almost too good for description. How's this for a visual on networked learning?

World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others How to teach when learning is everywhere. by Will Richardson Print Forward Share Comments(0) Comment RSS Four teachers from High Tech High. Bringing Their A-Game: Humanities teacher Spencer Pforsich, digital arts/sound production teacher Margaret Noble, humanities teacher Leily Abbassi, and math/science teacher Marc Shulman make lessons come alive on the High Tech campuses in San Diego. Credit: David Julian Earlier this year, as I was listening to a presentation by an eleven-year-old community volunteer and blogger named Laura Stockman about the service projects she carries out in her hometown outside Buffalo, New York, an audience member asked where she got her ideas for her good work. Her response blew me away. "I ask my readers," she said. I doubt anyone in the room could have guessed that answer. But if you look at the Clustrmap on Laura's blog, Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference, you'll see that Laura's readers -- each represented by a little red dot -- come from all over the world. She has a network of connections, people from almost every continent and country, who share their own stories of service or volunteer to assist Laura in her work. She's sharing and learning and collaborating in ways that were unheard of just a few years ago.