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"There are now two main cultures in computing: Most computer users treat software as a tool for getting tasks done, while programmers hold conversations with their software. One big challenge when teaching programming, no matter in what language, is getting students used to a conversation-oriented programmer culture, which is very different than a tool-oriented user culture" An interesting post, although I was actually left wondering why users should worry about programming. I understand that there are differences, but other than 'big data', Philip does not really provide detailed reasoning to support the argument.

The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.

"Sound Infusion is a unique learning tool that incorporates music and culture from all over the world. It is a free, online, interactive learning experience that blends music making and cultural awareness. Students can create their own songs from hundreds of different samples, save, share and discuss their work online with their classmates as well as students from other schools"

"In Dun Laoghaire the "Festival of World Culture" took place from 21. to 24. of August 2008. Edgar Müller has followed the invitation and continued his series of large-sized 3D Street Art there. For this year's Festival of World Cultures renowned German street painting artist Edgar Müller transformed a huge slice of the East Pier into a dramatic ice age scene. This project was supported by the Goethe Institution Germany."

An occasional paper on digital media and learning. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"In Japan, the word otaku refers to people who have obsessive, minute interests-especially stuff like anime or videogames. It comes from a term for "someone else's house"-otaku live in their own, enclosed worlds. Or, at least, their lives follow patterns that are well outside the norm. Looking back, we were American otakus. "

Interesting to think about how Geek culture has changed over the past three decades.

"VIDEO games have become one of the most notable features of our culture, yet the industry receives relatively scant attention in mainstream media. This is not only curious, it is unfortunate; because many parents and carers and educators remain unnecessarily wary of this crucible of creativity. The reach of these games is expanding with the take-up of smartphones and tablet computers. A recent study by the head of media communications and technology at Bond University, Jeffrey Brand, found that about 95 per cent of Australian children under 15 play video games."

This project seeks to empower the worldwide population of self-motivated learners who use digital media to connect with each other, to co-construct knowledge, to co-learn. Co-learning is ancient; the capacity for learning by imitation and more, to teach others what we know, is the essence of human culture. We are human because we learn together. Today, however, the advent of digital production media and distribution/communication networks has raised the power and potential of co-learning to a new level.

Great post and great comments from Alan Kay, Brian Harvey and others!!!!! "Because of my recent posts on teaching with Logo and the culture of older programming languages, I've been poking around the Logo sites.  My most enjoyable find has been the Logo Books page of the Logo Foundation. "

"There is a myth, perpetuated for little more reason than it's sellable-fallacy, that kids are gravitating to Twitter and Facebook. From this point, numerous arguments have been made in the sub-culture Alan Lavine brilliantly described as "Edlandia" - a sharp and humurous hat-tip to Portlandia the TV show (relates to MOOCS). There is pervasive notion that the issues today are the same as those even three years ago. They might continue to sell this obsolete rhetoric to Edlandians, but kids are using very different networks - and here's why."

Our Little Earth is a nice site that provides bi-weekly summaries of the world's biggest news stories. The summaries are written for students. Each edition includes video clips along with the stories. In each edition you'll find stories appropriate for use in social studies, math, and science lessons. You may also find stories about the arts, entertainment, and popular culture. A few "did you know" questions appear in each issue as well. An archive containing every edition going back to 2007 is available too.

"Much attention has been paid to 3D Printing lately, with new companies developing cheaper and more efficient consumer models that have wowed the tech community. They herald 3D Printing as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, but how will these printers truly affect our society? Beyond an initial novelty, 3D Printing could have a game-changing impact on consumer culture, copyright and patent law, and even the very concept of scarcity on which our economy is based. From at-home repairs to new businesses, from medical to ecological developments, 3D Printing has an undeniably wide range of possibilities which could profoundly change our world."

Pew research released fresh stats on what slice of Americans are addicted to all of the various social networks as of December 2012. There are a few big business and cultural implications.

"Barely two weeks on the job, Damon Sicore, ed tech startup Edmodo's new VP of engineering, talks about the company's technological priorities and challenges and how he plans to create an engineering culture."

In the past 12 months, Google doubled its staff, tinkered with its search engine to speed up results, and now answers more queries than Microsoft and Yahoo combined. But there's one query we had to answer ourselves: How does Google work?

YouTube is the largest video repository known to (wo)man. The global looking glass has changed the way we view and share news, culture, politics, our world.  It's changed the way we learn, both formally and informally. Sometimes we don't manage this monster of content as powerfully as we might.  Though there are many others, here are an assortment of tips and tricks that may improve your YouTube experience, because .  . .

Treasure Explorer is a rich educational website where students and teachers contribute socially and engage with Australian history. Treasure Explorer contributes to the National Library's important role of disseminating Australia's cultural heritage, for all Australians. It is an invaluable and creative networking tool for teachers, families and students to share and celebrate knowledge, passion and ideas about Australia. Treasure Explorer also provides an online resource to find out more about the objects, archives and stories represented in the National Library of Australia's Treasures Gallery in Canberra. Treasure Explorer was launched in October 2011. Development of this website was made possible by the generous funding of the Harold Mitchell Foundation.

Great inspirational video for us all to watch.

Mobile learning is a relatively new phenomenon and the theoretical basis is currently under development. The paper presents a pedagogical perspective of mobile learning which highlights three central features of mobile learning: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation, embedded in the unique time-space contexts of mobile learning. A pedagogical framework was developed and tested through activities in two mobile learning projects located in teacher education communities: Mobagogy, a project in which faculty staff in an Australian university developed understanding of mobile learning; and The Bird in the Hand Project, which explored the use of smartphones by student teachers and their mentors in the United Kingdom. The framework is used to critique the pedagogy in a selection of reported mobile learning scenarios, enabling an assessment of mobile activities and pedagogical approaches, and consideration of their contributions to learning from a socio-cultural perspective.