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Kind of building on Jason's post about the Slow Web movement, this article talks about some apps that help you stay focused on coursework!

This conference sounds ripe for a TIE field trip.

Five trends to watch in 2012: E-textbooks, open resources, online learning. mobile devices and cloud computing.

Berklee College of Music launches first accredited online bachelor's degree programs in music.

A mostly negative take on the growth of online learning in higher ed.

This article discusses ways to use mobile technology in a higher education setting, including uses to increase engagement among students and to provide safety and emergency information. The author fails to include any uses that actually involve learning or improved communication and transparency between students and teachers, which I believe is an oversight that many schools have when considering implementing mobile technology in their schools. 

Jeff Kirchick is Director of Universities at SCVNGR, the popular mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. He presents regularly about the future of mobile and location-based services in education. You can follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyKirchick or e-mail him at jeff@scvngr.com.

Brian Lukoff, a Technology & Education Postdoc Fellow working with Eric Mazur, just sent me this article which discusses their new ed tech startup Learning Catalytics.  It's the evolution of the Eric's clicker supported Peer Instruction.  I'm meeting with Brian and Eric on Tuesday to setup a TIE spring internship doing business development for Learning Catalytics.

Game-Based Learning in higher education...

Thanks for sharing this Jennifer. I wonder how how transferable these skills are from games to reality. Apart from the motivation and engagement factor, I think research is still inconclusive about the actual benefits of gaming. Any thoughts on such transfer? Thanks for sharing again!

Thought provoking analysis of higher ed finances, and the prospects for emerging technology models to help "fix" the broken business model. By William Bowen, former President of Princeton and the Mellon Foundation.

Sorting out policy or glitz and glamour?

This infographic is especially interesting because, as far as I saw it, most of these "innovative" approaches didn't actually seem all that extraordinary. More generally, it's puzzling (and troubling, really) that despite advances in ed-tech in primary and secondary school, higher education institutions are quite far behind the curve as far as innovative uses of technology goes.

I agree - besides a lot of back-office and stick-stuff-online applications, only Mixable stood out (forming study groups), and that seems not to have much scope.

Friday, October 14, 2011 at 11:00 AM EDT A muckraking journalist enrolls in a for-profit higher education, and finds a mess. We’ll tackle the controversy. For-profit universities promise to make higher ed convenient, accessible and powerful for all comers, and they’ve got the testimonials to back that up.

Interesting take on the history of Behavioral Psychology in relation to Technology

Kind of ironic, but "old tech" using new tech to promote sales of old tech. Basically Elsevier is giving students in an edX course a free, static version of one of its textbooks. Students then see a link to purchase a discounted, dynamic version--and it seemed to bump up sales! Also interesting is that edX gets a cut of the book sales--maybe another avenue for them to become sustainable, in addition to charging for certification.

Pearson gets into the MOOC action by creating a search engine for content.

Pearson makes an interesting business move by recognizing and organizing Open Educational Resources. I often wonder how the questions of academic integrity, quality, etc will be answered in the marketplace.

Will online research tools contribute to the demise of the academic library? This article suggests we are using a blended approach to research. Curious to hear how many of us use Gutman's resources beyond a study space.

Coursera's "Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application" crashed in its first week. Beyond the obvious irony, there are some interesting lessons to learn here.