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Ning, which lets Web users create their own social networks about any topic they want, plans to open a virtual gift shop on Wednesday. Users will be able to buy and sell virtual gifts, as they can on some other social networks, including Facebook. On Ning, they will also be able to create and sell their own, custom-designed virtual gifts.

another example of customized experience on the web. Perhaps these algorithms will one day serve educational purposes. Could we transfer from visiting physical locations to visiting learning locations?

"Learning technology is like the Bakken field-a giant untapped resource to dramatically improve productivity. The two breakthroughs most likely to unleash human potential are customization and motivation."

2U debuts their "Semester Online." 12 university partners now allow credit to transfer between the schools allowing for customization of content.

I like the concept of "flipping"...

Wow, TED Ed looks pretty cool. The videos are high quality and the explanation for the ones I watched were clear and concise. Nice!

article coming out of the Innosight Institute, a think-tank based in San Francisco linked to Clay Christensen's work on disruptive innovation, on how RTTT has "the potential to reset American schools' relationship with technology by encouraging a transformation from a  one-size-fits all schooling model to one that can customize affordably for each student's unique learning needs." linked to the backchannel discussion on 9/4 on possible ways to facilitate positive and effective integration/implementation of edtech

Customized digital textbook with audio and video content appears to make a postive impact in some BSchools, while Faceebook is used to foster a sense community. "The iPad is not seen as the latest fashion gadget, but was chosen because it can prove be extremely useful in the classroom," Delphine Wharmby, H.E.C.'s communication director, said. Genevieve Bassellier, McGill University professor, referring to her students' use of her customized electronic textbook. "They see a huge increase in quality...It gives me more flexibility."

Great examples of technology application in the classroom.

Access to Wikipedia free for all 70 million Orange mobile customers in Africa & Middle East, incurs no mobile data usage, no data plan even required. Access to information seen as a "public good"

Here is a highly populated list of open course offerings at various universities on the internet. This is certainly going to be disruptive to the pay-for-learning model of higher education. Some issues: does it make sense to attach some sort of certification of completion? Is it feasible or desirable to offer complete open courses, or would it be better to make the offerings more granular in nature? Should users be able to remix offerings from various courses to create custom courses?

This is fantastic! Thank, Steve.

Debate continues on virtual learning, on quality and assessment. Educators try to find how to exploit technology in a way that advances access to AP courses, specialized courses, customized individual learning, and full online school.

Good article highlighting the tension created by Idaho's push to incorporate online-learning and computers into state education. 

Great article James! THey show the full range of teachers' reachtion to top down directives. I wonder what their reaction would be if the directive was NOT about technology but rather a requirement to customize instruction. Customization is too hard to do as an individual teacher. You would have to rely on technology to get it done. I love the teacher who insists that she teaches kids "how to think" by using her lecture style. Oh Boy!

The school I am interning at (The Carroll School) is using this in their middle school math classes. Small class sizes typically (4-8 kids /  class), and it's a 1:1 school where every child has a laptop. But - it's working well for designated independent work time in the math classes I've observed- where each kid is asked to play the game for 15 minutes on their own. Kids have their own profiles- and there are several different math mini games they can play, each game focusing on different math skills. Each mini game involves different game mechanics and art styles. But all games involve using arithmetic skills and math concepts to solve problems that progress them in the game. Good performance gives the kids in-game credits/money that they can use to customize their in-gam avatar. 

LearningSpace, a new tool from ePals that is also COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) compliant, provides K-12 appropriate selective access to the applications within a protected, customizable social learning environment. Schools and districts can customize the rules and policies that determine which groups, classes and projects have access to third-party applications.

Pearson's adds new capabilities to allow teachers differentiate, individualize, and customize topics that can be learned at accelerated pace and topics that require additional help.

It's interesting ... I don't like its view of hackers as all bad, however ... I like to think that more and more people will be hacking/programming and it won't be for bad intentions but, rather, for customizations -- software, hardware, and not necessarily full computers ...

"Apple is widely celebrated for making devices as easy to use as they are elegantly designed. What customers probably don't know is that some of these features aren't exactly new-they evolved from software Apple created to help disabled people use PCs. "

Personally, I cannot imagine dissecting a body on my iPhone. But, obviously 3,000 customers see this as a must-have. Def. a step towards mobile/distance learning.

Neato! Personally I will leave the dissecting to the MDs. A lot of these iPhone apps (maybe all of them) would better impact education on a larger screen. I bet the oompa loompas inside Steve Job's secret Technology Factory are up to a tablet mac. Such a device would best serve doctors trying to educate their patients.

With thousands of customers in more than 75 countries, Articulate is the recognized leader in rapid e-learning software and e-learning authoring tools.

State legislation passed in the spring could put up-to-the-minute instructional content at students' fingertips-either online or in customized printed form-eliminating the mass-market hardback textbook.

TX, CA, and FL markets drive the textbook industry. If TX leads the way, eliminating mass market textbooks, then they will undoubtedly revolutionize the publishing industry. Tablet textbooks may be the wave of the future, but let's just hope publishers don't think revolutionizing the textbook industry means reading textbooks on a screen.