"The Global Development Network (GDN) is a leading International Organization of developing and transition country researchers, policy and research institutes promoting the generation, sharing, and application to policy of multidisciplinary knowledge for the purpose of development. "

A Social and Professional Networking Site for Teachers and Educators

Research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. This organization funds "top educational researchers nationwide to conduct studies that seek answers on what works for students from preschools to postsecondary, including interventions for special education students. ..."

Also, "The Official Social Network of the Global Education Conference." This social network, on ning, has over 9,000 members and 104 distinct groups. The Network offers the Global Education Conference, a collaborative, world-wide community initiative for students, educators and organizations at all levels. It takes place online (free) using the Blackboard Collaborate platform.

Edudemic, an online journal that asks "What is the best way to improve education using social media?" is launching an iPad edition. Details available on this page.

From the blog Connectivism by George Siemens, December 14 2011. Siemens argues the importance of artifacts to help students make sense of their experiences in MOOCs and other online learning experiences.

Thinking about the critical nature of artifacts to learners making sense of their e-experience makes me wonder how to encourage submission of such "sensemaking" artifacts to our Jams and e-communities.

This video, by the "amazing" but otherwise anonymous Valerie, is posted to Nancy White's Full Circle website on Dec 13 2011. Nancy presented on change, social artists, and social artistry at a Change MOOC. This video attempts to both summarize and apply what Valerie learned from Nancy's presentation.

What do you think of the term "social artistry" to describe KPI? Or "social artists" to describe the work of the KPI team?

By Justin Reich on Educational Technology Debate on December 8 2011. Reich argues, from his research on the use of wikis in the schools, that educational technology tends to benefit affluent students, rather than under-served students, primarily because there are more resources for students and teachers in the affluent environment, so teachers can use technology to its best advantage. He recommends technology initiatives that specifically target low-income and under-served students as a solution, and cites some interesting programs.

Part of the MERLOT project, this site is a "digital case story repository that hosts more than 70 discipline-specific multimedia stories." The stories themselves are interesting. Also of note, the Creating Stories tab, for more on the production of such collaborative multimedia stories.

Tagline: Data sharing & collaboration made easy. Buzzdata allows users to share data sources, either within their own private network or more publicly. This data can then be used with other data (mashups) or for visualizations, or analyzed by journalists/academics.

OER university, a wiki,"is a virtual collaboration of like-minded institutions committed to creating flexible pathways for OER learners to gain formal academic credit." As of 11/2011, there are 15 international universities listed as "founding anchor partners," including Empire State College (SUNY) and Southern New Hampshire University in the U.S.

By Jarret Cummings in Jarret's blog, Educause, Nov 9 2011. Review of education policy briefing led by Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, in which she discussed her department's on-going commitment to open educational resources (OER). Her statement included a wide-ranging definition of OER and information about how OER will tie-in with recently announced government grants.

From their "Pinning 101" notes, Pinterest is an "online pinboard." The explicit purpose is to bookmark and share images from the web, and to annotate them. While the site emphasizes "beautiful" things from the web, with a suggestion of domestic purposes, this might be another way to generate collaborative collages (as we've done with GSCC) or to share non-written artifacts on a specific topic.

Part of UD's Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, this program offers workshops at the K-12 or post-secondary level for how instructors can integrate problem-based learning into their own classrooms. The PBL Clearinghouse, a "peer-reviewed online resource" collects PBL problems and articles. Additionally, the site offers resources including sample syllabi and projects.

Published by CMA (Cox, Matthews, and Associates, Inc.), Diverse is an online magazine that looks at higher education through the lens of diversity. In addition to looking at basics like news, opinions, and jobs, the site also provides special reports and a variety of multimedia offerings. Currently on the home page, a searchable database of Top 100 Minority Degree Producers with subsets for AA, undergrad and graduate degrees

""A new online community devoted soley to education in the 21st Century." Anyone with thoughts on education is welcome. We have so much to talk about."

By Josh Fischman, and part of The Chronicle (of Higher Education's) 2011 Special Report on Online Learning, published Nov 6 2011. Central Piedmont Community College developed an Online Student Portal learning system to improve retention among its students. They have had success with the system (in use 2004-2008). Now, with a Next Gen grant, they will roll the system out to 6 additional local schools to see if they can match the retention improvements. The system is based both on learning styles and on frequent intervention by students and counselors.

This site is both a blog/resource for those with an interest in data visualization and a gallery (see Visualizations link). Many interesting competitions are announced; the most recent is posted by the UN Human Development Report office; winners of this contest will be invited to an international UN conference in Brazil

The current issue, Vol 34, #3, 2011 looks at the theme of collaboration, with articles ranging from a look at online collaborative experiences, to digital publishing and collaboration, to an opinion piece titled From Us vs. Them to We: Collaborating for Change.

I have not yet read this issue, but many articles appear to be of interest.

This is a web application that helps manage various social media apps (particularly Twitter).