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The chapters in this volume explore the theoretical, design, learning, and methodological questions with respect to designing for and researching web-based communities to support learning. The authors, coming from diverse academic backgrounds (computer science, information science, instructional systems technology, educational psychology, sociology, and anthropology), are frank in examining what we do and do not know about the processes and practices of designing communities to support learning.

Did anyone else notice this link from the previous week? Left wing gad about Douglas Rushkoff starts to question the unintended consequences for the user of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. may have created exciting new ways for us to interact "virtually", but we pay for it, even when it's free.

I really like that he advocates that students (& all people) learn to program. People resisted learning to type too! And while it is harder, no harder than learning to read or write.

The Room for Debate section of the NYT looks at this question. Are schools looking to spend less on teachers, or do online classes provide new skills and opportunities?

A very simple and rudimentary explanation (via a PP presentation) of how learning is culturally informed. These ideas are probably elementary to Social Informatics. However, these are concepts that are very easy to forget and don't seem to be very firmly implanted in America's collective conscious.

This is a site for people performing personal experiments with Technology. I found my way here via, Kevin Kelly's site.

Fascinating defensive of new social media in journalism and a critique of those who miss the good old days. Reminded me of the book "The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible". from the article "At an individual level, I think the "distracted Americans" scare will pass. Either people who manage to unplug, focus, and fully direct their attention will have an advantage over those constantly checking Facebook and their smart phone, in which case they'll earn more money, get into better colleges, start more successful companies, and win more Nobel Prizes. Or they won't, in which case distraction will be a trait of modern life but not necessarily a defect. At the level of national politics, America is badly distracted, but that problem long predates Facebook and requires more than a media solution. "

I found this through Kevin Kelly's website. "Quantified Self 2011 is a conference for users and tool makers interested in self-tracking systems. It will be a "working meeting" for the QS community (14 groups worldwide), where we will gather, inspire, and learn from each other as we share and collaborate on self-tracking projects. We will also explore the potential effects of self-tracking on ourselves and society."

I have to say with the winter we've had in this country, it is quite wise to plan for emergency closings which keep the kids motivated and learning.

without a question. the key issue, I think, is one of coordination and management.

This is a NY Times article on how co-operative programs (like bike-sharing) are getting a boost from the spirit of collaboration on the web. The piece tries to trend spot "collaborative consumption", a "new" business model. We will have to see what happens.

I am getting interested in online mediated learning and apparently a lot of tutoring is being conducted via online video/chat programs, such as Skype.

A pathfinder that provides an overview of using technology with at-risk students (students who are at-risk of dropping out, usually those who come from low-income minority households).

A paper written by two technology professionals with recommendations on how to enhance community using technology tools. Basis of their article focuses on importance of interaction with content, interaction with instructor, and interaction with students.

An article from "Teaching Tolerance" magazine that deals with how social media can be, perhaps, used in the classroom to engender community based learning and social justice.

In case anyone gets as lost as I do learning the online shorthand of chat slang.

Changing view in anthropology attributes social cooperation/social learning and tools (first as weapons) as characteristics that set humans apart from other primates. See also http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/science/11kin.html

So far, it's mostly being used for students who fail courses, and retake it as "online credit recovery."

The Idaho example is crazy (in my opinion), and private corporations are increasingly trying to get K-12 education money. However, online classes can be appropriate at this level in some situations (e.g., languages).

On April 1, 2011 Project Tomorrow released the report "The New 3 E's of Education: Enabled, Engaged and Empowered - How Today's Students are Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Learning" at a Congressional Briefing held in Washington, DC. Their survey revealed that e-textbooks are not yet widely used in the K-12 environment.