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" I thought I would outline that range of public and private interactions in my classes, starting with the very most public and then progressing step by step to the most private: email. Although I have made a lot of changes to the content and procedures and technology in my courses over the past ten years, I have really not changed this balance of public and private - somehow or other, I blundered into a configuration of public and private that worked perfectly for me right from the start of my online teaching career."

A course driven by 20 practical questions about wireless, web, and the Internet, about how products from companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Ericsson, HP, Skype and AT&T work.

"There's a place in every company for social media, but finding where your company fits best is key. A continuing studies course offered by the University of Delaware seeks to help you find that niche. "

Wow -

"This three-week course provides a foundation for marketers and analysts seeking to understand the core principles of digital analytics and to improve business performance through better digital measurement."

"Education is increasingly occurring online or in educational software, resulting in an explosion of data that can be used to improve educational effectiveness and support basic research on learning. In this course, you will learn how and when to use key methods for educational data mining and learning analytics on this data."

"At Harvard Business School, we're getting disrupted by online learning," Christensen said recently at the World Business Forum in New York City. "It truly isn't as good, but does this technology, over time, get good enough to meet the needs of our customers? The answer is yes."

"This free online course will explain how you can study online without putting the rest of your life on hold."

"As these online course products have improved, more and more schools have plugged them into their curricula. The result is a creeping homogenization of basic classes throughout many U.S. universities. That's raising some uncomfortable questions, starting with: Why should I pick one school over another if they offer the exact same classes? And: Why are universities buying ready-made frozen meals instead of cooking up their own educational fare?"

Stanford On-Line course

"Many institutions have invested substantial resources in diverse initiatives to deliver distance learning and/or enhance campus-based learning with online resources. To these institutional efforts, faculty and students are now adding online tools and resources from beyond the campus. Higher education institutions are confronting the need to connect these various efforts to create more powerful and integrated learning experiences for all of their students. In this interview, Brian Hughes, Director of Social Media at the Teacher's College at Columbia University, discusses the issues surrounding social media integration."

After completing the eight-week course, however, I am optimistic that this kind of MOOC will not eat my job because it and I are not really in the same business. At Ursinus College, where I teach, the faculty and administration work individually and collectively to help our students cultivate judgment, the capacity to decide what to think or how to act in areas, like health policy, where no formula can generate the right answer. While we cannot help our students without demanding that they take an active role in their education, we also assume that they do not come in with their judgments already cultivated. College should be a transformative experience for them, and they will need guidance.

"Lots has happened since then, so George graciously agreed to let me interview him once again about the theory of connectivism.  Since we last talked, George and Stephen Downes have famously created and offered some very important MOOCs (massive open online courses) to thousands of participants, and both of them have learned a great deal about connectivism in the bargain and shared what they've learned generously."

Abandon LMS at Universities?

I think there is still a need for LMSs, but not all the features of the LMS. We need a gradebook, a quiz engine, and a private massaging/forum system for convenience and compliance. Everything else can be done elsewhere, as long as instructors are willing to open up their course materials. My $0.02.

"Teachers who bring digital storytelling into the classroom are discovering what makes this vehicle for expression worth the effort. They watch students gain proficiency in writing and research, visual literacy, critical thinking, and collaboration. They see students take part in a range of learning styles. Of course, they also see students make authentic use of technology. Sometimes, they even hear students discover the power of their own voice."

"There are 8 possible monetization strategies that MOOC providers like Coursera, or Learning Management System providers could adopt:"

"It's been interesting watching this unfold in music, books, newspapers, TV, but nothing has ever been as interesting to me as watching it happen in my own backyard. Higher education is now being disrupted; our MP3 is the massive open online course (or MOOC), and our Napster is Udacity, the education startup."

English professor Christine Cucciarre said social media will play an integral role in her course "Writing the New Media," which is offered in the spring. She said the class requires students to use Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, blogs and web design programs. Cucciarre said she likes using social media sites because of the ability to share posts. She said the class's Facebook group allows her students to share an interesting story or news clip with their peers, and students can also share content with their friends by reposting the link to their own page.

"In the business world, this is called outsourcing. Perhaps the colleges that utilize this model never would have hired anyone to teach those courses in the first place. Perhaps not. What we can be certain of though is that as long as this option is available, these small colleges will never be fully funded again."

"This course was really interesting but more like a PBS show. It consisted mainly of a series of interviews that Chuck Severance had done over the years, which he then strung together to make it into a history. While that is all true, it doesn't convey Dr. Severance' contribution to the whole. Clearly, his perspective was essential and his being present at the conversation at the actual points in history made his current insights more valuable."

The open educational resources model, including textbooks, has emerged as a response to rising text prices, a need for greater access to high-quality learning materials, the proliferation of e-reader devices, and a trend in publishing toward electronic media. Many contend that educational resources should be open and that instructional models increasingly depend on open content. Open textbooks can be offered by commercial publishers or found in open repositories. Open resources can promote active learning through student interaction with the text, particularly when they contribute to authorship. Although open textbooks face questions about the accuracy and reliability of their content, they allow higher education instructors to design content for their courses on an as-needed basis, choosing from an array of books, articles, videos, audio recordings, and readings.