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Mr. Shirky said. "The thing that drives me craziest in conversations with large institutions about large data sets is they want to know in advance what will happen. Why should we open up our data? To which the answer is, you open up your data to see where the value is. It's the value you can't even predict until you try it that you get back."

"still think education struggles culturally, not just technologically, with some of these very "warning message" issues. In many ways, the Internet portal of the Nineties remains a comforting model to those who don't believe that educational content like syllabi and handouts should be freely and openly available on the Web. The Internet portal of the Nineties remains a comforting model to those who believe that the Web is dangerous and there are predators and trolls just waiting to steal your intellectual property or hijack your forums. The Internet portal of the Nineties remains a comforting model to those who believe that students' work should be private, shared only with the instructor-of-record. The Internet portal of the Nineties remains a comforting model to those who believe that they are in charge of a learner's online experience - that they can dictate where learners go, what they see, what they read, and at the end of the semester, they control when access to all that goes away."

This was such a great link - I have been reading through Audrey Watters blogs and finding information and links that are very important to my efforts with ePortfolios right now. Thank you!

"China just began a major education reform effort that is aimed at reducing the importance of standardized testing in determining school quality and including factors such as student engagement, boredom, anxiety, and happiness. It also seeks to cut back on the amount of school work students are given. As scholar Yong Zhao notes in the following post, the approach is the opposite of the education reform path in the United States, which in recent years has increased the importance of test scores for accountability purposes."

"In other words, the key is to define indifference, rather than non-attendance, as the problem.  Attack the indifference -- preferably by having trusted colleagues show or discuss the cool new thing they've found -- and the non-attendance will take care of itself."

In order to fulfill the task of analyzing and presenting their Twitter activity, students would need to use an alternative to Storify. Unfortunately, I did not have a backup plan (i.e. a selection of other curation tools for them to use.) So we took this list of 40 curation tools, divided it up among the students in the class (each student tackled 2 of the items on the list), and quickly evaluated each one to see if it would fit our needs. If you'd like to take a look at the results of this evaluation, you can view the GoogleDocs spreadsheet that resulted from my students' work.

"As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the east coast of the U.S., here's a roundup of accounts suggested by local and state government officials you can follow to get real-time emergency information, plus tips for using Twitter during a crisis."

Today is Banned Website Awareness Day, and all across the country, educators are doing their part to raise awareness of how overly restrictive blocking of educational websites affects student learning. The dialogue around filtering must also include bring-your-own-device policies, appropriate use of social media in schools, and overall responsible use of technology in school.

"Last month, State Governor Jay Nixon signed Senate Bill 54, which goes into effect on August 28, 2011 in the state of Missouri. The new law bans direct social networking contact between teachers and students in the hopes of setting more distinct boundaries on the relationships between the two."

"There's nothing I like better than when good content begets other good content. After all, producing content is a relative cinch. But producing good (or even great!) content? That's a lot harder. Which is why you've got to make sure you squeeze every last drop of engaging goodness out of every piece of content you generate. Or, as C.C. and I write in Content Rules, think REIMAGINED, not recycled."

"The problem with the internet is that nothing is temporary. "

"Last year, based on our departmental assessment procedures, I determined that I wanted a more subjective way to give feedback to my students. To me, programming is more than just right or wrong code; I want students to develop good habits and styles of programming that use the tool to communicate the process of problem solving, not just the final answers. And I felt that that would be better achieved by giving students consistent verbal feedback, in addition to simple rubric scoring of their work."

"When the Legislature convenes in January, my intent is to work with the governor and Legislature to appropriately update the statute to meet modern-day circumstances," he wrote. "Until that time, I see no reason for our office to require registration of free, not-for-credit offerings." But that may not be the end of the matter. If, down the road, Coursera starts charging for the courses or students can earn credit or certificates for them, the state might reassess its approach, he said.

"BrandYourself recently conducted a national study with Harris Interactive that looked into the Googling habits of over 2,500 online US adults. It was surprising to see how much a persons Google results influence everything from who we vote for, do business with and even date. You can view it here and below we included a summary of the key findings and key takeaways from each of the main sections of the study."

The latest move, however, makes such tactics seem insignificant. It involves putting school buildings on the market to raise cash ("School District Bets Future on Real Estate," The New York Times, Sept. 5).

"Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so. If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota."

"Yet sadly, despite all your efforts, you probably have fewer friends than most of your friends have. But don't despair - the same is true for almost all of us. Our friends are typically more popular than we are."

I have told her to name names. I'm not sure it'll have much of an impact, but just as the Reddit community now must deal with the increased scrutiny on its machinations and culture, I'd hope that a little more transparency and openness about academia's own culture will do it a lot of good.

When Tweeting was Fun to read during an open session

I have the pleasure of being a Kindergarten teacher in Vermont. I have been teaching for 25 + years. During my teaching career I have worked with 1st through 4th grade. I am now embarking on a new journey… Kindergarten!