"Digital Storytelling 106--better known as "ds106"--sprouted in 2010 as a computer science class on digital storytelling at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Founded by Jim Groom, educational technology consultant Alan Levine, and instructional technologists Martha Burtis & Tom Woodward, ds106 has evolved into a model for all instructors and students who aspire to experience, explore, and extend connected learning."

"Instead of paying tuition and fees, students in the program would sign a contract to pay a percentage of their gross income to the state or their college or university after graduation for a specified number of years. The program would be available only to Rhode Island residents, and students would be required to graduate on time in order to remain eligible."

I was recently asked, "Why are you giving the teachers choice of a laptop? Why not just go all in with one device?" My answer, simply stated, is that homogenization of any tool is never a good idea in a context that is intended to foster creativity.

Don't have the Tweetstream running live on a projection screen. I've tried it both ways-having the Tweetstream run on a screen that everyone can see, versus on students' devices. The former is ultimately distracting for participants, who tend to focus more on the screen than the in-person discussions. Having the backchannel show up on personal devices, on the other hand, adds to the effect of creating another outlet for discussion that does not overpower the face to face setting.

"Now that the Valley's companies are increasingly competing against traditional businesses, society is not so quick to give us a pass on this behavior. Take Airbnb and Uber again, both of which have attempted to avoid regulations and taxes in their fields (hotel taxes and taxi and license commission regulations, respectively). The tech press often writes these up as "disrupting" unwieldy government regulations, and to a degree, this is accurate (the best writers also mention that many of these laws were designed with consumers in mind, back when cabs and hotels were far less safe than they are now)."

Today, a survey released by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund shows that 65% of student consumers have opted out of buying a college textbook due to its high price, and of those students, 94% they suffer academically.

"As soon as I walked into that dusty, remote town and the smiling children started coming up to me, I just knew my Facebook profile photo would change forever,"

"I included the following question on my usual first day questionnaire: "What is the most important thing I can do to best help you learn, and to do well in this course?" I received responses from 41 out of the 42 students (all junior Met. majors) and those responses will be the topic of discussion."

"You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. Here are some good (and not so good) examples of attribution. Note: If you want to learn how to mark your own material with a CC license go "

"What is a course? What is a class? What is a community? What is the relationship between those three questions and an even more basic one that is rarely asked in higher education: How do we learn? It is our conviction that, to address the literacies we need to thrive in the 21st century, we first need to step back and think about the conventions of education that we have inherited and to ask the big "why" and "how" questions of those conventions."

"I'm a finalist for teaching a Coursera MOOC next year on "The History and Future of Higher Education."  Naturally, I am doing this because I want to improve the future of higher education and add as much innovation as possible.  I'm interested in ways that an online  course with a relatively static form could become a platform for innovation.    And I will use this hastac.org site as a testbed for analysis of the teaching and learning as it is happening and as a place of reflection on the process and possibilities."

"The key to effective socialized course design lies in understanding and configuring the LMS as not (just) a content delivery mechanism for distributing grades and PDFs but also as a potentially valuable niche online networking platform that can support a series of socialized assignments."

"How much do you need to talk about yourself? The answer is simple (but not easy): not as much as you need other people to talk about you."

"The following are great resources for educators interested in learning more about what privilege is and how to begin working to overcome it."

As we work together to restore hope to the future, we need to include a new and strange ally-our willingness to be disturbed. Our willingness to have our beliefs and ideas challenged by what others think. No one person or perspective can give us the answers we need to the problems of today. Paradoxically, we can only find those answers by admitting we don't know. We have to be willing to let go of our certainty and expect ourselves to be confused for a time.

"Managing dozens of disconnected systems is expensive and time consuming. Slate simplifies logins and data management between tools."

The Online School for Girls is both the first single-gender online school and the first independent online school in the world.

"The Global Education Conference is a collaborative, inclusive, world-wide community initiative involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. It is designed to significantly increase opportunities for connecting classrooms while supporting cultural awareness and recognition of diversity and educational access for all. Last year's conference featured 300 general sessions and 20 keynote addresses from all over the world with over 13,000 participant logins. "

"The Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence provides world-class professional development for public and private school teachers.  Participants are teachers and administrators who are eager to develop classrooms centered on critical and creative thinking, collaboration, and brain-based research. The Institute provides on-site seminars, workshops and conferences; a teacher residency program; and funding for off-site professional development, especially at the Harvard Graduate School of Education."