EDUC 439/639 Social Networking - Fall 2012

The massive open online course (MOOC) provider edX took a step toward boosting the credibility of its "graduates" on Thursday, announcing a partnership with Pearson's testing centers that would allow students in edX's free, online courses to take proctored exams.

DeveloperAuction has built what they call the "first transparent marketplace for recruitment," allowing engineers to put their talent up for auction from startups that need talent. In the company's first auction, which ended August 31st, 88 engineers put themselves up for auction and 142 startups, including Quora and Dropbox, submitted over $30m in job offers.

"If you can access it in your school, YouTube has a ton of useful educational content. Here are ten tools that can make using YouTube in your classroom a better experience for everyone."

"Below are 5 Infographic Generators that every teacher should know about. The first 4 are free and the fifth is so awesome we thought we'd share it"

"In a recent conversation on the Forum talk program, Rheingold stresses the importance of intention when it comes to managing digital noise. Knowing that every click will likely to lead to a chunk of time spent on what follows will help people decide if that's worthwhile. Every click counts."

"Blog posts became Facebook updates and Tumblr posts, which shrunk to Tweets and finally to Instagram or Pinterest. Here's how smart brands are navigating the new visual social-media era."

The bills would create an online library of digital textbooks for the 50 most widely-taken lower division courses at the University of California, California State University and the state's community colleges. The project would get under way when state or private funding becomes available. The digital texts would be "open-source," which means they are not copyrighted the same way traditional texts are, making them much less expensive. The texts are primarily available online; students can typically buy a print-out for around $20, about one-tenth the cost of many traditional textbooks.

In a world increasingly awash in information, some schools in Calgary have essentially become "textbook-free," pushing away from what some see as an over regimented method of learning.

"I see social proof as integral to producing the most legitimate content of whatever medium today. We now have the ability to obtain social proof at every stage of the creative and publishing processes; we must therefore integrate social proof into those stages (and be more critical of any content that ignores it)."

"Our view of the world is powered by personal algorithms: observing how all of the component pieces (and people) that make up our personal social system interact, and looking for patterns to predict what will happen next. When systems behave linearly and react immediately, we tend to be fairly accurate with our forecasts. This is why toddlers love discovering light switches: cause and effect are immediate. The child flips the switch, and on goes the light. But our predictive power plummets when there is a time delay or non-linearity, as in the case of a CEO who delivers better-than-expected earnings only to wonder at a drop in the stock price."

"Recently I asked a student in my Digital Culture class what she hoped to get out of it. Other students have said they hope to get more proficient at blogging or becoming more informed about digital issues. But she surprised me. In fact, she seemed to push back a bit. Why should I learn yet another thing to do online when I already waste enough time there?"

" In this post, I share ideas on certain types of videos that I've gathered and how educators might use related methods or styles to engage students in constructing and deconstructing media while becoming critical consumers and producers of digital media."

A collaborative project on collecting classroom 2.0 practices.

"We tend to over think some things in life and here's proof.  Do you suffer from high levels of narcisim or low self esteem?  Or, maybe you use Facebook, because it's just a fun way to keep in touch with friends?"

"Sick of hearing that social media is just a buzzword? Are you looking for hard statistics so that you can prove to your boss that social media is worth the investment? Looking for some pick up lines at the next social media meetup?"

" The Twitter stream was initially upset that I was talking too fast. My first response to this was: OMG, seriously? That was it? Cuz that's not how I read the situation on stage. So rather than getting through to me that I should slow down, I was hearing the audience as saying that I sucked. And responding the exact opposite way the audience wanted me to. This pushed the audience to actually start critiquing me in the way that I was imagining it was. "

"how can you use Skype to do more than just make calls? Well, there's a pantload of interesting ways! Check out these fun ideas:"

"Digital Media - New Learners Of The 21st Century Digital Media takes viewers to the frontlines of an education revolution"

"Static knowledge was useful when the pace of change in the world was slower than it is now. The focus now is on having the ability for lifelong learning and contributing. The internet enables this through the sharing of vast amounts of information and the opportunities for collaboration across the classroom and across the world!"

"While it may be true that there are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going, there certainly are ways of needlessly prolonging the journey. We often waste lots of time because nobody ever taught us the most effective and efficient way to practice. Whether it's learning how to code, improving your writing skills, or playing a musical instrument, practicing the right way can mean the difference between good and great."