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Describes emergence of 'academic innovation centers' that integrate faculty development, instructional design, (and tech) for innovation and change in teaching and learning aimed at improving student success.

"When I first began teaching, I assumed my anxiety in each of these domains would eventually dissipate. I was certain that there had to be an approach to grading that was simultaneously meaningful, moral, and manageable, and that, with enough time and experimentation, I would eventually discover it. Yet the more I tried to get a handle on anxiety in one domain, the more I seemed to increase my anxiety in another. [1] I came to believe that the system was stacked against us. It had trapped us into a corner where, at best, we could maximize two goals at the expense of the third. Mirroring the "fast, good, cheap" meme that designers love so much, my pessimistic grading meme might look something like this:"

"This week, the Connected Learning Research Network, a research group that I chair, released a report (PDF) that outlines how connected learning environments are designed and how they can benefit youth in networked society, especially the underprivileged and vulnerable. The report calls for several core changes in education, including: * Close the gap between the no-frills learning that too often happens in-school and the interactive, hands-on learning that usually takes place out of school; * Take advantage of the Internet's ability to help youth develop knowledge, expertise, skills and important new literacies; * Use the benefits of digital technology and social networking to combat the increasing reality of the haves and have-nots in education. "

"Later in his commentary Ragusea touches on transparency: "just trust me I know what I'm talking about doesn't work anymore, even if you are trustworthy and you do know what you're talking about," he says. "It's like math problems in school: it is not enough to get the right answer you have to show your work." Since at least 2011 in journalism developer circles show your work has been a mantra, and it is slowly spreading to other parts of the newsroom. Ragusea argues that Thompson's idea of discovery is important not because "people enjoy watching their hero sleuth chase down a mystery" but because nobody will believe you anymore when you "report a bunch of facts, even if you explain where you got them from. You have to show how you got them." Show, don't tell. It's writing 101 and it is the basic idea of active versus passive transparency. I like putting the emphasis on active transparency, in part, because it reinforces the idea of journalism as a process not a product."

Shared for the beautiful web design...

"We have more than 200 learning design specialists embedded in our colleges and campus."

"Two empirical questions were of interest: (1) what types of students participated in the blog and (2) did blog participation contribute to better learning outcomes? "

Awesome visual CV

From another institution-- scorecard breaking down popular instructional design metrics (e.g. Quality Matters) with SACSCOC online/blended best practices for compliance.

"Despite our best efforts, presentations can sometimes turn into one-way communication- us talking and students passively listening. You may be stationed at the front of the classroom, perhaps using PowerPoint slides or showing a video on a screen, while the class follows along silently in their seats. Or, any discussion that is generated might be dominated by the verbal few, with quieter students too intimidated to jump in. Also, when you look at the multiple studies that indicate the brevity of a student's attention span, ranging from two to ten minutes, a lengthy presentation can lose the audience it was designed to teach."

"And without a common language for describing what works and what doesn't, our work isn't being pushed or explored further. I see example after example appearing online, that people have clearly spent time and thought into making, which cover the same ground and also share the same mistakes. Experimentation is great if you're learning. If you're not, it's just expensive. The words we've been using so far, like "intuitive" and "immersive," are overloaded with meaning. Let's drop them. What are we really trying to say? By pulling these words apart, we may find more precise ways that pinpoint the different problems we are trying to solve. "

Interesting guy to talk to etc. at some point. "In the 17th century, scholar-publishers created the first scientific journals, revolutionising the communication and practice of scholarship. Today, we're at the beginning of a second revolution, as academia slowly awakens to the tranformative potential of the Web.   I'm interested in both pushing this revolution forward, and in studying it as it happens. I'm investigating altmetrics: measuring scholarly impact over the social web instead of through traditional citation. I'm also interested in new publishing practices like scholarly tweeting, overlay journals, alternative peer review forms, and open access. These slides give a good idea of what I've been up to lately; my CV links to other recent publications and talks. "

Toward a Synthesis of Schooling and Apprenticeship

I really enjoyed Karl Miller's talk and his course is well worth exploring.

In the vein of Bret Victor's Explorable Explanations, this site uses several interactive visualizations to explain complex topics

Great example. He even references Victor's Magic Ink essay http://worrydream.com/#!/MagicInk