"The premise of the sharks and oxygen claim is as follows: A) Sharks, many of which are apex predators, are important in regulating marine food webs; B) Phytoplankton, which create oxygen through photosynthesis, are in marine food webs; C) Therefore, without sharks, phytoplankton populations will crash and we won't have any more oxygen and we'll all die. "

h/t thinkthankthunk

lesson planning on Twitter

interesting display of interesting data

"But the fanfic people were doing something very different. They had converged on a set of elaborate tagging conventions that allowed them to turn Delicious into a custom search engine for fanfic."

"how do folks continue to ignore facts? How have people's viewpoints become so insular and isolated that any contradictory information never even penetrates the bubble? How did we get to a point where dialogue is impossible? And I'm not just referring to this presidential race, but to many other areas of discussion as well. Am I imagining this or has the echo chamber, where one only hears what one agrees with, expanded in scope and at the same time had the effect of increasing that anger and the inability to have a dialogue?"

"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. "

Academics debate Shakespeare Association hashtag on Twitter

"The most important thing about BIG is that we know we're wrong. We don't know what a student should know. We can't predict the future. When working with a group, we allow the needs of the group to dictate the instruction and curated content we provide in response to the need. This has two effects: I like my job and am happier, and the students are never hidden from the planning of learning. "

"When Daniel Joseph, a York University doctoral student studying labor and technology, found out about Coca-Cola's GIF the Feeling promotion, he knew exactly what he wanted to make with it: a Coke-branded critique of capitalism."

Google Doc to WordPress workflow