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In this article, Justin Reich, a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Technology, Innovation, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, argues that LMS are "homogenized, transient and disempowering" and that they serve "the needs of institutions, not individual students." The author describes teaching a course in a large-scale environment where "the specific goal is for students to learn to build networks of learning resources- people, readings, websites and communities- that can help them continue learning in a domain long after a course ends." His course, built on Connectivist principles, asks students to move beyond the course LMS and "curate links and connections and share their evolving ideas." Students used websites, blogs, Twitter and other Web spaces to share and store their ideas. The author discusses several advantages of moving beyond the LMS. Justin, R. (2015, February 13). Techniques for Unleashing Student Work from Learning Management Systems. Retrieved February 27, 2015, from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/techniques-for-unleashing-student-work-from-learning-management-systems/

The study concluded that for online classes that range from 16 to 40 students, increasing class size as much as 25 percent does not significantly affect student grades, credits earned in the next session, or enrollment in the next session. The preliminary paper discussed the implications for the results, suggesting impact on cost savings for institutions with an online program with large numbers of students and classes. For instance, establishing class size limits of 40 students as opposed to 30 students could have positive financial implications through instructor compensation.  The researchers acknowledged limitations of the study, which was the sample of relatively small online classes.

A Will Richardson article outlining how the advancement of technology demands a shift in how we think about the work we have students do in school.

A web 2.0 that allows students to build timelines. I used this in my History class and the students found it relatively easy to work with. Also it was free.

The CK-12 Foundation is a California-based non-profit organization striving to reduce the cost of, and increase access to, K-12 education in the United States and worldwide. A leading provider of open educational resources, CK-12 provides free and fully customizable K-12 educational materials aligned to state curriculum standards and tailored to meet student and teacher needs.

As more educators turn to gamification to teach core curriculum and engage students, how can we ensure that these games have real educational value and are not just entertainment? This is a collection of stories and resources to help answer that question.

Reference: Barr, T. F., Dixon, A. L. and Gassenheimer, J. B. (2005). Exploring the 'lone wolf' phenomenon in student teams. Journal of Marketing Education, 27 (1), 81-90.

Simon, J., Burton, K., Lockhart, E., & O'Donnell, S. (2014). Post-secondary distance education in a contemporary colonial context: Experiences of students in a rural First Nation in Canada. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 15(1). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1357/2770

Some basic advice from a middle school science teacher who uses 3D printing to help students learn design and produce 3D objects in a grade 7 classroom.

Free and stable. A very robust and secure online discussion platforms. Easy to use and moderate. Easy to set up and begin. Discussions, polls, debates. Allows attachment of pictures, videos, PDF, Microsoft documents. Reports and results; grouping of students...

A good tool to add to your Non-LMS toolkit

For those of us who are unsure of the benefits of blogging, here are some good reasons. Another good article on the same website is "The Internet and the Future of Education."

Susan Oxnevads Blog has some great tools and she provides oodles of well-organized details on the tools she recommends. In this case she is recommending Flubaroo. A terrific script that a I have used to make Google Forms into a self-grading quiz or test. Not as robust as other tools designed as quizzing tools (Quizstar...), but it works. The only issue I came across was a difficulty in setting up the automated email back to the student with their results. Other than that it works peachilly. Avi

A language learning tool, that's free. Very addictive, uses a game based structure. My students love it.

OpenLearn aims to break the barriers to education by reaching millions of learners around the world, providing free educational resources and inviting all to sample courses that our registered students take - for free!

Curriki is an open community of educators, parents, and students who share curriculum.

A writing tool with sets of pictures by different artists that students can organize to create prompts for their writing. Stories can be saved to student accounts, and shared with, and commented on by their classmates

Re: "Online learning shaking up the world of education," Jan. 30. Monday I started a MOOC (massive open online course) at the University of Edinburgh, "An Introduction to Philosophy." Eighty thousand students are enrolled. My email inbox is crammed with hundreds of introductory personal statements covering what meals students just ate, major obsessions, relationships, etc.

Twenty years from now, many colleges and universities will be closed, their classrooms deserted and their students learning at home. These are the predictions of many post-secondary commentators these days. What is it that has changed so drastically? Is it that students are more demanding, faculty less committed, budgets too tight?