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This article was very interesting. It indicated that grades meant different things to different people. If students received a C, some people would say that the teacher wasn't presenting the material correctly. Lessons should aim to motivate, and inspire students to learn. One professor began class by asking if all students would complete all assigned tasks. When they agreed, he told them they would all get As. He claimed that not one of his students fell back on their word and that work submitted was better than ever. They were more concentrated on learning and understanding rather than worrying about their grade. While this article does not directly relate to online communication, it does relate to how we communicate course expectatioins.

This article discusses research that has been done regarding the needs of people to obtain media and information literacy skills in order to better many of their experiences in 21st century society. The article states that "knowing how to search for, analyze, and interpret information is a skill that will be used for more than just writing a good research paper: People use media literacy skills for applying for jobs online, getting relevant health information, and sifting through online educational opportunities, for example." Ten recommendations for developing stronger media and information literacy skills are given in the article. Legislative efforts from the federal government to provide funding in support of programs that help to develop these 21st century skills are also discussed.

10 Ways Digital Slowpokes Can Catch Up! By Ann Handley Even though this article was written for owners of small businesses, I think it is worth reading to stay up on what is happening out there in the "real world" of marketing and persuading people to choose their business *(using all those wonderful persuasive writing skills learned in school!) It also addresses anxieties of people all over who are overwhelmed with how fast technology is moving and encourages them to just "do something now."

I thought this was an interesting article to plea to people during and after Sandy to use text messages and social media to keep people updated so they can use cell towers to manage rescues.

Author Bernard Luskin indicates that most of today's literature refers to the physical changes in technology but as we learn more about human behavior and how people learn, it will dramatically impact the way we teach globally. The author provides 'key takeaways' from the article which all relate to media literacy. He explains that this new 'exploding' environment will impact the future of learning for all levels of education as the media, learning psychology, technologies become popular tools for learning. As we learn more from research and studies about media and how it relates to human behavior, it will increase the effectiveness of the ways technology is used in education. The author states that the 'big "E" is for "exciting, energetic, engaging, extended learning". He explains that E learning has and will continue to grow as a key in media literacy and the way people learn, study, individual behavior in society, and products that are produced. This interest in technology, media, communications and how humans learn has actually developed a new field of study, Media Psychology. The author supports the need for people to enter this field and recommends that we learn what e-learning is about and go beyond the electronic gizmos and gadgets.

The exploding new media and communications environment has implications for the future of both K-12 and adult learning as media, technology, and learning psychology increasingly become tools for learning in and outside the classroom. The new research area of media studies, i.e., the study of media effects, includes media psychology because an understanding of human behavior is vital to the effective use of technology in education.

This is an academic paper examining the reasons why an online learning group should 'move ... from cohort to community.' (abstract), and how students resources and strategies may be managed to accomplish this. The paper asserts that students in a distance learning situation are isolated from each other and the teacher, therefore it is of vital importance that the cohort needs to create a sense of community rather than simply exist alone in the virtual learning room. The article quotes Vygotsky's social development theory of 1978, Selznik's seven elements of community: history, identity, mutuality, plurality, autonomy, participation, and integration (1996), and how the author's of the article modified the characteristics to conform more with current online learning theory. I found this article particularly relevant to the current situation I find myself in. Even though I am happy in my own space and don't need the close interaction with others, I can see that it is important to push myself forward in the sense of gleaning the most benefit from the course and those many intelligent people out there. This is difficult for me because I find the time necessary to maintain so many contacts, and actually have something worthwhile to say and share goes against my slow, ponderous thinking and non-gregarious nature!

I found a link from the Newstand that connected me to an article from mashable.com, which discusses a new educational program from the people at TED talks. The program allows teachers to turn any YouTube video, including TED talks into a lesson. The article aligned this new tool with the phenomenon of flipping classrooms. To flip a classroom means to prepare a lesson that students can complete at home. The pedagogical foundation of flipped classes is connected to project-based learning. The proponents of this approach believe if students can cover lessons at home, then classroom time could be used for collaborative student projects. The new TED-Ed program allows for teachers to create a unique URL, where student can access the video as well as a series of questions. The types of questions vary from multiple choices, to short answer, to more high order thinking questions. These HOT questions expand the ideas from the video into high order thinking akin to Bloom's Taxonomy. The TED-Ed team is also producing their own educational videos, which are a collaboration between educators and animators. At this point there aren't many of the TED-Ed videos produced, but the ones I explored are quite interesting. The mashable.com article has links to TED-Ed. I am not the biggest proponent of flipped teaching, but I am intrigued by TED's involvement.

Call-Em-All is a communication platform that offers automated messaging service for voice broadcasting and text messages which allows you to send important alerts, notifications or reminders to groups of people instantly.

Google+, another social networking app, is more for professionals as depicted in the article. People can share and connect through G+ just like the way they do in Facebook. Also, it provides features that Facebook does not have, such as "Hangouts" and "Sparks",etc. It's about connectedness and a good platform to practice our media skills.

"As companies grow, in the age of the internet, they are drowning in electronic documents. Some people get so many e-mails each day that they don't even bother opening them. Official documents are nice, but they are no way to communicate." This article encourages and promotes the use of videos to communicate and tell stories.

use as example/resource for Digital Citizenship Project in Computer Literacy

more support and how to for Information literacy 

What Is a "Hangout?" A Hangout is a web-based tool created by Google for communicating through video. Up to ten people can "hang out" at one time in a virtual "room." A Hangout can be as simple or as complex as needed. It can be used simply to converse or, through the use of extra apps and add-ons that Google provides, a Hangout can become a virtual meeting space.

An Interesting "brochure" categorizing Ipad apps using Blooms taxonomy of thinking skills; remembering, understanding, creating,  applying, evaluating & analyzing. A handy guide for how to use in the classroom.

I am glad for the realistic easy viewing of Bloom's taxonomy of skills. Using the iPad in the classroom it is a good quick reference to see what apps I am already using and promoting that my students use as well as which apps I would like to promote with enhancement of other skills.

I am not sure I agree with the categorization on many of these and I definitely do not think it is all inclusive. It is interesting though.

This is a resource that explains that students who can only read text but not analyze, synthesize and utilize that information are still considered illiterate! The resource reviews a program that was put together called Digital Youth Network (DYN) and how this organization empowers young people with critical digital literacy skills that make them academically and professionally competitive.

Because today's students use so many digital devices that use up bandwidth that colleges have had to block students from using online services like Naptser, Netflix and Youtube during severe storms when students are forced to stay indoors for days at a time.

This article reviewed or introduced some free or mostly free software that could be used for classroom collaborations across the miles. I liked the information on VRoom from Elluminate that is free for three people. Many others were noted such as Skype, UStream, and TalkShoe.

This article is lists and explains resources that can be used to bring classrooms together as mentioned 'Services that bring together distant colleagues or classrooms' listing software such as Skype, Ustream, Elluminate, Talkshoe, SightSpeed, and Vyew.

More educational institutions provide free online education. This trend we are now seeing from places like iTunes U, TED talks and Kahn Academy, for example make this world more open to learning.

Teachers who want to share websites with their students but want to get rid of ads and other questionable material can use this free web tool to "clip" any part of a web page and rearrange clips onto a custom page that can be shared with other people.

This is a review of a new app for iPad users. It allows users to share photographs and layouts with each other, keeping what they like. It also permits easy feedback to contributors via Twitter or blogs. Additionally, users can tag what they have kept so it's easier to find in the future when they want to use it. Although the reviewer's intersts are not explicit, the software appears to be useful for collaborative creation, and it's freeware.

I like that this app has a starting point so a person doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. Seeing what other people have done already to get ideas is always helpful and a time saver. I like this one.

I like this article and after buying my iphone and playing with an iPad; I don't think I can ever go back to android. LOL