This article was first published on Futurelab in January 2008. I've reproduced the text of the article here. Some links to resources are now no longer current. What is an online learning community? Since the end of last century, government initiatives throughout the world have sponsored the development of online learning communities in schools and other learning institutions. community can be classified as a group of people, each with different expertise and with access to diverse resources, in which a sharing occurs so that individuals within the group can benefit from each other. link] 2. MORE >>

When Catriona was very little, she found comfort in a little bag of sweets. She rarely ate them, but would find pleasure in knowing they were there. She'd pick one from the bag, suck on it for a few seconds, then replace it, in the knowledge that she liked that sweet and could return to it for a suck later on. She did that with all her sweets, discarding the ones she didn’t like. One of Tony Karrer’s 100 conversation topics is Ways that my children are learning that is significantly different from how I learn. This posts is about Tony’s topic number 25. When you’re desperate to use it! MORE >>

Design from Jabberwocky Good that we have the radio to listen to news and weather reports – how convenient it is to hop on a bus to work in the morning – I must post that letter before last collection today – how lucky we are to receive medical care when needed – what an amazing thing to send kids off to school to learn something before bedtime – so convenient to be able to book movie tickets on the Internet – isn’t it a great asset to switch on a light in the black of night and check a window rattling in the wind? The list goes on We live within a complexity system called society. MORE >>

Remember, remember, The 5 th of November, The gunpowder, treason and plot. see no reason Why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot. Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night in New Zealand – and it will be Guy Fawkes Night in several countries on this day – potentially a fun night for most children and adults. The history of its origin has been well documented. The scene is a cellar, early in the morning of 5 November 1605, directly underneath Parliament, London. In a few hours, King James VI / I, the British Parliament and many dignitaries will be in attendance for the opening of Parliament. MORE >>

What sort of voice do you use when you write a blog post? Do you have an informal or personal tone to your writing? Or do you prefer the more formal structured approaches? Perhaps you like to adjust your writing style to suit the topic. Many good writers do, but my observation has been that even some of the top bloggers use essentially a single voice in most of their writing. Randy Olson’s book , Don’t Be Such A Scientist , slams the scientist for being too cerebral when it comes to writing for the lay reader. Authorship Bill Bryson is one of my favourite authors. But he’s not a scientist. MORE >>