This fantastic blog post and associated YouTube video embeded below really made me think about how marketers and business people view the fundamental shift in how the Internet is being used. The read/write web of Web 2.0 and the social media phenomenon sweeping our culture is fundamentally transforming how people use the Internet. Smart business people and smart advertisers are taking notice and taking action. What are educators doing? Are we using Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube in our classes? If not, are we lagging behind? Are educators lagging behind? Are we taking action? MORE >>

Building on the successes of the massive Connectivism course that Stephen Downes and George Seimens mounted in 2008 and 2009, PLENK2010 will be launching on Sept 15th. PLENK stands for: Personal Learning Environments Networks and Knowledge. Find out more here. If you want to learn more about the current trends and the bleeding edge of PLEs / PLNs / group-based learning then this will be the place to be in Fall 2010. It promises to be jammed packed with all kinds of progressive educators as well. See you there! MORE >>

It's an evolution - not a revolution." - Elliot Soloway, 2009 Watch the video and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. Mobile technology is going to change your life and the change has not really begun yet. That's the take home message from Elliot Soloway (Professor, Univ. of Michigan) and Cathie Norris (Professor, North Texas Univ.). It's the beginning of a deep kind of change in our life where mobility adds the ability for people to walk around and have all the knowledge with them regardless of where they are: office, classroom, car, park, mall, sidewalk, etc. MORE >>

The Site 2009 conference in Charleston South Carolina was a real awakening for me. Note: Please welcome this guest post by Scott Morrison – Instructional Designer at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. During this session I saw several themes emerge and was presented with some very practical information. My sense from the conference was that we have entered an era where the speed at which we can collect, or in the case of the educator, give information is what will lead to our success. During a round table discussion Kevin Thomas, Ph.D., Image credit: here. MORE >>

As an instructional designer I routinely receive questions around common themes: course design, teamwork vs individual work, assessments, rubrics, best practices in conducting discussion groups, team-based learning, etc. So I am always on the look out for free resources that can be good references when helping instructors in their practice of teaching. good resource just came across my desk this week from Queen’s University. It’s called their Focus on Foundations program. You don’t need a username, a password or anything. There is no need to register whatsoever. Awesome. MORE >>