MindShift

Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Media (which organizes the annual Maker Faire), O’Reilly Media (publisher of all those great “Missing Manuals”) heralds the virtues of the open web and the history of open-source information in this talk at Open Educational Resources 2011 talk last month. “The most important educational resource is the student,” he says. Continue reading →

There’s no argument that Silicon Valley startups have influenced how businesses operate. The fact that most companies now count social media strategy as a crucial part of their operation is a testament to the Internet culture infiltrating far beyond the Internet-only based businesses. The same phenomenon is happening in education. Here are five ways tech-based … Continue reading →

The VOIP service Skype officially launched “Skype in the Classroom,” a directory to help connect educators with others who are using the service. Skype has recognized that teachers are already using the service to connect their classrooms, and so it wanted to make it easier for teachers to find others and to share Skype lessons … Continue reading →

Ten years ago, the concept of a university openly sharing its prized (and expensive) curriculum for free with anyone who was interested, especially one has highly regarded as M.I.T., was unheard of. But in the past decade MIT OpenCourseWare has paved the way for the open-source content movement. On their tenth anniversary, ReadWriteWeb enumerates what … Continue reading →

In today’s dynamic classrooms, the teaching and learning process is becoming more nuanced, more seamless, and it flows back and forth from students to teachers. Here’s a look at current trends in teaching and learning, their implications, and changes to watch for. The Three Key Trends 1. Collaborative. If Web 2.0 has taught us anything, … Continue reading →

What we as adults experienced in school, as educators and students, will bear little resemblance to what lies ahead. Here’s a look at current trends, their implications, and changes to watch for. The Three Key Trends 1. Digital delivery No longer shackled to books as their only source of content, educators and students are going … Continue reading →