Must See: Los Angeles Teachers Produce Fab Video on High Stakes Tests
Jeff Kaufman, Education Notes, June 3, 2011.

Video from 'Two Teachers and a Microphone' on high stakes testing. They write, "We are both products of LAUSD schools and have spent our careers teaching in LAUSD schools. We love what we do, and we feel that our public school teachers are compassionate, creative and critical to the intellectual and emotional success of our youth." What's of note here is the use of video as the medium of choice. More and more, we are speaking in multiple media, with new and engaging languages.

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Cultivate your Personal Learning Network
Ted Curran, TedCurran.Net, June 3, 2011.

Good description of how to build a personal learning network that is, as Matt Crosslin suggests, "a great guide for beginners." Ted Curran gets the sense of a l;earning network, I think. "Instead of a bunch of teachers selecting challenging information for you, the Internet gives you access to a world of bloggers, tweeters, speakers, photographers, videographers, and colleagues who will teach you anything you want for nothing more than the price of your time and attention. All they ask of you is to think about it, question it, master the skills, and respond in a thoughtful way."

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Twitter Unveils Photo & Video Sharing
Chris Taylor, Mashable, June 3, 2011.

So it's official, Twitter is launching a photo and video sharing service. ""A native photosharing experience will be rolled out to 100% of users over the next couple of weeks," Twitter CEO Dick Costolo told the D9 Conference. The service means that photos and videos will be directly connected to tweets. They will be viewable on Twitter.com without having to leave the site." Meh. Just leave Flickr alone.

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For-profits, student loans, new rules, and how these affect students in the USA, Canada and the UK
Tony Bates, e-learning and distance education resources, June 3, 2011.

Tony Bates and I observe the same thing. "It seems that we are seeing an almost unexplained or certainly less than transparent shift in public policy away from the state funding post-secondary education to a user-pay system." But we may have different reactions to it. He seems to be OK with a mixed public-private system, or even an all-private system, so long as governments are clear and consistent in their implementation. I'm a lot less sanguine about that prospect, as we have a long way to go before we have a private sector that can be entrusted to serve the public good without putting its own financial interests first.

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Get a Freelancer! Freelancer.com
Nico Baird, Weblog, June 3, 2011.

You have to wonder what changes as this becomes widespread. Will it be possible to earn a living in more expensive nations as a software developer? Nico Baird summarizes, "If I wanted to build a new website, but I do not have the technical ability and programming knowledge I would go to Freelancer.com , I would list my needs and I would then submit my request.  Providers from around the world, companies and individual would then 'bid' for my business.  You state what you have to spend and the providers can then decide what they would charge you for the service. Basically you are putting out a tender."

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Carl Jackson on Supporting Online Communities in International Development
Nancy White, Full Circle Associates, June 3, 2011.

As online communities become increasingly core to how we work (especially with people outside our own organizations) the role of facilitating these communities becomes more important. This link is to a summary of a video of Carl Jackson of Westhill Knowledge Group addressing some key lessons from his experience. "People are looking for more increasing awareness of the landscape, who the actors are, events are, values and languages. For that kind of orientation, open discussions are still really valuable."

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