#SchoolDidAGoodThing
Nicholas Provenzano, The Nerdy Teacher, July 27, 2011.

A nice campaign, started here. "I would like to start a new hash tag. #SchoolDidAGoodThing. I think it would be great if everyone that read this tweeted something awesome school did for you. It could be a program that helped you grow as a person or a teacher that inspired you in some fashion. Almost everyone has a good story about school that they could share and I think now is as good of a time as any to share them with the world." The tag took off. Here's a follow-up post. And today, A challenge for change. "If we all shared a united voice on how important schools are and how critical it is to have teachers at the table for discussions, they might just start to listen."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Twitter, Online Learning]

Sir John Daniel of the Commonwealth of Learning: Open Education and Policy
Timothy Vollmer, Creative Commons, July 27, 2011.

Creative Commons interviuew with Sire John Daniel, most recently of Commonwealth of Learning fame, and previously of Open University fame (and I suppose he still has some attachment to the gang in Milton Keynes). This interview not surprisingly focuses on the COL's choice of open licensing but also on the role of IGOs - intergovernmental organizations. "In general, the IGO process aims to get countries to work together to do things they cannot do separately. One example is a virtual university for small states within the Commonwealth. Since two-thirds of the 54 member states are nations with populations of 2 million or less, they have fewer resources to spend on content creation.... COL helped them start a ‘virtual university’, which is not a new institution but a collaborative network where countries and institutions can work together to produce course materials as OER that they can all adapt and use."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources, Networks]

ifttt the beginning…
Linden Tibbets, IFTTT, July 27, 2011.

An example is probably the best way to demonstrate ifttt.com - 'If This Then That' - and right now, the only way, since it's on a limited beta trial. But what I've done with the service is to set up an interaction whereby a tweet in my 'oldaily' Twitter account is sent as a status message in my Facebook account, thus finally giving my Facebook followers updates when I create new posts. Will it work? Too much clutter? Who knows?! That's the point of the test. Read more on their blog, here.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Twitter, Interaction, Books]

SideBar: Google’s + Suspensions (Ham-fisted? High-handed?)
Ben Tremblay, Feet up, eyes closed, head back , July 27, 2011.

For those following the Google+ real names controversy, the following two links should give you a pretty definitive summary of opinion. The first, by Ben Tremblay, via Tim Carmody's G+ thread, lists numerous G+ threads (there's still no good way to aggregeate from Google+ so this service is really appreciated). Especially recommended is the discussion on Eric Raymond's posts. The second, from someone called Sai, links to a lot of the background and analysis of the issue, adding more analysis of its own. As I suggested yesterday, Google is most interested in identity authentication or "identified state", which I feel is a mistake. You may feel the G+ identity issue is overblown, but I think we're getting to some pretty fundamental concepts here, and the outcome of this discussion will be with us for a long time.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Google]

Cities Are Immortal; Companies Die
Kevin Kelly, The Technium, July 26, 2011.

Ah, this is the missing response to the Wiley post from yesterday (not that Kevin Kelly intended it as such). "Companies are like organisms, while cities are like ecosystems.... All companies die. All cities are nearly immortal. Both are type of networks, with different destinies. There are two basic network forms: organisms or ecosystems." Or as I would say, "groups and networks."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Networks]