Anthropology Professor Says Web Video Can Help People Craft Their Identities

From the Chronicle:

But when Mr. Wesch gave a talk at the Library of Congress on Monday, one audience member essentially asked: So what? Why should anyone care about a subculture of homemade video makers, or the fact that some people watch amusing clips on the Internet instead of looking at TV? “I don’t understand how this is going to impact my life,” said the questioner, who said she’s only ever watched one YouTube video.

“It will impact politics — it will impact who gets elected this year,” said Mr. Wesch. “And I think it can be argued that Obama would not have taken the election without social media. Clinton with her machine would have just ran right over him.”

TED: one of the best in OER

Announcing the Top 10 TEDTalks

Top 10 TEDTalks of all time
1. Jill Bolte Taylor: "My stroke of insight"
2. Jeff Han: "Touchscreen demo foreshadows the iPhone"
3. David Gallo: "Underwater astonishments"
4. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: "Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo"
5. Arthur Benjamin: "Lightning calculation and other 'Mathemagic'"
6. Sir Ken Robinson: "Do schools kill creativity?"
7. Hans Rosling: "The best stats you've ever seen"
8. Tony Robbins: "Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better"
9. Al Gore: "15 ways to avert a climate crisis"
10. Johnny Lee: "Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote"

Online Learning: Reducing the Pain at the Pump?

Will more students elect hybrid and online courses as energy prices go up?

The Money Squeeze: Colleges look at curbing student commute

Paper-Based Materials Distorted Ways of Learning

"Digital restores communication and collaboration capabilities. We could say that digital returns us to more natural ways of learning." - Trent Batson

Paper-Based Materials Distorted Ways of Learning

Twitter for Librarians: The Ultimate Guide

The Web site College@Home has put together a nice list of ideas for libraries interested in using the instant-blogging service Twitter. (from the Chronicle)

“What is the core business of the academy?"

The Chronicle article is interesting, but focus on the comments.

Who Needs a Professor When There's a Tutor Available?

Connectivism: Online course, OERs, Pedagogy, and more

More leadership from George Siemens and Stephen Downes on navigating higher education in the 21st century. I have signed up for their online course "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge." Details below:

Stephen Downes and I will be offering an online course starting September through University of Manitoba on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge. The course is available for credit (enrollment is required) or for personal interest (no fee). All discussions and learning resources will be freely available. More information on how the course is run, weekly topics, etc., is available on the course wiki. If you are interested, you can sign up here in order to receive more information on participating or enrolling.
If for some reason the above link to the wiki doesn't work, it is also available here: http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivism
We've set up a course blog for our Connectivism and Connective Knowledge online course. The intention of the blog is to open up the conversation around course design and delivery and changing value points in education. The transparency will hopefully capture some of our (Stephen Downes and myself) thinking around course design and foster interaction with others on ways to improve delivery.
We’re hoping that this course will serve at least three purposes:
1. To address the questions about value points in education and the role of learners and faculty in large scale open courses
2. To model alternatives to existing course design and delivery models. These alternatives are defined by openness, innovation, active participation, connectedness, and learner autonomy.
3. To expound connectivism as a learning theory and provide a forum for critical thought, debate, and consideration of future steps in research and implementation.