MITx will offer a portfolio of MIT courses for free to a virtual community of learners around the world... 
Today I have an emergency visit to the chiropractor set up. Back very bad. "I can't commute in a car" bad. I would have liked to come across this post on advice on how to use Skype with larger groups. (I am thinking much of the advice cross-applies to Google+ Hangouts.) I might have thought to run my class from home.
Best advice? "For group Skype calls to work well the convenor needs good bandwidth and a powerful computer. If you are having problems with a call, it often helps to just restart the call and try again. If that doesn’t work, stop the call, restart your computer and try again. Failing that, see if there is anyone else who has better bandwidth than you or has a less congested network and a more powerful computer."
Since late last year the UKOLN remote workers have been having a weekly (Tuesday morning 10am) Skype ‘catch up’. Ed Bremner, one of my UKOLN remote working colleagues, was the originato... Digital textbooks get a boost with new offerings http://t.co/uZL81sA8 via @zite #edchat... 
To ensure that your browsing history isn't shared with online advertisers, use Google's opt-out features or the free Disconnect add-on for Google Chrome and Firefox to opt out of receiving ads based on your online footprints. Via Jan Bergmans, michel verstrepen Find Collection Of Top 50 Mobile Learning Resources That Are Popular Based On Social Signals. I am so underpowered in my mskillz so I am determined to work my way through the whole 50 resources. OK, time to get started. 
WIKIPEDIA has just unveiled the first version of its new visual editor. The bell is rung on a new era for Wikipedia. Sweet. 
The free, simple way to manage your course and engage your students.
This free VLE space is becoming more crowded(*): Coursekit joins Bb CourseSites, Pearson OpenClass and Udemy.
(*working on the principle that two is company, three is a crowd so four is more crowded) Via Phil Barker 
Tranformative pedagogy--a new paradigm. Technology can be broadly defined. These are all wetware tech as opposed to hardware or software. I suppose the old way of viewing these is as thinking tools. However you might look at them, these constitute viable tech for the classroom and should be part of every learner's kit. 
Courseload eText Reader 
I was hugely disappointed yesterday when I had the opportunity to have an eTextbook solution demonstrated from a well known publishing company. Foolishly, I thought beforehand that finally we were seeing a publisher lead ... |
This would be the way I would approach University credentialing if I were coming out of high school today. I would take just enough university course work to keep my full time, but I would do this stuff on the side for badges and certificates.
"Answering common questions about the Institute’s new approach to online education." 
Wow! Follows the maestro model of education. Learning is the repertoire and the conductor works to bring all the pieces together. Reminds me, also, of Chris Weinberger's 'small pieces loosely joined' view of the Internet. Any way you look at it, teachers need to become tech conductors guiding the orchestra toward common performance goals. 
I agree that we must be careful about anything that Bill Gates backs like he has Khan Academy. In fact, generally speaking it is good advice to beware geeks bearing gifts.
It just drives home the adage: experts on tap, not on top. Who is more expert about the learning needs of your students? No one. So...use the heck out of anything useful Gates and his 'philanthropies' provide, but never ever let them grab the wheel. Gates is Mr.Toad from Wind in the Willows and he has proven to move from one enthusiasm to another. Be careful. This is actually an awesome presentation. I wish I had a whole week to begin to internalize this amazing collective of ideas.
"Robin Good: A great presentation by Corinne Weisberger and Shannan Butler on the emerging role of educators as curators and about the steps involved in creating valuable curated learning pathways. Via Paulo Simões, Gust MEES, Robin Good 
Badges and competence--what brave new world is this? Read and learn. 
DropVox is a voice recorder that automatically saves your audio to your Dropbox account, a free service that allows you to store files and access them from any device.
The advantage for journalists is the ability to record an interview on a phone or iPad and then access the audio from any computer. But there are many applications for day to day work life in the classroom. Via DanieleBazzano 
A recent survey by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that 7 out of 10 college students have skipped buying a college textbook because of its price.
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