MOOCs

I love iTunes U, but online courses don't stop there. Sites like Coursera, edX and Udacity offer courses, online for anyone to take for free! Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs are changing the face of higher education. Tamar Lewin's New York Times article Instruction for Masses Knocks Down Campus Walls illustrates how. Check out the video below to find out more about MOOCs, and for a comprehensive list on courses available, visit Stephen Downes and George Siemen's blog at MOOC.ca.

iTunes U

Things have changed a little at iTunes U. Apple is now offering the ability to create a limited amount of courses that you can share without making them public or applying for an institutional license. This is different from having to go through the process of applying for publication after creating a course and making sure all your ducks were in a row first. This change now gives you the opportunity to work within iTunes U to get a feel for the platform and know if it really is for you.

To help you get started Apple is offering in French and English, a 3-part webcast series.
The first of the series will be held on December 12. You'll hear an overview of iTunes U  and learn about some of the powerful features of the iTunes app. You'll see a course from a student's perspective and have the opportunity to ask experts, live during the webcast, how educators are teaching with iTunes U.

Skills for Learning 2.0

I love this quote from Steve Wheeler about how learning has changed:
"...from passive to active, from individual to social and from consumer to producer..."

Read Wheeler's blog post here on digital learning and how the 4 C's are the new skills for literacy.

Pros and Cons of Social Media

There is so much discussion about how or even whether to use social media in the classroom. "Free range" schools are popping up all over the place. As educators, don't we have an obligation to help students navigate their way through a consistently growing online presence? Here's an interesting article from our friends at TeachThought: Read here.

Educateurs-francophone

Our friend Darren Kuropatwa posts a newspaper for francophone educators. He uses Paper.li
You can subscribe directly from his newspaper or follow him on Twitter. Check him out!

http://paper.li/dkuropatwa/educateurs-francophone

Learnist

Learnist makes it super easy to share what you know by curating the web. You can use video, blogs, books, docs, images, or anything on the web to explain a concept.
Once entering the site, find out how to get started by typing "learnist" into the search window.

Popplet

Have you tried Popplet?  It's a great web tool for idea mapping and idea collaborating (there is also an app for iOS). You can add maps, video, images and of course text and drawings. Popplet creates a link for sharing and collaborating in realtime. You can create 5 free Popplets or subscribe for unlimited.