Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 25

Image from Patty, under a
CC BY-ND 2.0 license

Though I'm sitting here typing this, I have to admit that half of my brain is drifting away like the clouds in this week's picture because for the next two weeks I'll be on leave!  Still, I will focus for this last push of stuff before then...

On with the Weekly Learning Technology Digest!

• The first highlight this week was an interesting article called Censorship in the Internet Age which appeared in The Guardian.  Really thought-provoking stuff from Patrick Ness and I wonder how others would respond to his question, "And so I ask you today, what do you not say? What do you censor when you write? Because I'm afraid I can't believe that you don't".  I wonder too what impact this has when we get learners to learn online, in the public domain?  Read and reflect!
• You'll often hear the term 'digital literacy' bandied about at the moment, but what does it really mean? Digital literacies and web literacies has the answer!  Or at least it'll get you thinking about what you might be thinking of when you say digital literacy.
• Another thing you might have heard of is iTunesU Course Manager - or you may not.  But either way there's a nice article on the Inside Higher Ed blog about it which is worth a look. I don't think this will be a technology to put on the 'ignore' list.
• The Times Higher had the tantalisingly titled There's Gold in Them There Hills of Online Learning - and while this is no quick fix to financial benefits for more traditional online learning, it is an interesting glimpse into the world of edX.
• I liked the list of 12 UK blogs worth bookmarking which were recommended in The Guardian's Higher Education Network and while some I've known about for years were featured, there were some which I didn't know about and it's always good to hear about interesting new stuff.
• One techie bit - have you got Google Drive yet instead of just Google Docs?  If you have, then you may be curious about it and Google Drive: The Differences Between the Web App and the Desktop App is going to help untangle the difference for you!
• Final interesting snippet out there was a short blog post called From connectedness to openness which is a reflective piece on how openness has changed one educator's practice - how has it changed yours?

Image from http://xkcd.com/185/ under
a CC BY-NC 2.0 license

Oh, and I normally try to find a video which is of interest, but haven't got one today.  How about an xkcd cartoon instead?  

That'll do?  

Excellent!

Right... have a good couple of weeks.  I'll see you in September when the fun really begins!

Sarah