passions

Using the Web to match the needs of your institution with the passions of your donors [Christian]

On 09/09/2013, in budgets, business side of he, funding / grants, higher education, ideas, passions, research, science, strategy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Crowdfunding-DanielSChristian-9-9-13

From DSC:
Match the needs of your institution with your donors’ passions!

In thinking about how to get the funding necessary to accomplish things, it seems to me that more people would give more of their resources if they knew what the specific needs were at a particular school, college, and/or university. This is where Web-based solutions could play a new, important role (and serve as another example of using technology strategically).

I was reminded of this possibility during a recent conversation with a faculty member from our Music Department. First, some background. My mother was/still is a piano teacher. My folks met due to music and my dad has sung throughout his lifetime. My siblings have each played 1 or more instruments. Music has been something that has been extremely positive for my folks’ marriage and was always heard throughout our home. (Not to mention that music can turn a bad day around for me.)

You can see where music was important to our family, to me…I have a passion for music. So when I heard of a need that our Music Department had, I was ready to get my wallet out on the spot.

I wonder how many more people would be struck like this if they only knew what the specific opportunities to contribute/make a difference were.

See below for some
related resources
on this topic.

Also see:

Crowdfunding — from wikipedia.org
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GoFundMe.com — Education-Schools-Learning
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Scientists discover ‘crowdfunding’ as a way of replacing research grants — from The Washington Times by Casey Mutchler
Excerpt:
Like an increasing number of scientists who have seen public grants and investments shrivel, Mr. Perlstein has broken away from traditional sources of scientific funding and turned to the Web, social media and “crowdfunding” to raise money for his efforts.
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Crowdfundingforum.com
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Education Heroes at TechAccess.org

Addendum on 9/12/13:

MOOC seeks Kickstarter funding for brain experiments at home — from educationdive.com by Daniel Shumski

Reflections on “The New Bill of Rights for All Students” [Busteed]

On 09/09/2013, in career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, higher education, K-12 related, more voice more choice more control, motivation, passions, real-world assignments, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The New Bill of Rights for All Students — from thegallupblog.gallup.com by Brandon Busteed, Executive Director of Gallup Education; with thanks to Jackie Gerstein for posting this on Twitter

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Gallup has a silver bullet for solving many of the world’s problems. Here it is: Every student in the world, from pre-K to higher ed, needs:

Someone who cares about their development
To do what they like to do each day
To do what they are best at every day

That’s it.
…
This insight is rooted in Gallup’s most important findings — everyone in the world wants a good job, and no one ever became successful by trying to improve their weaknesses. They became great by playing to their strengths and leveraging their innate talents. These two findings have absolutely everything in common with the new bill of rights.
…
Gallup estimates that — at most — 30% of the United State’s workforce is actively engaged in their work. We also know the outlook is pretty miserable in schools; in elementary school, engagement peaks at 76%, but then decreases each year students are in school — down to 61% in middle school and then 44% in high school. If schools focused on students’ strengths rather than their weaknesses, students would be more engaged throughout their entire education.

From DSC:
Marcus Buckingham’s work is key here and I agree with his perspectives on this.

I’d like to add that beyond foundational knowledge/skills, our time is best spent developing our passions, gifts, and abilities — applied towards read-world issues, problems, fun.

Will IBM’s Watson — or a similar set of technologies — be a key ingredient of our future MOOCs? [Christian]

On 09/05/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, blended learning, career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, global / globalization, health, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, lifelong learning, marketing/social marketing, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, professional development, research, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home, training / L&D, trends, ubiquitous learning, United States, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
IBM Watson continues to expand into different disciplines/areas, which currently include:

Healthcare
Finance
Customer Service

But Watson is also entering the marketing and education/research realms.

I see a Watson-type-of-tool as being a key ingredient for future MOOCs and the best chance for MOOCs to morph into something very powerful indeed — offloading the majority of the workload to computers/software/intelligent tutoring/learning agents, while at the same time allowing students to connect with each other and/or to Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) as appropriate.

The price of education could hopefully come way down — depending upon the costs involved with licensing Watson or a similar set of technologies — as IBM could spread out their costs to multiple institutions/organizations. This vision represents another important step towards the “Walmart of Education” that continues to develop before our eyes.

Taking this even one step further, I see this system being available to us on our mobile devices as well as in our living rooms — as the telephone, the television, and the computer continue to converge. Blended learning on steroids.

What would make this really powerful would be to provide:

The ability to create narratives/stories around content
To feed streams of content into Watson for students to tap into
Methods of mining data and using that to tweak algorithms, etc. to improve the tools/learning opportunities

Such an architecture could be applied towards lifelong learning opportunities — addressing what we now know as K-12, higher education, and corporate training/development.

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About the program (emphasis DSC):

Thanks to digital media, the Internet and new advances in understanding how students learn, educators are beginning to appreciate the importance of breaking out of the classroom and into the wider world. There’s a growing understanding that learning should not just be preparation for life, but is actually “life itself.”

Is School Enough? documents vivid examples of where new modes of learning and engagement are taking hold and flourishing. Featuring nationally recognized educators and researchers, Stephen Brown’s powerful stories show that when students have the opportunity to explore real interests and problems, they step up and perform at the highest level. This new approach reaches motivated students as well as kids that educators call “the bright and bored,” helping these learners tune in rather than drop out.

Is School Enough? introduces parents, educators, and everyone passionate about learning to:

• Students in Maine who work with veterinary experts and digital apps to prepare a new home for a retired circus elephant.
• Young people worldwide who use the online Harry Potter Alliance to launch meaningful social justice initiatives.
• A curious and creative teen who crafts her own educational experience based on her passion for natural healing and yoga.
• A young man in Oakland who produces state-of-the-art music videos to engage his community—and himself.

Through the voices of these inspired students and America’s foremost education thought leaders, Is School Enough? provides insight into an essential new understanding of what education can be in the 21st century. Is School Enough? is the second in a series of programs about kids, digital media and education. The first program, Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century explores students claiming digital media as a means of connecting, communicating, creating, and learning, while interpreting its importance and providing a window into 21st-century education.

Changing education from the ground up [Sir Ken Robinson]

On 08/27/2013, in 21st century, creativity, economics, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, hearts -- matters of the heart, K-12 related, learning preferences, passions, personalized/customized learning, social learning / networks, society, by Daniel Christian

Changing education from the ground up — published on Jul 18, 2013; with thanks to Mr. Michael Haan, from Calvin College’s IT Department, for the resource
Sir Ken Robinson addresses the fundamental economic, cultural, social and personal purposes of education. He argues that education should be personalised to every student’s talent, passion, and learning styles, and that creativity should be embedded in the culture of every single school.

Alive in the Swamp — from nesta.org.uk by Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly

Excerpt (emphasis and link below from DSC):

The authors argue that we should seek digital innovations that produce at least twice the learning outcome for half the cost of our current tools. To achieve this, three forces need to come together. One is technology, the other pedagogy, and the third is change knowledge, or how to secure transformation across an entire school system.

…

The breakthrough in Alive in the Swamp is the development of an Index that will be of practical assistance to those charged with making these kinds of decisions at school, local and system level. Building on Fullan’s previous work, Stratosphere, the Index sets out the questions policymakers need to ask themselves not just about the technology at any given moment but crucially also about how it can be combined with pedagogy and knowledge about system change. Similarly, the Index should help entrepreneurs and education technology developers to consider particular features to build into their products to drive increased learning and achieve systemic impact.

The future will belong not to those who focus on the technology alone but to those who place it in this wider context and see it as one element of a wider system transformation. Fullan and Donnelly show how this can be done in a practical way.

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Also see:
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Example slides from
Will Richardson’s solid presentation at ISTE 2013, entitled ” Abundant Learning: Four newish ideas for powerful classrooms”

From DSC:
This idea of self-directed/owned learning is spot on — and not just for those in K-12, but also for those in higher education and for those in the corporate world as well! It unleashes an enormous amount of intrinsic energy, motivation, drive, grit.

Each person needs to own and build their learning ecosystem — identifying one’s gifts, talents, passions, interests and then going out and developing those things. If we each do what we do best, the whole world benefits. As we will need others along the way — a team-based approach, communities of practice, and several of the other things/skills Will alluded to will be very important as well.

Here’s why the TV apps economy will be a $14 billion business [Wolf]

On 06/25/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, animation, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), business, business side of he, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, marketing/social marketing, marketplaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multi-touch, multimedia, music, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, passions, personalized/customized learning, play, podcasting, professional development, programming, reinvent, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, staying relevant, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, telepresence, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Here’s why the TV apps economy will be a $14 billion business — from forbes.com by Michael Wolf

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Excerpt:

According to new research published this week, the TV apps economy is forecasted to reach $14 billion by 2017.

…

Take for example today’s news that Apple will begin selling video advertisements served by iAd through iTunes Radio loaded on Apple TVs. This is only the first move for Apple in this space, and others like Samsung and Google are already investing heavily in connected TV app advertising.

From DSC:
Why post this? Because:

It lays out future directions/careers related to Programming, Computer Science, Data Mining, Analytics, Marketing, Telecommunications, User Experience Design, Digital and Transmedia Storytelling, and more
.
It leads to “Learning from the Living [Class] Room”

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From DSC:
And if this does take off,
$14 billion won’t begin to capture the profits from this new industry.
It will be far larger than that.

Relevant addendum on 6/27/13:

The future of cinema is on demand — from bitrebels.com by Ben Warner (From DSC: Having just paid $32 for 4 people — 3 of whom were kids — to see Monsters U, I believe it!)
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Via: [The Verge] Image Credits: [Venture Beat] [Home Theater]

Sir Ken Robinson on discovering your passions [NPR]

On 06/24/2013, in assessment, creativity, passions, by Daniel Christian

Sir Ken Robinson on discovering your passions— from onpoint.wbur.org / NPR

Excerpt:

Currently Robinson’s not focusing just on children. His beat now is how we all can get more out of our lives if we hone in on our passions — that is, the things that really make us tick.

This hour, On Point: Letting your talents and passions transform your life.

From DSC:
I’m a big fan of Sir Ken Robinson’s work, perspectives, etc. I’m not sure where Ken is on this, but ultimately, I attribute many of the things that he’s addressing to the gifts, talents, passions that the LORD gives to each of us. In today’s culture, that might seem ridiculous; but it’s not to me.

From DSC:
1) To start out this posting, I want to pose some questions about “The Common Core” — in the form of a short video. <— NOTE: Please be sure your speakers are on or you have some headphones with you — the signal is “hot” so you may need to turn down the volume a bit! 🙂

With a special thanks going out to
Mr. Bill Vriesema for sharing
some of his excellent gifts/work.

.

Having asked those questions, I understand that there is great value in having students obtain a base level of knowledge — in reading, writing, and basic math. (Should we add keyboarding? Programming? Other? Perhaps my comments are therefore more appropriate for high school students…not sure.)

Anyway, I would be much more comfortable with moving forward with the Common Core IF:

* I walked into random schools and found out which teachers the students really enjoyed learning from and whom had a real impact on the learning of the students. Once I identified that group of teachers, if 7-8 out of 10 of them gave the Common Core a thumbs up, so would I.

* The Common Core covered more areas — such as fine arts, music, drama, woodworking, videography, photography, etc. (Just because STEM might drive the economic engines doesn’t mean everyone enjoys plugging into a STEM-related field — or is gifted in those areas.)

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2) Secondly, here are just a few recent items re: the Common Core:

Good Read: Who’s Minding the Schools? — from blogs.kqed.org by Tina Barseghian

Excerpt: (emphasis DSC)

For those uninitiated to the Common Core State Standards, this New York Times article raises some important questions:

“By definition, America has never had a national education policy; this has indeed contributed to our country’s ambivalence on the subject… The anxiety that drives this criticism comes from the fact that a radical curriculum — one that has the potential to affect more than 50 million children and their parents — was introduced with hardly any public discussion. Americans know more about the events in Benghazi than they do about the Common Core.”

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Editorial: Make the Common Core standards work before making them count — from eschoolnews.com by Randi Weingarten
AFT President Randi Weingarten calls for a moratorium on the high-stakes implications of Common Core testing until the standards have been properly implemented.

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How to train students’ brains for the Common Core — from ecampusnews.com by Meris Stansbury
Excerpt:

According to Margaret Glick, a neuroscience expert and educational consultant at the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE), the Common Core State Standards and the accompanying assessments will cognitively require more than past standards. “They will require a deep understanding of content, complex performances, real-world application, habits of mind to persevere, higher levels of cognition and cognitive flexibility,” Glick said during “The Common Core State Standards and the Brain,” a webinar sponsored by the Learning Enhancement Corporation.

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Common Core testing will require digital literacy skills — from ecampusnews.com by Dennis Pierce
Excerpt:

It also will require students to demonstrate certain digital literacy skills that go beyond the core curriculum, observers say. These include technology operational skills such as keyboarding and spreadsheets, as well as higher-order skills such as finding and evaluating information online. And many observers have serious concerns about whether students will be ready to take the online exams by the 2014-15 school year.

Minn. moves ahead with some Common Core education standards — from minnesota.publicradio.org by Tim Post

Carry the Common Core in Your Pocket! — from appolearning.com by Monica Burns

Excerpt:

Whether you are a parent or educator, you have likely heard the buzz around the Common Core Learning Standards. Here’s the deal.

Across the United States schools are adopting these national standards to prepare students for college and careers by introducing rigorous content to children in all subject areas. The standards cover students in Kindergarten through Grade 12 in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The Common Core Standards app by MasteryConnect organizes the CCLS for students, parents and teachers with mobile devices.

Addendum on 6/19/13:

Assessing the New Common Core Tests: An interview with Joan L. Herman — from Harvard Graduate School of Education — by Nancy Walser

Addendum on 6/27/13:

OpenEd Launches Comprehensive Catalog of Common Core Content — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Oceans of innovation: The Atlantic, the Pacific, global leadership and the future of education [Barber, Donnelly, & Rizvi]

On 06/04/2013, in Asia, business, Canada, creativity, economics, education reform, entrepreneurship, global / globalization, innovation, K-12 related, leadership, motivation, passions, by Daniel Christian

Oceans of innovation: The Atlantic, the Pacific, global leadership and the future of education — from the Institute for Public Policy Research by Sir Michael Barber, Katelyn Donnelly and Saad Rizvi; with thanks to Stephen Harris (@Stephen_H) for posting this on Twitter

Description (emphasis DSC):

‘The economic and educational achievements of the Pacific region in the past 50 years are spectacular – unprecedented in fact. They lay a foundation for the next 50 years – a much better foundation than exists in many Atlantic systems – but the mix of factors that brought those achievements will not be capable of meeting the challenge ahead.’

This long essay by Sir Michael Barber, Katelyn Donnelly and Saad Rizvi assumes the near certainty that the Pacific region will take primary leadership of the global economy in the near future and explores the implications for their education systems, calling for a ‘whole-system revolution’ in the structure and priorities of teaching and learning in the region.

‘What is clear, though, is that education – deeper, broader and more universal – has a significant part to play in enabling humanity to succeed in the next half century. We need to ensure that students everywhere leave school ready to continue to learn and adapt, ready to take responsibility for their own future learning and careers, ready to innovate with and for others, and to live in turbulent, diverse cities. We need perhaps the first truly global generation; a generation of individuals rooted in their own cultures but open to the world and confident of their ability to shape it.

‘The growing pace of change and increasing complexity mean that global leadership will no longer be merely about summits behind closed doors. In an era of transparency, leaders will find themselves constantly in dialogue with those they purport to lead. Meanwhile, innovations which transform societies can and will happen anywhere. Leadership, in short, will be widely dispersed and will require increasing sophistication.’

From DSC:
Let’s help students identify, design, and develop their own businesses while they are still in K-20. We could provide them with mentoring, guidance, and teams of specialists from their “classmates” — wherever those classmates may be.

This business of studying for the standardized tests seems to fall far short of what the next generation will need to survive and thrive in the new global economy. With the dropout rates being what they are, it doesn’t appear that our current educational systems (at least in the U.S.) will get us to the place where our students are innovative, inventive, and are able to freelance with confidence — where they own their own learning, are engaged and motivated to learn, where they learn how to learn and know where to go to access the relevant streams of content that are flowing (constantly) by them. unleashed to be far more creative and entrepreneurial.

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A solid animation/website of 10 expectations from today’s student — from LeavingToLearn.org

On 05/22/2013, in engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, love of learning, motivation, passions, personalized/customized learning, play, real-world assignments, reinvent, relationships, staying relevant, student-related, by Daniel Christian

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Setting up your own Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) / home recording studio [Dachis]

On 05/22/2013, in creativity, digital audio, music, passions, technologies for your home, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

First a definition:

A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier. Modern DAWs are software running on computers with audio interface hardware.

Secondly, some items from Adam Dachis on LifeHacker.com:

From DSC:
For those who want to dip their feet into the pool quickly to see what it’s like, I would recommend checking out Garageband — it’s a powerful tool that can give you some nice results — and the learning curve is far better/easier than the more complex tools out there.

Also, from Steve Wheeler’s Are you a meerkat or an ostrich?

Etienne Wenger recently declared: ‘If any institutions are going to help learners with the real challenges they face…(they) will have to shift their focus from imparting curriculum to supporting the negotiation of productive identities through landscapes of practice’ (Wenger, 2010).

We live in uncertain times, where we cannot be sure how the economy is going to perform today, let alone predict what kind of jobs there will be for students when they graduate in a few years time. How can we prepare students for a world of work that doesn’t yet exist? How can we help learners to ready themselves for employment that is shifting like the sand, and where many of the jobs they will be applying for when they leave university probably don’t exist yet? It’s a conundrum many faculty and lecturers are wrestling with, and one which many others are ignoring in the hope that the problem will simply go away. Whether we are meerkats, looking out and anticipating the challenges, or ostriches burying our heads in the sand, the challenge remains, and it is growing stronger.

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Also see:

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Also see:

The Nature of the Future: The Socialstructed World — from nextberlin.eu by Marina Gorbis, Institute for the Future
Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future (iftf.org) discussed the evolution of communication and its consequences at NEXT13. She analyzed the perks and challenges of the new relationship-driven or “socialstructed” economy, stating that “humans and technology will team up”. Her new book ‘The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World’ was published in early 2013. Watch her inspiring talk on April 23, 2013 at NEXT13.

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From DSC:
My best take on this at this point:

Give students more choice, more control of their learning
Help them discover their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
Help them develop their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
Provide content in as many ways as possible — and let the students work with what they prefer to work with
Implement story, emotion, creativity, and play as much as possible (providing plenty of chances for them to create what they want to create)
Utilize cross-disciplinary assignments and teams
Integrate real-world assignments/projects into the mix
Help them develop their own businesses while they are still in school — coach them along, provide mentors, relevant blogs/websites, etc.
Guide them as they create/develop their own “textbooks” and/or streams of content

Powerful: “I was VERY good at following directions, which made me an excellent student. Now if only I was a good learner!”

On 05/06/2013, in education, education reform, education technology, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, passions, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt (with additional emphasis DSC) from an email I rec’d from personalizelearning.com’s Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey, under the section entitled, “It’s All About the Conversations”

Personalized learning is becoming more than a “buzz word” — it is driving conversations. One of our posts, “Learners NOT Students,” has taken the conversations where we never thought they would go. A comment from Lisa Welch, K-2 teacher at Wales Elementary in Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin shared about being a student and a learner:

“When I was young, I was quite the “student”. By this, I mean I was given the task, given the materials to complete the task, and then was told the time frame to do it in. I was VERY good at following directions which made me an excellent student. Now if only I was a good learner!”

Many of us were good “students” yet still had trouble learning. The conversations continue about what is Personalized Learning, transforming learning instead of reforming learning, learners taking ownership of their learning and teachers as partners in learning. We believe our purpose is to share what we learn from you and with you about ideas, resources, research, and from the journeys of educators and learners who are personalizing learning. This newsletter is about the conversations!

Also see:

Personalized learning in 6 steps — from learningandleading-digital.com by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey

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Learning Ecosystems

Using the Web to match the needs of your institution with the passions of your donors [Christian]

Sir Ken Robinson on discovering your passions [NPR]

Setting up your own Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) / home recording studio [Dachis]

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