Apple’s mega announcement of their new iTunes U courses and, more interesting to me, their new iBooks Author app has many of us thinking anew about the state of textbooks and informal learning and openness and a whole bunch of other things. It’s been interesting to watch the “debates” on Twitter (and elsewhere) between those in the “Oooo shiny” camp and those in the “Apple doesn’t get it”...

Conversations from the Edge is a series of raw, honest and candid dialogues about education’s shifting learning landscape. Hosted by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson. Dear Sheryl, As always, you have me thinking. The idea of a “virtual” school built on the self-learning concepts of the Independent Project within a real school is intriguing to me on a number of levels, not the least of which is the marriage of...

Conversations from the Edge is a series of raw, honest and candid dialogues about education’s shifting learning landscape. Hosted by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson. Dear Sheryl, (Note: I’m grumpy and tired after being sick for a week so I apologize for the somewhat random thoughts that follow. Hope you can make sense of it.) I’ve been thinking about your post from the other day. This weekend, I ran across this...

So what does the following list suggest to you about the value of “online learning”: 1. I can work ahead if I’m able to 2. I get nearly instant responses from my teachers 3. I get personalized support when I need it 4. My teachers are just as excited about online learning as I am 5. I can do all my math for the week on one day if I want to 6. I know how I’m doing, my grades are right on the screen 7. My parents can see my...

(Cross posted at Weblogg-ed) By all accounts, it’s been a crappy week for education. To be honest, I haven’t participated in much of it, but reading the accounts from Chris and Bud and others, and some of the Tweets from Sunday’s Education Nation sessions, it’s hard not to sense the anger, frustration, sadness and even paranoia that has infected our little part of the education world. While I know it was all heartfelt...