Professional Learning in Massive Open Online Courses
Allison Littlejohn, Little by Littlejohn, April 3, 2014

I can only assume they're not talking about our MOOCs: "A study by researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University and Harvard University published April 2014 found that massive open online courses (MOOCs) encourage passive learning among professionals." More...

Taking Notes by Hand Benefits Recall, Researchers Find
Danya Perez-Hernandez, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 3, 2014

I was just going to ignore this but now I see it's getting some pickup, so I feel obliged to point out (to people who really should know better) that one small study of something does not 'show' anything. More...

PKP Donation Drive
Press Release, Public Knowledge Project, April 3, 2014

I never post donation drive news (so please don't ask) but the Public Knowledge project has very quietly and very effectively been providing Open Journal Systems and Open Conference Sustems for years now. More...

The Massive Course Meets the Personal Learner
Stephen Downes, April 3, 2014, EDUCON2014 – IEEE Global Engineering Education Conferenc, Istanbul, Turkey

In this talk I discuss the thinking behind the design of MOOCs and explain how these choices lead to the development of a personal learning environment fraework. Quite a bit of this talk is a reworking of 'The MOOC of One' and I'm trying to develop the ideas regarding pedagogy and theories of knowledge more explicitly. More...

Canadian job skills mismatch: truth or science fiction?
Don Pittis, CBC News, April 4, 2014
Someone asked me this week whether I thought the skills mismatch realluy exists. The idea of the skil,s mismatch is that despite persistent unemployment, there are high-skilled or specialized jobs that go unfilled in large numbers because people with the skills aren't available. More...

José van Dijck, The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media
Suen de Andrade e Silva, First Monday, April 7, 2014

Review of what looks like it would be an interesting book, José van Dijck's The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. The book "seeks to disclose the aspects of mediated culture that are hidden from — or ignored by — common users, and which have deep cultural, political, and economic implications. More...

Students’ Jobs Pay Off Tuition at 7 Work Colleges
Lisa Rathke, Diverse, April 7, 2014
I don't see anything unusual in the idea to have students work during studies to pay off their tuition fees - I spent the entire time I was studying also working, variously as a dishwasher and pot washer, 7-Eleven clerk, editor, programs coordinator, and instructor. At 100 hours a semester at $11.10 an hour the students are not exactly getting rich (and one wonders whether a pay increase would result in a corresponding tuition fee increase). More...

3 Benefits of MOOCs in the Workplace
Sahana Chattopadhyay, ID, Other Reflections, April 7, 2014

OK, let's leave aside the fact that 'Corporate MOOC' is essentially an oxymoron. Here are the reasons advanced in support of them:

1. Corporate MOOCs will be a pathway to social and informal learning into the workplace. 
2. Corporate MOOCs are likely to produce a breed of community managers who will be a cross between enterprise community managers and learning experience designers.
3. Corporate MOOCs – if done right – have the potential to bridge man of the currently existing organizational silos.

What would really be interesting. More...