Media literacy is about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership - and to be aware of how these factors influence content (Source: TeacherInfo)

• The Edgeless University - ...while university enrollment continues to increase, universities are in an increasingly “fragile state”.
• Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - ...is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning.
• Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments - Stephen Downes’ presentation at ED-MEDIA 2009 is available: Beyond Management: Personal Learning Environments.
• Learning Institutions In a Digital Age - This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.
• Learning Leaders Fieldbook - ...offers a diverse-perspective overview of leading learning in an organization
• Why Free Web Services Aren’t Really Free - The idealism of early 2000 around open source and free software has given way (within education) to “wow, cool tool” syndrome of today.
• A Global Reset For Advertising - ...within 10 years all traditional content will be digital and yet, Google aside, publishers are failing to generate serious digital revenues.”

Media Literacy moves from recognising and comprehending information to the higher order critical thinking skills such as questioning, analysing and evaluating that information. (Source: OFcom)

• Attention and Distraction - Educators and trainers face competition for attention from mobile devices and social networking services.
• Social Media: Trends and Implications For Learning - ...explore emerging technological and related research trends from a perspective of social and networked learning theory.
• Failing New Grading Approaches - A prof doesn’t have the funds available to hire teaching assistants to help with grading, so he adopts a peer-review model.
• Language and Connectedness - Connections create words, language, and conceptual understanding, all formed by social connectedness and continually adaptations fostered by feedback and interactions.
• Opera Unite - Whenever a system is created - school models, corporations, or browsers - ideologies of the age are embedded.
• Social. Networks. Learning. Organizations - How should organizations “restructure” on network principles?

a) authority of the web page linking to you and b) the link anchor text.

• Search engine references: Search engines utilized to count all incoming links.
• Comparative analysis: Comparative reporting against one or more sites.
• Email Reporting: Link popularity report sent to your inbox.
• Domain exclusion: Exclusion of incoming links from your own domain.
• PageRank Check: Google ranking check for your site.

Media Literacy: Activities for independent communication via media in an information society, and the technologies and knowledge that support these activities (Source: digitalstorytelling)

• Foreverism - Foreverism encompasses the many ways that consumers and businesses are embracing conversations, relationships, and products that are never done.
• Disaggregation of Higher Education - David Wiley draws a parallel between the disruption of the printing press on power structures of western society.
• Data Center Overload - As individuals become more distributed (think “clouds”) in data storage and social interactions, data centres become more important.
• Why Group Norms Kill Creativity - A homogeneous group is often not very effective at creativity. Individual diversity, connected, produces substantial advances.
• ED-MEDIA 2009 - It will be interesting to see how the increased use of social media will contribute to conference interactions, connections, and quality of participant experience
• Social Network Analysis: an Introduction - ...a great introduction to many network concepts from Barry Wellman and Alexandra Marin.

Media literacy is the ability to analyze and evaluate the media to which we are exposed; it is a complex subject. Although most of us suffer from sensory over-stimulation from media, most do not have the time, or do not take the time, to analyze the consequences of this exposure. (Source: University of New Mexico)

• Old Meets New - The use of QR codes, facebook, flickr, etc. offered a stark contrast to the need to physically “be there” to experience the ambiance of the castle.
• That Failing Newspaper Industry... - Transformative changes in other information-based industries should capture the attention of educators. A few recent newspaper-related stories.
• Tool Making and Language - The idea of language adds an interesting perspective on speaking and toolmaking as similar / related activities.
• From Plato To Perl: The Problem of Sociality and The 'Idea' - A presentation Chris Lott delivered titled From Plato to Perl: the Problem of Sociality and the 'Idea'.

"Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation, and understand the role of mass media and participatory media in constructing views of reality." (Source: Wikipedia)

• Where We Are Spending Time… - Facebook and Twitter are recording enormous increases in amount of time spent on their sites by visitors.
• Privacy Online: Google Is Watching - Offline, very few things are private - it wouldn’t take someone much time to find out my daily commute, coffee drinking habits, etc. Online, however, this information is more readily available. We can discover personal information about others with very little effort.
• Investigating The Application of Social Software To Support Networked Learning - ...suggests that “university students need to learn new network and software literacies to become digital citizens”.
• Google Wave - While Google has somewhat stalled in innovating in search, they have (with Apps, Docs, Knol, and now Wave) started to position themselves as a productivity and collaboration company.
• We Are Witnessing The Passing of Working-Class Masculinity - We are witnessing historical shifts as society re-creates value points not based solely on physical work and property.
• Modernizing Corporate Training - this post on modernizing corporate training is worth a read, even if only for the irony. It explores the history of corporate learning from 1980’s to today.
• How Much Information? - ...information workers, who comprise about 63% of the U.S. work force, are each bombarded with 1.6 gigabytes of information on average every day through emails, reports, blogs, text messages, calls and more.

Media literacy is an expanded information and communication skill that is responsive to the changing nature of information in our society. It addresses the skills students need to be taught in school, the competencies citizens must have as we consume information in our homes and living rooms, and the abilities workers must have as we move toward the 21st century and the challenges of a global economy. (Source: Telemedium)

• Will Higher Education Be The Next Bubble To Burst? - According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, over the past 25 years, average college tuition and fees have risen by 440 percent
• Rapid Internet Justice - We are re-creating our physical societal rules for the online environment. The ideals that should serve as a foundation are not yet defined…
• Technology For Teaching and Learning Transformation - George Siemens conducted with Kathleen Matheos a two-day workshop on Technology for teaching and learning transformation
• Challenges Faced by African Universities In Technology Integration - ...thoughts / comments from a workshop and discussion session with leaders in education and ICT from African universities
• African Elections - Technology, reflected in sites like African Elections, provides individuals with access to needed information and conversations. Controlling this information is increasingly difficult.

Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy. (Source: Center for Media Literacy)

• CCK08: Socialization As Information Object - ...an overview of the CCk08
• The Social Data Revolution(s) - Our generation suffers more under abundant information than previous generations.
• Videos of Recent Presentations - Videos of two recent presentations
• Public Engagement. Public Empowerment - Open tools will produce open conversations and open thinking
• Social Media In The Enterprise - 35+ examples of corporate social media presents a brief overview of how various organizations are beginning to use social media
• Technology Trends - Techcrunch reviews conference discussions of technologies trends for 2009
• Course to Dis/Course Recordings - From Courses to Dis/Course recordings are now available
• News and Content - The news industry continues to suffer under the impact of freely available content

Media Literacy is about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership - and to be aware of how these factors influence content. (Source: Media Awareness Network)

• Emergent Meaning or Prescription? - What if meaning emerges as a by-product of interaction… rather than something that exists externally (in the head of an expert) and is then communicated to prospective learners?
• The Psychology of Attention - Attention and multitasking is an important aspect of learning.
• Growth of Universities - Globally, enrollment in HE increased from 68 million in 1991 to 144 million in 2005.
• All Information Is Suspect - The big lesson of our Wikipedia-era is not that amateur information is potentially false, but rather that all information must be questioned.
• CNIE, uOttawa, and Mohawk College Presentation - Society builds institutions in response to the information needs and habits of an era.
• This Thing Called the Future - Which concepts / ideas / philosophies are of suitable force to serve as a foundation for building new institutions, business models, and even societies?