One thing I have really enjoyed about etmooc is the connections that I am making with passionate educators in Alberta and around the globe.

The current theme in etmooc is The Open Movement – Open Access, OERs & Future of Ed. I am learning, making new connections, and discovering new resources. The etmooc experience has been all-encompassing. I missed the weekly Twitter chat last night; and when I got home I felt a little disconnected from my new circle.

Here is what I have been musing about. In the browser that Ghostery is monitoring for me, these are the tabs that have open:

Open Education:

Alan Levine (@cogdog)‘s True Stories of Openness, a collection of stories “of powerful individual accomplishments from the simple act of openly sharing what they create, their ideas, or just themselves.” It is a really inspiring site. @cogdog hosted a True Stories of Openness blackboard session earlier this week. I got home very late so I only caught the last fifteen minutes of the session. Once things slow down I am going to listen to the archive.

Open Letter to a Teacher urges teachers to licence their work by adding a creative commons licence so others know they are free to use the work, and the conditions under which they can do so. It’s an easy way to contribute to the open education movement.

Natalie says that “sustainable pedagogies (ie. ecopedagogy and critical pedagogy of sustainability) and connectivist open learning may be mutually reinforcing” in Educational Technology, Media and Sustainability.

I liked Susan Spellman Cann‘s Hope in My Ideal School. When Susan opens her school I would love to work there!

I am exploring how the open learning philosophy can help us connect with teachers as we prepare to launch CTF. I hope to provide all of our resources as open education resources, and I hope that the open education model can help us share CTF with teachers. It’s not an approach that Alberta Education normally takes; but I have hope that it’s possible to embrace open learning and still live within the bureaucratic framework.

Although I could have met Verena Roberts any time over the past few years, our paths have not crossed until now. We have conversed on Twitter and in Google+, but we met this week in a G+ Hangout with Kirsten Tschofen. Verena has already shared many resources I plan to use, including her Creating an Open Classroom Mooc and the Alberta Distance Learning Centre’s Open Education Resources Live Binder.

Yesterday Verena hosted an Open Education panel that I watched live-stream with some of my co-workers. We missed the very beginning and end of the session, but it was still a great way to introduce them to the concept of open education and consider Google+ Hangouts could be used for webinars. Here is the Storify I created with Tweets from the session:

Another new connection is Maureen Crawford, who has done some research to support CTF and I am going to work with in the Leading Strategic Innovations Mooc that I have just started. Maureen made this RSA-style video for Edmonton Public School Board’s Leadership Development program
EPSB Leadership Development Framework

I was impressed by Adora Svitak‘s TED talk, What Adults Can Learn From Kids; she is better spoken than many adults I know.

Howard Rheingold stars in two of my moocs

A few weeks ago I participated in Howard Rheingold‘s etmooc session T3S2 – Literacies of Attention, Crap Detection, Participation, Collaboration & Network Know-How. I enjoyed the session and took copious notes, the crowd-sourced notes are better. You can check out the archive of the session here. Howard’s mini-course on Crap Detection can be found here.

I am currently reading his Peerology. One of the readings for my Social Media Mooc is Howard’s history of The Well, The Virtual Community. I just started to explore his Participatory Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies.

Other Interesting Stuff

I can’t remember who shared the link to this Vintage Social Media but I have enjoyed it.

I like Shauna Neissen‘s exploration of Digital Literacies.

I have two really dense posts, thick with ideas open from Paul Signorelli and Associates: Revisiting our recent wicked past malcolm brown john cleese creativity etmooc and light-bulbs and Adaptability to Online Education: Replacing Failure with Success.

I enjoyed Debbie Fucoloro‘s post Our Right to Forget and Be Forgotten, Carolyn Durley’s Digital Iceberg and what Margaret Powers has to say about digitally literacy.

Finally I am intrigued by this recent story of Computer Made Animations.