21st Century Learning - Recently Updated Pages

Curriculums / Portfolios

SIMKathy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:28:04 CST

Curriculum 2.0 video

1 min.

Our curriculum site has been discontinued.
We recommend you use Curriki

See also our related wiki for curriculum sharing:

As initial creators of this wiki, Vicki and I have discussed the need to add Curriculum Resources. Since this could potentially become a very big resource, we are test-driving a new wiki just for Curriculum Resources. Bilingual Education could become a separate section.
The wiki is here and it is public.
http://history4teachers.wetpaint.com/
(It started out as a history resources wiki hence the url).
---Kathy Johnson

Curriculum Sharing Sites

Open Planner

50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story
This is an excellent wiki site for launching students into multimedia storytelling with lists of web programs, copyright free images, sound, music and video.

Lesson Plan Archive: NY Times
The archive contains hundreds of free lesson plans for grades 6-12. You may perform a keyword search to retrieve a lesson, browse the archive by subject, or scroll down the page to view the most recently published lessons.

Seattle Public Schools builds social-learning site for its tech-savvy teens

By JESSICA BLANCHARD
P-I REPORTER/Thursday, June 21, 2007

Visit www.l3rn.com to see examples of Seattle Public Schools students' work.

Visit ASB Visual Arts - Preparing Students for the 21st Century to see how the art program at the American School of Bombay integrates 21st century skills with a Understanding by Design framework into its curriculum. This site provides a model that may be applicable to all subject areas. There is an invitation on the site to join an attached wiki about these issues.

21st Century Home

SIMKathy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:23:20 CST

NEW ACTION - discontinuing Curriculum Resources
Use Curriki instead. - see the Curriki page here.
Check out and contribute to our companion wiki
Curriculum Resources for Teachers

Welcome to the 21st Century Learning wiki*.

We are a community of educators embarking on a collaborative journey into the future of education, educational technologies and new curriculums in order to prepare our students to function in a competitive and rapidly changing global world.

Dedicated to:

New Content

Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Teaching

The Horizon Report 2009 The New Media Consortium & Educause Learning Initiative

Date
Content
Will remain on _____ page

12/18/08

Pew Report: The Future of the Internet III

Summary http://pewinternet.org/PPF/r/270/report_display.asp

Full Report http://pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_FutureInternet3.pdf

"A survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the
internet itself improves."

Mobile/Cell Phone Technology

NEW! Digital Youth Researc h released

November 22, 2008, "Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures" is a three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

21st Century Skills Map - For English
21st Century Skills Map - For Social Studies

These 21st Century Skills Maps are the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation.
The Partnership [for 21st C. Skills] issues these maps. [www.21stcenturyskills.org].

New Media Consortium (NMC) Keynote Speech - Technology and the Global Commons
A rare and incredible summary of educational shifts leaning towards collaborative learning which will eventually
build towards a Global Commons. (a bit long but worth it)

21st Century Skills (source: The Partnership for 21st Century Skills)

Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes
Communication & Collaboration
Creativity & Innovation
ICT Literacy

Promoting 21st Century Skills (podcast 56 min.) Apple Learning Interchange, Florida Ed. Techn. Conf. Jan. 2007
''Ken Kay is president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an organization dedicated to promoting a new vision of what students need to be successful in a globally competitive economy. Please visit www.21stcenturyskills.org for more information."

Vision of K12 Students Today, produced by B.J. Nesbitt

Did You Know video by Carl Fisch (6 minute video)

Today's students are Digital Natives. (7 minute video)

Web 2.0: The Machine is Us(ing Us) (4 minute video)

The Connected Classroom (4 minute video)

When I Grow Up (2 minute video)

Three Steps (3 min. video)

Information R/evolution (5.5 min. video)

A Vision of Students Today (5 min. video)

Life long abilities, behaviors and attitudes
This is a great blog post which outlines many different lists of abilities, qualities and skills necessary for the future of learning and working.

Hand It In
article excerpt:

"As educators we are facing the increasingly complex reality of a world where knowledge is abundant, where collaboration is the norm, and where students can begin to build networks and communities far beyond our classroom walls. Yet, our teaching and learning spaces are still defined by the traditional ideas that knowledge is scarce and that learning is situated by time and place. That traditional classroom concept must change if we want to remain relevant to our students lives and prepare them for their futures."

* What is a wiki? A wiki is a website that anyone can contribute to. Instead of having a webmaster submit all the content, anyone authorized may post content. It is meant to be a collective, collaborative, changing, reflection of our knowledge.

Definitions of wiki on the Web:

A website or similar online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively.
www.parliament.vic.gov.au/sarc/E-Democracy/Final_Report/Glossary.htm

A collection of websites of hypertext, each of them can be visited and edited by anyone. “Wiki wiki” means "rapidly" in the Hawaiian language.
www.cpsr-peru.org/english_version/privacy_ngo/part4
______________________________________________________

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

By Marc Prensky From On the Horizon (NCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001) © 2001 Marc Prensky http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Excerpts:

Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

It is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.

The single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License

* SEE our companion wiki: Curriculum Resources for Teachers.

This wiki was conceived by Vicki Butler, started by Kathleen Johnson and hopefully will be continued by "You" (yes, that you, the Time Person of the Year 2006)
This wiki replaces PowerPoint as a presentation structure for a workshop Kathy and Vicki gave at PNAIS October 12, 2007, in Portland Oregon.
kjohnson@seattleacademy.org
vbutler@seattleacademy.org

Seattle Academy (see blog review by David Warlick)
Pacific Northwest Association for Independent Schools

** Other examples of education wikis

Optional music player:
Below is an embedded playlist from Imeem. You can choose songs from this list to play while you surfing or creating on this 21st Century Learning wiki.
You can disable the songs you don't want to hear by clicking the left hand circle next to the title of the piece. The music will stop if you navigate away from this page so right click on new pages and "Open Link in New Window" to keep the music flowing.

Telepresence

SIMKathy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:13:04 CDT

"Telepresence refers to the application of complex video technologies to give geographically separated participants a sense of being together in the same location."

from Educause Seven Things You Should Know (below)

Seven Things you Should Know about Telepresence

Classroom of the Future

A model of an interactive immersive classroom that we have been developing and installing for over 10 years. This video shows one that includes Underwater ROV (Remotely-Operated Vehicles), remote Internet2 video feeds, combined with serious gaming.

Data Visualization

SIMKathy — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:07:43 CDT

NEW! This is an amazing video of how data can be portrayed, merged, visualized in order to help us predict the effect of the environment on man and the effect of man on the environment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z3e8gC1_qQ

New ways of visualizing data are giving us new kinds of knowledge:

Media Clouds and Media David Warlick 2cents Worth blog

Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen
This TED Talk video shows us how data can be visualized and animated taking us out of the world of pie charts and simple graphs.

Open Content Movement

SIMKathy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:40:32 CDT

.
Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge (Hardcover)
.
by Toru Iiyoshi (Editor), M. S. Vijay Kumar (Editor), John Seely Brown (Foreword)
Key Phrases: open technology, widening participation, learning initiative, Creative Commons, The Collective Advancement of Education, Opening Up Education (more...)

NEW! Defining “Noncommercial”: A Study of How the Online Population Understands “Noncommercial Use” was published September 14, 2009:
A global open content or open access movement includes scientists, teachers, librarians, patient advocacy groups, lawmakers, and many others working to keep information free for all global citizens. Published by Creative Commons.

"Open Access (OA) is free, immediate, permanent online access to the full text of research articles for anyone, webwide."

"I thoroughly support universal free access to research. The wonderful thing about ideas is more people being exposed to more ideas leads to still more ideas."
— Dr. Richard Smith, former Editor of the British Medical Journal, member of the PLoS Board of Directors

Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Teaching (.pdf)

Open Access News - blog All the latest on Open Access in Higher Education

K12 Open Ed wiki

Open Educational Resources - download, share and remix science videos

Teachers Domain Digital media for the classroom and professional development

Internet Archives

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library,they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

PLoS is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.

Wikipedia: School and University Projects

250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives

The sites listed here are mainly open access, which means that the digital formats are viewable and usable by the general public.

What to do with Wikipedia Wikipedia
There is much controversy surround the use of Wikipedia and this article provides a thoughtful summary of the issues.

Social Networking for Teachers

lrozelle — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:31:25 CDT

EdTechTalk is a webcasting network of teachers who share experiences, tools, ideas and weekly experiences. This sitecurrently webcasts nine different showsincluding one called 21st Century Learning.

NING = "Create your own social networking for anything." Ning is flexible and can incorporate many of the new widgets including instant talk, music, chat, etc.

Ning in education site

Steve Hargadon has started a social networking site for teachers on Ning. It is called Classroom 2.0 and already has almost 2,000 members. Ning seems to be rising to the top of social networking sites for education professionals.

A Ning site for Librarians (Library 2.0 - what else?) was created by Bill Drew and boasts more than 2,000 members.

You can join existing Ning sites or create your own networking group with a focus of your choice.

New Literacies

SIMKathy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:03:19 CDT

“New communications media are reshaping the way we use language. When technologies of meaning are changing so rapidly, there cannot be one set of standards or skills that constitute the ends of literacy learning, however taught.”

Literacy 101 The connection between literacy and gaming

Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures New London Group. (1996).

- Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.
NEW! The National Council of Teachers of English
Definition of 21st Century Literacies
Position Statement on Multimodal Literacies

New Media Consortium
NMC Media Literacy: A Global Imperative: The Report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit (2005)
This is an incredibly important paper, and still as relevant today as it was four years ago. A must read!

Digital Learning Literacies:
http://123elearning.wikispaces.com/Digital+Literacy

New Literacies
http://newliteracy.wikispaces.com/

Designing spaces for new media literacy learning.

Library 2.0

SIMKathy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:08:42 CDT

Report - The Survey of American College Students: Student Evaluation of Information Literacy (not free)

NEW! Screencasting for Libraries

NEW! Welcome to the Multimedia for Information Literacy Wiki!
The concept behind this wiki is to help consolidate a variety of multimedia resources that will assist the teaching of information literacy.
In this wiki you will find links to videos, online tutorials, comic strips, info lit blogs, handouts and more! If it is related to information literacy and might help engage a visual or auditory learner, then it belongs here! The site is arranged by topic, rather than by medium, so if you are teaching a session about copyright, on that page you will find videos, handouts, etc. It is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather the best of what is freely available on the web.

NEW!
What Today’s College Students Say about Conducting Research in the Digital Age - Preliminary Research Findings
Project Information Literacy - Alison J. Head and Mike Eisenberg

Fifty Ways to Love Your Library

Research Process Models Compaired

Information Literacy Resources	Joyce Valenza's Home Page	Literacy Forum ...a community of people interested in the use of technology to improve literacy throughout the world.
Excellent Course on Searching in a Web 2.0 world	TeacherLibrarianWiki	NEW! NAIS Professional Practice Guidelines

"Nowadays every citizen needs to be information literate, a 21st-century form of literacy built upon the four fundamental pillars of education which constitute the very foundations of society. These are learning to know, to do, to be and to live together."
-- from Media Education, a UNESCO publication: 2006 (link in Multimedia category of this wiki)

OPAL - Online Programming for All Libraries
OPAL is an international collaborative effort by libraries of all types to provide web-based programs and training for library users and library staff members.

Reference in the Age of Communication

New Media / Multimedia

SIMKathy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:04:03 CDT

Wikipedia entry

Wikipedia entry for Multimedia Literacy

Unesco Media Kit

New Media = Digital Media
Multimedia = multiple forms of content and/or information processing

Text
Games
Video
Audio
Simulations
3-d Virtual Realities

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century
Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
an occasional white paper 2006

Presentation Zen - a blog on presentations! One to explore for sure!

Five Ways You Can Use Video in the Classroom

Teachers Domain Multimedia Resources for the Classroom and Professional Development

50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story
This is an excellent wiki site for launching students into multimedia storytelling with lists of web programs, copyright free images, sound, music and video.

I/O Brush video: MIT Media Lab 2005

Filmmaker's Tool Kit
Excellent tools reviewed for every phase of the film production cycle.

School's Over: Learning Spaces in Europe in 2020: An Imagining Exercise on the Future of Learning

SIMKathy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:57:50 CDT

Authors: Riel Miller, Hanne Shapiro and Knud Erik Hilding-Hamann
Editors: Yves Punie, Kirsti Ala-Mutka and Christine Redecker
EUR Number: 23532 EN
Publication date: 10/2008

Abstract

This report uses a rigorous imagining approach to develop an alternative way of organizing learning in Europe whereby the traditional school system no longer plays a significant role. This study shows that, on the basis of phenomena already present in Europe today, it is possible to invent a discontinuous model of how people learn and how what they learn is used in everyday life. At the core of this model is a carefully elaborated idea of learning spaces that encompass new ways of ensuring that people have the capacity to control, direct, share and deepen their knowledge throughout their lives. These multi-dimensional learning spaces are imagined as operating in a systemically different economic and social context. One where non-technocratic, non-hierarchical learning is central to the production of local well-being and community based identity. “School’s Over” is meant to challenge both the functional and organizational assumptions that currently dominate, often implicitly, the choices being made today.

Documents available

Document Format Size Links

Publication

application/pdf

2.07 MB

HTTP FTP

Virtual/Online Schools

SIMKathy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:56:34 CDT

Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills - a report by NACOL (The North American Council for Online Learning and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills November 2006

Standards

vbutler — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:07:02 CDT

ISTE NETS•S Refresh

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

AASL & AECT Information Power Learning Standards

ACRL Information Literacy Standards

NACOL National Standards of Quality for Online Courses ( released 9/14/07)

21st Century Skills Map - For English
21st Century Skills Map - For Social Studies

These 21st Century Skills Maps are the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation.
The Partnership [for 21st C. Skills] issues these maps. [www.21stcenturyskills.org].

Of Note:

In 2006 and ongoing in 2007, Information Literacy and Technology Fluency standards are being revised to reflect new literacies which have been created by new internet technologies

International Society for Technology in Education
ISTE NETS Refresh
In 2006, ISTE began work on the next generation of NETS for Students, which focuses more on skills and expertise and less on tools.

creativity and innovation;
communication and collaboration;
research and information fluency;
critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making;
digital citzenenship; and
technology operations and concepts

American Association of School Librarians AASL Learning Standards In order to recognize the changing role of school library media programs now and in the future, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has begun to develop new learning standards for school library media programs. The Learning Standards Rewrite Task Force has reviewed and considered all comments and questions submitted on the first and second draft. The Task Force is now working to complete the final document.
The new Standards will be launched at the AASL National Conference in Reno in October 2007.

Even Bloom's Taxonomy has been revised. Here is a powerpoint slide show that explains the changes and how to incorporate them into your teaching.
Bloom's Taxonomy PowerPoint

The Future

Synerjyz — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:54:00 CDT

"The future is already here. It's just not widely distributed." Tim O'Reilly

Geo-spatial Technologies

SIMKathy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:32:50 CDT

... and Space-spatial Technologies!

Pedagogy

SIMKathy — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:10:32 CDT

**See our companion wiki: Curriculum Resources for Teachers

Top Ten Things We Learned From K12 Students.doc, 105 KB
Julie Evans is the CEO of Project Tomorrow (www.tomorrow.org), a national education nonprofit organization (formerly known as NetDay).

The EDUCAUSE Top Teaching and Learning Challenges 2009

Creating learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and knowledge creation.
Developing 21st century literacies (information, digital, and visual) among students and faculty.
Reaching and engaging today's learner.
Encouraging faculty adoption and innovation in teaching and learning with IT.
Advancing innovation in teaching and learning with technology in an era of budget cuts.

There is quite likely no substitute for the experience of feeling empowered. . . if we hope for children to pursue learning enthusiastically within the structure of a classroom or a school. Learning and power are inextricably linked. [The Game of School, p. 65]

The Game of School: Why We All Play It, How It Hurts Kids,and What It Will Take to Change It (Hardcover) by Robert L. Fried !

NEW!

EDUCAUSE Community Names the Top Teaching and Learning Challenges of 2009

Metiri Group

We hear this word and what do we mean by pedagogy? This is the act of teaching and learning. How does this appear in our dynamic world of our classrooms? Is it teacher centered? Student centered? Are teachers the "sage on the stage" or the "wizard in the wings"? Are we facilitators, mentors, managers?

teaching; assisting students through interaction and activity in the ongoing academic and social events of the classroom.
www.crede.org/tools/glossary.html
Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. The word comes from the ancient Greek paidagogos, the slave who took children to and from school. (See Paideia.) The word "paida" refers to children, which is why some like to make the distinction between pedagogy (teaching children) and andragogy (teaching adults). The Latin word for pedagogy, education, is much more widely used, and often the two are used interchangeably.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy

Connectivism
Alternative to the behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, the three broad learning theories

Principles of connectivism:

Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

From "The Thinking Stick"

I don’t want to integrate it, I want to embed it!

September 24th, 2007 by Jeff Utecht

As I quickly scan my blog alerts - this recent addition jumps into the discussion of pedagogy...

I just read the article and Jeff has a good point about state of school districts still stuck in the "integration of technology" mode, as opposed to beginning to think about "embedding" the technology within the curriculum itself. I recommmend not only reading Jeff's thoughts, but the insightful comments that follow.

Learn More:

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - Home

Do Schools Kill Creativity
Sir Ken Robinson. TEDTalks video 20 min.

Video: Teaching Teaching Understanding Understanding
A great explanation of constructivist pedagogy

Skeptics Page

SIMKathy — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:11:44 CST

I remember a wise corporation I worked for that institutionalized the expression of dissenting views. Not only was it ok to disagree, new perspectives were encouraged and documented. I always felt this was a healthy stance and enriches the conversations we are having.

So here it is: The Skeptics Page -- for everything we want to say that might take a cautionary, negative, different, or eccentric tone. Feel free to note issues, challenges, problems, and send in your comments. We are all learning, the technology is emerging, nothing is certain, everything is changing. -KJ

To kick off the dissent I offer this thoughtful blogpost from Artichoke:

"Corruptio optimi pessima the corruption of the best is the worst"

Beating Up on 21st Century Skills

From the issue dated January 30, 2009

The End of Solitude As everyone seeks more and broader connectivity, the still, small voice speaks only in silence

Distance Learning/Blended Learning

SIMKathy — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:06:17 CST

NACOL (N. American Council for Online Learning) & The Partnership for 21st Century Skills: Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills

from EduTechie.com blog

U.S. Distance Education Report (2008) - At the end of December, 2008, the US Dept of Education released the results of their first look at distance learning in higher education. They found that 2/3 of colleges and universities are offering online, hybrid/blended, or other distance learning.

Lunch 2.0

lesliekm — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:16:41 CST

What is wrong with this picture?
Ann Cooper: Reinventing the School Lunch
A Ted Talk: Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, "renegade lunch lady" Ann Cooper talks about the coming revolution in the way kids eat at school -- local, sustainable, seasonal and even educational food.

Info Lit Standards

SIMKathy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:31:10 CST

Association of College and Research Libraries
Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators

from ILI listserv:
ICT Proficiencies Measure Both Cognitive and Technical Skills (pdf)
http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/ICT_Literacy/pdf/ICT_Seven_Proficiencies.
pdf

ICT Literacy for Living, Learning and Working (ppt)
http://www2.edc.org/ewit/materials/ICTliteracyforlivingetc.ppt

Chapter 3: IT Fluency: What Is It, and Why Do We Need It? (pdf)
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7006f.pdf

Being Fluent with Information Technology - Google Books
by National Research Council, 1999
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=4KKW1KNQVTwC&dq=IT+fluency&prints
ec=frontcover&source=web&ots=9xrrKu4J9j&sig=DwxvXirx2qlUXCN1MXe5xLP1cMA&
ei=CN-eSaumE9G3tweku8iTDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

Blogs

SIMKathy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:40:09 CST

Commoncraft Intro Video

NEW! Best Education blogs of 2008

Blogs in education: http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/

Top 100 Education Blogs: http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs

Educational Blogging: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1

Microblogging

Twitter. The big daddy of microblogging, cocreated by blogger Evan Williams, who also helped launch what is now Google’s Blogger. While plagued by erratic service because of huge growth, Twitter remains the standard bearer here. Plurk. This service centered on “conversations” in a time line view has created a very loyal following, but also makes it hard to read except in a Web browser. Jaiku. Bought by Google over a year ago and currently closed to new users, Jaiku is worth watching because Google’s so darn good at making applications work well for the masses. Utterli. Allowing users to post audio, video, pictures, or text, Utterli is microblogging on steroids and confusing for all its feature richness. It is billed as a “group messaging service,” in which all these services should be moving. Shout’em. The new kid on the block, but with an intriguing twist: Shout’em lets you create your own microblogging community service. Young but promising. Identi.ca. Built on the open source platform Laconica, Identi.ca will allow different microblogging services to talk to each other. Can be installed on your own server. --from Steve Hargadon in School Library Journal - Gadgets News