Learning

(More than 100 of my interviews with digital media & learning innovators)

Syllabi

Social Media Literacies (Based on Net Smart)

First taught at Stanford, Winter 2013. Editable Google Doc version (ask me for editing privs) and editable Google Doc high school version (ask me).

Social Media Issues

I’ve taught this course at Stanford since 2007. I also taught an earlier version of this course at U.C. Berkeley’s School of Information and Department of Sociology.

Digital Journalism

I taught this course at Stanford 2005-2010.

Introduction to Mind Amplifiers

This is the first course I offered via Rheingold U. It changes with each iteration, in response to co-learners. It has been through five iterations so far.

Introduction to Cooperation Theory

This grew out of the 2005 Stanford seminar and my work with Institute for the Future. I’ve offered it twice, so far.

Social Media Literacies

I was invited to create this proposed course for Stanford’s Winter 2013 quarter; it’s working its way through the academic bureaucracy. Here is a forked version that I’m expanding for college (and eventually high school) instructors everywhere.

Stanford University Faculty Page

Minicourses

With the html assistance of Joey Mornin, I developed a series of standalone mini-courses that include videos, links to resources, and a feed from my Diigo/Delicious tags for the topic.

Network Literacy

The Public Sphere in the Age of the Internet

Cooperation Theory

Infotention

Crap Detection

Learning Platforms

Some tips for teaching higher ed online (2020)

Good teaching is hard, and teaching well online is harder. And right now, many teachers are being forced to dive into the deep end of online teaching without instruction in how to do it well. However, the same recentering of attention on student participation and collaboration — what I and others call co-learning — can elicit enthusiastic engagement and rich dialog online as well as in the physical classroom. I taught blended learning courses for ten years at UC Berkeley and Stanford — three hours of face-to-face meeting each week, with forum, blog, and wiki learning activities spread over the week between classroom sessions. For eight years, I taught my own online courses at what I called “Rheingold U.” Here are a few tips.

The Social Media Classroom (2008)

I received an award from HASTAC/Macarthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning competition, which I used to pay developer Sam Rose to create a browser-based, free and open source, social media classroom with forums, blogs, wikis, social bookmarks, and mindmaps.

Social Media Lesson Plans — scaffolding for educators who teach and learn social media (2008-2010).

The Peeragogy Project (2012)

When I was invited to deliver the Regents Lecture at UC Berkeley this year, I proposed a lecture about my experiences using social media in teaching and learning, leading up to a proposed project: students would join me in two face-to-face seminars of about two hours; between face-to-face meetings we would meet online via forum, wiki, and one live session with the Blackboard Collaborate platform. We would be joined by others online who might not have attended the lecture and/or face to face seminars, with the objective of creating a living resource for self-organized groups of self learners — a peeragogy handbook that would complement existing resources such as the book in progress by Joe Corneli and Charles Danoff, including guidelines and annotated resource guides to methods, theories, tools, examples, and more. A year later, a core community of around a dozen, supported by another dozen, continues to improve the Handbook For Self-Learners.

How to Create a Learning Environment with Open-Source Tools (Part one) (August 13, 2013)

Inspired by Jim Groom’s ds106 course, I asked him to show me how to set up a hub for a course learning community, using the WordPress platform. In this one hour video, we talk about the why as well as they how, and Groom shows how to create a WordPress site, create pages, add plug-ins, feeds, and other widgets, and begin to customize the theme.

How to Create a Learning Environment with Open-Source Tools (Part two) (August 15, 2013)

In this episode, we talk about why to use wikis in learning, how to experiment with themes, and how to set up a Mediawiki within a WordPress platform.

How to Create a Learning Environment with Open-Source Tools (Part three) (August 21, 2013)

In this episode, we talk about assessment, WordPress themes, customizing menus, uploading headers.

Videos/Presentations

Howard Rheingold on Leadership in Education (August, 2016)

LLOHW 2016 – Howard Rheingold: Counterculture + Social Media = Edupunk Pedagogy (June, 2016)

Thank you to my two most influential teachers (March, 2016)

Ten minute description of essential media literacies (March, 2016)

A good 20 minute conversation with Renee Hobbs about literacies of attention, crap detection, participation, collaboration, network know-how (June, 2015)

Interview at Online Educa Conference, Berlin (January, 2015)

Curated selection of more than 50 of my video interviews/blog posts about digital media and learning innovators.

Co-learning, Social Media, Peeragogy (April 22, 2014)

Video of presentation to online Learning Revolution webinar

Roundtable on Reinventing Learning (March 7, 2013)

Connected Learning Session on Peeragogy (April 10, 2012)

UC Berkeley Regents’ Lecture: Toward Peeragogy (January 25, 2011)

Using Social Media in Learning and Co-Learning eXtension (2011)

One of the first times I presented about this subject was for an online seminar for eXtension, which recorded it — audio, video, slides, chat.

Collab Tech 2010 Keynote: Social Media, Participative Pedagogy, and Digital Literacies  (May 16, 2010)

Articles By Howard

(More than 100 of my interviews with digital media & learning innovators)

Bryan Alexander: Connected Educator (August, 2016)

“What is Dr. Alexander telling educators about what they should be doing in their institutions? His main emphasis is on openness — not only using applications and resources that are non-proprietary such as Open Education Resources, but open courses like ds106, Phonar, and Connected Courses in which the students in the physical classroom can be joined online by others online — sometimes thousands of others.”

Martha Burtis: Building and Supporting Online Spaces for Collaboration and Learning (May, 2016)

“When building an online space, start with thinking about the experience you want your students to have. What values do you want to be integrated into this experience or underpinned by it? Start with the the experiences and values, not the thing you need to share or activity you need to replicate.”

Jesse Stommel: Hybrid Pedagogy and Digital Pedagogy (March, 2016)

“Jesse Stommel, executive director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies at the University of Mary Washington and director of the Hybrid Pedagogy and Digital Pedagogy Lab, recalls starring in a high school play about a one-room schoolhouse teacher: ‘I’ve been inspired ever since by this idea of a one-room schoolhouse — not necessarily in a single physical location. I’ve been thinking for quite a while about how to make the entire world into a one-room schoolhouse.’”

Sofya Zeylikman: Teaching and Learning at the Intersection of Science and Design (February, 2016)

“‘The way an engineer, a scientist, a designer looks at a problem — these are all just different lenses with which to view objects or problems. Because designers, especially furniture designers, also design systems that people use, it’s not just about physical objects, but includes thinking about humans. Maybe the biggest difference in my approach is a focus on how people interact with each other and how the built environment affects human interactions in different ways,” Zeylikman says.

Cas Holman Creates Tools for the Imagination (December, 2015)

Toymaking (creating “tools for the imagination”) is, for Cas Holman, all about learning. “Play and a playful pedagogy are so relevant to students. We don’t know what future jobs are going to be. Students are going to graduate into a world that contains roles we haven’t seen before. Every few years, whole new opportunities to do and be in ways that nobody has seen before open up, whether it’s about supporting ourselves or expressing ourselves or about how we move through the world. So I think that as younger generations come up, they should learn how to be good at inventing new models of how to be. One of the things I like about working with undergraduates is getting to plant that seed – you don’t have to become something you already see. Make your own version, whether it’s your business, your work, who you are as a person.”

Jean Kaneko: Tinkering to Learn (November, 2015)

She encourages educators to experiment with making connections between projects and subjects, problem-solving and peers, between multiple subjects, and navigating all these actions with mandated standards – and when you learn something that works, help your peers navigate the territory you’ve explored.

Paola Ricaurte Quijano: Using Global Connections for Learning and Problem-Solving (October, 2015)

She encourages her students to take full advantage of technology and the connected nature of their lives to enhance learning and solve problems in their communities and beyond.

Darren Kuropatwa: Fostering Voice, Ownership, and Understanding Online (September, 2015)

By 2010, Kuropatwa’s students are finding and sharing resources around a class hashtag. One night, the students started using the blog as a chat space through a comment thread. One of them commented that she wished they had a tag board. Darren didn’t know what that was, but he found out, and provided one for his students.

Letter to a Young Learner (August, 2015)

I wrote this as a personal assignment for a gifted twelve year old learner — about learning how to learn independently, to reflect, and to go deeper.

Lowline Project: Transforming Urban Space and Learning (June, 2015)

A project doesn’t have to be digital to embody connected learning principles: for example, the Lowline Project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (“the world’s first underground park”), combines educational outreach, social connectedness, interest-based learning, shared purpose, equity, social connection, and full participation. Interaction is face-to-face and involves public service organizations, local schools, and settlement houses.

Laura Ritchie: Connecting Students Through Music (May, 2015)

Laura Ritchie is a teacher, researcher, performer, and learner. She is currently a Reader in Pedagogy at the University of Chichester. She created Cello Weekend, a time for complete beginners to come together with novices, students, and professionals to learn to play the cello. Through Connected Courses, she created an open, online connected course about creating a curriculum for connected learning about music.

Brianna Crowley: Building Connection and Community Through Social Media (April, 2015)

Brianna Crowley is a Pennsylvania high school teacher who encourages her students to use social media tools to express themselves and expand agency in the classroom. She also asks her students to use these platforms to teach each other about a range of topics and to build a sense of connectedness and community.

Laura Fleming: Creating Spaces for Students to Make (March, 2015)

Traditional geographic community-based places of learning and knowledge are now also growing into places of learning and knowing through making. If you are interested in adding a makerspace to your school or public library, Laura Fleming, media specialist for New Jersey’s New Milford High School, can give you helpful hints.

Kim Jaxon: Empowering Students Through Co-learning (February, 2015)

“I don’t put students in groups so they can learn to work in groups or be social…I put people in groups because I think that’s how knowledge is created–by people who talk though ideas and puzzle through problems.”

Zack Baker: App Builder and Co-Learning Leader (January, 2015)

Zack Baker, a 16-year-old high school junior in Noblesville, Indiana, told me that the most important skill when learning how to code is knowing how to search Stack Overflow, the free online question and answer site where both expert programmers and novice learners solve problems together. For Zack, an accomplished app creator since age 14, learning how to program has always been networked, peer-supported, interest-powered, and participatory.

Veronica Valenzuela: Experimenting With Code to Open Up Learning Pathways (October, 2014)

“For those who doubt that “playing around” with seemingly trivial online games can lead to more robust learning, note that Veronica’s introduction to her ability to make her own web objects was her use of Neopets.com at age nine.”

Mia Zamora: Helping Educators Understand Connected Learning (September, 2014)

“We educators have this need or impulse to take an expert stance in the classroom,” says Mia Zamora, Associate Professor of English at Kean University. “I found that relinquishing some of that stance and giving students ways to be the experts can lead them to lean over each other’s shoulders, teaching each other as they teach themselves, and ultimately teaching me something I didn’t know.”

Ian Gonsher: Building the Conditions for Creativity in the Classroom (August, 2014)

“I’m interested in helping students create artifacts and experiences that have meaning, value, and utility and working with students as co-learners to help them define what those words mean to them.”

Rikke Toft Nørgård: A Connected Educator Embracing ‘Gelatinous Pedagogy’ (August, 2014)

If you want something more than students progressing according to plan against teacher-set goals, start out by thinking “How do I invite students to take matters into their own hands? How do I allow for them to become agents of change?

Danielle Filipiak: A Connected Educator Helping Students Find Meaning In Their Learning (May, 2014)

Engaging students in their learning starts with listening to what is going on in their lives outside the classroom and co-designing projects that involve their real-world interests.

Caroline Combemale: An Engaged Teen Teaching Others (May, 2014)

Today’s engaged learners are also teachers.

Improving Improvement in Education: Louis Gomez (January 30, 2014)

Applying Doug Engelbart’s ideas of networked improvement communities to education reforem

DS106: Enabling Open, Public, Participatory Learning (January 27, 2014)

A case study of a pioneering course in which teachers and students work together on interest-based, peer-to-peer, open, networked learning at the University of Mary Washington — and around the world

Attention and Other 21st Century Literacies Educause Review (2010)

A preview to my book, addressed to educators interested in technology, about essential social media literacies, starting with attention.

Attention Literacy SFGate (April, 2009)

“The point of this story isn’t to get everyone to pay attention to me or professors in general – it’s that I want my students to learn that attention is a skill that must be learned, shaped, practiced; this skill must evolve if we are to evolve.”

Mindful Infotention: Dashboards, Radars, and Filters (September, 2009)

“Infotention is a word I came up with to describe the psycho-social-techno skill/tools we all need to find our way online today, a mind-machine combination of brain-powered attention skills with computer-powered information filters.”

Is Multitasking Evil, Or Are Most of Us Illiterate? Encyclopedia Britannica Blog (2009)

I was asked to comment on an article about distraction by Maggie Jackson, a technology critic whose opinions I don’t always agree with but do respect.

Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies Freesouls (2011)

Joi Ito asked a number of his friends to contribute to a book of his cc-licensed photographs of people in the digital culture and social media worlds. Joi is now director of MIT Media Lab.

Blogeando en Ciencias de la Educacion: Pedagogía Participativa para una Alfabetización de … (2008)

Spanish translation of my article, “Participatory Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies” Pedagogía Participativa para una Alfabetización de Alfabetizaciones  12/31/2008

R.I.P.: Lectures, Notes, and Tests (Scrapping the Old Ways) Encyclopædia Brittanica Blog (October 27, 2008)

“Before I got to Wesch’s notion of a ‘crisis of significance,’ I had probed my students about exactly what was going on with them, and it was clear that they had been bored for years.”

Entrepreneurial learning in the networked age Paradigmes no. 1. Talent management (December 2008)

“How new learning environments foster entrepreneurship and innovation” [PDF Document] Coauthored by Max Senges, Stanford University, and John Seely Brown, University of Southern California and member on the NPRI Internacional Advisor Panel

Using Participatory Media and Public Voice to Encourage Civic Engagement (2007)

Teaching young people how to use digital media to convey their public voices could connect youthful interest in identity exploration and social interaction with direct experiences of civic engagement. Learning to use blogs, wikis , podcasts  and digital video as media of self-expression, with an emphasis on “public voice,” should be considered a pillar—not just a component—of twenty-first-century civic curriculum.

Blog Posts for DML Central (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) The whole collection in one spot here.

I interviewed educators who use digital media innovatively, including video interviews and blog posts. Thanks to master editors Jeff Brazil and Mimi Ko Cruz for illustrations, headlines, copy-editing.

Media and Civic Engagement: Growing Youth Enthusiasm (March 19, 2018)

Democracy is not just about choosing your own leaders. Democracy can only take root in a population that is free enough and educated enough to discuss issues, form public opinion, and influence policy.

Networked Publics: Learning and Creating as Global, Interconnected, Interactive, Community Enterprise (February 26, 2018)

Consider the difference between writing an essay for the teacher and maybe getting a gold star or a good grade, and publishing the same essay online and receiving comments from people around the world

Making Is a Stance Toward Learning: Combining Learner Agency with Tinkering, Debugging, and Project Based Learning (February 12, 2018)

The tyranny of correct answers masks a vital and essential element of learning — the practice of debugging.

Co-Learning: Modeling Cooperative-Collaborative Learning (January 29, 2018)

Moving the classroom chairs in a circle had radical effects on the way we all looked at our learning: As I told my students, if we transported a warrior from 1,000 years ago to a present-day battlefield, he would die quickly; if we transported a surgeon from 1,000 years ago to a modern operating room, he wouldn’t know what to do; but, if we transported students and a teacher from 1,000 years ago to most contemporary classrooms, everyone would know where to sit, who was in charge, who would speak, and who would remain silent.

Learner Agency: Sharing Control of the Classroom Agenda (January 15, 2018)

When I reflect on the 10 years I spent teaching at UC Berkeley and Stanford, and look back over the 127 interviews I did with innovators in digital media and learning, “learner agency” was the first thought that came to mind when I asked myself about what still seems important.

Combining Art and Technology Engages Students (August 28, 2017)

To maker-educators Fabrice Florin and Edward Janne, maker ed is not just about the technology: “the real power comes from enabling students to build their own projects, combining art, technology, and storytelling,” they insist.

Promoting a Global Community of Educators (July 3, 2017)

Wouldn’t it be great if someone could find, convene, and facilitate educators and futurists to map the ideal future of education, then grow a global community of educators who could bring the ideals of that map into the realities of educational institutions?

Turning Teaching Over To Students (May 13, 2017)

Michael Wesch’s YouTube videos gave me the courage — and the ideas — to turn more and more of the responsibility for not just learning, but teaching, over to my students.

Turning Bullies Into Leaders Through Writing (April 13, 2017)

When their writing is read and praised by others, “bullies become class leaders — they want attention, acknowledgement, appreciation.

The Power of Digital Writing and Connected Learning (March 16, 2017)

“Sharing power in a system rooted in not sharing power is a pretty tough go,” was the first thing Terry Elliott said when I asked him about his longstanding work in student empowerment — from unschooling his own, now grown, children, to encouraging high school students to blog about a real local issue (bus safety) way back in 2002.

The Importance of Connected Learning Leadership (February 27, 2017)

At the beginning of our conversation, Emily Vickery cautioned: “I can’t talk about being a connected educator without talking about teacher leadership.”

Netprov: Storytelling as Performing Art (January 15, 2017)

I’m no longer surprised when new media trends turn out to be rooted in decades-old practices. Netprov — networked, improvised storytelling in available media — is a “new” media form that actually goes back to the early days of computer-mediated communication (decades before the term “social media” emerged).

Practicing the Principles of Connected Learning (December 5, 2016)

I’ve met and profiled active contributors for years, but Kevin Hodgson has to be one of the most active co-learners I’ve encountered.

Lesson Ideas for Mobile Learning (November 21, 2016)

I knew that I had to talk with Shelly Sanchez Terrell again when I learned through the tweetvine that she had a new book out about mobile learning (Learning to Go: Lesson Ideas for Teaching with Mobile Devices, Cell Phones, and BYOT).

Teachers Paying Teachers for Lesson Plans (October 17, 2016)

Kacey Potter, 8th grade English teacher in Rice Virginia, has earned more than $150,000 over the past five years by selling her curriculum to other teachers via Teachers Pay Teachers — lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, activities, tests, thematic unit plans, worksheets, mini-courses

A Conversation About Screentime (September 12, 2016)

I raised a millennial who is now in her 30s. We dealt with the fact that she did her homework while engaging in multiple instant-message conversations and watching television in the background.

Teaching Computational, Abstract Thinking (August 22, 2016)

Visual programming languages and programming as a learning tool are old dreams, rooted in the late Seymour Papert’s creation of the Logo programming language for children.

Deconstructing Disneyland: An App-Based Media Literacy Experience (August 8 2016)

If Pokémon Go marked the beginning of the era of mass-market Augmented Reality Games (ARGs), Deconstructing Disneyland may mark the beginning of ARGs as mobile media literacy education tools.

Amino One Makes Bioengineering Useful, Easy to Learn (July 21, 2016)

A chemistry set was a big part of what first interested me in science, back in the 20th century. Today’s scientist of tomorrow has the opportunity to play and learn with a bioengineering set!

Connecting Digital Media to Civic Learning (July 4, 2016)

Since the printing press, communication media and citizen political engagement have been intertwined. Now that we have a global generation of young people who have printing presses, broadcasting stations, and organizing tools in their pockets, educators see ways to connect young people’s enthusiasm for Tumblr, Snapchat, YouTube with civic learning.

STEM Design Strategies to Engage Underrepresented Students (June 27, 2014)

Although “making is a stance toward learning,” Minecraft is proving to be an object to learn with as well as think with in many after-school programs. “Talking about tinkering while doing it, in person and online, can enhance social contexts for peer learning and for learning thinking skills,” however, inequities continue to exist in underserved communities — what Henry Jenkins has called “the participation gap.”

Research Shows Connected Learning Works (June 20, 2016)

Does connected learning — particularly in disadvantaged communities and for underrepresented youth — work? The answer is important to students, educators, and parents. It’s also of great interest to institutions such as the MacArthur Foundation, which has a multi-decade commitment to improving educational outcomes.

Full STEAM Ahead: Remodeling Learning (May 9, 2016)

Yes, it’s relatively easy to introduce technology and to experiment with project-based learning. It’s not so easy to change the law, norms, and practices that are so strongly associated with high schools in the U.S.A. (for example, sequester students on school grounds five days a week), which is why Justin Bathon added a law degree to his education credentials.

Opening Learners’ Minds (April 11, 2016)

My interview with Nick Sousanis, author of Unflattening — about drawing, thinking, seeing and breaking out of fixed mindsets.

The Power of Community Open Online Courses (March 7, 2016)

MOOCs aren’t the only way to go. Self-organized, of modest size, community-based open online courses are one alternative.

Annotation, Rap Genius, and Education (February 8, 2016)

Education and annotation of texts on the open web — a kind of group analysis, discussion, explication that has only recently become possible.

How Unplanned Learning Led to Online Book Group (January 12, 2016)

Learning by stumbling upon things — and cultivating the ability to recognize when you’ve stumbled onto something valuable — can be amplified manyfold if you regularly look where people in your personal learning network are pointing.

Henry Jenkins on Participatory Media in a Networked Era, Part Two (November 9, 2015)

…we talk about learning and literacy; commercial culture; democracy, civic engagement, and activism; and reimagining participatory culture.

Henry Jenkins on Participatory Media in a Networked Era, Part One (November 5, 2015)

…if you want the best and latest evidence-based, authoritative, nuanced, critical knowledge about how digital media and networks are transforming not just learning but commercial media, citizen participation in democracy, and the everyday practices of young people, my advice is to obtain a copy of the new book, “Participatory Culture in A Networked Era,” by Henry Jenkins, Mizuko Ito, and danah boyd.

Taking Control of Your Digital Identity (October 5, 2015)

 As Jim Groom put it, because students are now telling the stories of their lives online, they need to take active control of the process to understand: “what it means to shape their digital identity, what it means to shape who they are online.”

Teaching Social Studies Through Participatory Citizenship (September 7, 2015)

If you’ve encountered the critical pedagogy of Paolo Freire and have only encountered it in theory, meet Shannon White, who teaches social studies “through a social justice and community-oriented lens, fostering deep critical thinking that challenges the status quo and engages students in as many authentic experiences as possible.”

Learning English Through Digital Media (August 3, 2015)

Dr. Deborah Cohen, associate professor in the Global Education Innovation Center at Gyeongju University in  South Korea, uses three digital media-based practices to encourage her students:

Open Networked News Curriculum (July 6, 2015)

Newsactivist was born when Gabriel Flacks, instructor and chair of the Humanities Program at Saint-Lambert Champlain Regional College in Montreal, started looking for ways that students could write about the news in a networked way.

Reformatting Traditional Literature (June 15, 2015)

Young faculty who came of age at the same time that social media emerged are beginning to experiment with new containers for old curricular vintages such as English composition. Michael Stewart, lecturer in English at Brown University, is rethinking traditional forms more radically than simply recasting traditional literature in digital media formats: “What happens when we take the form of a dictionary and use it for other, hopefully nefarious purposes? How can an essay be a waltz?

Teaching the Humanities Online (May 11, 2015)

So many online courses concentrate on hard sciences and practical skills. How about the humanities? Laura Gibbs, who teaches two purely online courses for the University of Oklahoma, most certainly qualifies as a humanities enthusiast.

How Collaboration Empowers Learning (April 13, 2015)

“I learned more on Twitter in six months than in two years of graduate school” is the epigraph of the first chapter of Tom Whitby’s book (co-authored with Steven W. Anderson), “The Relevant Educator: How Connectedness Empowers Learning.” This quote could summarize Whitby’s philosophy of learning and teaching, in which collaboration is the environment, not just an ingredient, in effective learning.

KitHub Designed to Empower Young Educators (March 2, 2015)

KitHub, “creative electronics for young innovators,” is a kit-of-the-month club for young makers, their parents, and their families. It was designed to empower kids and parents who weren’t necessarily close to a physical makerspace, by two women — Tara Tiger Brown and Luz Rivas— who are passionately devoted to maker education, not by an edu-biz conglomerate or VC-founded startup

“Our Common Core” (February 16, 2015)

What if we trusted students as a default and dealt with transgressions when and if they come up? What if we gave them web-accessible devices without filters but taught them common sense and used transgressions as teachable moments? What if we even gave learners of every age a bit of agency in the shaping of their own curriculum — above and beyond recess and show-and-tell?

Assessing, Measuring, Connected Learning Outcomes (January 19, 2015)

Jaimie Hoffman gives advice on how to assess, frame and scaffold reflection on the open web, and words of encouragement for those who are contemplating jumping into connected learning.

Tinkering and Thinking with Maker Kylie Peppler (December 15, 2014)

Some enthusiasts of digital media in learning and inclusion of making/tinkering as a learning activity — including myself — believe that talking about tinkering while doing it, in person and online, can enhance social contexts for peer learning and for learning thinking skills.

Circuit Stickers, Notebook Hacking, and Learning as Debugging (November 24, 2014)

I’ve been writing for 45 years, and have always owned more physical notebooks than I need at any one time, and I’m an enthusiastic novice at electronics, so several of my antennae tingled vigorously when I first came across the term “circuit stickers” — peel-and-stick circuitry and components that are flat enough to make paper pages blink and boop.

Connecting Learners Through Hashtags, Focal Points (October 20, 2014)

Like others who have become important co-learners in my personal learning network, I met Dr. Maha Bali, associate professor of practice of the Center for Learning and Teaching at American University in Cairo, through a hashtag.

Augmenting Human Education (September 15, 2014)

Gardner Campbell not only teaches the ideas of Doug Engelbart — the visionary who invented the mouse, hypertext and many more of the digital tools so many people use every day — he understands that Engelbart’s technological attempt to “augment human intellect” also ought to be a central goal of pedagogy.

Teaching Critical Thinking in Age of Digital Credulity (August 21, 2014)

By the end of 2014, more than 3 billion people will have access to the Internet, which means that they (we) have the power to ask any question at any time and get a multitude of answers within a second. The responsibility for distinguishing between accurate, credible, true information and misinformation or disinformation, however, is no longer vested in trained and vetted experts — editors, publishers, critics, librarians, professors, subject-matter specialists.

Addressing “The War on Learning” (July 17, 2014)

I’m always interested in technology critics who are accomplished users of the tools they criticize. Elizabeth Losh, director of Academic Programs, Sixth College at UC San Diego, teaches digital rhetoric, digital journalism, and software studies, and she was one of the organizers of a MOOC, FemTechNet, so she is neither opposed to nor unfamiliar with the uses of digital media in education.

Learner Interest-Driven Curriculum (June 23, 2014)

What most educators would call “subjects” or “disciplines,” Jeff Hopkins, principal of thePacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, regards as “silos” when they restrict the scope of learning and nodes of a knowledge network when they serve as points of interconnection

Coinventing the Curriculum: Brad Ovenell-Carter (May 12, 2014)

High-school students actively making meaning and co-creating the curriculum, not just passively digesting knowledge fed to them by the teachewr

Conversation with Alan Levine, Pedagogical Technologist (April 21, 2014)

Alan Levine is a pedagogical technologist and architect of open, connected learning systems that enable students to take power over and responsibility for (and joy in!) their own learning.

Theory of Knowledge, Social Media, and Connected Learning in High School (March 25, 2014)

I interviewed Amy Burvall, a high school teacher in Hawaii who teaches a course on “theory of knowledge,” using social media and learner-centric curriculum.

Feminist Theory, Online Action, and Networked Learning (March 3, 2014)

I interviewed two graduate students who participated in FemTechNet, a multi-institution MOOC that included an action element — “wikistorming.”

Hacking the Classroom with Michelle Cordy, aka “A Teacher on an Urgent Quest” (December 29, 2013)

“Making is a Stance Toward Learning”: Sylvia Libow Martinez (December 23, 2013)

Freedom, Autonomy, and Digital Media at an Indiana High School (October 28, 2013)

When Children Say They Want to Change the World, Listen: Angela Maiers (October 7, 2013)

Arduino & Learning: High School Teacher Ariel Levi Simons (September 30, 2013)

Digital Storytelling 106: Open, Participatory, Student-centric, Social…the Future? (September 9, 2013)

Super Awesome Sylvia (August 8, 2013)

Teaching and Learning with Minecraft, Part Two: Sara Kaviar (August 5, 2013)

Teaching and Learning with Minecraft: Teacher Liam O’Donnell (July 8, 2013)

MOOCs, Hype, and the Precarious State of Higher Ed (June 10, 2013)

Learning Online in the Second Grade: Teacher Linda Yollis (May 20, 2013)

In Pursuit of In(ter)dependent Learning: Kio Stark (March 25, 2013)

In Praise of Peer to Peer Connectivity: Technosociologist Zeynep Tufekci (March 25, 2013)

DML Conference 2013: Democratic Futures (Ethan Zuckerman, Keynote) (January 29, 2013)

Community Innovation Labs: Mashing UP Youth, Activists, Technologists, Policymakersl (December 17, 2012)

Assessment: Turning a Blunt Instrument into a Powerful Learning Tool (November 26, 2012)

Elizabeth Lawley: “Just Press Play” — Adding a Game Layer to the Undergraduate Experience (October 29, 2012)

Passion, Projects & Play: Restoring Creativity in the Classroom (October 4, 2012)

The “Presence Project” and the “Be Here Now Box”: Digital Media & Family Attention (September 17, 2012)

Global Transmedia MOOCS (August 30, 2012)

Professor Alec Couros: The Connected Teacher (July 26, 2012)

Hacking the Curriculum 101 (July 9, 2012)

George Couros: Why School Administrators Should Embrace the Social Web (June 28, 2012)

DIY U: Interview with Anya Kamenetz (May 9, 2012)

Reality, the Game: A Video Interview with Jeff Watson on Fostering Peer Learning via Play (April 27, 2012)

Teaching Teachers, Honoring Learners: Interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (April 20, 2012)

Four-part Peeragogy Series

Toward Peeragogy (January 23, 2012)

Learning Reimagined: Participatory, Peer, Global, Online (July 22, 2011)

Pop-up University (April 28, 2011)

D.I.Y.U. : An Experiment (February 21, 2011)

Bryan Alexander: Emerging Learning Technologies (February 7, 2012)

Steve Hargadon: Reimagining Education as Networked, Participatory, Social, Global (December 19, 2011)

Democratizing Learning Innovation (October 6, 2011)

Re-imagining Media for Learning (September 29, 2011)

Seeing the Classroom as a Hub of Technology-enabled Social Change (September 20, 2011)

Mitch Resnick: The Role of Making, Tinkering, Remixing in Next-Generation Learning (September 13, 2011)

Digital Media and Learning Conference 2012: Learning Innovations in a Connected World (September 8, 2011)

How does Digital Media impact Youth Political and Civic Engagement? (May 26, 2011)

Einstein, YouTube, and New Media Literacies in the Connected Age (March 28, 2011)

Mozilla Drumbeat: Open Web Meets Open Learning (January 6, 2011)

Learning, Playing, Designing: Video Games in School (October 21, 2010)

Shelly Terrell: Global Netweaver, Curator, PLN Builder (October 15, 2010)

It’s the Learning, Not the Technology – Jessica K. Parker (June 30, 2010)

It’s an amazing time to be a learner – Will Richardson (June 1, 2010)

Librarian 2.0: Buffy J. Hamilton (May 3, 2010)

Diana Rhoten: The Science of Reimagining Learning (March 29, 2010)

The Social Media Classroom (December 29, 2009)

Meet Meredith Stewart: Teacher…Innovator…Collaborator (December 3, 2009)

Getting into College? There’s a Game for That (November 20, 2009)

Esther Wojcicki’s H.S. Journalism Learning Community (November 5, 2009)

Articles, Interviews About Howard

2020-21

List of podcasts featuring Howard (through February, 2021)

2019

    Modern Learners Podcast (September, 2019)

2018

The Subtle Art of Collaboration Podcast (July, 2018)

Collaboration, Co-Learning, Crap Detection

Evolving Digital Self Podcast (January 16, 2018)

Dr. Heidi Forbes Oste  interviews Howard Rheingold about the future, evolving tech, keeping our humanity and the required literacies: attention, crap detection, participation, collaboration and network awareness.

2016

Start-up Ed interview (November 7, 2016)

Thirty minute video interview about social media, pedagogy, social media literacies

Visions of Education (October 30, 2016)

Thirty minute podcast about social media, pedagogy, social media literacies.

2014

Cool Tools Podcast (June 9, 2014)

Not directly about learning, but this podcast is about the tools I use for electronics, gardening, and woodworking.

Digital Literacy — and Lots of It (May 22, 2014)

“My conclusion, after many years of thinking about the impact of both digital and social media, is that a lot of it depends on what people know. It’s not just the tools themselves and their capabilities, it’s about having the skill to use those tools.”

How To Reclaim the Commons — And Your Attention (April 28, 2014)

Podcast interview about the commons, curation, and infotention.

Golden Nuggets: The ‘Mini Inny’ Innovation Interview with Howard Rheingold (April 6, 2014)

“With virtual communities, smart mobs, and collective intelligence, we’re seeing the beginning of what people are learning to do with our new technologies.”

2012

Creating Students’ Survival Guide to the Web, by Ann Michaelson (February 14, 2012)

A co-learner in one of my Rheingold U courses, herself an educator, creates a quick and useful students’ survival guide to the web, using my advice.

2011

Social Media’s Slow Slog Into the Ivory Towers of Academia The Atlantic (2011)

“Underpinning a disdain for social media in higher education is the assumption that incoming students have an inherent aptitude for new technologies.”

Project Information Literacy interview with Howard re: the myth of the digital native, digital literacy  (January 3, 2011)

The first time I taught university students, “I had not expected that so many laptop-carrying, one-handed-texting millennials would not know how to self-organize via wikis or to express critical and reflective opinions on blogs.”

2010

Interview with Howard Rheingold, eLearn magazine (February 2010)

“There is a significant change in the role of the teacher as the authority. Rather than the authoritative deliverer of knowledge, they’re the chief learners. So a lot of these are very challenging to institutions and to people who are familiar with old ways of doing things”

21st Century Literacies, Part 1 of 2, Social Media Club (August 24, 2010)

“Earlier this summer I sat down with Howard Rheingold to talk about his ideas for 21st Century Literacies. The result is a two part video.”

Beyond J-School, MediaShift (August 31 2010)

“We convened a group of journalism educators, a trainer, a student and a J-school dropout to discuss how journalism education is shifting.”

Do I have your attention? Howard Rheingold’s Balloon Experiment, F2F in the Mediated Classroom (November 10, 2010)

Of everyone I’ve been reading lately, Howard Rheingold is the most innovative thinker about attention in the f2f in networked classrooms. Check out these two tweets about a social experiment he ran in his class today:

2 show capabilities of social networks, my ingenious students placed balloons arnd campus, challenged others 2 ask friends 2 locate them

Students sent SMS, tweets, Facebook updates @ start of class. An hour later, one student had located 11 balloons through her social network

2009