15 years ago or so, music publishing changed, MP3 file compression and file sharing put the power of distribution of content into everyone's hands. For better or worse.

10 years ago or so, video publishing changed, YouTube, MySpace, Vimeo, Google and now Hulu, Netflix and many more offer video streaming. And once again the creationg and distribution of content is available to nearly anyone with the skills and acccess.

On line shopping, mail service, and the list goes on have all been transformed by the digital revolution not unlike the industrial revolution.

Education is next.

The thrust of energy and access to on-line, virtual learning tools is putting publishing of educational content to the masses and creating a level playing field to many. It is also forcing educators from Pre-K to Post Graduate to re-think their models.

Interstingly, those creating the educational models of the future may not have a revenue model to sustain the process. This is what the newspaper industry struggled with initially, and once the content is out for free, or reliant on ad based revenue, it may be too late.

Here are just a few recent articles and resources.

MIT, Khan Academy Partner on Instructional Videos

Michigan Program provides new learning exprience.

Stanford Experiment in WIRED

YouTube launches Education Tube

TED Talks releases Ted Ed beta

And a great visual from Visual.ly

Consider a small district with a half dozen schools, some administrators, a hundred teachers and a thousand parents or so.

Start a topic or issue and you have a meeting to for discussion. Leadership plans it out, makes recommendations, stakeholders weigh in and issue moves forward. Right?

Now - consider a massive school district, 800 schools, 70,000 staff, 600,000 students, a million parents - AND inject social media into the dialogue of a topic.

Need some guidelines on social media for school? Here's a start. 

From Edutopia.org - The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

The story behind the viral post that wasn't intended to go viral, but did and continues to do so.

http://www.threeshipsmedia.com/social-media-and-donuts/

The original post on InstaGram by Douglas Wray 

http://instagr.am/p/nm695/

In design - I love that everything is getting simpler to view, easier to read, and keeping it 'at a glance'. This is purely reflecting the technological steps we are taking.

Here are some good tips for you.

http://www.sitereviver.com/5-of-the-best-social-media-page-designs/

Also, have a look at this book!

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758

Quick question/survey on Social Media:

[1] Where do you initiate social media?
Mobile/Desktop/Laptop

 
[2] What spaces do you most actively participate? Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare/Pinterest/Yammer/Other

 
[3] What primary purpose?
Fun/Work/Connections/Other Please share and pass along to others.

*image courtesy of socialcommerceblog

Just caught this on Mashable this morning.

http://mashable.com/2012/04/23/fragile-earth-app/

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/ikea-squeezes-2800-products-inside-single-web-b...