No shortage of speculation and grandiose designs in the area of social media these days, but as we look at how to shape education policy using these types of collaborative tools, it's instructive to think about how the actual business of educating is already taking advantage of the new technologies and techniques.

Christopher Dawson over at ZDNet posts usefully on a great series of podcasts from a student at City University of New York.  Well worth a listen during your holiday downtime.

    The take-home message? If social media aren’t changing the way educational content is delivered at your institution, they probably should be. Even if you haven’t jumped on the Web 2.0 bandwagon, there is quite a bit here to feed our thinking about how to modify our curricula using those "21st Century Tools".