New York City stands out as an extraordinarily diverse place, as the Citelighter team that lives and works here is privileged to see and experience every day. From Spanish Harlem to southern Brooklyn to eastern Queens, a wide range of groups collaborate, create, and commingle here.

But how do they tweet? This unique map below, courtesy of Science News, provides an amazing illustration of non-English tweets sent across the city, with Spanish, Dutch, Russian, and more highlighted. Check it out!

The tools we provide are designed to aid students, teachers, and researchers. What connects these three groups is something that’s easy to forget when you’re focused on details: a passion for learning and knowledge.

Education News recently ran an illuminating interview with Professor Sir David Watson, a leading academic light who teaches at the University of Oxford, on a wide range of subjects, including his ideas on what the ideal academic system looks like, standard tests, emotional and intellectual development, and critical thinking.

One important theme he keeps returning to is instilling in students a global perspective and appreciation for critical learning:

“The public discourse is heavily dominated at present by a perception…of student instrumentalism. What counts is “employability” (even more than “employment”) and whether or not students are prepared for it.  Meanwhile, students themselves confound expectation further: by returning to the liberal arts, by returning to volunteering (even while they simultaneously have to work much more frequently for money than their predecessors), and by reviving student-led political activism (all around the world).”

What makes this comment stand out is that online learning and online courses do tend to focus on what’s “efficient” and “practical”, especially in emphasizing convenience over physical classrooms. It will be interesting to see in the coming years whether this changes—or simply continues as produces students who are less civically minded.

In a largely unprecedented move, numerous major public universities have announced plans to offer free introductory online courses—with credit.

As the Times article explains, the schools will select which courses to convert into an online format and students who successfully complete those courses will earn credit toward a real degree:

“‘We’re taking the MOOC idea, but now it will be part of a degree program, not a novelty,’ said Randy Best, the chairman of Academic Partnerships, a company that helps public universities move their courses online.”

Schools involved in the bold move include the University of Cincinnati, the University of Texas, and the University of Arkansas.

The hope, of course, is to draw more students into public school systems facing budgetary problems due to state funding cuts; Masters and Bachelors programs will be offered.

The move represents an interesting, and increasingly strong, synergy between the world of MOOCs and brick-and-mortar schools, and shows that the relationship doesn’t need to be antagonistic.

In the education-technology space, we collectively spend a lot of time talking about the integration of technological tools inside the classroom, and even apart from the classroom altogether.

But some have chosen an entirely different direction: completely offline education.

A Maryland news outlet (via Education Week) ran a fascinating article last week on this subject, highlighting one of the more than 120 Waldorf schools across the country that are eschewing tech tools in the classroom.

At the Washington Waldorf School, the article notes, “you’ll find woodwork, cross-stitch and sculpture classes — but you won’t find web design, graphics or film classes. As schools race to the top, innovation here looks basic, artsy and unplugged.”

The school’s faculty chair advocates for the approach by saying, “”They’re comfortable in their own skin — in real interactions with people as opposed to what you see with teenagers today interacting with the device versus each other, which is sad.”

That educator is not alone. The article also points to two reputable polls showing that “teachers overwhelmingly believe digital technology is curtailing attention spans and critical thinking skills.”

This apparently widespread belief, and the attendant school movement to remove tech from the classrooms altogether, raise some challenging questions for those of us who work directly in the tech-ed space. Is there a point to be made that introducing technology tools to kids at too young an age can be a distraction? Or is that too sweeping a statement that doesn’t take into account the virtues of specific tech tools?