The Blended Synchronous Learning Handbook recently won the 2014 Downes Prize. Stephen Downes writes:

“This text was a runaway winner this year. It’s reflective of a trend in these awards over the years – while something might catch the popular interest and spike briefly, it is the deep and insightful text with lasting import that attracts enough attention over the course of the year. “

The Handbook was also highlighted in the 2015 NMC Horizon Report – Higher Education Edition that was released recently. Note that if you would like a printed version of the Blended Synchronous Learning Handbook it is available at-cost from Amazon for approximately $16US. Of course the digital version is still freely available from our website.

Have you heard about the new wave of telepresence robots such as Double, Kubi, and Vgo that are starting to infiltrate the education space? They certainly have potential to transform blended synchronous learning (again). We would be interested to hear from anyone who is using these in their classes.

Congratulations to Steve Waymouth from the University of New South Wales who recently won an iPad mini for responding to the 2014 wearable technologies survey. Steve is a member of the Blended Synchronous Learning Collaborator Network, and counted this as practically the first time that he’s ever won anything. Thanks for participating Steve.

Here’s wishing you all a great year ahead from the Blended Synchronous Learning team. We are looking forward to hearing about your innovations.

Best wishes,

Matt Bower, Gregor Kennedy, Barney Dalgarno and Mark Lee