These are my links for January 13th through February 4th:

• Auckland University campus goes smoke-free | Stuff.co.nz:
  Students and staff at Auckland University can no longer slip outside for a quick puff.
  The university has become a smoke-free campus, inside and outside, and smoking has been banned, even in areas once designated as smoking areas.
• BBC News – Hi-tech exam cheating increases says Ofqual:
  More than 4,400 people were caught cheating in last year's GCSEs and A-levels in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the exams watchdog says.
• BBC News – ‘Internet addiction’ linked to depression, says study:
  There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.
  The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were "internet addicts", and many of these were depressed.
  The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.
  The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire.
• BBC – dot.Rory: Fast broadband – an election issue?:
  At the weekend, the Conservatives unveiled their plans to ensure the rollout of superfast broadband – or "up to 100mbps to the majority of homes" by 2017.
  Last summer, the Labour government outlined its vision in the Digital Britain report, now making its way through Parliament in the form of the Digital Economy Bill, which also sees superfast broadband reaching 90% of the UK by 2017.
• KnowledgeWorks Foundation – Future of Learning:
  KnowledgeWorks has developed two forecasts highlighting the key forces that will influence public education in the coming decade. Each forecast is a powerful tool for engaging with the future. The forecasts do not predict what will happen, but rather serve as a guide to the as-yet-unwritten future. They are designed to help us see connections among things that once seemed unrelated and to help us consider the challenges that are facing all of us today within the context of wider patterns of change.

  In order to shape the future of learning, we must envision it together. The Institute for Creative Collaboration at KnowledgeWorks partners with teams, groups, and organizations to uncover how systems really work and to create new ways of thinking, learning, and working. Find out how we can work together.

• BBC News – The rise of the web’s digital elites:
  Ahead of a major series on the BBC about the impact of the web, presenter, social scientist and journalist Aleks Krotoski asks whether the web has already missed its greatest chance.

  The web is an extraordinary innovation, with the greatest potential to usher in social change since the invention of the printing press or the steam engine.

  Built upon a technology that is apolitical, unregulated and decentralised, it empowers everyone – men, women, children – to be creators of information, rather than passive consumers.

  It is also an enormous library of global consciousness, a digital collection of human knowledge from the past and the present and presented in an easy-to-access format.

  As a result, we now have the unprecedented power to create our own truth, and share it with everyone in the world. It has ushered in an equality of access that we have never seen before.

  But has its potential as a great leveller for the whole world already passed?

• HOW TO: Build a More Beautiful Blog:
  Whether you’re blogging for business or pleasure, now is the time to take your little corner of the web to the next level. Social media makes your blog more visible and valuable than ever, and the amount of resources available to beautify and streamline your blog is enormous, and ever growing.
• Symbaloo – start simple:
  Home page replacement
• BBC News – PlayStation 3 ‘hacked’ by iPhone cracker:
  A US hacker who gained notoriety for unlocking Apple's iPhone as a teenager has told BBC News that he has now hacked Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3).

  George Hotz said the hack, which could allow people to run pirated games or homemade software, took him five weeks.

  He said he was still refining the technique but intended to post full details online soon.

• BBC – Spaceman: Why hasn’t ET made contact yet?:
  He's absolutely convinced. Frank Drake has been scouring the sky for 50 years, looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

  He's heard nothing… but he's in no doubt they're out there.

  Drake was a founder-member of Seti, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

• The Internet Strategist: Top 13 Ways to Drive Blog Readership:
  If you have a blog then you know that the biggest challenge next to content is readers. How do you get your audience, who are bombarded by hundreds (thousands?) of messages per day, to focus on your messages?
• Cloudworks – Motivating teachers to use technologies:
  Cloud created by:
  Gráinne Conole

  Technologies seem to offer lots to improve the learner experience, but are still not being used extensively by teachers.

  * What are the reasons for this lack of uptake?
  * How can we motivate teachers to use technologies more?
  * How can we support them in their use of technologies?

• BBC News – Google co-founders to sell shares:
  Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are selling 10 million of their shares, raising $5.5bn (£3.4bn) at today's prices.
• Top 50 Blogs for e-Learning Tools and Tips:
  If you want to learn a new language or if you want to know how that e-learning tool works, you have plenty of online help to reach those goals. The following list of fifty top blogs for e-learning tools and tips concentrate on technologies, resources, business strategies and more for teachers and students. We’ve even included a category that may inspire you to reach even further during 2010.

  The following links are listed alphabetically by blog title under each category. We use this method to show that we do not favor one blog over another.

• BBC News – Schools must embrace mobile technology:
  "Turned off devices equals turned off children. Sensible schools use mobile technology to their advantage, putting up a telephone number about an issue such as bullying and getting pupils to text their views," said Prof Heppell.
• Mastering Distraction « Cactus Wrangler – It’s tough. Distractions rule our lives – from social media and phone calls to other workers. Maybe you work at home and you have pets or children. Our hobbies and passions are more compelling than the work we have to get done.

  What do you do?

  There is only one answer. Discipline. Make some choices about priorities and Choose. Easier said than done. Here are a few tips that work for me.

• The Power of Educational Technology: 10 Tips for Beginning Bloggers – My brother has recently started blogging and asked me for some tips. I thought I would share them here. I started blogging in 2006 and it has been some of the best professional development for me that I have ever done. Blogging forces me to think, reflect and write about my experiences. Blogging helps me retain my learning and connects me to others who help and support me in my endeavors. If you don't yet have a blog, I recommend giving it a try. You don't have to blog every day or every week. Just establish a place Online to share your thoughts. If you give it a chance, I think you will find it a rewarding experience.

  Here are few tips to get you started.