1/22/10

NOTE:
This will be my new virtual home. Why?

1. For those familiar with technology and blogging, you have been shaking your head at me for far too long -- and I don't blame you.
   You know that (in addition to numerous other reasons), using something like WordPress to set up and run a blog is much more time efficient than running a website such as this one. With more things continually trying to make their way onto my job/time plate, I need -- no scratch that -- I have to do this.
   
   
2. RSS feeds are not supported on Calvin's personal websites. I have appreciated your patience in continually having to return/check-in here on this site, but it's time to move on to a better way of doing things.
   
   

I will keep this site up for reference sake -- as I've worked hard to obtain the information on the various topics located herein. Thankfully, some of this site has been helpful to other people:

Archives of items related to the above presentation are listed below.
For up-to-date postings, I'll see you over at my new "Learning Ecosystems" blog!

1/20/10

How online learning is revolutionizing K-12 education and benefiting students -- from heritage.org by Dan Lips; original resource from Ray Schroeder
Abstract: Virtual or online learning is revolutionizing American education. It has the potential to dramatically expand the educational opportunities of American students, largely overcoming the geographic and demographic restrictions. Virtual learning also has the potential to improve the quality of instruction, while increasing productivity and lowering costs, ultimately reducing the burden on taxpayers. Local, state, and federal policymakers should reform education policies and funding to facilitate online learning, particularly by allowing funding to follow the students to their learning institutions of choice.

Florida Virtual School takes courses across state lines -- from The Journal by Dian Schaffhauser
An education organization in Florida has teamed up with a company that develops learning tools to launch a new service that provides online learning for K-12 schools. Florida Virtual School (FLVS), which delivers online instruction to K-12 students in Florida, is working with Agilix Labs in the launch of BrainHoney, announced at FETC 2010 in Orlando. This solution is intended to provide schools, districts, and states a means to deliver accredited online courses to their students.

1/19/10

-- resource from Stephen Downes

Will online education be a future revenue stream for news organisations? -- from Mercedes Bunz

As news organisations struggle to find new revenue models, education offerings seem to be a very good way to extend the brand and earn extra revenue. This spring, the New York Times will start awarding certificates in conjunction with several universities to students who pay to take its online courses.

Two years ago, the New York Times Knowledge Network was started to enter the market of online education providing courses with its editors and journalists as collaborators and participants in shaping the curriculum. However, as online education mainly aimed at adults has become a profit center the aim now is not only to transfer its expertise of the newsroom but to earn money at the same time.

"Online education is a really robust area," said Felice Nudelman, director of education for the Times, recently to the online magazine for higher education Inside High Ed. "It is, for many institutions, a profit center. And it's an exciting way to bring together all the content from The New York Times and expertise from our newsroom, and expertise of college and university faculty."

From DSC:
Very iiinnnttteeerrreesssttttiiiinngggg. Hmm...

How Online Learning Is Revolutionizing K-12 Education and Benefiting Students -- from heritage.org by Dan Lips; original resource from Ray Schroeder
Abstract: Virtual or online learning is revolutionizing American education. It has the potential to dramatically expand the educational opportunities of American students, largely overcoming the geographic and demographic restrictions. Virtual learning also has the potential to improve the quality of instruction, while increasing productivity and lowering costs, ultimately reducing the burden on taxpayers. Local, state, and federal policymakers should reform education policies and funding to facilitate online learning, particularly by allowing funding to follow the students to their learning institutions of choice.

North American Universities Show Strongest International Online Popularity in 2010 World University Web Rankings, Says 4icu.org -- from earthtimes.org

The future of higher education [UK] -- from guardian.co.uk
An outward-looking forward-thinking summit stimulating debate and shaping thinking on rising to the challenges facing higher education.

The Guardian's annual summit for higher education leaders returns for the fourth year with a new format and a new outlook. It will be taking place at the America Square Conference Centre, London. The combination of the fiscal crisis and imminent reductions in public service budgets coupled with significant changes in the demands faced by institutions means that the way forward for higher education has become increasingly contested. This year we will bring together higher education leaders for a series of debates that will explore future scenarios for the shape and structure of the sector. Led by key stakeholders and shaped by expert analysis the debates will be supplemented with in-depth panel discussion, focused breakout sessions and insightful keynotes.

1/18/10

Blasting Academic Silos -- from InsideHigherEd.com
BALTIMORE — A prevalent organizational model designed to strengthen individual colleges on university campuses might be standing in the way of necessary, innovative research collaborations, a team of American University administrators said Friday here at the Mid-Atlantic Educause conference. At a session titled “Bridging the Silos: Creating Sustainable Research Infrastructure with Implications for Digital Scholarship,” the delegation said that while the “strong college” model — which emphasizes the individual brands of different colleges on a campus — empowers those schools to attract talented scholars and funding for important research in their particular disciplines, it can also reinforce insularity and make it less likely that scholars from different colleges on the same campus will come together and tackle a subject from an interdisciplinary angle. And that, they said, is a bad thing — from both a research and an information-technology perspective.

1/16/10

What do employers say about online education? -- from gatlineducation.com and MSN Careers
“Going back to school is an appealing option for many people, but they can’t afford to quit their jobs to be a full-time student. If this sounds familiar, there might be a solution that allows you to go to school and continue working: an online or distance-learning program.

From DSC:
Believe me, you WANT to hire someone who has proven that they can be successful with online learning. Why? Because they are self-motivated. They don’t need someone looking over their shoulder or strongly encouraging them to do the next thing. They are disciplined. They budget their time wisely. You can give them the assignments and then let them go to it. Coupled with the ability to work well with others…if I were running a business, I’d want some folks like that around.

1/15/10

Hybrid Education -- from elearnspace by George Siemens

Many aspects of education, training, and development need to be questioned. What has technology (and the internet) made obsolete? How important is space? What can we do at a distance? What does a live lecture add that a good quality recording doesn’t? How can we thin classroom walls and bring in external experts? Or connect with learners in similar courses from around the world? Or what do use from the growing open education pool? Systems are created to serve the needs of an era. When eras change, systems don’t…at least not until they encounter a disruptive force (in education – the financial climate looks like it may serve this role) that causes individuals to question the value of the assumptions underlying the existing systems.

Hybrid Education reviews Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative – a project that relies on virtual tutors to change the role of faculty in the learning process: “The virtual tutor takes care of the basic concepts that typically dominate lectures, leaving professors open to plan the face-to-face component of the course according to what parts of the curriculum the software tells him students are picking up more slowly, and what concepts could bear reinforcement.”

Good Science, Great Technology Will Drive Student Engagement -- from The Journal by Chris Riedel
It's up to America's teachers to get the country's youth involved in critical environment issues. But that's not going to happen if teachers aren't delivering the message in a way that engages students, according to Ed Begley Jr., who delivered the opening general address at this year's FETC conference in Florida. "We have to speak in a language young people understand. And that language," he said, "is technology."

From DSC:
It also up to the parents...but teachers and professors can play a major role in engaging the youth. The bar is rising...so we're not talking about the cheesy [use of] technology here...we will soon be talking major investments. That's why I stress the importance of pooling resources. In the future, it won't be so much about raising $$ for a new building, as it will be raising money for more professional, interactive, personalized, customized learning materials.

1/14/10

Generation Bored! Why We are Boring Our Students and How We Can Stop? -- presentation by Julie Young at FETC2010
Although online learning introduced entirely new approaches to education, are we actually engaging students effectively in learning? What’s the use of whiz-bang technology if students are still bored? Join this session as the presenter shares how quality design—both in curriculum development and organizational management—is being used to “kick it up a notch” in student engagement.

From DSC:
Innovation is taking place at a far greater pace within the
online world (vs the more traditional face-to-face world).
What will this mean for student engagement? Choice/preference?

1/13/10

From DSC:
Though we are not there yet,
look for more of this kind of thing in the future.

1/12/10

The end of ‘mass universities’ -- from Daniel Lemire's blog (Canada); original resource from Stephen Downes
The stated goal was to make degrees more accessible. We succeeded. Yet, we are now facing an intriguing paradox due to this success. Technology, by making access easier than ever to access educational content, is also shaking the very foundation of the University. As an example of this transformation,  Michael Nielsen was pointing out this morning that you can watch 120 hours of lectures on Physics by Lenny Susskind, for free on YouTube. You are in deep trouble if what you are selling in 2009 are mass-produced lectures. The market price just went through the floor.

From DSC:
Lemire may have been a year or two ahead on this prediction, but he's right on. This is what I've been saying about trying NOT to become a commodity! How will we/you differentiate ourselves? What values do we want to bring to the table for our future students?

1/11/10

Lifelong Learning 2.0 -- from serendipity35.net

I found it in the non-academic publication, the AARPBulletinToday, which serves AARP members, a group of people over 50 who may or may not be retired. The article, "How to Learn Just About Anything Online ... For Free," is a good primer about using resources to learn without enrolling, paying tuition or earning a degree.

They list what they call "smorgasbord" sites that offer a variety of subjects and providers. Those include iTunes U, Apple's online “university” of 100,000 educational video and audio files from universities, NPR stations, museums and other cultural institutions all over the world.

There's also Academic Earth with its thousands of video lectures, and YouTube (not so much for the user-generated contents as for the education “channel” called YouTube EDU), and the ResearchChannel with content from a consortium of leading research and academic institutions. One that is new to me is the internationally-flavored Videolectures.Net with lectures from conferences, seminars, and workshops.

AARP also recognizes that not all learning is academic and includes "How To" sites like the Learning Center with topics like mastering Google Desktop, and Hewlett Packard’s online classes etc. and WonderHowTo, Howcast, and Videojug.

Besides the article being a nice list of resources and primer on eLearning for an older, non-traditional student audience, it's also a reminder of what continuing education and lifelong learning probably will look like in Web 2.0.

When rethinking the school itself... -- from SpeEdChange
In December Apple invited me to an 1:1 school computing "event" at Holland Christian High School in Holland, Michigan. I was initially a bit reluctant, Apple - in my "educational demonstration experience" - being one of those "hard sell" kind of firms which tolerates little dissent, and tends to make fun of you if you suggest alternatives to their "cool," but I went anyway. Doughnuts and coffee were promised, it wasn't far, and I wanted to meet Twitterpal @mrlosik who would be attending. Plus, Holland Christian interested me. In my work with students on Assistive Technology evals, few schools had been anywhere near as willing to try new things, to give "disabled" students new opportunities, or to be less "rule bound."

The Disposable Worker -- from BusinessWeek.com by Peter Coy, Michelle Conlin and Moira Herbst
Pay is falling, benefits are vanishing, and no one's job is secure. How companies are making the era of the temp more than temporary.
The forecast for the next five to 10 years: more of the same, with paltry pay gains, worsening working conditions, and little job security. Right on up to the C-suite, more jobs will be freelance and temporary, and even seemingly permanent positions will be at greater risk. "When I hear people talk about temp vs. permanent jobs, I laugh," says Barry Asin, chief analyst at the Los Altos (Calif.) labor-analysis firm Staffing Industry Analysts. "The idea that any job is permanent has been well proven not to be true." As Kelly Services, CEO Carl Camden puts it: "We're all temps now."

From DSC:
Students need to be their own "brand" -- they need to be able to "hit the ground running" and stay running throughout their careers. The world's spinning far too quickly to ever stay idle. One's professional networking skills will be key; a significant portion of that will occur online.

1/9/10

Redesign Alliance Fourth Annual Conference
Do you know that it is possible to reduce instructional costs while improving student learning? In partnership with more than 150 colleges and universities, the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) has shown how this is possible through large-scale course redesign. There is a way to deal with the budget constraints facing all of us without sacrificing the quality of our academic programs. The Redesign Alliance Fourth Annual Conference to be held March 28 - 30, 2010, in Orlando, FL, can show you how to do it. Participation in this conference is open to the higher education community. Final conference agenda.

Highlights include:

• Presentations from more than 30 institutions that have fully implemented large-scale course redesigns, all of which improved student learning outcomes while generating cost savings. 
• Roundtable discussions with NCAT Redesign Scholars and 30 additional institutions that are in the midst of implementing course redesigns in disciplines as diverse as biology, developmental math, economics, Spanish and technical writing about getting started and meeting implementation challenges.
• Keynote addresses by David B. Daniel, James Madison University, on effective pedagogical techniques; and Dennis Pearl, Ohio State University, on the Buffet Model of course redesign.
• Opportunities to interact with higher education's major publishers and technology companies whose products and services support course redesign.
• Networking with 300 colleagues all of whom are finding ways to increase academic quality in difficult financial times.

1/7/10

-- resource from Robert Jacobs

Five ed-tech stories to watch for 2010 -- from eSchoolNews.com
These developments could affect school technology in 2010 and beyond.

Related news from Microsoft at CES:

Feature Story: Delivering Entertainment Across New Screens, Scenes and Interfaces
Ballmer: Consumer electronics industry thrives through “game-changing technologies.”

Natural User Interfaces: Voice, Touch and Beyond
Project Natal and other natural user interface products that Microsoft is working on are helping usher in a new generation of human-computer interaction.

1/6/10

The advantages of eLearning -- by Karen L. Jones. Technology has revolutionized business; now it must revolutionize learning.
In the 21st century, people have to learn more than ever before. Especially for global organizations, live classroom-based training is becoming too costly and cumbersome. Even if employees had the time to attend all the courses and seminars and to read all the books and reports they should to remain up-to-date in their area of work, the cost of such learning would be prohibitive. The need to transform how organizations learn points to a more modern, efficient, and flexible alternative: eLearning. The mission of corporate eLearning is to supply the workforce with an up-to-date and cost-effective program that yields motivated, skilled, and loyal knowledge workers.

1/5/10

Related items:

100 Incredible & Educational Virtual Tours You Don’t Want to Miss -- from onlineuniversities.com

HOW TO GUIDE: 60+ Great How To Sites and Resources -- from Mashable.com

10 Ways To Learn In 2010 -- from The eLearning Coach by Connie Malamed

1/4/10

 

Top 10 ed-tech stories of 2009: No. 6 -- from eSchoolNews.com
Online learning becomes a true "disruptive innovation"… Also see this piece, which has the following quote in it:

Online learning already has disrupted providers of traditional education to some extent, but a new movement that began this year could really shake up higher education: A few online startup universities are charging little or no tuition for access to a wealth of college curriculum, and advocates say these free web-based programs could help expand higher education to the developing world.

Notes on Digitization in Higher Education -- from Higher Education Management Group
The emergence of inexpensive and highly efficient information networks has increased the volume of available information. But it has also changed the way in which information is produced and distributed. While the impact of these changes on society is clearly far-reaching, its’ significance to higher education is particularly profound given the fundamental role of information in higher education. Changes of particular significance to higher education include:

• Information used in education is often now available from sources other than higher education institutions, often at lower costs (or free), and in more convenient forms.
• It is far easier for individuals to form communities focused on narrow interests and needs, including educational, without involvement of mediating educational institutions.
• Increasingly sophisticated search technologies make finding relevant information easier, often reducing the value of intermediaries. Forecasts suggest that search capabilities will continue to accelerate in the coming decade.
• What constitutes current and relevant information changes more quickly, placing great pressures on institutions that produce and distribute information to keep pace.
• Traditional strategies used for protecting ownership of information (i.e. copyright) have lagged behind the capacity to share/copy information.

Next Vista for Learning -- original resource from Free Technology for Teachers
An online library of free videos for learners everywhere - our goal is to gather a set of resources to help you learn just about anything, meet people who make a difference in their communities, and even discover new parts of the world. Next Vista for Learning wants to post your educational videos online, too. Everyone has an insight to share and yours may be just what some student or teacher somewhere needs!

 

12/31/09

Top Internet Trends 2010: A Guide To The Best Predictions From The Web - Part 1 -- from Robin Good

Top Internet Trends 2010: A Guide To The Best Predictions From The Web - Part 2 -- from Robin Good

"A network of individuals knows more than a single individual." -- George Siemens
That's somewhat obvious. Sure, "wisdom of the crowds" (wikipedia) can quickly become "idiocy of the crowds" (youtube comments)...and experts do know more than novices (though a network of experts knows more than an individual expert). This is evident in the education field. Education employs more people than almost any other sector - 1 in 16 jobs in the US. Which means expertise is widely distributed and capturing great ideas about teaching practices can provide much value. Looking for a simple way to aggregate these ideas? Doug Belshaw used a simple Twitter hashtag approach, moving from idea to artifact in about one month. A .pdf of the project is available here.

Obsolete Learning Technologies -- from InsideHigherEd.com by Joshua Kim
The Silicon Alley Insider recently named 21 technologies that became obsolete this past decade. My favorites from the list included: the PDA, paid e-mail accounts, dial-up, film developing, video rental stores, landlines, public pay phones, VCRs, phonebooks, and CDs. What learning technologies have become obsolete this decade?

How to Thrive (or Survive) -- from InsideHigherEd.com
PHILADELPHIA -- Sessions at the Modern Language Association's annual meeting are planned so far in advance that some word choices may seem out of date by the time the meeting takes place. That was the case here Monday for a gathering of foreign language chairs and professors to consider "how departments can thrive in difficult times."

Dawn Bratsch-Prince, an associate dean at Iowa State University who formerly led the foreign languages department there, started off her talk by acknowledging that the title might be "overly optimistic," saying that "we may be talking about how departments can survive." This is of course the year that the job market in foreign languages and English collapsed, and a number of language departments have seen programs eliminated.

But in an odd way, this may have been one of the more optimistic sessions at this year's meeting -- at least among panels devoted to the economic crisis facing higher education. At many sessions here (and in hallway conversations), the gloom of the recession is all-encompassing, with people talking about canceled job searches, adjuncts unsure how they will pay their bills next semester, the university press editor who couldn't afford to come visit with authors, and so forth.

From DSC:
Though this article has different perspectives concerning solutions, it brings up the point that we need to be ready to embrace change. We need to create the future we want.

12/28/09

[MI] State lawmakers pass Race to the Top reforms -- from lansingstatejournal.com; original resource and quote below from Ray Schroeder
The reform package was needed for the state to qualify for up to $400 million in extra federal funds, under President Barack Obama's Race To The Top initiative to improve education. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislative leaders have called for an agreement by the end of the year in order to apply for the federal grant in January. Also, two pilot "cyber schools" run by private companies would be allowed to recruit up to 1,000 students each statewide. The program, which uses online learning that students attend from their homes, would encourage the firms to recruit high school dropouts.

As college costs rise, loans become harder to get -- from The Washington Post by David Cho
When Daniel Ottalini entered the University of Maryland in 2004, his family had an array of choices to cover the cost -- cheap student loans, a second mortgage at low rates, credit cards with high limits and their own soaring investments.

By the time his younger brother, Russell, started at the University of Pittsburgh this fall, the financial crisis had left the family with fewer options. Russell has had to juggle several jobs in school, and the money he could borrow came with a much higher interest rate that could climb even further over time. The upheaval in financial markets did not just eliminate generous lending for home buyers; it also ended an era of easy credit for students and their families facing the soaring cost of a college degree.

To pay for higher education, most Americans had come to rely on a range of financial products born of the Wall Street boom. Nearly all of these shrank or disappeared in the storm that engulfed the stock and debt markets. Lenders have raised rates and tightened standards, dramatically limiting the availability of home-equity loans and private student loans. College savings accounts, known as 529 plans, had acute losses in the downturn. And a new law, set to take effect Feb. 22, will bar students younger than 21 from getting credit cards on their own.

...

Even before the financial crisis intensified the upward pressure on college costs, the price of a degree was soaring. Since 1980, the average cost of tuition and room and board has grown by a staggering 121 percent while median household income has risen a mere 18 percent, according to federal data. But the credit boom earlier this decade provided some relief for families.

...

"If you are the average family and you've got two car payments and a mortgage, sadly, you are probably living paycheck to paycheck these days," said Gary Carpenter, executive director of the National College Advocacy Group. "And you've got a big problem -- how are you going to afford a state institution at $20,000 a year, not to mention a private one for than $40,000?" [emphasis DSC]

Hybrid Education 2.0 -- from Educause
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed an online learning environment that could make lecture halls -- if not professors -- obsolete.

Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement
The most powerful feature of web-based instruction is that it allows us to embed assessment into every instructional activity and use the data from those embedded assessments to drive powerful feedback loops for continuous evaluation and improvement. As we deliver the instruction, we use technology to collect real-time interaction level data of all student use. We use this data to create four positive feedback loops. “Feedback” in this context is the information derived from student activities that is used to influence or modify further performance.

“Improvement in Post Secondary Education will require converting
teaching from a ‘solo sport’ to a community based research activity.”
-- Herbert Simon

Gatlin Launches Continuing-Education Site for Adult Learners -- original resource and quote below from Helge Scherlund
ELearning provider Gatlin International has launched a worldwide site offering continuing education for adults and certificate courses in a variety of subjects and languages. A pioneer in online education since 1993, Stephen Gatlin founded Gatlin International, which provides eLearning solutions through partnerships with top universities, corporations, and governments around the world.

12/23/09

-- from Educause Quarterly

Building Online Social Communities with Social Media

• The University Life Café: Promoting Students’ Emotional Health -- by Shalin Hai-Jew
• Engaging Students with Engaging Tools -- by Edward Webb
• Horton Hears a Tweet -- by Joanna C. Dunlap and Patrick R. Lowenthal
• Ning and Writing to Learn -- by Nathalie Ettzevoglou and Jessica McBride
• Implementation of ELATEwiki -- by Roger W. McHaney
• Effects of University and Departmental Community on Online Learners -- by Daniel G. Spurgin and Marcus D. Childress

In and Out of the Classroom

• From Distraction to Engagement: Wireless Devices in the Classroom -- by Berlin Fang
• Engaging Lecture Capture: Lights, Camera… Interaction! -- by Margie A. Martyn
• Teaching a Foreign Language with Video Podcast Assignments: Examples from an American Sign Language Course -- by Elaine Gale and Shiao-Chuan Kung
• Enhancing Student Learning in a Graduate Research and Statistics Course with Clickers -- by Lydia Kyei-Blankson

Tech Tools for Faculty Innovation

• Show Me! On Demand: Budget Friendly Instructional Videos -- by Marilyn McClelland
• Podcasting: A Stepping Stone to Pedagogical Innovation -- by Jan Cheetham, Steve Ackerman, and Kathy Christoph
• Creating Animations in PowerPoint to Support Student Learning and Engagement -- by Michael F. Ruffini
• Leveraging the Interplay Between a Grassroots Pen-Based Computing Pilot and an Institutional Laptop Initiative -- by Dave Berque, Terri L. Bonebright, Michael Gough, and Carol L. Smith

Free Online High Schools -- from Virtual School News by Thomas Nixon
The single-most common question concerning online high schools is about whether there are any free ones available. Just a few short years ago, the answer was mostly in the negative. That fact is changing almost faster than it is possible to keep up. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, but the main one is that schools, states, and companies have figured out a way to use public money to create online high schools and online courses. All perfectly legal and a reasonable use of our tax dollars. However, before you decide to sign up for that free online high school, there are some things that you need to know.

The Diverse And Digital Workforce -- from Forbes.com by Sarah Sorensen
Employers must meet the needs of a new generation of workers.
The face of the workforce is changing. It is increasingly female, global and digital. To attract and retain the best and brightest talent to sustain your competitive advantage, you'll need to create a new work order. You will need a workplace that is much more flexible, interactive and connected to maximize the value of your increasingly diverse workforce. Oh, and like almost everything else, it should have been put in place yesterday. Women already make up half the workforce and are the primary or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of American households, according to the Shriver Report.

12/22/09

-- from Blending Learning with Social Technology Components at Upside Learning blog by Abhijit Kadle 

A lot of companies today face a resource situation that’s not unique in this age. A few key individuals holding important technical and project management knowledge is quite common. Such key knowledge in the hands of few prevents it from being disseminated broadly and leads to an unhealthy dependence on those individuals.

Recently, I was asked to propose a solution that addressed just such a business concern. To change a purely instructor-led-program for leadership development that runs over eight months and involves these key individuals is a large and complex activity. The [above] diagram represents just what converting such a program to a modern blend might look like. Each blend is unique and purposed to address a specific need. All the components we show may not be a part of the solution.

University of Michigan prepares budget request for state, warns of 'aggressive' changes - Ann Arbor -- resource and quote below from Ray Schroeder
Without naming a dollar amount, the University of Michigan is asking the state for help with next year's budget. In the annual operating budget request to the state for the Ann Arbor campus, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman reminded the state of U-M's contributions to the economy. She noted the university is "an essential component in the stabilization and revitalization of the Michigan economy." The letter highlighted a number of recent cost containment measures and spoke of efforts on the university's part to help students pay for tuition.

From DSC:
If you follow Ray's blog -- Recession Realities in Higher Education -- as well as many other blogs, periodicals, etc., then you already know that this is not an isolated incident -- not at all. It's happening all over and it's a piece of the perfect storm that's developing right now.

Bottom line: Major change is on the way.

Related item:

Creating a culture of innovation. 20 lessons from W. L. Gore & Associates -- from Strategic Inspiration for You by Frank Calberg

From Tony Bates' "Six priorities for Canadian e-learning in 2010" (emphasis below is from DSC):

Establishment of (at least one) hybrid digital university.
We need more experimentation, more new organizational models, to find the right balances between digital and face-to-face learning. My proposal then to provincial governments anticipating increased post-secondary education enrolments (and most Canadian provinces with reduced budgets face this challenge over the next few years) is to ask for proposals from existing institutions to take on extra enrolments with extra funding, but using hybrid delivery methods (i.e. at least 50% of the program will be delivered online).

From the government perspective this would mean using funding that otherwise would have gone into extra buildings and facilities to support increased digital learning activities. To ensure applications, a government could limit all increases in institutional funding in a particular financial year to such a project. (There is a precedence for this – over 1993 and 1994, the BC government withheld  a total of 2.5% of universities’ operating budgets for an innovation fund. Institutions got their ’share’ by developing innovation project plans.)

The most likely candidates are second-tier suburban or regional universities looking to enhance their status through being innovative and leading edge. It may also enable them to widen their ‘natural’ catchment area.

Overcrowded and underfunded -- from Tony Bates

From DSC:
Tony brings up a good question at the end of his posting:

This will of course result in more demand for online courses, but will the resources be there to ensure good quality programs?

From DSC: We need to get this right. We need to invest in creating high-quality, multimedia-based, interactive materials that are professionally-done, engaging, and ones that turn the control/pacing over to the students.

-- resource from Dan Colman

Livemocha Bags Another $8 Million From August Capital, Maveron -- from TechCrunch.com by Robin Wauters

From DSC :
If I'm correctly understanding what Livemocha is about...this is the kind of thing that I'm talking about. Investing some serious cash into web-based, interactive, multimedia-driven, educational content. It's going to be hard to compete against such engaging content -- created by a TEAM of specialists and offered for a greatly reduced price (or even free).

Heutagogy -- from Wikipedia
In education, heutagogy, a concept coined by Stewart Hase of Southern Cross University, is the study of self-determined learning. The notion is an expansion and reinterpretation of andragogy, and it is possible to mistake it for the same. However, there are several differences between the two that mark the one from the other. Heutagogy places specific emphasis on learning how to learn, double loop learning, universal learning opportunities, a non-linear process, and true learner self-direction. So, for example, whereas andragogy focuses on the best ways for people to learn, heutagogy also requires that educational initiatives include the improvement of people's actual learning skills themselves, learning how to learn as well as just learning a given subject itself. Similarly, whereas andragogy focusses on structured education, in heutagogy all learning contexts, both formal and informal, are considered.

From DSC:
THIS is what we need our graduates to know how to do. THIS is what we need to integrate into our teaching and learning endeavors throughout all disciplines. Why? So that when a student graduates, she can not only hit the ground running, but can keep hitting the ground running throughout her lifetime. No matter what comes down the pike, she will know how to learn, where to get information, how to sort through it and synthesize it. She can be a self-directed learner, getting training/information on demand...when she needs it.

THAT's a SOLID Return On Investment (ROI)!

12/21/09

The Advanced Placement Juggernaut -- from The New York Times

Intelligent Viewing: 100 Most Informative Video Collections on the Web -- from onlineuniversities.com

Related item:
ePals, the future of student-led global collaboration -- from teq

College Admissions - The Stars Might Lie, But The Numbers Never Do -- from hsdent.com by Rodney Johnson

So while the numbers look good today, colleges should be doing some very focused strategic planning for tomorrow.

Internet Not Linked To Social Isolation, Study Shows -- from Ian Jukes
Online activities such as e-mail, blogging and frequenting Internet hangouts can even lead to larger, more diverse social networks, according to the study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The study refutes research earlier in the decade suggesting that people's growing embrace of technology has come at the expense of close human connections.

Vancouver Community College’s online moves -- from Tony Bates, on December 18th, 2009
Robin Popow wrote this report for the BC Educational Technology Users Group:
Vancouver Community College has entered what appears to be its next phase of life with regards to educational technology. Over the past four years, we have gone from less than a dozen programs utilizing online environments to a robust Moodle environment in use by over 300 faculty members. Phase two comes as many using Moodle over the past few years become more comfortable with the environment and the constructivist paradigm shift it quietly encourages. In a general way, we have reached the E in the ADDIE model and the Centre for Instructional Development (CID) has been actively evaluating offerings on a voluntary basis based on established best practices and evaluation criteria. A focus now is on the redevelopment of courses at a program level with many areas collaborating to create a layout to offer their common students consistency across courses. These templates have been well received by faculty and students.

Five Words To Describe Corporate Learning in 2010 -- from eLearning Weekly by B.J. Schone

Related item:
New Programs Aim to Lure Young Into Digital Jobs -- from the New York Times
Hybrid careers like Dr. Halamka’s that combine computing with other fields will increasingly be the new American jobs of the future, labor experts say. In other words, the nation’s economy is going to need more cool nerds. But not enough young people are embracing computing — often because they are leery of being branded nerds.

Educators and technologists say two things need to change: the image of computing work, and computer science education in high schools. Teacher groups, professional organizations like the Association for Computing Machinery and the National Science Foundation are pushing for these changes, but so are major technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Intel. One step in their campaign came the week of Dec. 7, National Computer Science Education Week, which was celebrated with events in schools and online [from DSC: which was initiated by Calvin College's own Joel Adams].

One goal, Ms. Cuny and others say, is to explain the steady march and broad reach of computing across the sciences, industries, culture and society. Yes, they say, the computing tools young people see and use every day — e-mail, text-messaging and Facebook — are part of the story. But so are the advances in field after field that are made possible by computing, like gene-sequencing that unlocks the mysteries of life and simulations that model climate change.

12/17/09

An Instructional Media Selection Guide for Distance Learning -- from Jolly T. Holden, Ed.D. | Philip J.-L. Westfall, Ph.D. | Chairmen Emeriti | United States Distance Learning Association | 2009

12/16/09

Interesting...ability to charge per video/lecture...similar to what I was outlining above (on July 13, 2009)...

Elluminate: your grandkid's classroom - Matt Bowman, VatorNews -- quote below and resource from Ray Schroeder
Wondering what school will be like for the next generation? Check out Elluminate. It gives an instructor the ability to hold a web conference with up to 300 participants, host interactive displays, video streaming, private-but-moderated chats between participants and just about every function a teacher could want in an online classroom. Last week, the company announced it’s social network, LearnCentral, which launched in June of this year, has reached 25,000 members worldwide.

12/15/09

Virtual Schools -- from Education Next by Terry Moe, Larry Cuban and John Chubb
Will education technology change the role of the teacher and the nature of learning?

Oregon High School Newspaper Shifts to Online -- from Education Week and The Associated Press
North Eugene High School's half-century-old student newspaper was dealt a crippling blow in 2007 when lean budgets and scheduling constraints forced an end to the journalism class.

12/14/09

The Future of the Multiversity -- from Chief Learning Officer
Learning and business executives who are successful in developing a multiversity, and not just a training organization, should be aware of the scope and power of what they are creating. In an era when the answer to the majority of a student’s content questions is 0.27 seconds away via a search engine, the heritage of the traditional university as a “brain dump” by renowned professors is becoming increasingly irrelevant. What organizations and nations in the knowledge economy require instead are people capable of engaging in rigorous, cross-disciplinary problem formulation and collaborative work to solve those problems. That’s what a corporate multiversity can deliver, if organizations and their executives are willing to step up to the opportunity.

Top 10 Ways Social Media Will Impact Employee Development and Training in 2010 -- from LearningPutty.com by Renée Robbins

• Microblogging
• Text and voice
• Networks
• Forums
• Blogs
• Video
• Webcasting
• Wiki
• Google Wave
• Smart Phone applications

Using technology to improve workforce collaboration -- by James Manyika, Kara Sprague and Lareina Yee; original resource from George Siemens

New technologies, new pedagogies: Mobile learning in higher education
Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, 2009, 138p. ISBN: 978-1-74128-169-9 (online). Complete book available here - individual chapters below...

Teen Content Creators -- from PewInternet.org by Kathryn Zickuhr

12/11/09

Excerpt from:
Online learning opens doors wider for students in tough economy:

Reform does not include building more brick and mortar "solutions" to absorb additional "traditional" students. Reform has more do with rethinking the way we design and deliver learning opportunities to our students, and understanding the nature of today's learner, who wants to be engaged, yet needs convenient access. Reform must include new strategies to support students completing their degrees, and attracting adults back into our educational system to complete their education.  These adults must sustain employment while continuing their studies.

Florida's state college system, including Broward, is uniquely poised to embrace a key component of the American Graduation Initiative — the "online skills laboratory."  Through the state's Orange Grove Digital Repository, Florida's colleges and universities already share flash animations, lessons, videos, open access textbooks, books, games, maps, pictures, graphs, lesson plans, professional development materials, courses, institutional research, and planning documents [from DSC: See consortiums and pooling of resrouces page].

However, in an era of diminishing state support, we must find ways to reduce cost while increasing access. Clearly, the face-to-face model cannot be sustained in an era of diminished public support and demand for increased access. Nor can higher education increase degree production, as we need to do, by building capacity through tuition increases that make higher education unaffordable. We must build in new ways — we must reach out to adults to help them complete their college education while maintaining employment, and we must use redesigned online learning opportunities to connect with students.

-- J. David Armstrong, Jr., President of Broward College,
and former Chancellor of the Florida Community College System

Michigan's Online Teacher of the Year Selected
LANSING, Mich., Dec 07, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire

Online instructor Melanie Laber excels in the virtual classroom. Melanie Laber teaches trigonometry, geometry and pre-algebra to students in Detroit, Paw Paw, Traverse City and Houghton. She was recently named Michigan's Online Teacher of the Year. Laber is an online instructor for Michigan Virtual School(TM); she teaches in a virtual classroom for schools all across Michigan. The course content and instruction all happens over the Internet, with students logging in to follow lessons and complete assignments, and Laber interacting with students through e-mail and discussion rooms.

Wowza Boosts Student Learning at Hundreds of Universities Around the World with Video Streaming for Flash, iPhone and Beyond

Educators Expand Classrooms Beyond Ivy-covered Walls While Gaining Resource and Cost Efficiencies
As digital video and audio grow into a preferred communications media on campuses across the world, Wowza Media Systems®, the media server software company, today announced that more than 500 universities and colleges on four continents are using Wowza Media Server® technology to deliver live, on demand and interactive content to students and faculty on multiple players and devices, including Flash® and iPhone®.

The collegiate market is among the most aggressive adopters of streaming media technology solutions as the modern campus expands beyond the traditional four walls of classrooms, labs and lecture halls and the Internet is an increasingly inseparable component of learning curriculum [emphasis DSC]. According to Reuters, the online education sector grew 13 percent last year and had been growing at about 20 percent in previous years.

"Universities are discovering that lecture capture is a competitive advantage and of great benefit to 'millennial' learners, who are accustomed to convenience and to on-demand access to myriad content sources," said Alan Greenberg, Senior Analyst & Partner at Wainhouse Research in his recent report The Distance Education and e-Learning Landscape Volume 2: Videoconferencing, Streaming and Capture Systems for Learning . "The beauty of streaming and lecture capture today is that they are more affordable than ever before."

Education beats Poverty – and enables people to help themselves.

• Education is key to breaking the cycle of poverty for families, communities and whole countries.
• It leads to economic growth, democracy and a more stable future.
• Education is the best tool we have for tackling poverty, and it is the one investment that ultimately pays for itself: When a child gets educated, they will eventually earn more and be better able to support their family.
• A child who goes to school will earn an extra 10% for every year of schooling they receive and be 50% less likely to become infected with HIV/AIDS if the complete Primary School.

Education For All is urgently needed if we are to tackle poverty, ill health and hunger.  An education can offer hope and a future to children in the developing world who desperately deserve a chance in life. More info at Join1Goal.com

12/9/09

Best of Edutopia's 2009 Technology Coverage [K-12] -- from Edutopia.org
Year in Review: Ten great 21st-century-classroom resources.

Top 125 Workplace eLearning Posts of 2009 -- from Tony Karrer

-- from Mark Smithers' "PLEs, PLEs Me" posting

12/8/09

Keynoter: Make higher education more accessible -- from eCampusNews (p. 29 of 35)

Colleges should consider accrediting web-based programs offered at free or low-cost online schools, making higher education more widely available to populations with little access to post-secondary classes, a former official from the United Kingdom’s Open University told EDUCAUSE conference attendees Nov. 6.

Brenda Gourley, vice chancellor of the Open University from 2002-09 and a long-time advocate for education’s role in social justice, stressed that colleges and universities that cannot afford to launch web-based classes should evaluate courses offered at ventures such as the Open University and allow students to take the class for school credit.

Gourley warned against trimming back college offerings as campus operating budgets shrink and endowments dwindle, reminding IT officials gathered at the conference that this could be a chance to bolster online education that would keep campuses financially afloat and serve non-traditional students whose schedules don’t allow for on-campus lectures.

“I don’t think these … times should be some kind of excuse for putting that on hold while we sort something else out,” she said. “Exactly the opposite. … If your strategic thinking of technology isn’t combined in your holistic strategic thinking, I think you’re in trouble” [emphasis DSC].

12/7/09

ELI Discovery Tool: Blended Learning Workshop Guide -- from Educause Learning Initiative
Blended or hybrid learning, an instructional delivery mode in which instruction is conducted partly online and partly face-to-face, has emerged as one of the fastest-growing and most successful instructional models to deliver flexible learning options for today’s learners [emphasis DSC]. Its ability to be customized to fit learners’ diverse needs and to be designed to accommodate a variety of content places blended learning courses and programs in high demand. Developing a comprehensive faculty development program on how to design, develop, deliver, and evaluate blended learning programs is challenging yet critical to supporting faculty members and students in this teaching and learning model. This comprehensive blended learning workshop guide contains a resource list and eight workshop modules intended to reduce some of the extensive work involved in assembling the components and curriculum for such a program. Each of the modules contains topical guidelines, content, resources, and best practices, and each can be easily customized to fit the needs of your institution, department, or unit.

Blended Learning Workshop Guide Units

• Unit 1: Overview and Delivery
• Unit 2: Design Overview: Strategies and Tools
• Unit 3: Building Community and Collaboration
• Unit 4: Assessment
• Unit 5: Integrity Issues
• Unit 6: Quality Assurance
• Unit 7: Implementing Blended Learning
• Unit 8: Learning Technology
• Additional Resources

For more information and resources on blended learning, see Blended or Hybrid Learning Resources web page.

Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age -- from serendipity35.net
Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age was an invite-only Google forum this past October to bring together 200 of the nation’s top thought leaders in science and technology, informal and formal education, entertainment media, research, philanthropy, and policy to create and act upon a breakthrough strategy for scaling-up effective models of teaching and learning for children. The forum was hosted by Google, Inc., in cooperation with forum founders: the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, Common Sense Media, the MacArthur Foundation. Since I didn't get the invite to Mountain View, CA for the event, I did take a look at some of the video of sessions.

• Day 1 Keynote: Geoff Canada
• Breakthrough Ideas to Drive Student Success
• Teachers for a Digital Age
• New Learning Designs
• Literacy 2.0
• The Next Revolution in Learning

Recordings/talks from the 2009 Virtual School Symposium

10 websites to keep your finger on the online pulse -- from webdistortion.com

12/5/09

2010 Horizon Report: Preview

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

 Mobile Computing
 Open Content

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

 Electronic Books
 Simple Augmented Reality

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years

 Gesture-Based Computing
 Visual Data Analysis

 

World's largest open university goes mobile -- from pr-inside and above report from the NMC
The classroom of the future is moving to mobile phones, and reaching farther into India thanks to a new partnership between Ericsson and The Indira Gandhi National Open University.

-- resource from the above NMC 2010 (preview) report

A strategic vision for online learning -- from OrgeonLive.com by Denise Herrenbruck; original link from scherlund.blogspot.com As more students turn to Oregon virtual charter schools, there's a brewing conflict between educators and parents in the K-12 community. Educators are worried about the redistribution of public school funding and how to monitor quality and compliance in schools operated with business sector services. Many parents are fuming over the Oregon Legislature's move to halt the growth of virtual schools. They want the freedom to chose a school option that they say works for their children. Both sides have important concerns, but there is something crucial missing from the debate. A strategic vision for online learning is the key to finding a solution that's best for kids.

Blended learning -- from eduviews
Blended learning, the teaching practice that combines teaching methods from both face-to-face and online learning, is an established, rapidly growing model of instruction. It has proven highly effective in helping schools and districts address the challenges of student achievement, limited resources, and the expectations of 21st century learners. Blended Learning: Where Online and Face-to-Face Instruction Intersect for 21st Century Teaching and Learning reviews the working definitions of blended learning, explores relevant efficacy data, recaps innovative and practical implementation models and provides profiles of several schools and districts that are experiencing success with their blended learning programs.

Teaching and Learning in a 'Digital Nation' -- from Education Week by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
PBS Teachers is hosting a webinar next week to address the challenges of teaching and learning in an age of constant digital innovation and nonstop communication, and how kids' fascination and facility with technology influences their learning. The event, scheduled for Dec. 8, from 8-9 p.m. Eastern time, is part of the Frontline/PBS project "Digital Nation: Life on the Digital Frontier".

Innovative eLearning campus for Biblical Theological Seminary -- from PitchEngine.com

MindActive Inc, a Web marketing and eLearning development firm based in St. Louis, Missouri, recently created and launched a new online eLearning platform for Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, PA.

Biblical Theological Seminary, an accredited interdenominational seminary, had asked MindActive, and its partner, Shapevine.com, to help create an innovative online campus, called “The Digital Campus Project”, so it could offer credit-based courses for its Master's Degree in Missional Church Planting.

“We have integrataed our live interactive technologies with an open-source application called Moodle, to build the Learning Management portion of the eCampus. They wanted the ability to enroll students for online courses using their existing registration process. The integrated eCampus platform was built to allow users seamless use of their course applications with a single login, said Paul Shirer, partner with MindActive”.

MindActive also integrated their own innovative video webcasting, live event video, and video email applications into the seminary’s Learning Management System (LMS) to allow administrators, students, educators, and faculty members to share, communicate, and collaborate all within the same school based platform.

12/4/09

Building Student Engagement: 15 Strategies for the College Classroom -- from Faculty Focus
The reasons why students need to be involved and engaged when they attend college are well established. Engagement can be the difference between completing a degree and dropping out. Research has sought to identify what makes student involvement more likely. Factors like student-faculty interaction, active and collaborative learning experiences, involvement in extracurricular activities, and living on campus have all been shown to make a difference.

Not surprisingly, faculty play a critical role in student engagement … from the obvious: facilitating discussions in the classroom; to the often overlooked: maximizing those brief encounters we have with students outside of class. This special report features 15 articles that provide perspectives and advice for keeping students actively engaged in learning activities while fostering more meaningful interactions between students and faculty members, and among the students themselves.

From DSC: A brief thought on this Friday morning...

It's snowing like crazy in Grand Rapids, MI. Some areas of West Michigan are seeing up to 18" this morning, and 100+ schools are closed throughout the surrounding areas. But what was interesting to me about our first major snowfall this year -- and different from the past years (at least that I can remember) -- is that all of the radio stations redirected people to their websites for the list of school closings.

Not a big deal right? Well...it is in a way. If you want to (quickly and easily) know if your school is closed, you need to have Internet access. If not, you need to find other means...and such means probably will not be as quick/efficient. (What was that phone # again? Which office/dept do I call? The scrolling list on the TV takes forever to get to my school district. etc. etc.)

Hmm...now look at the parallel trends happening in education....one better be connected into the Internet from here on out. One better be connected with peers/colleagues all over the world if you want to be the best in your field....or learn a topic with the most up-to-date information.

Community Colleges Get Gift of Millions for Online Education -- from The Chronicle by Josh Fischman
While Congress is still weighing legislation that could put $500-million into the development of open, online courses, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has stepped up to the plate. The charity is giving $12.9-million to advance technology at community colleges, improving virtual learning environments for both students and teachers.

From DSC:
$500 million may go a long way towards creating highly-engaging, interactive, multimedia-based content that can then be accessed freely via the Internet. How is your college or university going to handle this if this trend continues? Also...if your college or university is in the middle of a fundraising campaign, you would be very wise to set aside $1-$5million of it for developing such engaging, interactive content.

12/3/09

Wimba Study Break: Transitioning from Face-to-Face to Online Instruction
Even though most schools have transitioned some aspects of their in-classroom instruction to the online environment, there are still so many ways to do so effectively. Learn from two customers who have successfully helped their faculty make the leap. Join Gary Shouppe of Columbus State University (GA) as he replicated a face-to-face (f2f) masters degree program into an online degree program, and then hear from Cliff Eberhardt of Central Michigan University as he explains how using Wimba and Blackboard have helped ease faculty into online instruction because they feel it's easy for them to create effective online courses. Presented by: Gary Shouppe, Columbus State University & Cliff Eberhardt, Central Michigan University | Hosted by: Matt Wasowski, Wimba.

12/2/09

Disrupting Class: Inspiring Change in Online Learning -- by Jamey Fitzpatrick, President & CEO, Michigan Virtual University and Michael Horn
Disrupting Class uses the theories of disruptive innovation to identify the root causes of schools’ struggles and suggests a path forward to customize an education for every child in the way he or she learns. In his keynote address, Horn will share the main ideas of his book to inspire change in today’s online learning field.

The New Way of Learning – Go Beyond the Classroom -- from Tandberg
Video communications facilitates distance learning and helps students better grasp, understand and apply knowledge. This special report describes how schools can use video communication technology to create a climate of learning that inspires and motivates students - while at the same time supporting teachers. Learn how video communications can help reshape and transform education to keep pace with today's learning environment.

Universities must do more to keep up with online developments -- from Education Executive; original resource from Ray Schroeder
Universities must do more to keep up with developments online, particularly given the rise in popularity of social networking, according to a new report from Sapient. The report suggests today's students are ‘digital natives', used to a world of online social networking but argues many universities are yet to adapt to these changes and embrace new technologies to enhance the student experience.

According to the report, if universities are to continue to provide an excellent learning environment to researchers and attract the best students it's essential they deliver a sophisticated online environment for learning. This is particularly important given most university populations are fragmented with students living in multiple locations - sometimes abroad. Although some have sought to foster a sense of community online through the introduction of various online tools these are often little more than e-learning services that fail to promote high value collaboration and engagement.

JISC Strategy 2010-2012 -- from JISC

Scholarly Communications must be Mobile -- from Academic Evolution

India offers lessons for the world -- from The National by Anuj Chopra; original resource from Ray Schroeder
BANGALORE // Every day at 2am, Sapna Ajay, an English teacher in Raipur, wakes up to begin her lessons. As her first cup of coffee hits, Ms Ajay switches on her computer to connect with her student, who is sitting half a world away in the US. Receiving grammar lessons from an Indian teacher using an imperfect American accent at the other side of the globe may sound bizarre, but teaching in a virtual classroom has never been cheaper and more convenient, she says.

12/1/09

11/30/09

The Future of Higher Education -- from Educause by Diana Oblinger
Session Type: Teaching and Learning; from Educause recording
The economic downturn and society-wide changes catalyzed by information technology (disintermediation, consumerization, and so forth) are causing many colleges and universities to question what the future of higher education in the digital age will be. Many historic challenges persist, such as cost, access, retention, and graduation rates. The digital age offers new opportunities (for example, online learning) as well as threats (for example, competition from other providers). IT is a tool that can help address these challenges, but it may also change how we frame the future. This presentation will explore common themes emerging worldwide, including cloud computing, identity management, analytics, and open educational resources.

100 Tips & Tools to Teach Your Child a Second Language -- from onlineuniversities.com

11/29/09

Number of students taking online courses rises -- from USA Today by Justin Pope (back on 11/9/09), The Associated Press; my thanks to Ginger Howell for this resource
Roughly one in six students enrolled in higher education — about 3.2 million people — took at least one online course last fall, a sharp increase defying predictions that online learning growth is leveling off.

A new report scheduled for released Thursday by The Sloan Consortium, a group of colleges pursuing online programs, estimates that 850,000 more students took online courses in the fall of 2005 than the year before, an increase of nearly 40% [emphasis DSC..and below as well]. Last year, the group had reported slowing growth, prompting speculation the trend had hit a ceiling.

"The growth was phenomenal," said Jeff Seaman, Sloan's CIO and survey director, who also serves as co-director of the Babson College survey research group. "It's higher in absolute numbers and higher in percentages than anything we've measured before. And it's across the board," at schools ranging from doctoral institutions to those offering associate's degrees to for-profit colleges.

If we want the very best for our students, their teachers must be able to provide them with the very best education. The members of the next generation of Americans will need to graduate from high school ready to compete in a world of rapid globalization, burgeoning technological innovations, and changing labor markets. They will need to be informed citizens in a complex world [emphasis DSC]. Not only do our students need to be primed for this new world, our teachers must be prepared to guide them. Yet, just as our students do not always receive the preparation they need for twenty-first-century success, neither do all of their teachers. All too often, the two situations are interrelated.

iNACOL Announces Online Learning Innovator Award Winners at Virtual School Symposium
The winner of the award for Best and Most Innovative Online Learning Practice was the “Fire and Ice” program, managed by Elluminate, Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. “Fire and Ice” was created as a non-profit initiative to connect K-12 schools in the Northern Hemisphere (the “Ice”) with those in the Southern Hemisphere (mainly rural areas of developing countries – the “Fire”), to engage students in highly collaborative projects, using live and non-live communications technologies [emphasis DSC], on universal themes such as climate change and poverty reduction. Since 2006, “Fire and Ice” has resulted in the creation of creative international content and generated unforgettable learning experiences for thousands of students in more than 25 countries.

Managing Curriculum Change: Transforming curriculum design and delivery through technology -- from JISC

11/28/09

You Can't Innovate Like Apple -- from Pragmatic Markting by Alain Breillatt
When what you teach and develop every day has the title “Innovation” attached to it, you reach a point where you tire of hearing about Apple. Without question, nearly everyone believes the equation Apple = Innovation is a fundamental truth. Discover what makes them different.

“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. So you can’t go out and ask people, you know, what’s the next big [thing.] There’s a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse.’’’

From DSC:
This is how I feel about integrating technology into the classroom. I don't expect our faculty members to lead in terms of integrating technologies into the classroom -- I feel that's the job of our Teaching & Learning Group. Faculty members:

1) Don't have enough incentive to investigate all of the technologies out there (and therefore may not know what's out there that's potentially very useful in the classroom)
2) Don't have the time to do so
3) May not be interested in doing so in the first place
4) May feel that their game is a winning one and not in need of any change (which may or may not be the case as the years go by).

In other words, faculty members are not generally going to lead in this ever-increasingly important and influential space. But they must be open to change in this area. They must be open to developing a culture of innovation; a thing, which this article suggests, is neither easy nor inexpensive. But, I would argue, a must if an institution of higher education wants to survive in this new climate.

Directions in Education and Learning -- George Siemens at University of Oslo

11/25/09

-- resource passed along by Stephen Downes

I don't know if this site is any good or not...however, I find the explosion
in innovation incredible...and much of it is happening online.

11/24/09

Discussing Blog Design in 5th Grade -- from The Thinking Stick by Jeff Utecht

11/23/09

Improving the bottom line: Collaboration with Wimba saves educators time and money -- from Wimba
Enterprise-Wide use of Wimba Collaboration Suite™ offers significant ROI for K-12 and higher ed leaders

21st Century Educators Don’t Say, “Hand It In.” They say, “Publish It! -- from The Innovative Educator

12 Ways for Students to Publish Slideshows Online -- from Free Technology from Teachers

11/20/09 -- LearnTrends' recordings regard learning-related items within the corporate world

11/19/09

11/18/09 Edvantage group announced their SaaS LMS, Learning Gateway,
has passed 1m annual course completions in 2009. Approximately 2.8 million courses
have been launched to date in 2009, a growth of 60% from 2008 figures.

From DSC: I post this here because our graduates will need to be able to learn this way.

11/18/09

Here's what our students -- TODAY -- will need to be able to do (never mind the future):
Five Ways To Provide Microlearning -- from Chief Learning Officer

Our digital content is getting smaller and disseminating faster. We see it in the music industry, as individual songs — and sometimes even ringtones — dominate downloads over albums, and music is shared, mixed and remixed. We see it in the news industry, as incremental online updates throughout the day replace a single, daily newspaper and stories are blogged, tweeted and commented on online, by anyone. And now we see it in our own industry, this time in the form of “microlearning.”

Microlearning emerges from the publication of small pieces of loosely joined digital information, which is often limited to a single topic or limited in length by the publication software on which it’s published. It’s different from just-in-time learning because it’s unstructured and relies on human-to-human interaction and interaction with Internet media. It’s also different from learning objects because the content is not stored in a centralized repository, nor is it created in advance, and it uses a folksonomy, as opposed to a taxonomy, approach to tagging metadata. Here is how five organizations are responding to the “micro” trend.

11/17/09

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning -- from Virtual School Symposium 2009 Overlay

Key emerging trends for online learning?

• We haven’t addressed the mobile device and we know it is what students want – might not be 2010 but in 18 months we will see mobile devices
• We will continue to see the conversation changing from what is it to how we manage it
• We will see integration into special education in much greater numbers
• We will see more states require online learning experience - MI, AL already have this
• Several different waves are coming – growth in elementary, blended learning – adults needing a high school diploma are a huge audience coming to virtual schools
• Within corporate training, we will see more cohort based collaborative learning in the corporate world
• More multiple pathways to learning – more ability to just in time resources to support the learning that needs to happen for students
• All states will finally have online learning and the discussion will dramatically change
  
  This is the wave, the wave is coming – you either ride the wave or wipe out! [emphasis in bold red by DSC]

Apple's Shocking App Store Numbers -- from Forbes.com by David Ewalt

Apple announced [11/4/09] that developers have created over 100,000 applications for its iPhone and iPod Touch App Store, and that users have downloaded well over two billion apps in the 16 months since the store's launch.

Stop for a second to think about those numbers. The store's only been around 482 days. It launched with only 500 apps, so that averages out to more than 200 new apps a day, and a staggering 4,149,377 downloads a day [emphasis DSC].

From DSC:
The blazingly fast pace of technological change continues!
Whether the metaphor is a wave or a race track, you get the point.
We are in a game-changing environment and if you want to remain relevant, change is your only option.

11/16/09

Statewide Support for K 12 Online Learning Grows -- form The Journal by David Nagel
States and districts have increased their support for online K-12 education programs. Twenty-five states now run statewide online initiatives, according to new research from the Center for Digital Education (CDE) at policy and research firm e.Republic. That's up from 15 states running such initiatives a year ago.

Colleges Find Creative Ways to Cut Back -- from Time Magazine by Sophia Yan

Connectivisim: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age -- from E-learning Practice & Research blog; and ultimately from George Siemens
The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. A real challenge for any learning theory is to actuate known knowledge at the point of application. When knowledge, however, is needed, but not known, the ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements becomes a vital skill. As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses [emphasis DSC].

Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized. The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.

[Various resources re:] Asynchronous Learning and Trends -- from Faculty Focus
Asynchronous learning, or teaching and learning that occurs when the interaction between the instructor and students is not constrained by time and place, can cause feelings of isolation, resulting in disappointment and low retention rates in online classes. Faculty Focus examines new, proven collaborative learning techniques you can use in the online classroom to promote social interaction and have a positive influence on learning, motivation, and problem-solving.

-- from Mobile Learning Presentation from NDLW; note the pace of change here!

11/14/09

Students discovering online collaboration [Denmark] -- from Helge Scherlund
Teachers are increasingly using blogs, Twitter, wikis, podcasting, video conferences with students.

More teachers trading in textbooks and lectures for interactive e-Learning software to engage students -- frrom B2E

Networking U -- from oncampus.macleans.ca by Jennifer Pagliaro
How IT is helping educators engage students in new ways

She wanted to engage the “we generation” in a new way. In 2007, Jean Adams, a professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, took two classes of almost 400 first-year business management students, divided them into groups and handed tablet PCs to those who didn’t have their own notebook computers. (That was made possible by a Hewlett-Packard Technology for Teaching grant that Adams won that year.) The students’ challenge: to work together in real time, through screen-sharing on their laptops, and create storyboards to solve the viciously difficult business cases Adams had presented to them. She then put their work on a projection screen in front of the class, where she could comment on and pull ideas from it—making the classroom experience more immediately gratifying and highly visual. “This ability to get what’s in their heads in a very practical way—it’s just really quite amazing,” Adams says.

Once upon a time—before laptops, cellphones and iPods—a professor’s only competition for attention in the classroom was her students’ wandering imagination. But at today’s leading institutions, the digital classroom is no longer a novelty. These days, high school graduates, armed with shorter attention spans but greater expectations that their teachers go beyond “chalk and talk,” pose a real challenge to educators [emphasis DSC]. How to inspire students to conduct their own research or engage with course materials, when the traditional lecture no longer measures up to the eye candy and possibilities of new media?

“I’m trying to use the technology to make the face-to-face contact even richer.” There’s also the challenge of teaching students themselves how to use these new technologies productively—learning the ropes in university, Adams says, puts her students at a huge advantage.

“Although you can’t force faculty to use technology innovation,” she says, “what you can do is create a culture of innovation [emphasis DSC].”

11/13/09

11/12/09

The High Cost of College – Is the Three-Year Bachelor Degree Program the Answer? -- from Open Education

Gov. Granholm Terminates 96,000 Michigan Promise College Scholarship Grants - TaxPayers United Michigan Foundation -- resource from Ray Schroeder

11/11/09

From DSC: This next one is very relevant for those of us in higher education:
The One-Minute Journalist Guide To Understanding The Internet -- from Robin Good's blog, by various authors

Money can be made on the Internet with journalistic content. There are many examples of this today already. Yet because the Internet is fiercely competitive, business models have to be adapted to the structure of the net. No one should try to abscond from this essential adaptation through policy-making geared to preserving the status quo [emphasis DSC]. Journalism needs open competition for the best refinancing solutions on the net, along with the courage to invest in the multifaceted implementation of these solutions.

11/10/09

Advice to Grads: ‘Be Ready for Change’ -- from Higher Education Weblog

Smart college students know their career futures won’t be stable. Most new graduates will work in several fields or jobs over their lifetimes and will be continually adapting to ever-faster technical developments [emphasis DSC]. But you can take steps to be ready for an uncertain work world. First, accept that your education doesn’t stop with college or graduate school. To be successful and rise up through the ranks, you’ll need to be a lifelong learner. Second, be ready for change. View new systems and processes as opportunities and volunteer to get involved with them.

Five Tips for Young Professionals
When making forecasts about your career future, one thing is sure: it’s going to be buffeted by change. As a young professional, you can take steps to be ready for some likely twists and turns, says Glen Heimstra, founder of futurist.com in Kirkland, Wash.:

• Get on a learning curve. Identify what you need to learn in the next six months and create a plan for accomplishing this goal. Continue to set learning agendas for yourself. As the world keeps changing, successful professionals will stay up with new developments.
• Be technically knowledgeable. Virtually all work in the future will require technical competence. You don’t have to be a programmer, but you should be competent on basic computer systems and software programs and aware of how technology can be applied.
• Improve your personal-interaction skills. More routine work will be automated, leaving employees to do what’s left. Young professionals will stand out if they can interact with and manage people effectively.
• Be good at balancing work and life. As work spills over into life, and vice versa, professionals must know when work starts and stops and help other employees to set those boundaries as well.
• Take time to look over the horizon. Be a futurist. Cultivate the ability to forecast what’s just around the corner, so you can prepare for it, says Mr. Hiemstra.

11/9/09

11/7/09

Openness, Dynamic Specialization, and the Disaggregated Future of Higher Education -- from IRRODL.org by David Wiley, John Hilton III
Abstract:
Openness is a fundamental value underlying significant changes in society and is a prerequisite to changes institutions of higher education need to make in order to remain relevant to the society in which they exist. There are a number of ways institutions can be more open, including programs of open sharing of educational materials. Individual faculty can also choose to be more open without waiting for institutional programs. Increasing degrees of openness in society coupled with innovations in business strategy like dynamic specialization are enabling radical experiments in higher education and exerting increasing competitive pressure on conventional higher education institutions. No single response to the changes in the supersystem of higher education can successfully address every institution’s situation. However, every institution must begin addressing openness as a core organizational value if it desires to both remain relevant to its learners and to contribute to the positive advancement of the field of higher education (emphasis DSC).

From DSC:
What are our plans here? What are your plans here? If they haven't already, the conversations better begin soon...

11/6/09

[Re:] The Higher Educational Bubble Continues to Grow -- from Stephen Downes
Higher education, writes Karl Kapp, is in the grip of a bubble. The signs?

• core mission and fundamentals are ignored
• disproportionate compensation at the highest levels
• product value doesn't match marketplace expectations
• prices are manipulated without regard to market supply and demand
• perception of exclusivity
• a delusion that "this market is different"

I have long affirmed that such a crisis is coming and that it would arrive very suddenly after being years in the making. It is now very close - within a matter of months. 2010 some time, maybe (at the outside) 2011, at least in North America. Funding will dry up, there will be significant staff reductions, institutions will merge or close, and administrators will be desperate for alternatives. Not just in education, but education will be very hard hit, and at all levels.

From DSC:
This is not a joke folks...I couldn't agree with Karl and Stephen more.

In Search of the Big Idea -- from InsideHigherEd.com
NEW YORK -- Nothing concentrates the mind like a fiscal crisis; or at least that's the hope of higher education leaders. Gathered here Thursday for the TIAA-CREF Institute's Higher Education Leadership Conference, some of the nation's most prominent figures in postsecondary education wrestled with the central question of their time: What is the future of this thing called college?

What became quickly and painfully obvious in their deliberations is that the center will not hold. In something of an irony, higher education leaders acknowledged here Thursday that the very system that put them in the position to run the nation's colleges and universities is no longer fit to groom their successors or the rest of the U.S. work force. Diminishing state support, a skeptical public pressing for accountability, and dramatically shifting demographics all point toward the necessity for a serious rethinking of the way colleges educate students, according to just about every panelist who spoke at the conference.

...And therein lies the tug of war within higher education. Innovation is invariably greeted with a mix of applause and raised eyebrows, as an "industry" steeped in tradition seeks to redefine itself for the 21st century. Is the skepticism rightful protection of a system that is the envy of the world or unwarranted protectionism of a system that is built to fail? That's the question college presidents say they're now confronting every day, according to several who attended the conference.

Leading Education Organizations Announce Consortium for Transforming Low-Performing Schools from Within -- from B2E
Renaissance Learning and JBHM Education Group introduce program that builds school and district capacity to accelerate learning, provides alternative to charters and closures

JACKSON, Miss. – Nov. 4, 2009 – Amid growing pressure on public school districts to improve performance of chronically struggling schools, two nationally recognized education organizations have formed a consortium to offer a research-based approach for transforming  these schools into successful learning environments without requiring mass dismissals of staff, school closures or turnover to charters or outside management organizations. The new initiative, called SetPoint, pairs classroom technology with intensive coaching to build capacity for sustained change within the local district.

11/5/09

236 Online High Schools -- from Online High

100 Open Courses to Learn Any New Language -- from Online Universities.com

Google Wave makes a big splash as it hits the shore -- from San Jose State University's Spartan Daily by Suzanne Yada

'Convergent education' comes together -- by Gregg W. Downey, Editor
Commentary: Educational transformation will come--whether entrenched interests like it or not

As I was saying last month, an avalanche of change is rumbling towards our field. I propose we call this cascading phenomenon "convergent education."

Here's what I mean: A new species of education is emerging that artfully aggregates up-to-the-minute instructional technology, sophisticated pedagogy, robust and standards-based educational content, and web-based delivery that requires a computer or other personal digital device but no fixed address. Under most circumstances, convergent education certainly can amplify the impact of traditional instruction, but it is not necessarily dependent on face-to-face encounters between teacher and student.

At its best, convergent education features diverse learning opportunities delivered via multiple media platforms combined with field trips (virtual or real), live streaming video, interactive archived video, educational gaming, student collaboration, animation, celebrity lectures and adventures, project-based instruction with student-managed data, virtual demonstrations and experiments, continuous monitoring of student engagement and learner satisfaction, and classic, in-the-classroom instruction.

In general, convergent education is based on developments such as distance learning and lecture-capture strategies that have been around for some time, but which are now reinforced by the completely unprecedented fact that nearly every willing learner has (or soon will have) economical access to the rich multimedia resources of the internet--access delivered by such devices as personal computers, netbooks, smart telephones, personal digital assistants, interactive whiteboards, pocket projectors, and handheld reading devices.

Convergent education has been made feasible--and perhaps even inevitable--by a unique confluence of social and technological forces that ultimately must transform the way we learn. Such forces include--but are by no means limited to--the thinning of our teaching corps by retirement, reductions in force, and classroom abandonment; the movement toward charter schools, open-courseware, and online universities; the push for school reform from government and industry; and the desire and necessity of multitudes of adults to obtain new skills and knowledge to survive and thrive in a swiftly changing job market.

Here's what's profoundly different now: This time the transformation will come whether entrenched interests like it or not.

11/3/09

-- The 2009 21st-Century Campus Report: Defining the Vision

Now in its second year, the CDW-G 21st-Century Campus Report examines the current and future role of technology in higher education. CDW-G surveyed more than 1,000 college students, faculty and Information Technology (IT) staff members to understand their respective perceptions of campus technology. The 2008 report provided a baseline for campus technology use. The 2009 study examines how student needs are changing, and how campuses are –and are not – responding. This year’s survey also asks the higher education community to define the elements of the 21st-century campus. The resulting report identifies strengths and weaknesses associated with campus technology and recommends steps forward.

Students Unimpressed with Faculty Use of Ed Tech -- from CampusTechnology.com by David Nagel
While students and faculty seem to agree on the importance of technology in education, the two groups do not agree on how well it's being implemented. According to new research released Monday, only 38 percent of students indicated that their instructors "understand technology and fully integrate it into their classes." Students also rated that lack of understanding as "the biggest obstacle to classroom technology integration."

From DSC:
We need to move towards using TEAM-created/delivered content, as not everyone has all of the necessary interest, gifts, and abilities.

Wimba Collaboration Suite 6.0 is now available for Moodle -- memo from Wimba
MP4, whiteboard, and assessment innovation extends learning beyond physical classroom
The Wimba Collaboration Suite™ 6.0, unveiled in April, is now available for Moodle. By creating a highly personal and dynamic environment for online learning, thousands of higher education institutions and K-12 districts around the world rely on Wimba’s technology to improve outcomes and increase student retention.

Customers now have access to innovative new capabilities of Wimba Classroom™ 6.0, Wimba Pronto™6.0, and Wimba Voice™ 6.0 - enhancements that include advanced MP4, whiteboarding and assessment functionality. For more information on how the Wimba Collaboration Suite 6.0 can impact teaching and learning at your school or campus please visit: Solutions for K-12 | Solutions for Higher Education

Wimba Study Break: Transitioning from Face-to-Face to Online Instruction -- from Wimba
Even though most schools have transitioned some aspects of their in-classroom instruction to the online environment, there are still so many ways to do so effectively.  Learn from two customers who have successfully helped their faculty make the leap. 

11/2/09

10/31/09

From Textbooks to Virtual Learning Villages -- from EducationWeek
According to this article in the Boston Globe, Houghton Mifflin, one of the largest textbook companies in the U.S., has signed a $40 million contract with Detroit public schools to provide not only textbooks, but also the software to create an interactive classroom network called Learning Village.

Publisher enters new chapter in textbooks
Houghton sells $40m high-tech teaching system

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the oldest publishers in the United States, plans to unveil today the biggest deal in its history: a $40 million, multiyear contract with Detroit public schools. But this is not the typical agreement to sell a textbook to every student.

Instead, Houghton will be providing a computer-based teaching system it developed with Microsoft Corp. that will connect teachers, students, and administrators. It’s a radical shift away from the classic textbook publishing model and represents an industry transformation, as technology supplants books.

“We are now in a transformational period. Everything we have has to be two worlds: print and digital,’’ Cohen said. “The future of learning is going to be high-quality online material and, to a lesser extent, textbooks.’’

10/30/09

Smart.fm: Developing a Great Experience -- from adaptivepath.com

If a user leaves the game, either by returning to browse goals or by quitting the app then their state needs to be saved and resumed at a later time. In addition, the user’s study progress needs to be synced back to the Smart.fm web site so that they can continue learning on a PC. And wait! What if the user studied that same goal, or another one in the mean time… download that progress and figure out the user’s total progress across all goals. And wait! Since goals are “alive” other users might have added new items, so download them too

....the [smart.fm] iPhone app has been submitted to Apple and is very close to being in your hands. Screenshots of the app are available at http://smart.fm/iphone. Early in November we anticipate seeing a smiling Smart.fm owl sitting in the iTunes app store.

10/29/09

From DSC...re: the use of technology in the workplace:
Using technology to improve workforce collaboration -- from McKinsey & Company by James Manyika, Kara Sprague, and Lareina Yee

Holy smokes! We are most definitely in a game-changing environment! Play this out and it's mind-blowing...syndicated online courses...matching up buyers and sellers of courses via online-based exchanges...creating a platform for distributing one's (or a team's) work... wow.

10/28/09

How to Hire Effective Workshifters: 7 Signs and How to Evaluate Them -- from Workshifters.com by Justin Levy

10/27/09

-- by Lamar Alexander, now a U.S. senator; was U.S. education secretary for George H.W. Bush, president of
The University of Tennessee, and governor of Tennessee.Alexander,

Excert of misc quotes:

• "You won't be given credit for seat time -- you're gonna get credit for actually being able to do it. The faculty are going to be people who are ready to talk to you because you are ready to talk to them." -- Professor Robert Zemsky (see video) of the Penn Graduate School of Education
  
  
• Yet, as with the auto industry in the 1960s, there are signs of peril within American higher education.
  
  
• But as I discovered myself during my four-year tenure as president of the University of Tennessee in the late 1980s, in some ways, many colleges and universities are stuck in the past. For instance, the idea of the fall-to-spring "school year" hasn't changed much since before the American Revolution, when we were a nation of farmers and students put their books away to work the soil during the summer. That long summer stretch no longer makes sense. Former George Washington University president Stephen J. Trachtenberg estimates that a typical college uses its facilities for academic purposes a little more than half the calendar year. "While college facilities sit idle, they continue to generate maintenance, energy, and debt-service expenses that contribute to the high cost of running a college," he has written.
  
  
• "There is nothing more vulnerable than entrenched success." -- George Romney, President American Motors
  
  
• Meanwhile, tuition has soared, leaving graduating students with unprecedented loan debt.

 

10/26/09

Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education -- -- September 22, 2009 | The Committee for Economic Development Digital Connections Council -- original resource from Stephen Downes

...colleges and universities have been faced in the last decade with significant trends: the rapid increase in globalization, the arrival of students who were “born digital” and who may never have experienced an educational institution without the Internet, and a transformation of the Internet itself from a curiosity to a means for gaining access to information and now to being a fundamental element of a more “participatory” culture that encourages everyone to make their own contribution. "e research function of the university, which aims to produce and disseminate new knowledge, has become so intertwined with the Internet that it is almost difficult to recall what research was like before the World Wide Web.

For hundreds of years, personal interactions between teachers and students and printed texts have been at the heart of teaching in colleges and universities. But changes in the openness of the educational materials being used and in the vehicles for the delivery of these materials have the potential to fundamentally reshape teaching and learning.

But the development of more open digital materials known as “open educational resources” (OER), combined with our growing experience with digital materials suggest the possibility of far greater gains in the future.

With the extraordinary connectivity provided by the Internet, we can, using OER, provide free digital educational materials to millions of people in institutions of higher education and to the many millions more unable to attend such institutions. Everyone has the opportunity to participate in a global effort to improve and extend these materials, to customize, even personalize, them.

10/23/09

Apple builds a grad school in iTunes -- from Tech.Blorge
Apple is increasing involvement in the education area with a special iTunes project that will put MBA-level lectures from famous universities and professors into the iTunes store at no cost to users. Universities such as Cambridge, Fuqua School of Business, and Yale School of Management and hundreds of others are recording lectures from their business graduate program professors and storing them on iTunes for everyone to listen to. This adds to a trend in which educational material is made available to the public through sites like iTunes and YouTube. More schools are coming on line with these programs every day, according to a CNN story. Although credit cannot be offered for “taking” classes in this manner, the knowledge is still imparted by the content, you don’t have to spend any time in the classroom, and it does not cost a thing.

How a new online learning approach aims to revolutionise language learning - the Independent -- from Online Learning Update by Ray Schroeder
The Open School for Languages (provisionally called MYLO), a £5.4m online learning project, is one of the main initiatives being unveiled next year to support teenagers learning a key language. Aimed at harnessing the best of new technology and the interest that most young people have in online as well as face-to-face learning, the open school is designed to provide 11 to 16-year-olds with a new range of online materials relevant to their world, as well as new resources for teachers. The scheme will begin with French, German, Spanish and Mandarin, but more languages will be added if initial results are positive. The first modules will focus on the basics and preliminary skills for Key Stage 3, while the later modules will be for GCSE students.

Average College Costs on the Rise -- from Education-Portal.com
The College Board's annual report on college pricing trends shows that there has been a substantial increase in average college costs over the last year. The data confirms what many people already knew or suspected: average college prices are rising much faster than the prices of other goods and services.

"So a cheaper price not only revolutionised this market, it decimated the market."

-- from Donald Clark's Future is Free posting

10/22/09

The Virtualization of K-12 and Higher Education (PDF of slides) -- by Sam Adkins and Ambient Insight

Serious Games For Senior Executives -- from elianealhadeff.blogspot.com
Following my prior post Live From GDC: Serious Games Emerging Trends, where I highlight the presentation of Visual Purple’s President, Ed Heinbockel, Visual Purple has now launched the virtual world demo that they partnered with BTS to produce. You may view the trailer comparison of the CBT (Computer-Based Training) transformation to the virtual world training simulation as well as download the demo at the landing page to Visual Purple’s website (www.visualpurple.com).

10/21/09

In many ways, education hasn’t changed much since students sat at the feet of Socrates more than two millenniums ago. Learners still gather each autumn at colleges to listen to and be questioned by professors.

But the Internet has caused sudden shifts in other industries, from the way people read news to the way they buy music or plan travel. Might higher education be nearing such a jolt?

“Students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which ‘going to college’ means packing up, getting a dorm room, and listening to tenured professors,” she wrote in The Washington Post. “Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet.”

Can you hear the roar of the engines?! If not, keep reading...

The New, Faster Face of Innovation -- from MIT Sloan Management Review by Erik Brynjolfsson and Michael Schrage. Thanks to technology, change has never been so easy—or so cheap.

Call it innovation on steroids. Or innovation at warp speed. Or just the innovation of rapid innovation.

But the essential point remains: Technology is transforming innovation at its core, allowing companies to test new ideas at speeds—and prices—that were unimaginable even a decade ago. They can stick features on Web sites and tell within hours how customers respond. They can see results from in-store promotions, or efforts to boost process productivity, almost as quickly.

The result? Innovation initiatives that used to take months and megabucks to coordinate and launch can often be started in seconds for cents.

NOTE the SPEED of the changes these days:

See slide #46

See slide #60

Web technology is about to change how we learn -- from VentureBeat.com

The education industry is on the cusp of being massively disrupted by innovation in Web technology. Like other industries prior, it would like to pretend that it can weather the storm and continues business as usual, with only minor tweaking. We all know how that story ends.

A massive advantage Web-based learning applications offer is tools for collaboration. Collaboration tools give students the chance to teach and learn from each other, and they’re going to jump on these tools in the same way they’ve jumped on Facebook and MySpace to construct and interact with their social universe.

Perhaps even more valuable than collaboration is the Web’s ability to bring complete customization to the learning experience. The classroom is by definition an experience of the mean: cut out the outliers at the top and the bottom and deliver the common denominator to those in the middle. It’s hard to do otherwise. Even with a reasonable class size, there’s no way an instructor can be agile enough to teach in different ways simultaneously to students with different backgrounds and interests who learn at different speeds.

Focus: Liberty University Online Academy -- from Online High by Tom Nixon

Today’s focus school is Liberty University Online Academy. Related to Liberty University, the largest Christian evangelical university with the largest Christian online programs in the world. If you are looking for a Christian online high school, this is a particularly good choice because fees paid to LUOA count toward Liberty University (should you elect to attend that college). Liberty University Online Academy is a nationally recognized, online education program for 3rd - 12th graders with an emphasis on individualized learning.

Liberty University Online Academy was created to provide students the support of a traditional, residential, Academy while enrolled in a technology-based home-school academic program. This dynamic educational experience combines the resources of Liberty University with the proven elementary and secondary multimedia curriculum structure provided by the Online Academy.

iTunes U evolving into teacher resource -- from eSchoolNews.com by Dennis Carter
Site's free educational content also has become a promotional tool for campuses, showing what researchers are doing with grants.

The rise of the globally connected student -- from eSchoolNews.com by Laurence Peters
Networks such as iEARN and ePals are facilitating youth-to-youth exchanges and breaking down cultural barriers worldwide

Free digital resource centers coming soon -- from eSchoolNews.com by Meris Stansbury
Public broadcasters and state officials team up to create resource centers based on state standards, student data.

Students, schools turn to virtual college fairs -- from eSchoolNews.com by Maya Prabhu
Online venues allow students to ask more personal questions, advocates say -- and they broaden the reach of participating colleges As college fair season kicks into high gear, a growing number of students, parents, and colleges will be turning to virtual college fairs as a way to save money and increase exposure.

Bridging the Gap Between Online and On-ground Teaching -- from The Journal by Ruth Reynard
Increasing numbers of studies are being done that seem to support the notion that blended course delivery or program delivery really captures the best of every possible world and, as such, is an effective way of learning for students.

-- Image from Daniel S. Christian

10/20/09

-- my thanks to William Overbeeke, T&L Digital Studio for this resource

Interning from your sofa becomes virtual reality -- from CNN.com
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Technologies that let employees work remotely have given rise to a growing phenomenon -- virtual internships. Businesses are realizing that commonplace Internet technologies like email, instant messaging -- which can also enable video chats -- and social media can be used to free interns from the confines of the office.

10/19/09

Universities - recorded lectures better than live -- from Donald Clark
Simple enough, video lectures with ratings and details of number of downloads, from over 320 Universities such as; Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford,, and so on. Cambridge, Coventry, Edinburgh, Leeds, Nottingham, OU, The top lecture has received 10.5 million views! [emphasis DSC] But even physics lectures are beating the 350,000 mark. Compare this with the once a year, lecture from a typical living academic – let’s say 100 students once a year for 15 years (and that’s really pushing it). You’re effectively extending the life of a good physics lecturer by thousand of years!

From DSC:
I would have preferred recorded lectures, knowing that I could go through the lecture at my own pace -- without madly scambling to write down everything before the professor erased the board. I would have been more at ease...able to cognitively interact w/ the content more. But again, that was in lecture halls with 100-300 people in them...not 10-20 people in them as is the case here at Calvin College.

10/16/09

Welcome to the University of iTunes -- from CNN.com
The wisdom of business professors, once only available to MBAs and business students, can now be accessed by anybody with an Internet connection. Hundreds of universities and business schools are making recordings of lectures and conferences available to the public via iTunes and YouTube.

Technology and the Rise of the For-profit University -- from jnd.org

Take for example the courses we are developing. They are problem-based, high-touch, interactive courses, Students are asked to solve problems from day one, long before they have the requisite knowledge. Why? As motivation. As goal-directed reading. As tools for understanding. Are these low-quality training courses? No, they are high quality courses, developed with our consortium universities: Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, CMU, London School of Economics.

Note: we have separated the development of the course from the instruction. We use the best professors in the land to develop the course. The instructional staff then teaches them without deviation. No favorite lecture (no lectures). No re-ordering the textbook chapters. No skipping sections. The knowledge experts prepare, the teaching experts teach. Will education change in 2010? You bet.

One-to-One Laptop Computing Works- But You Have to Use Authentic Assessment to Truly Understand That -- from The Committed Sardine by Jason Ohler
I just completed evaluating a one-to-one laptop program involving over 12,000 students in over 100 schools. The results? Standardized test scores show mixed results, but student engagement is through the roof.

Decentralized work: The final frontier -- from George Siemens
The ideologies that give birth to systems remain long after they cease being valuable. End result: we have systems and policies that function under ideologies/views that are no longer needed, and in many instances, have an overall negative impact. Consider work. Many people are now involved in work that doesn't require physical presence at an office. Yet, how we define and value work still carries the views from 50+ years ago. Taylorism is still reflected in how we see work and employees. Inside Higher Ed considers decentralized work: "Whether you call it teleworking, Web working, telecommuting, distance working, or e-working, the concept is the same: Work isn’t some place you go, it’s something you do. It focuses on the information-age idea of decentralizing the office, as opposed to the industrial-age idea of bringing everyone to one single location."

10/14/09

10/13/09

The Lost Generation -- from BusinessWeek.com
The continuing job crisis is hitting young people especially hard—damaging both their future and the economy

From DSC:
How much debt can recent graduates and future graduates handle with this situation? For how long? Do you hear what I hear? A call for ROI and the NEED/REQUIREMENT for a good-paying job immediately upon graduating from college. If this is not the case, won't parents and students have to make changes? What sort of changes might be anticipated here?

'Self-learners' creating university of online -- from the timesonline..co.uk by Richard Woods

From DSC:
We need to listen to this piece and have a plan on how to respond to this trend; no joke.

I have been saying this for many months now...but I don't think people
want to -- or like to -- hear about this impending change. Do not be misled!
The Internet causes major disruption where ever it may be found -- and higher ed
is not immune to this disruption.

10/12/09

Our View: Higher ed needs a redo - Pasadena Star News -- from Ray Schroeder
There are signs everywhere that the state's pillars of higher education - access, affordability and quality - are crumbling. The budget crisis that sparked last week's UC protests has forced hundreds of millions in cuts, with students bearing the burden through fees that went up by more than 30 percent. At CSU, for the first time, students now pay more than the state. That's astounding in light of the Master Plan's promise of a tuition-free education for anyone who qualified. The update must begin with a robust public discussion about the future of public higher education - including what's at stake if the world's finest system continues to deteriorate. Maintaining quality, access and affordability at CSU, UC and the community colleges will be expensive, but letting these institutions falter will be far more costly to California's economy and its people.

Using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy: Part 1 -- by Tony Bates

10/9/09

Related item:
Income Models for Supporting Open Access -- from SPARC
Developing a sound business model is a critical concern of publishers considering open-access distribution. Selecting the model appropriate to a particular journal will depend not only on the expense hurdle that must be cleared, but also on the publisher’s mission objectives, size, business management resources, risk tolerance, tax status, and institutional or corporate affiliation. This Web site and accompanying guide provide an overview of income models currently being used to support the open-access distribution of peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific journals. These resources will be a useful tool both for publishers exploring new potential sources of income and for libraries weighing where to direct meager library funds.

In the fall of 1997, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) awarded two Florida school districts, Orange and Alachua, a $200,000 “Break the Mold” grant to co-develop an online high school to serve students throughout Florida. The districts assembled a team, which adopted a new mindset and asked, “If we didn’t have to follow the rules that already exist [forschools], what would they be?”1 Through trial and error and a focus on building an education option for students whose needs were not being met, the team established what became the Florida Virtual School (FLVS), the nation’s first statewide, Internet-based public school. In the first year, there were only 77 students enrolled in online courses. FLVS enrolled more than 70,000 middle and high school students during the 2008–09 school year.

9/10/09

Example of this type of thinking in action:

Economics Lesson for Higher Ed -- from InsideHigherEd.com
Call it third way politics if you like, but Reich, the former Clinton Cabinet member, suggested another option no one else had previously considered. What if the school could offer two different options for students, giving them some access to the popular class while still reducing the need for TA’s? In one class, worth four units, students would have the traditional lectures with Reich and break-out discussion groups with TA’s. In a second class, worth only two units, students would attend the Reich lectures without the additional break-out sessions or the same level of coursework. Students in the lecture-only class will still receive exams, which will be graded by less expensive readers, but they won't write essays graded by TA's.

Reich concedes the option is "not ideal," but says "I wouldn't be offering it to students lecture-only if I didn't think they would get a lot out of it. And it seems to me we've hit on a reasonable compromise."

Google News: A Payment System and A New Search Bar -- from John Battelle's Searchblog

From Neiman:
Google is developing a micropayment platform that will be “available to both Google and non-Google properties within the next year,” according to a document the company submitted to the Newspaper Association of America. The system, an extension of Google Checkout, would be a new and unexpected option for the news industry as it considers how to charge for content online.

10/14/09

10/13/09

The Lost Generation -- from BusinessWeek.com
The continuing job crisis is hitting young people especially hard—damaging both their future and the economy

From DSC:
How much debt can recent graduates and future graduates handle with this situation? For how long? Do you hear what I hear? A call for ROI and the NEED/REQUIREMENT for a good-paying job immediately upon graduating from college. If this is not the case, won't parents and students have to make changes? What sort of changes might be anticipated here?

'Self-learners' creating university of online -- from the timesonline..co.uk by Richard Woods

From DSC:
We need to listen to this piece and have a plan on how to respond to this trend; no joke.

I have been saying this for many months now...but I don't think people
want to -- or like to -- hear about this impending change. Do not be misled!
The Internet causes major disruption whereever it may be found -- and higher ed
is not immune to this disruption.

10/12/09

Our View: Higher ed needs a redo - Pasadena Star News -- from Ray Schroeder
There are signs everywhere that the state's pillars of higher education - access, affordability and quality - are crumbling. The budget crisis that sparked last week's UC protests has forced hundreds of millions in cuts, with students bearing the burden through fees that went up by more than 30 percent. At CSU, for the first time, students now pay more than the state. That's astounding in light of the Master Plan's promise of a tuition-free education for anyone who qualified. The update must begin with a robust public discussion about the future of public higher education - including what's at stake if the world's finest system continues to deteriorate. Maintaining quality, access and affordability at CSU, UC and the community colleges will be expensive, but letting these institutions falter will be far more costly to California's economy and its people.

Using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy: Part 1 -- by Tony Bates

10/9/09

Online Learning: It’s reality - high school classes are going virtual - Jennifer Fenn Lefferts, Boston Globe -- resource from Ray Schroeder
Sean O’Brien attends Concord-Carlisle High School, but at least once a day he checks in with a teacher he’ll never meet face to face. He is one of 20 Concord-Carlisle students in the Virtual High School program, which offers online courses taught by teachers all over the world. O’Brien, a sophomore, is taking an Advanced Placement economics course taught by an instructor in Texas. “I thought it’d be a different way to take it and I could do it on my own time,’’ O’Brien said. “I like the freedom of it.’’

10/8/09

Professors Adopt New Online Learning Technology As Educational Challenges Escalate - Cristina Serrato, LA Valley Star -- from Ray Schroeder
As classroom options dwindle, more Valley College students are turning to online education as an alternative to complete vocational certificates, associate degrees and for general or professional enrichment. "Currently we tell students that they must rearrange their schedule to fit the times the college offers courses. But many students have tremendous outside responsibilities that makes it impossible to commit to a specific day and time for 16 weeks ... Now they can take that extra class and make good progress towards their AA degree. For people such as these, I work to create online courses", said Jim Marteney, Distance Education Trainer at Valley College.

10/7/09

Education is moving towards providing much more customized, personalized learning environments – environments whereby the student selects and utilizes their preferred means of learning. Students will need to be able to continually know where to go to get information in the future. This project aims at helping them in their never-ending quest for obtaining effective, lifelong, learning. Such tools in their toolbox could be:

• Internal and external blogs
• Internal and external wikis
• Internal and external discussions boards
• RSS feeds
• Web sites
• Facebook
• Textbooks
• Internal and external virtual classrooms / webinars / seminars
• Online tutorials
• Online simulations
• Online games
• Articles and journals from online-library databases
• Ability to contribute content
• Rating systems for content
  • For other students’ content
  • For publisher’s content
  • For faculty’s content
• Ability to poll other students
• Ability to use various devices with this learning ecosystem
  • Laptops/notebooks
  • PDAs
  • Smart phones and iPod touches
  • Tablet PCs/Macs

• Each discipline / department creates and offers their own feeds – which their majoring/minoring students can subscribe to
• Let students access and build what works for them
• Help students identify and pursue their passions
• Over the next 1-3 decades, the learning technologies will change so fast it will make our minds spin. We need to teach our students how to learn…how to access information.
• User requirements must be explicitly ascertained from faculty and students via:
  • Focus groups
  • Interviews
  • Surveys
  • Observations
  • Other

PBS and NPR Add to Trove of Free Online Lectures -- from The Chronicle by Simmi Aujla
PBS and NPR are now posting taped interviews and videos of lectures by academics, adding to the growing number of free lectures online. Their site, called Forum Network, says it makes thousands of lectures available, including the Harvard professor Michael Sandel's take on calculating happiness in a lecture called "How to Measure Pleasure," and a discussion by a Northeastern University professor, Nicholas Daniloff, about the difficulties of reporting in Russia in a lecture called "Of Spies and Spokesmen: The Challenge of Journalism in Russia." The Web site also includes material featuring political figures and business executives. The offerings from PBS and NPR add to video and audio already available on sites such as YouTube EDU and from individual universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.

YouTube EDU goes international - a global classroom for all -- from Google Student Blog

Universities from the Europe and Israel have now joined YouTube EDU. The site now provides over 45,000 videos from over 20 top universities in nine countries with academic lectures, public talks and college life from universities including Cambridge University, The Open University, (UK), INSEAD, (France),Bocconi University (Italy), Open University of Catalonia, (Spain) University of Gronigen (The Netherlands), Moscow State University (Russia) - in addition to the 200 US universities already on the site.

The international version now includes a drop-down menu to filter content based on language of choice. For example, select French and find content from HEC in Paris and also the French-Canadian University of Montreal, or set to 'All' to browse videos in all languages. The Directory also enables subjects to be browsed - e.g. select 'Business', 'Engineering' or 'Literature' to see content available. Although this feature is currently only available for English at the moment, we are looking to roll-out to languages as more universities join.

10/5/09

10/3/09

Our increasingly Digital world -- from Educational Origami
The BBC reported this week that Online advertising spending has exceeded Television advertising spending for the first time.

Wall-Sized Visualization of Live Downloads From the Apple App Store -- from The Committed Sardine; image by DSC/me
This video was shot on June 8th, 2009 at the World Wide Development Conference. It shows in real time the downloads of the 20,000 most popular applications. Over 3,000 apps and growing are downloaded every minute from the App Store. What you are looking at is a live feed showing the activity of 20,000 popular apps currently on the store (from DSC: that's just 20,000 of them...there are over 85,000 in all). Every time a customer downloads an app, its icon on the Hyperwall flashes. This video was recorded on June 8, 2009 using a Flip Video camcorder.

From DSC:
If you have any lingering doubts that change is occurring at an
incredibly rapid pace, then you need to click on the image above.

10/2/09

Business Travel Declines With Telepresence Conference Calls -- from Singularity Hub by Aaron Saenz

The New Glogster Edu Is Live -- from Free Technology for Teachers
Glogster, a great multimedia collage building platform that I've written about in the past, has officially launched the live version of Glogster Edu. The new Glogster Edu eliminates all of the problems that teachers previously encountered when trying to use Glogster in the their classrooms. The new Glogster Edu is hosted separately from the commerical version of Glogster thereby eliminating links to Glogs (multimedia collages) containing questionable content hosted the commercial version of Glogster. Glogster Edu provides teachers with a virtual classroom space in which they can manage the accounts of up to 200 students. Glogster Edu has also partnered with VoiceThread to allow users to include VoiceThread content in their Glogs.

10/1/09

-- from Marc Rosenberg's March 2009 presentation:
"What Every Manager Should Know about e-Learning 2.0"

9/30/09

For-profits thrive while universities decline - Madeleine Leroux, SIU Daily Egyptian -- from Ray Schroeder
As the university continues its struggle to improve declining enrollment, for-profit institutions are seeing increased numbers, but administrators say there is a clear difference in service. Paul Sarvela, vice president for Academic Affairs, said at the Sept. 10 Board of Trustees meeting, a report from the Chronicle of Higher Education outlined how for-profit institutions, such as the University of Phoenix, are growing faster than community colleges, public four-year institutions and private not-for-profit institutions, such as DePaul University. “For-profit institutions are an area of tremendous growth, not only in the United States, but in Illinois,” Sarvela said. “Many of the for-profit institutions are adding new programs and courses of study throughout the state.”

From DSC:
These are the folks I'm working to get things prepared for! :)

9/28/09

Couple other examples of the game-changing environment we are in:

Florida college students get free online books -- from eSchoolNews.com, by Dennis Carter
New initiative aims to reduce the escalating cost of textbooks at Florida's state colleges and universities this year.

Provost calls for individual colleges to make cuts - Heather Guenther, Michigan State News -- from Ray Schroeder
A key university official in discussions surrounding MSU’s budget reductions erased any lingering doubts about the severity of MSU’s situation on Tuesday. Provost Kim Wilcox led a question-and-answer session at the first Academic Council meeting of the semester to address questions about MSU’s budget and the university’s direction. His message: MSU officials expect to cut operating budgets between 15 and 20 percent — or as much as a total of about $80 million — in the next three years. “Departments will have to change, colleges will have to change and the relationship among the colleges will have to change,” Wilcox said.

9/28/09

-- resource from Donald Clark

9/25/09

From DSC:
This is where we are headed -- at least in part -- personlized, tailored, multimedia-based learning -- with detailed reporting. As a mechanic relies on his or her tools and specialized equipment to locate an issue, such will be the tools that empower teachers and students to identify and resolve learning issues.

9/24/09

A game-changing environment indeed...

California District Rolls Out eLearning Platform District-wide -- from The Journal
Bakersfield City School District, Bakersfield, CA, announced that it has rolled out an eLearning platform, one that shares lesson plans and instructional strategies between 33 elementary schools, eight junior high schools, and one alternative school.

Charticle: The Death of the Print Newspaper -- from Steve Rubel

Breaking Down the Traditional Barriers to Education -- from CampusTechnology.com
An interview with Shai Reshef, founder and president of University of the People

CT: What are [U of People's] goals?
Reshef: Ultimately, we want to make higher education accessible to everyone, and to serve as an alternative for those who have no higher education alternatives. There are hundreds of millions of people around the globe who graduate from high school, but who are unable to attend college because they can't afford it--and because there aren't enough universities. Either they get in, or they're left out and wind up with very limited futures. With all of the global development and Internet usage we're seeing, it's a shame that these talented individuals have to stay home and miss out on successful futures. Thanks to our new model, it's now possible for them to get a good education without having to leave home.

9/21/09

Futures Thinking: The Basics -- from FastCompany.com by Jamais Cascio
The first in an occasional series about the tools and methods for thinking about the future in a structured, useful way.

From DSC:
It is CRITICAL that we constantly scan the environments/landscapes out there and try to peer into the future. Why? So that we are not broadsided!

Networked Individualism and Disruptive Technology -- from TechTicker by Mike Bogle
I just finished reading Barry Wellman’s article on “Little Boxes, Glocalization, and Networked Individualism” and have a thought I’d like to explore with respect to parallels between the article and change conflicts in education.

The Ed Techie: Is the revolution justified? -- quote below on this posting from Chris Lott
Martin Weller has posted his draft paper for comments, which will be integrated into the print version. A great idea for engaging the network and sharing informally while working toward a formal artifact. It’s lengthy, but at a quick glance wortwhile. Check it out. Leave comments. Plenty to chew on here!

University of the People -- from Donald Clark
Power to the people.power to the people right on...... people of a certain age will know that tune. We’ve had the Open University and the School of Everything, (let’s ignore the UKeU and NHSU for a moment) but now we’ve got an idea that could be truly revolutionary, and global. The University of the People. How much does it cost? Nothing. That’s right – it’s free. It’s the world’s first TUITION FREE university with its first crop of students coming from 49 countries aged from 16-61.

9/17/09

Computer education Rwandan style -- from worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com; original posting from Frank Calberg
This morning we did some broadcasts from one of Rwanda’s two ICT buses which go out into rural areas to teach people about technology. Each bus has 20 top of the range laptops and is run by a generator – handy for districts which don’t have any electricity at all.

9/16/09

Next: An Internet Revolution in Higher Education -- from BusinessWeek.com
Web technology is poised to shake universities, the way it rocked newspapers and the music industry—with convenient, cheaper alternatives
Over an omelet and fruit, McNealy made it clear that possibilities in open-source education go far beyond textbooks. Before long, he claimed, the whole bloated, expensive, lecture-based higher education system will face the first challenge to its very existence: open-source, online higher education that costs a fraction of four years at Harvard—but is good enough for employers who want a college graduate. "Universities will be forced to decide what they are. You know, are they going to be football teams with libraries attached?" McNealy asked. "That's what a lot of them are now."

"The economics of traditional schooling are so out of whack that there is an opening for new players," says Fred Fransen, executive director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, which helps donors more effectively give money to universities. From that perch, Fransen sees the typical university business model as prone to attack.

From DSC:
Don't underestimate the power of the Internet to set up exchanges (even within education); here's another example:

Top 5 Reasons to use redbeacon:

1. Providers compete for your job so you get a better price
2. Only qualified providers see your job
3. Providers work on your schedule
4. Schedule the appointment online - no calls or hassle
5. It's completely free to use

9/15/09

7 Ways to Spot Tomorrow’s Trends Today -- from The Futurist
In the more than 40 years since the World Future Society was founded, futurists have developed a range of techniques to study the future. Here are a few techniques futurist use to spot new opportunities and potential problems. These methods give individuals and organizations an edge to help them succeed in a fast-changing world:

1. Scan the Media to Identify Trends—Futurists often conduct an ongoing and systematic surveys of news media and research institutes. These surveys help spot significant trends and technology breakthroughs. Futurists call this environmental scanning.
2. Analyze and Extrapolate Trends—After the trends are identified, the next step is to plot the trends to show their direction and development into the future. Trend analysis and extrapolation can show the nature, causes, speed, and potential impacts of trends.
3. Develop Scenarios—Futurists often describe the future development of a trend, a strategy, or a wild-card event in story form. These scenarios can paint a vivid picture that can help you visualize possible future developments and show how you can prepare effectively for future risks and opportunities. Scenarios help you to blend what you know about the future with imagination about the uncertain. Scenarios help you move from dreaming to planning and then to accomplishment.
4. Ask Groups of Experts—Futurists also conduct “Delphi Polls” which are carefully structured surveys of experts. Polling a wide range of experts in a given field can yield accurate forecasts and suggestions for action.
   
5. Use Computer Modeling—Futurists often use computer models to simulate the behavior of a complex system under a variety of conditions. For example, a model of the U.S. economy might show the effects of a 10 percent increase in taxes.
   
6. Explore Possibilities with Simulations—Futurists create simulations of a real-world situations by means of humans playing different roles. For example, in war games, generals test out tactics they may later use on the battlefield, or corporate executives can explore the possible results of competitive strategies.
   
7. Create the Vision—Futurists help organizations and individuals systematically develop visions of a desirable future. Visioning creates the big picture of the possibilities and prepares the way for goal setting and planning.

9/14/09

From DSC:
I don't necessarily believe that everything that we offer here at Calvin College can be reduced to ones and zeroes (but much of it can, actually). However, I post it here because disruption is happening -- daily now. We will be impacted by the innovations occurring concerning the Internet...and so will you.

"The architects of education 2.0 predict that traditional universities that cling to the string-quartet model will find themselves on the wrong side of history, alongside newspaper chains and record stores. 'If universities can't find the will to innovate and adapt to changes in the world around them,' professor David Wiley of Brigham Young University has written, 'universities will be irrelevant by 2020.'"

Free Online Spanish Classes - from About.com by Jamie Littlefield

• About.com Spanish
• Study Spanish
• Ukindia Spanish
• Business Spanish
• Learn Spanish Online
• Spanicity
• Babel Nation
• BBC Spanish
• OpenLearn Spanish
• Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish

Tutor USA -- resource from Free Technology for Teachers
...is a site that offers a variety of useful links for mathematics teachers. In addition to free worksheets and lesson plans, Tutor USA has built a nice collection of video tutorials. The videos in the collection come from sources like YouTube, Blip.tv, and TeacherTube. Some of the videos are quick how-to videos while others are longer lecture-style explanations of mathematics concepts.

Learning & Development 2020 – almost passed me by -- Clive Sheperd

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges -- from Gatlin Education Services and the Washington Post
“Students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which ‘going to college’ means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. colleges cannot survive.

“The real force for change is the market: Online classes are just cheaper to produce. Community colleges and for-profit education entrepreneurs are already experimenting with dorm-free, commute-free options. Distance-learning technology will keep improving. Innovators have yet to tap the potential of the aggregator to change the way students earn a degree, making the education business today look like the news biz circa 1999. And as major universities offer some core courses online, we’ll see a cultural shift toward acceptance of what is still, in some circles, a ‘University of Phoenix’ joke.”

Click here to read the full article.

 

9/10/09

Who Needs Harvard When You've Got the Internet? -- from Academic Commons by Lisa Gates
Change or die is the message to college officials. In her article for FastCompany, Anya Kamenetz explores the power of edupunks, the progenitors of a high-tech educational remix.  Says Jim Groom, an educational technologist who coined the term, "Edupunk is about the utter irresponsibility and lethargy of educational institutions and the means by which they are financially cannibalizing their own mission." Is there a future for our campuses in open education?

If you want to perform a proper string quartet, they noted, you can't cut out the cellist nor can you squeeze in more performances by playing the music faster. But that was then -- before MP3s and iPods proved just how freely music could flow. Before Google scanned and digitized 7 million books and Wikipedia users created the world's largest encyclopedia. Before YouTube Edu and iTunes U made video and audio lectures by the best professors in the country available for free, and before college students built Facebook into the world's largest social network, changing the way we all share information. Suddenly, it is possible to imagine a new model of education using online resources to serve more students, more cheaply than ever before.

Related article:
5 Startups to Watch

2tor Inc.
Princeton Review founder John Katzman's team has built a Facebook-like multimedia social-learning platform for the online Master of Arts in Teaching program at the University of Southern California. Students use Flip cameras to make their own video content.

EduFire
Jon Bischke founded this platform for live video teaching and tutoring. He started two earlier education-related companies: 2000Tutor.com Network, which he sold in 2001, and LearnOutLoud.com, billed as the Internet's largest catalog of educational audio, video, and podcasts.

Grockit
A live online multiplayer game providing test prep is the latest startup from Farbood Nivi, who was the Princeton Review's National Teacher of the Year in 2001. Nivi has gotten more than $10 million in funding from Benchmark Capital and Integral Capital Partners.

Inigral
"The social Web for education," funded by Facebook's Founder's Fund, is using social media to help colleges with recruiting, retention, and alumni relations. Cofounder and CEO Michael Staton is a former high-school teacher who built Facebook's Courses application.

Knewton
People at the Venture Capital in Education conference were talking about this "adaptive learning engine" from Kaplan test-prep vet Jose Ferreira. It promises to customize content for each student, down to the concept level, with integrated assessment tools.

 

9/9/09

Global Education: Using Technology to Bring the World to Your Students -- from ISTE Books by Laurence Peters 
As an educator, you can teach students the importance of communicating and empathizing with others around the world. How? Through global collaborations made possible with Web 2.0 and existing global networks. Global Education's examples, case studies, and hundreds of Web resources will give you ample ideas to get started. In addition, you’ll find an introduction to global educational networks including iEarn, Global Schoolhouse, and ePals, as well as an overview on using Web 2.0 for global education.

Connect your students to international counterparts, collaborate with educators across the globe, discover how you can bring the world to your students, order your copy now! Learn more about this book and topic: listen to an interview with author Laurence Peters on ISTE Casts.

Teaching and Learning Track at Educause 2009

9/8/09

Where to Find Free Online Computer Classes -- from Ace Online Schools

You/we better figure out how NOT to become a commodity -- and fast. The pace of change has changed:

Nibipedia is an online educational video database of high-quality content that grows in value through community collaboration. Built using a wiki-like construct, members of the Nibipedia community annotate and share Nibipedia videos, via "deep links" to specific moments in video time, with commentary— or with links to other references, texts, and rich media.

9/3/09

9/2/09

Quote of the Month -- from Mission to Learn
If you think the fallout in the newspaper business was dramatic, wait until you see what happens to education.

-- Seth Godin

Peer-to-Peer University Offers First Session of Free Online Classes -- from selfmadescholar.com by Jamie Littlefield
Want to take a quality online class from an experienced adviser without paying a dime? The pilot session of Peer-to-Peer University begins this September. Although no formal credit is offered, Peer-to-Peer University courses look like a promising resource for lifelong learners. They combine freely available opencourseware with more personalized instruction, giving enrollees the opportunity to study alongside peers.

Mission to Learn -- resource from Curtis Bonk
...is a destination for lifelong learners seeking resources for self-education and personal growth and development. We provide a continual stream of lifelong learning resources, news, and insights through three channels...

 

50 Terrific Web Tools to Teach Yourself the Piano

100 Incredible Lectures from the World’s Top Scientists
From BestCollegeOnline.com: “Unless you’re enrolled at a top university or are an elite member of the science and engineering inner circle, you’re probably left out of most of the exciting research explored by the world’s greatest scientists. But thanks to the Internet, and our list of 100 incredible lectures, you’ve now got access to the cutting edge theories and projects that are changing the world.”  via @openculture

9/1/09

Online Learning as a Strategic Asset -- from George Siemens
A valuable report (in two parts) has been produced by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and Sloan-C: Online Learning as a Strategic Asset.

New school week could have technology twist - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services -- resource/quote below from Ray Schroeder
Kingsland Public Schools is considering an alternative school schedule in which students would spend four days in a traditional classroom setting with the fifth day of instruction delivered via technology and computer. District officials say the proposal remains at the discussion stage, but could be implemented as early the second semester of this academic year. The plan, called i4Knights, was introduced to the school board last month.

8/28/09

Edufire – live video learning -- from onlignment

Edufire provides a very different take on synchronous online learning. This new site brings together teachers and students for webcam-based online classes. These could be on any subject imaginable, but right now the majority are for language learning. As a teacher, you set your own price and EduFire takes 15% of the sales. Sounds like a good deal to me and the exact reverse of the usual royalties you’d expect from a book publisher. In true Web 2.0 style, the teachers are rated, so demand for the good ones (and presumably the price) will increase, while the poor teachers will look in vain for somewhere to hide.

From DSC:
This gets back to what I've been saying about the power of the Internet to set up exchanges (such as Paperbackswap.com, DVDswap.com, Craigs List, etc.)

How do organizations respond to emerging technologies? -- from elearnspace by George Siemens
Businesses, schools, and universities are having difficulty responding to emerging technologies. The newspaper industry, for example, is not having an easy time adjusting to the internet. If you're looking for a case study in how one organization responded to potentially disruptive change, have a look at NPR - at a tipping point? It's rare for an organization to be foresighted enough to not only recognize substantial changes, but to plan a focused, strategic, organization-level response.

How do large organizations make the changes that they have to? How do they do this when the New is often the opposite of what they are and what they do today? I think that the answer for NPR and Public radio is that they overcame the huge natural resistance by investing in a shared and deep exploration of what confronted them. What they have done since has come from the genuine emergence of ideas and of a language that they created for themselves.

8/27/09

Harvard, Ivy Leagues Bust Tuition Cost Bubble - John F. Wasik, Bloomberg -- original item and quote below from Ray Schroeder
A high-priced college may not be worth the price of admission. As the economy forces more students out of the classroom and graduates into under- or unemployment, a college enrollment bubble may be starting to deflate. The recession, combined with rising college costs, has accelerated a college affordability crunch that is exacerbated by shrinking family incomes, diminished home equity and reduced household wealth. As many as one-third of all private colleges surveyed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities said they expected enrollment to drop in the next academic year.

From DSC:
A perfect storm (as viewed by some) is brewing. Watch out! Disruption ahead. In addition to above items, see this page

8/26/09

'The World Is Open' -- from InsideHigherEd.com
Technology is changing higher education in more ways than can be counted. Distance education has become common. Leading universities are putting course materials or even entire courses online -- free. The Obama plan for community colleges envisions free online courses that could be used nationwide. Curtis J. Bonk, a professor of instructional systems technology at Indiana University, surveys this landscape in The World Is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education (Jossey-Bass). Bonk responded to questions about the book in an e-mail interview.

Online school is a cheaper way to educate -- from the Christian Science Monitor
Florida Virtual School has less overhead and higher test scores than average public schools.

From DSC:
I believe this to generally be true -- but it depends upon how complex/polished your learning objects and materials are and how many times you can offer and leverage these materials.

8/25/09

The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.

8/18/09

Cutting Price—Factors to Consider -- from UniversityBusiness.com by Kathy Kurz and Jim Scannell
Helping to determine if this high-risk strategy will have high rewards
IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC environment, it comes as no surprise that some higher ed institutions are beginning to wonder whether a radical strategy like reducing sticker price would be the best way to maintain market share. This spring, deposits were lagging at many private IHEs, even at campuses where admit numbers were up. More families were appealing financial aid awards, and more institutions were responding to those appeals. Officials are concerned students may “melt away” before fall. Clearly, families are more reluctant to make significant financial investments in higher education than they were even a year ago.

Related item:
AlgebraPrep App Now Available on App Store -- from Pearson
New Series from Modality and Pearson Brings Algebra Learning to iPhone™ and iPod touch®
Boston, MA, August 12, 2009 — Pearson Education and Modality, Inc. today announced the AlgebraPrep: Factoring application is available on the App Store. This iPhone™ and iPod touch® app, comprised of practice tests and video tutorials by the award-winning instructor and bestselling author Elayn Martin-Gay, is designed to provide supplemental help for students in or out of class.

From DSC:
Note the almost celebrity status of this instructor. I think this is a very potential direction in the future. Team-based content creation, lifting up the best facutly members, instructors, and teachers in the world.

P2Peer Education: Bringing Elite Education to the Masses -- from gigaom.com by Mike Speiser

8/17/09

8/9/09

Forvo - Hear Words Pronounced by Native Speakers -- from Free Technology for Teachers
Forvo can best be described as an audio wiki for word pronunciations. One of the problems with learning to speak a language that is not phonetic is trying to figure out how to pronounce the words. Forvo hosts hundreds of recordings of word pronunciations by native speakers. Currently there are nearly 200 languages supported on Forvo. Along with word pronunciations, Forvo provides some basic demographic information about each language. Forvo's content is user supported and user generated so new pronunciations are added every day.

8/6/09

The Truth About Teaching and Learning -- from Edutopia.org by Ben Johnson
The truths about teaching and learning are that one size never fits all, and surefire works only some of the time.

From DSC:
I believe this is a true statement. Thus, it seems to me that we will migrate more towards the use of customized learning solutions. These types of solutions will go by different names, such as Personalized Learning Environments (PLE's), Electronic Personal Tutors (EPT's), 1:1 Computing, Individualized Instruction, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Intelligent Web Teacher, Individualized Learning Systems, Learning Companion Systems, Lifelong Learning Companions, 1:1 Technology Enhanced Learning, Adaptive (Educational) Hypermedia, Learning Design Technologies, Adaptive Hypermedia Generators, Adaptive Systems, Learning Agents, Learning Bots, Intelligent Agents, Harvesting Bots, Data Miners/ Data Mining, Business Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and more. Whew! Also see:

8/5/09

Online Program Accelerates College Credit for High School Students -- from The Journal by Denise Harrison
Connections Academy and the American Public University System have announced a partnership that will offer high school students who attend National Connections Academy, an online K-12 private school, the chance to earn college degrees as they work toward their high school diplomas.

Teaching Once, Engaging Many with Distance Learning at BVIU -- from The Journal by Denise Harrison
Few counties can afford to hire full-time teachers at every school for every subject, and it is especially challenging in a region dependent on the declining steel industry. That is what Beaver County in Pennsylvania faced when trying to deliver consistent education across the 15 school districts serving 24,000 students. The Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit (BVIU) is the regional service agency charged with that challenge. Thus was born the Regional Choice Initiative.

From DSC:
I'm not necessarily advocating any of the items below...but I bring them up to show the enormous amount of innovation and change occurring in our world of education today.

SpacedEd is a platform designed to allow learners and teachers to harness the educational benefits of spaced education. Spaced education is a novel method of online education developed and rigorously investigated by Dr. B. Price Kerfoot (Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School). It is based upon two core psychology research findings: the spacing effect and the testing effect. In 12 large randomized trials completed to date, spaced education has been found to: Improve knowledge acquisition, increase long-term knowledge retention (out to 2 years), change behavior, and boost learners' abilities to accurately self-assess their knowledge. The spacing effect refers to the psychology research finding that information which is presented and repeated over spaced intervals is learned and retained more effectively, in comparison to traditional bolus ('binge-and-purge') methods of education.

8/4/09

-- from Mastering Multimedia blog

7/31/09

Communal Webcasting platform to beef up campus's popular educational content -- from UC Berkeley by Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | 28 July 2009

Dubbed "Opencast Matterhorn" and funded with grants from the Andrew W. Mellon and William and Flora Hewlett foundations totaling $1.5 million, the project will bring together programmers and educational technology experts from an international consortium of higher education institutions, including ETH Zürich in Switzerland, University of Osnabrück in Germany, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and Canada's University of Saskatchewan.

On the wire – education videos -- from Educational Origami
Icreasing there are sites dedicated to educationally-focused videos. Here are six that I come across:

1. Teachertube
   http://www.teachertube.com/ This is a great sharing site for teacher developed content and some professional material.
2. Teacher TV
   http://www.teacher.tv This is a brilliant British site with vast resources most professionally developed.
3. MBAvid
   http://www.mbavid.com This is business education related video site.
4. Lectr
   http://www.lectr.com/ The Knowledge sharing community
5. Academic Earth
   http://academicearth.org/ A more tertiary focused site but some good stuff here.
6. Watch Know
   http://watchknow.org/ Similar to Teachertube. Lots of resources requires a sign up

 

7/30/09

The remaining $500 million would go towards creating an “online, open-source clearinghouse of courses” that would be available free to anyone with Internet access. The theory is that schools could add more classes without having to add more classrooms. Although this portion of the plan has the smallest allocation of funds, it would be a major boost to online education as a whole and in particular to advocates of open-source learning and e-textbooks.

 

 

 

...and along these lines...here's a couple of blasts from the fairly-recent past (Oct 2007 and November 2008):

 

From "Send in the Wolf" -- from InsideHigherEd.com
College Rescue a Growth Industry

7/29/09

From DSC:
If you still have any doubts that we ARE in game-changing environment, here are some further items to consider:

Fresno State to cut jobs, classes, workdays - Cyndee Fontana, The Fresno Bee -- from New Realities in Higher Education
Fresno State faces dramatic cuts -- and students face even higher fees -- after California State University trustees Tuesday took painful steps to combat a $584 million budget shortfall. "I've never experienced anything like this in my life," said Fresno State President John Welty.

The "Shift Index" -- from Innovate-Ideagora by Steve Knode
Because so many firms view technology as simply a cost center and something they must have to maintain the current business approach, opportunities to leverage technology to totally improve business processes by radically revising them is lost. Evidence of the lost opportunities is now being quantified by something called the 'Shift Index'. I think this document lays out in an excellent manner what has happened and the implications of what needs to be done. The evidence and metrics in this document are extremely persuasive and enlightening.

Developments in business profitability over the last forty years are stunning. Here are just some of the findings:

• The gap in Return On Assets (ROA) performance between winners and losers has increased over time. However, winners are barely maintaining their returns, while losers have taken a tremendous tumble.
• The "topple rate" at which industry leaders lose their leadership positions has more than doubled, suggesting that winners are precariously placed at best.
• Customers are gaining power rapidly, increasing customer disloyalty
• U.S. competitive intensity has more than doubled for forty years.
• The exponentially advancing price/performance capability of computing, storage, and bandwidth is driving an adoption rate that is two to five times faster than previous adoption cycle rates.

Education for a Smarter Planet: The Future of Learning -- from IBM
Signposts for the future provide opportunities for transformation

Leaders from education and government aspire to improve their institutions' outcomes and value to society. They strive to meet rising expectations from students, communities and business with limited and increasingly constrained resources. Signposts for the future signal significant changes to all segments of education as well as to their funders. These five signposts – technology immersion, personalized learning paths, knowledge skills, global integration, and economic alignment – are rapidly converging to produce a new and transformative paradigm that we call the “educational continuum”. This continuum will further dissolve the traditional boundaries between academic segments, education providers, and economic development initiatives to create a single view of learning, skills development, and workforce training. The educational continuum creates a smarter way of achieving national objectives.

100 Ivy-League Literature Courses You Can Take for Free at Home -- from bachelorsdegreeonline.com

Taking Cues from K-12 -- from MPB Reflections (21st century teaching & learning) by Michelle Pacansky-Brock
This is an example of a collaborative, active learning activity in which students created content using VoiceThread to learn about the experiences of Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The video below introduces you to the process of learning as an active, collaborative and interdisciplinary process, engaging young minds with older generations of individuals who really lived through the experiences of a war torn country divided by feelings of racial segregation. In the end, students learn and the world is enriched through their own contribution -- a VoiceThread available online. My hope here is that colleges and universities will see the potential for integrating this model of pedagogy into learning in our own classrooms (virtual or not). These are our students of tomorrow.

7/28/09

New Report Shows Employers Struggle with Ill-Prepared Workforce -- from the Conference Board

"The results of this study demonstrate how critical it is for companies to be more strategic and focused on efforts such as providing internships and working in partnership with community colleges [from DSC: and Calvin College] on workforce readiness initiatives to prepare new entrants before they enter the workplace," says Donna Klein, Executive Chair, Corporate Voices for Working Families, which partnered with The Conference Board, the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) on the report and its underlying survey of U.S. employers.

7/27/09

"The full-time residential model of higher education is getting too expensive for a larger share of the American population. More and more students are looking for lowercost alternatives to attending college. Three-year degree programs, which some colleges are now launching, will almost assuredly proliferate. The trend toward low-cost options also will open doors for more inexpensive online options."

"Colleges that have resisted putting some of their courses online will almost certainly have to expand their online programs quickly. Many colleges are learning from the for-profit college industry that they must start courses and certificate programs at multiple times throughout the year."

"The conversion to more convenience for students will multiply over the next decade. To some degree, those situations are already happening, and they will be amplified as time goes on:

• Students will increasingly expect access to classes from cellular phones and other portable computing devices.
• They may sign up to take a course in person, and then opt to monitor class meetings online and attend whenever they want.
• Classroom discussions, office hours with a professor, lectures, study groups, and papers will all be online."

"Colleges will need to offer those options in addition to face-to-face instruction."

"Colleges are only slowly waking up to the need for substantial change. Admissions officers who are members of a Chronicle Research panel expect significant changes over the next decade in the makeup of their student bodies. Of the 121 institutions that responded to a survey, two-thirds said that almost all of their students were full time and ages 18 to 25. Those characteristics will change. Only about half the institutions believe that in 2020 their enrollments will be primarily made up of traditional-age, full-time students. By 2020, almost a third of respondents said, students will be taking up to 60 percent of their courses entirely online. Now almost no students at those colleges take courses only online."

101 Lectures for Your Open Source Education -- from OnlineCollege.org

Another Dean of Academic Engagement -- from Inside Higher Ed
Last week we reported on the creation of a new position -- "dean of engaged learning" -- at Robert Morris University, and noted that many experts had never heard of such a position previously. At least one other university has made a similar move, however. Fairfield University this month announced that Elizabeth Boquet, professor of English and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield, has been tapped to serve as the first dean of academic engagement.

Layoffs prompt teachers to move online -- from CampusTechnology.com by Laura Devaney
Virtual schools are seeing a dramatic rise in job applications as state officials cut education budgets to battle declining tax revenues
In what could be a result of widespread teacher layoffs, some virtual schools and online learning providers are reporting huge increases in teaching applications for the coming school year. "We have seen at least a 50-percent increase in the number of applications we've received versus this time last year," said Annie Middlestadt, senior director of human resources for Connections Academy, an operator of virtual K-12 public charter schools. "In the states where we operate schools, the number of phone calls and eMails we're receiving from applicants coming from brick-and-mortar schools has increased," she added.

From DSC:
Make no mistake about it...we are in a game-changing environment.

Discovery Launches Service To Embed Digital Media into Curriculum -- from The Journal by Scott Aronowitz
Digital media--streaming video, interactive presentations, photo slideshows, audio programs--are today a common component of many educational curricula. Now Discovery Education has launched a service it hopes will be the logical next step: working with school districts to integrate digital content directly into lesson plans and day-to-day instruction.

The company is deploying a team of subject matter experts to work with school districts in an effort to make digital content a standard and practicable component of instruction in many, if not all, academic subjects. To this end, the team will review and classify many of the more than 250,000 titles in the company's digital library and determine how best to align specific items to district pacing guides, scope and sequence documents, and instructional guides. Such content includes video clips, writing prompts, images, audio files, virtual labs, articles, and games.

Pearson eCollege and NonPublic Educational Services, Inc. Partner To Increase K12 Online Education Opportunities -- from B2E
NonPublic Educational Services, Inc. To Use Pearson eCollege to Enter New Online Markets
DENVER, July 22, 2009—Pearson eCollege and NonPublic Educational Services, Inc. (NESI) have announced a multi-year partnership to increase online K12 education opportunities for a wide range of high school students, including students from military families. NESI will use Pearson eCollege’s integrated education technology environment to offer high school students a complete online learning solution, leading to greater, measurable success for NESI and its students.

Videoconferencing Engages Students in Mobile County Public Schools -- from The Journal by Denise Harrison
As with many school districts, the Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS) in Alabama had challenges delivering consistent education to many and varied schools across a large area. Mobile is one of the largest in the country, however, with more than 100 schools across 1,644 square miles, which made it difficult to find an efficient solution.

7/17/09

Open Teaching Multiplies the Benefit but Not the Effort -- from The Chronicle of Higher Education by David Wiley

...I am increasingly amazed by the ease with which participatory technology allows university faculty members to go two-for-one in the reach and impact of their efforts in teaching.

In 2004 I began asking my students to post their homework on their personal, publicly accessible blogs. (Students who didn’t have a blog before taking a class from me signed up for a blog as one of their first assignments.) By changing their homework assignments from disposable, private conversations between them and me (the way printed or e-mailed assignments work in students’ minds) into public, online statements that became part of a continuing conversation, we realized very real benefits.

The very first semester I began asking students to share their homework this way, a popular e-learning newsletter found and liked one of my students’ essays and pointed its readers to the student’s blog. When the visits and comments from professionals around the world started coming in, students realized that the papers they were writing weren’t just throw-away pieces for class – they were read and discussed by their future peers out in the world. The result was a teacher’s dream — the students’ writing became a little longer, a little more thoughtful, and a little more representative of their actual intellectual abilities. And this benefit came by simply asking students to submit their homework through a different channel. They were already going to write and submit it; I was already going to read it. This was a true two-for-one.

Complete Yale courses now on iTunes U -- from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) by Mel Martin
The twists and turns of the digital revolution have been breathtaking to watch. From my home, an office, sitting at an airport, or riding along in a car, bus, plane or train I can take my favorite music, movies, or listen to experts relate the latest discoveries about Black Holes or the history of Psychology. What a world.

-- from Campus Technology's July 2009 issue (p. 50)

Academic Earth...Awesome and question-raising.... -- from e-Clippings (Learning As Art)
So I am just wondering; does this raise deeper questions about the value of a university education? Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE universities, I love campuses and student unions and libraries and so on...some of my fav places in the world really - BUT - do we need to be a bit more honest about why students are paying to go there when all of this content/interaction is available? I mean if we extrapolate and see a day when all of a college's content is online like this...what the are you paying for with tuition? Student-to-student interaction? Teacher-to-student interaction? That's a shift isn't it? Then we're selling interactions and not content...and we can now engineer interactions in a whole myriad of ways...

From DSC:
The above quote represents why I say that institutions of higher education are vulnerable and must work to keep themselves from becoming a commodity. Students will continue to gain more power and control, which is a good thing in my mind; they will have more choice. But that means that each institution of higher education that continues to exists must have a solid reason for being...how are you going to differentiate yourself?

Worldwide Online Collaboration Services to Grow to $7.1B -- from MarketWire.com
CSP Market Continues Near-Term Growth While Long-Term, New Services Disrupt Traditional Models

Quote from How Women Are Redefining Work and Success
(This is an article based on an excerpt from the book Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay. Copyright Copyright 2009 by Claire C. Shipman and Katty Kay. To be published by Harper Business.)

The fact that we don't stay in one place for 40 years anymore gives us enormous latitude to move sideways, backward, in, and out—to define our own paths. We're looking for our security and fulfillment and confidence elsewhere. Our employer's definition of "straight up the ladder" success is becoming meaningless, even suspect.

I wonder what Jesus is thinking, saying or doing about this situation...my guess is that it involves the Internet.

7/16/09

Some relevant quotes from:
Are the Basics of Instructional Design Changing? -- from Stephen Downes back from July 2005

Two major sets of affordances offered in online learning are not found in traditional learning. First, online, communication occurs not through a channel, but through a network. And second, communication flows not merely through a passive medium but through a computational environment. Online learning embodies these affordances, and that they constitute a part of what is meant by online learning; this is what I demonstrated with reference to my 1998 paper.

What online learning does is not merely to communicate information but to create such a network. Prior to the advent of online learning, all such networks were local - they were, even in instances of distance learning, physically constrained. But with online learning comes not only a much wider, more diverse network, but also the idea that (a) the network may be based on non-physical (or emergent) properties, (b) that the individual may choose to belong to or not belong to a network, and (c) that an individual may assume multiple identities or memberships in multiple networks.

The theory of distributed representation has a profound implication for pedagogy, as it suggests that learning (and teaching, such as it is) is not a process of communication, but rather, a process of immersion. Put loosely, it suggests the idea of teaching not by telling or even demonstrating but rather through the creation (or identification) of an environment into which a learner may be immersed.

Indeed, pushed further (as the concept should be) it suggests that the traditional distinction between teaching and practice ought to be collapsed, that there is no distinction in kind between, say, being a 'practicing physicist' and 'practising being a physicist'. Learning to be a physicist is to place oneself inside the community of practice (as Etienne Wenger would say), to learn as if through osmosis how to solve 'the problems at the end of the chapter' (as Thomas Kuhn would say). In contemporary learning theory, it involves the design of such environments as games or simulations (Prensky, Papert, Gee, Aldrich) or the explicit immersion of the workplace into the communty (Cross).

7/15/09

LearningWare Looks to Create the Ultimate Webinar Experience With Engaging Software Solution -- from BusinessWire.com
Today’s marketplace calls for new AllPlay Web product to make Webinars more interactive and produce measurable results.

Corporate University for Less Than $100 per Employee -- from interactyx by Bob Brogan

Online Education Technology Degree Opportunities -- from Virtual High School Meanderings
Here is an example of some of the newly added online degree programs that can help propel your career in the Education field and emerge you as a leader with K-12 technology integration.

• Master of Education in e-Learning Technology and Design
• Master of Education in K-12 Instructional Technology Master of Education in K-12 Instructional Technology: Teacher Licensure
• Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction: Technology
• Master of Science Technology Management
  

Learning in 3D Book Information -- from Kapp Notes

TITLE:
Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration

READING LINE:
How the Immersive Internet will shape the future of learning and work within the Enterprise.

7/14/09

Blackboard K12 2009 Trends Update -- from Blackboard

"Annual online Speak Up surveys collected for the past six years as well as student and educator focus groups conducted across the nation have consistently shown that students, for the most part, more readily embrace the use of technology than their parents, teachers or principals. Students openly acknowledge that they have to “power down” when they enter the schoolhouse, and then “power back up” to resume their technoinfused lives outside of school. The near ubiquitous access to technology has empowered students to become “free agent learners,” and as such, they are less dependent upon traditional education institutions for knowledge acquisition and are much more self-reliant, exercising their Internet-based skills to aggregate data and information. It has become increasingly clear that students are functioning as a “Digital Advance Team” for our nation illuminating the path for how to leverage emerging technologies such as online learning effectively for teaching and learning."

"Teachers who have taught online classes overwhelmingly agree on the advantages: 76% believe that online learning benefits students by putting them in control of their own learning, compared to 10% of all teachers who participated in the surveys."

"Awareness among 6-8th graders has caught up with their older peers with 42% choosing online learning as a component of the ultimate school, a 40% increase from 2006."

From DSC:
For those of us in higher ed, this quote should make us stand up and take serious notice. We are coming upon the last few years of the type of students that we are used to having in our classrooms. Change is on the way. The status quo must go.

State Technology Grades and Ranking Tables -- from Education Week -- March 26, 2009
PDF | Excel

7/13/09

Traditional teaching and learning strategies are becoming increasingly ineffective with a generation of secondary students that have instant access to information, are accustomed to managing their own acquisition of knowledge, and embrace the roles of content producer and publisher.

Today’s high school curriculum presents students with assignments that lack a real-world context and activities that lead to uninspired projects and end in a letter grade. Many students either learn to do just enough to get by or they lose interest and drop out. In this interconnected world, with ubiquitous access to powerful technology and access to a worldwide community, new models of teaching and learning are possible.

-- from Apple's Learning Interchange

Top 10 Web Conferencing Products for the Corporate World -- from Business Sofware

Web Conferencing Items -- from VendorDemo.com

-- original link from The Future of Content -- Open Culture by Dan Colman

1. The book is the last holdout that has not become fully interactive. Going to be able to sell books in a "million different tiers." More atomic -- people will be able to buy a chapter, be able to choose single short story from an author, buy a premium product (book about a musician will contain the music of that artist, for example).
   
   
   From DSC :
   Think about this in terms of higher education -- ability to piecemeal a degree; a class; even a topic. Ability of faculty to publish their findings in multiple fashions/channels...obtaining multiple sources of revenue perhaps.
   
   
   
   
2. Steve Johnson -- "In the future, no one will read a book alone." Fans will talk to each other; will develop a citing community; will discuss characters; will lift up a particular chapter.
3. Book industry has not started the conversation over price. Kindle and Amazon are the first to tackle this conversation. Way behind rest of content business.
4. Create a platform that matches your customers' preferences.
5. Get to the point -- quickly -- people are very busy. Make people smarter. Save them time while you do it.
6. How many others can you play nice with while preserving a business model? (Involved changing a culture). No longer about keeping others away.
7. Give the consumer a lot of choice. Given the consumer control.
8. Advertisers can get very targeted and take things further w/ a customer. Growing # of customized solutions to other peoples' problems.
9. "Inform me / entertain me" box. | "Interactive / manage my life" box.
10. Specialization -- the NY Times will specialize for example.
11. The model needs to change. A reporter may not be just a reporter, a cameraman may not be just a cameraman. Practices of people may change. Multi-platformed.
12. You want to be indespensable to your target audience; need them willing to pay for your product/service/information.
13. Put your best employees in places "off the battleships". Don't have them tied down to turning the battleships.
14. What is the next thing the customer is going to need. Be pro-active.
15. Divide up the book; completely tailored to reader. Bobby Kennedy's speeches integrated into materials, for example.
16. Copyrights -- how do you get the rights to the content yet also, at the same time, protect your business model? Apple did this successfully w/ iTunes. Also, Apple made their product/services better than the "pirate sites"...so people willing to pay for it.
17. Everything is fragmenting; but broadcasting has still remained on top. The network effect. Franchise model/network affiliate model (i.e. ABC has local hooks, for example).

7/10/09

"Innovation in Educational Technology: The Virtualization of K-12 and Higher Education"
Webinar Time: October 21st, 2009 - 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific
Presenter: Sam S. Adkins, Chief Research Officer, Ambient Insight
Read Description and Register Now

"Learning on the Fourth Screen: Innovations in Location-based Learning"
Webinar Time: December 16th, 2009 - 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific
Presenter: Tyson Greer, CEO, Ambient Insight
Read Description and Register Now

Welcome to the Digital Generation -- Edutopia.org

7/9/09

7/8/09

Google takes on Windows with Chrome OS -- from CNN.com by John Sutter <-- Talk about innovation!

• Google says it will release a computer operating system in fall or early 2010
  
• Google's Chrome OS could change the way personal computers work
  
• The system is touted as faster and more Web-friendly than Windows
  
• It supports cloud computing and will be available as open-source technology

From DSC:
Chrome OS...Google Wave <-- Talk about innovation! More tidal waves approaching later this year!

"FREE" -- a book by Chris Anderson
In his New York Times bestseller, The Long Tail, Wired magazine's editor in chief provided a glimpse of the business future that's already here. And now, in Free, he does it again.

As the cost of doing business online drops closer and closer to zero, giving things away is not just becoming an option--it's inevitable. But if the product is free, where's the revenue? In Free, Anderson breaks down the priceless economy into six broad categories, demonstrating how to make money in each:

• "Freemium": Free Web software and services, and some content, to users of the basic version. (Think Flickr and the $25-a-year Flickr Pro.)
• Advertising: Free content, services, and software to an audience that advertisers will pay to reach.
  
• Cross-subsidies: Give away any product that entices customers to pay for something else. Example: It's a free second-gen Wii! But only if you buy the deluxe version of Rock Band.
  
• Zero marginal cost: Anything that can be distributed without an appreciable cost to anyone, like online music.
  
• Labor exchange: Performing tasks to gain access to "free" sites and services.
  
• Gift economy: From Freecycle (free secondhand goods) to Wikipedia, money isn't the only motivator.
  

In Free, Anderson uses the fundamentals of economics, a long view of the history of business, analysis of today's rapidly changing landscape, and fascinating predictions to create a book that, like The Long Tail, will be essential reading in the years to come. In hardcover, The Long Tail had lengthy runs on the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Book Sense, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists, and has sold200,000 copies. Like The Long Tail, Free began as an article in Wired--in this case, as a controversial cover story. Anderson has also been discussing the book's progress on his widely read blog thelongtail.com. As editor in chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail, Chris Anderson is one of America's most sought-after commentators on tech trends.

The Evidence on Online Education: It’s the Design, Not the Medium -- from The Other 85% by Michael J. Offerman, EdD, Vice Chairman, Capella University

As stated by Inside Higher Ed, reporting on a newly released meta-analysis of research by the U. S. Department of Education, “online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning.”  Wow—this is what those of us involved in online learning have been arguing for some time in the face of strong biases that face-to-face was clearly superior.  So, this is very good news.

But, we need to delve into the details to get a better understanding of what lies under this conclusion.  And, to acknowledge that the Department researchers express concern about the lack of research comparing face-to-face, blended, and purely online education, especially at the K-12 level.

What the analysts determined is that, while online has advantages over face-to-face instruction, blended learning (a mix of face-to-face and online) has even more statistical advantage over face-to-face than purely online instruction has.  But, let’s not diminish the conclusion that purely online learning results in better learning outcomes than purely face-to-face learning. 

Why is there a difference?  What factors contributed to improved outcomes?  The students in online programs or courses spent more time on task than students in face-to-face programs or courses.  The online learning was made more active.  And, the more that online students were able to control when and how they used course media, the more pronounced the advantage over face-to-face instruction.  While the use of video or more media did not, in itself, make a difference, the use of simulations or other methods that allow the student to control when and how they interact with the media and content, with time for reflection on what they were learning, did make a difference.  The researchers defined “active” learning as that “in which the student has control of what and how he or she learns” and contrast it with “expository learning” where “content is transmitted to the student by lecture, written material, or other mechanisms.”

7/7/09

Can Rupert Murdoch save online news? -- from wired.co.uk by James Silver
It’s hardly a hot scoop that the newspaper industry is caught in a perfect storm of haemorrhaging ad revenues and dwindling readerships, exacerbated by a deep recession. Across the US, newspapers are failing and big-name titles teetering on the brink. The Los Angeles Times’s parent company, Tribune, filed for bankruptcy last December; in February, Hearst Corp warned it may close the San Francisco Chronicle, which lost more than $50 million in 2008, if it failed to slash costs or find a buyer; the same month, the owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer filed for bankruptcy protection, loaded with $390 million of debt. In the UK, the once-unassailable Daily Mail & General Trust reported a first-half pre-tax loss of £239 million, with operating profit for its national Associated Newspapers titles down 59 per cent, and by 85 per cent at its regional division, Northcliffe Media.

Newspapers are in deep trouble. If they survive, albeit in digital form only, then one event in May this year will surely be seen as a turning point in this narrative. It was late afternoon at News Corporation’s New York HQ, and reporters around the world had called in to hear Rupert Murdoch discuss a pretty dismal set of third-quarter results at a teleconference earnings call.

International Baccalaureate® chooses ePals to create innovative online learning community
"Founded in 1968, we currently work with 2,703 schools in 138 countries to develop and offer three challenging programmes to over 738,000 students aged 3 to 19 years."

Learning.com debuts new STEM solution for elementary students
Online curriculum engages students, builds foundational skills that carry them into their later school years

7/6/09

New School Alerts -- from BestOnlineHighSchools.com

• Dora Cyber School
  Dora Cyber School is a new online high school in New Mexico. This joins the only other one of which we are aware: New Mexico Virtual School.
• Virtual Learning Academy of St. Clair County
  Virtual Learning Academy of St. Clair County adds yet another online high school offering to the great state of Michigan.
• Wyoming Virtual Academy
  Wyoming Virtual Academy is a free online high school school for Wyoming residents. It uses the K12.com curriculum.

Apollo Group profits up 45% in 3rd quarter - Dawn Gilbertson, The Arizona Republic -- from Ray Schroeder Students continued to flock to the University of Phoenix in the spring, sending its parent company's revenue and profits soaring again. Phoenix-based Apollo Group Inc. on Monday said net income jumped 45 percent, to $201.1 million, on a 26 percent increase in revenue for its fiscal third quarter that ended May 31. The company surpassed $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, coming in at $1.05 billion.

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2009 -- Mike Bogle at TechTicker

The long and the short of it is that CCK08 was an incredible experience. The subject matter was fascinating; the cohort size and diversity was staggering; the nature, scope and scale of the distributed frameworks was incredible; and the sheer volume of information and discussion was titanic. My appreciation for and perspective of online learning and open education was inextricably altered, and my thirst for additional knowledge on the matter unquenchable. By the end of the session I had more questions and research topics than I’d started with, and importantly I’d developed relationships and friendships with some incredible people.

Utah State OpenCourseWare
"We believe that all humans beings are endowed with a capacity to learn, improve, and progress. Educational opportunity is the mechanism by which we fulfill that capacity. Utah State OpenCourseWare is a collection of educational material used in our formal campus courses, and seeks to provide people around the world with an opportunity to access high quality learning opportunities."

College-bound hold heavy financial burden -- from the Detroit Free Press

The Impending Demise of the University [6.4.09] -- by Don Tapscott
"There is fundamental challenge to the foundational modus operandi of the University — the model of pedagogy. Specifically, there is a widening gap between the model of learning offered by many big universities and the natural way that young people who have grown up digital best learn."

Christopher Edley Jr. is dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law.

The UC XI cyber-campus could be a way to put high-quality higher education within reach of tens of thousands more students, including part-timers, and eventually provide a revenue boost for higher education.

A new California master plan should define and deliver state-of-the-art online education. There are scores of tough questions to be answered, and business plans to be drafted and redrafted. But every cliche about a crisis tells us that the best offense is often innovation.

Cisco to Expand Mobile Collaboration Features -- from CIO.com
Cisco will tackle the mobile world over the next year with a series of new features to bring smartphones into business communications, the head of the company's software group said at the Cisco Live conference on Wednesday.

Quantum Learning Technologies Gives Kids a Voice; Kids Provide Content Daily to "What Kids Are Saying!" -- from B2E

7/2/09

7/1/09

Study: Students want more online learning -- from eSchoolNews.com
Funding shortages, lack of teacher preparation mean schools offer less online learning than students desire, this research suggests.

Obama Administration: Technology at the Heart of Education Reform -- from The Journal by Geoff Fletcher
"Technology is core and essential to the strategies we are using to reform education." That was the message from both Jim Shelton, assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the United States Department of Education, and Aneesh Chopra, chief technology officer in the White House.

McGraw-Hill Launches K-6 Digital Math Curriculum -- from The Journal by David Nagel

6/30/09

From DSC:
Deliver content in multiple ways -- let the student picks what works for them

U.S. Push for Free Online Courses -- from InsideHigherEd.com
June 29, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Community colleges and high schools would receive federal funds
to create free, online courses in a program that is in the final stages of being drafted by the Obama administration.

The New Learning Generation -- from elearningpapers.eu
Children and adolescents in modern societies are growing up in a world where digital technologies are ubiquitous. The widespread use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and online services by youngsters in their everyday life for leisure, entertainment and social interaction is impacting their learning needs, requirements and expectations. They need to learn skills and competences...

• Talent competences in the new eLearning generation
• A learning community for teens on a virtual island - The Schome Park Teen Second Life Pilot project
• Storytelling and Web 2.0 Services: A synthesis of old and new ways of learning
• Web 2.0 Learning Environment: Concept, Implementation, Evaluation
• Personal Learning Environments for Overcoming Knowledge Boundaries between Activity Systems in Emerging Adulthood

These activities were undertaken to address four research questions:

1. How does the effectiveness of online learning compare with that of face-to-face instruction?
2. Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning?
3. What practices are associated with more effective online learning?
4. What conditions influence the effectiveness of online learning?

Key Findings:

• Few rigorous research studies of the effectiveness of online learning for K–12 students have been published.
• The meta-analysis of 51 study effects, 44 of which were drawn from research with older learners, found that:
  
  
  • Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.
    
    
  • Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.
    
    
  • Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning.
    
    
  • Most of the variations in the way in which different studies implemented online learning did not affect student learning outcomes significantly.
    
    
  • The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types. Online learning appeared to be an effective option for both undergraduates (mean effect of +0.35, p < .001) and for graduate students and professionals (+0.17, p < .05) in a wide range of academic and professional studies

UniServity announces strategic partnership with Microsoft -- from elearnity
The integration with Microsoft Live@edu, will provide c. 1.5 million learners and their teachers globally with a dynamic and integrated e-Learning solution to support their learning and collaboration within the learning environment of the UniServity cLc (connected Learning communities) Learning Platform. The new partnership combines the educational expertise and learning vision of UniServity and its award-winning online social learning platform, the UniServity cLc, with the technical expertise and scale of Microsoft and its Live@edu service to create a powerful learning environment and toolkit for learners and teachers to co-construct, collaborate, communicate and develop their skills and improve educational outcomes.

Study: Virtual schools can help cut costs -- from Virtual School News
New research suggests that more K-12 public school students will take classes online and will have longer school days in the next decade–and academic improvement and cost savings are two big benefits.

Online courses are already commonplace in higher education and are growing in popularity at the K-12 level as well. Orlando-based Florida Virtual School (FLVS) has quickly become the nation’s largest virtual school, serving nearly 65,000 students in the 2007-08 school year.

“Policy makers and educators have proposed expanding learning time in elementary through high school grades as a way to improve students’ academic performance, but online coursework hasn’t been on their radar,” said Catherine Cavanaugh, associate professor at the University of Florida’s College of Education and author of the report, “Getting Students More Learning Time Online: Distance Education in Support of Expanded Learning Time in K-12 Schools.”

For the rest of the article, click here.

6/29/09

Carnegie Corporation: 'Do school differently' -- from eSchoolNews.com by Laura Devaney
New report urges widespread reform of math and science education. Urging the nation to "do school differently," a new report recommends a set of concrete actions for federal, state, and local education leaders to take to transform math and science instruction and bring the United States back to the forefront of global competition.

New Service from Discovery Education Helps Districts Embed Digital Content Directly into Curriculum -- from B2E; New Curriculum Alignment Service Highlights Digital Media's Shift From Supplemental Content To Comprehensive Instructional Solution
Silver Spring, Md. (June 25, 2009) - Discovery Education, producers of digital content and services such as Discovery Education streaming, Discovery Education Science and Discovery Education Health, announces a new curriculum alignment service headed by Discovery Education Senior Vice President of Curriculum Development, Dale Fulton. Fulton will lead a group within Discovery Education dedicated to collaborating with school districts on their goals for the integration of digital content into day-to-day classroom instruction.  Discovery Education's team of subject matter experts will comb their vast library of more than 250,000 digital content assets, including video clips, writing prompts, images, audio files, virtual labs, games, articles, assessment items, and more; and then align those resources to district pacing guides, scope and sequence documents, or instructional guides.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer: Traditional media will not bounce back -- from guardian.co.uk
Global advertising economy has been permanently 'reset' at a lower level, says Microsoft chief executive

Learning Leaders Fieldbook -- from The Masie Center
The Masie Center is pleased to announce their latest free e-Book, created by Learning CONSORTIUM colleagues: Learning Leaders Fieldbook

From DSC:
Several notable/relevant quotes I saw:

The future will be like:
a) a rollercoaster
b) whitewater rafting
c) Niagara Falls in a barrel…

Global competition and surging technology will cause it to look like “all of the above”.

First, do the math. Next, hang on!!
By 2010, there will be 8 billion people, 4 billion cell phones, 2 billion computers, 1 billion hosting websites, 40 million robots and our global knowledge will double every year. Eight out of ten U.S. workers will be employed in knowledge industries that will require massive technology to stay competitive globally. Learning the latest competitive hot skills, mostly through your “device”, is the only way to protect your professional career. Fast learning focused on performance and capability will be the greatest demand.

My favorite future place: eCampus! Learner-centric, 24X7 learning, support and tools – with IM Mentor!
Focus on the self-directed learner and give that professional talent a powerful mix of learning, support and competitive tools. Self-directed learners are the right talent to recruit and retain because they are also self-directed performers that have initiative, smarts and drive for success.

The Student Demand for Lecture Capture Solutions -- while this is a whitepaper from Techsmith (i.e. with their own agenda), it brings up some relevant points to consider

"Universities are finally losing their monopoly on higher learning", he writes. "There is fundamental challenge to the foundational modus operandi of the University — the model of pedagogy. Specifically, there is a widening gap between the model of learning offered by many big universities and the natural way that young people who have grown up digital best learn." -- from Don Tapscott

The old-style lecture, with the professor standing at the podium in front of a large group of students, is still a fixture of university life on many campuses. It's a model that is teacher-focused, one-way, one-size-fits-all and the student is isolated in the learning process. Yet the students, who have grown up in an interactive digital world, learn differently. Schooled on Google and Wikipedia, they want to inquire, not rely on the professor for a detailed roadmap. They want an animated conversation, not a lecture. They want an interactive education, not a broadcast one that might have been perfectly fine for the Industrial Age, or even for boomers. These students are making new demands of universities, and if the universities try to ignore them, they will do so at their peril. -- from Don Tapscott

From DSC:
Though Calvin has very small class sizes...I believe that class sizes of 10-20 people is proving itself to be a very-hard-to-sustain model; and one that a Christian college should not promote. If we do, are we not promoting a "haves" and "have-nots" society?

6/25/09

Read Write v Read Only -- from stickylearning

Read Only is how things used to be when it comes to learning, as education for the masses was formalised in the late 1800's education it was a method on transferring knowledge. Today, too often, this is still the case. I just used the word learning, however this type of education was really about teaching. Pupils had their eyes open to receive the knowledge presented to them by the teacher - it was essentially Read Only.

As technology has progressed at a speedy rate, today's learners don't think in Read Only terms. The internet, digital media and cheap, powerful computers have provided people with an option they never had - Read Write. Learners today do not want to sit passively as the 'teacher' provides them with knowledge. They want to interact with the knowledge and ideas to make them their own, to make it meaningful.

The concept of Instructional Design now goes by the wayside, replaced instead by the idea of Learning Design. A small but important shift that puts the learner at the centre of the design process. Learning design then is about building learning experiences that allow the learner to Read Write. 

Are kids different because of digital media? -- MacArthur Foundation Video (back from Dec 2006; but relevant here)

6/24/09

Academics as celebrities -- from LTC Blog by Agnes Bosanquet; “Professors are rock stars and they love it.”

Workplace Learning is changing! -- from The Upside Learning Solutions Blog

A couple of months back I shared my thoughts on an interesting question relating to the ‘future of workplace learning’ at Learning Circuits Blog. The learning domain is undergoing change like never before; Social Media, Informal Learning, Communities, Virtual Worlds, Mobile Learning, Learning Games, Augmented Reality, and much else. Such is the force of change that the existence of the Training Department itself is under threat - at least in the ‘form’ we know of now. As Harold Jarche and Jay Cross point out in their excellent article “The future of training department”, the training personnel of the future need to reorganize and must try to achieve the following:

- Facilitating collaborative work and learning amongst workers, especially as peers.
- Sensing patterns and helping to develop emergent work and learning practices.
- Working with management to fund and develop appropriate tools and processes for workers.

the edgeless university: why higher education must embrace technology [UK] -- by Peter Bradwell

Nonetheless, universities find themselves in a fragile state. The huge public investment most of the sector relies on is insecure. Universities are being asked to do more for less, from meeting the needs of a larger and more diverse student population to withstanding increased competition. Current ways of working are unsustainable. We are entering a period of critical change in which UK institutions will need to adapt to survive.

The economic and social imperatives for continuous higher learning and innovation are growing more urgent just as the primary means to achieve them come under threat. Two vital public policy aspirations are jeopardised: the need to give more people the opportunity to access lifelong learning regardless of background, and the positioning of the UK as a global centre of innovation in the knowledge economy. With an increasing diversity of students and student needs, fierce competition, and a crunch on funding, it is not surprising that some commentators are predicting the end of the university as we have known it.

Why technology is changing universities
The aim has to be to make those running universities realise that technology isn’t just something that means you build a room full of computers on your campus.

Technology is at the heart of this story of institutional change. Universities are now just one source among many for ideas, knowledge and innovation. That seems to threaten their core position and role, but in this new world of learning and research, there are also great opportunities. The internet, social networks, collaborative online tools that allow people to work together more easily and open access to content are both the cause of change for universities, and a tool with which they can respond.

The Master List of Free Language Learning Resources -- from UniversitiesandColleges.org

Link from Open Culture
Looking to learn a new language this summer? Then give this list a good look. The folks at Universitiesandcolleges.org have created “The Master List of Free Language Learning Resources,” which pulls together materials found across a range of different media. Here, you’ll find podcasts, open courses, iphone apps, and more. And the list notably includes our ever-popular collection of Free Foreign Language Lesson Podcasts, which will teach you about 40 different languages. Just download the podcasts to your computer or mp3 player and you’ll be learning new languages on the go, at no cost.

The World is Open Webinar -- from Ed Media

6/23/09

Streaming Movies Online: The Future is Almost Now -- from Open Culture by Dan Colman
According to Netflix’s CEO, the DVD is done, and the future is all about streaming movies online. (Read the Wall Street Journal piece on that.) This segues nicely to a list published by Salon last week, which features a series of web sites where you’ll find quality movies streamed online. Some of the services are free; others are not (The Auteurs, IndiePix). And some sites (Snagfilms) have already appeared in our Intelligent Video Collection, while others (Babelgum) were entirely new to me. Worth giving a look.

The U.K. Open University in Africa -- from Tony Bates

Does technology really enhance the quality of teaching and learning? -- from Tony Bates
In support of the first point, universities in particular had an excellent teaching model for an elite system of higher education, when only a few students attended, and when the resources were more than adequate for teaching in the old way [emphasis DSC]. I’m old enough to belong to this model. When I did undergraduate honours psychology at Sheffield University in England in 1962, less than 8 per cent of high school students went to university in Britain. However, I had in my two final years an instructor-student ratio of 1:3: four tenured professors and 12 students. We had lectures, small-group seminars and occasionally one-on-one tutorials. I had an excellent personal tutor, who involved me in his research, during my last undergraduate year.

Now in the UK, 40 per cent of high school students go to university and in Canada the figure is over 50 per cent. The instructor-student ratio is around 1:20 in the research universities, and 1:30 in two year colleges. Some undergraduate courses in first and second year have over 1000 enrolments, and lectures, often given by foreign graduate students, are to classes of 250 or more. Many professors pine for the old days, but these have gone. I believe it was the right thing to do to expand access (another blog needed to do this topic justice for sure), but we have not changed the teaching model. We have just added technology to the old model. But what we need is a new model, that builds on the strengths and opportunities that technology provides, and, incidentally, builds on the tremendous research advances made since 1962 in understanding how students learn, and how best to teach.

Thought from DSC:
Perhaps the model at Calvin is no longer sustainable...10-20 students per class -- fantastic for the students! However, has this model been forcing/requiring us to increase the price of a Calvin education through the years? How can we reduce the price yet keep individualized attention?

 

...that we could start to offer under the online learning model.

The second example in Clayton Christensen's article entitled, Defining 'Performance' in the Disruptive Innovation Model (Innosight | Strategy & Innovation Articles | November-December 2005 | Volume 3 | Number 6), has to do with online learning. The argument is that these tools might be most disruptive when applied to low-enrollment, specialty courses that are too expensive in the traditional instructor-led model. Look for some specialized courses that the college could start to offer via the online learning model.

In this way, you are growing the curriculum and revenue, not diminishing the current classroom experience. Especially relevant here is The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. My thanks to Mr. Brian Christian at DASO Consulting for this resource and his feedback here.

Pursue the adult / lifelong learning market

Looking at Calvin's Alumni:

Further idea to feature Calvin faculty while increasing revenue:

Charge a different fee for courses that offer lecture capture...or perhaps use one or more of the following pricing models: