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Online Learning News and Research
Times and Dates Coordinated Universal Time
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Online Learning: Using the net to learn - AARON BESWICK, Northern Pen
The Northern Peninsula's many rural schools are turning to technology to keep their students abreast with advanced subjects. Few students mean small teaching staffs trying to handle a wide variety of subjects, many of which, such as physics and chemistry, require specialized knowledge. Level three students at Conche's Sacred Heart All Grade were logging onto the Centre for Distance Learning Innovation (CDLI) last Tuesday, as they do every day. "Now raise your hands if you have any questions," came Cindy Lander's voice across the information superhighway from Goose Bay. A strange statement to older generations who would wonder how a teacher in Goose Bay would see a raised hand. But the Sacred Heart students are savvy - in the online world they hit a hand on their screen with their mouse to ask a question. (0) comments
ISTE Announces Winners of 2008 SIGTel Online Learning Awards
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE(r)) has named the winners of the 2008 SIGTel Online Learning Awards. Sponsored by ISTE's Special Interest Group for Telelearning (SIGTel), the Online Learning Awards recognize creative educators worldwide for their pioneering use of telecommunications networks to provide innovative learning opportunities for students in grades K-16. The awards will be presented at the National Education Computing Conference, to be held June 29 through July 2 in San Antonio, Texas. (0) comments
UNCG Achieves Top Honors in Two Prestigious Distance Online Learning Competitions
UNCG announced that an online development team in the University’s Division of Continual Learning has been honored by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) with a platinum award – the organization’s most prestigious recognition for excellence. The same team also has received a “Best Practices in Distance Learning” award from the North Carolina Distance Learning Association (NCDLA). Both awards recognize UNCG for a pair of innovative new online Western Civilization courses (Western Civilization 101 and 102). Both are designed to bring history to life by immersing students in an online world where they learn by doing. In Level 101, they become undercover detectives on an Interpol task force investigating the theft of valuable historical artifacts. In the companion Level 102 course, they participate in an “Artifacts Roadshow,” where they appraise the historical significance of items brought to the show. (0) comments Wednesday, May 14, 2008
More logging on for class: Web-based courses popular with students, profs - Brad Newman, Amarillo Globe News
Amarillo College senior Aaron Boaz chooses to attend class from the comfort of her bed. Boaz works online on her Freshman Composition 2 coursework. This is Boaz's third online course. Instead, Boaz logs onto Amarillo College's Web site to submit assignments, e-mail any questions to her instructor and take exams. "I can bring out my laptop, climb into bed, flip on the TV and do all my schoolwork," said the 20-year-old photography major. A rising number of college students are choosing Internet courses over on-campus classes. Boaz, a full-time student with a full-time job, is enrolled in Freshman Composition II online this semester. It's her third time to take an online course at AC. (0) comments
WiMax could expand online learning access - Queenie Wong, McClatchy Newspapers
A wireless technology that Sprint Nextel plans to launch within a year makes high-speed and secure Internet access possible from almost anywhere. Called WiMax, it's the heart of a huge telecommunications industry effort to supplant Wi-Fi, the service that most users rely on for wireless Internet connections at broadband speeds. If it succeeds, WiMax technology could be as big a change as the mobile phone revolution. An independent technology consulting firm, Boston-based Yankee Group, estimates that 58 million people worldwide will use WiMax by 2012.... WiMax's faster Internet access also would make long-distance learning more interactive, and its stronger signal would reach more students. (0) comments
High School Students Complete Credits - Many through Online Learning - Save Family Finances - Lana F. Flowers, The Morning News
Some high school seniors will leave their graduation stages later this month with more than diplomas. They could have enough credit to enter college as second-semester freshmen or as sophomores. They could be close to acquiring two-year associate's degrees.... Pea Ridge High School has 43 students, from sophomores to seniors, enrolled in an Early College High School program through the Southeast Educational Cooperative in Monticello. The students get both high school and college credit through Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. Students pay $135 per semester for three college credit hours, said Rick Neal, Pea Ridge High School principal. That rate still is cheaper than full college costs for the same credit hours, he said. (0) comments Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Online Learning: What's a virtual high school? - The Beaufort Gazette, S.C.
To put it simply, Christine Shirley, a sophomore, is not a fan of Battery Creek High School. Unimpressed with her teachers and failing a class she believes she deserved to pass, she left the school a month ago in search of something better. She and her friend Charles Terry, another student not enrolled in a school, said they found that in a Holiday Inn presentation hall on Boundary Street on Saturday morning. "I love school, and I normally make good grades," Shirley said. "With this program, I feel that I can really push myself." She and Terry were two of about 20 parents and students who attended a information session for the Insight School of South Carolina, a statewide, online charter high school opening its virtual doors in September. (0) comments
At long last, 8 from tribe fulfill their dream (through online learning) - Betty Reid, The Arizona Republic
It's about completing a dream late in life. It's about helping their tribe have more role models. That's why eight members of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, ranging in age from 54 to 72, plan to walk across the stage at today's Grand Canyon University commencement and pick up their master's degrees. But it's not a simple story. The group's journey began in 2001 when a tribal education director rounded up education credentials of the tribe's community professionals. Adult-education program specialist Billy Escue noted that 10 had taken college classes, and several were a few credits shy of undergraduate degrees. He approached people he thought had dreams deferred. At first, there was resistance. "I told him no, I'm not going back to school and I'm too old," said Sterling Manuel, 58, remembering the first time Escue approached him.... Escue refused to give up on Manuel and nine others who joined an adult online-learning program offered by Charter Oak State College. (1) comments
Distance online learning gains popularity at UWS - Anna Kurth, TMCNet
The University of Wisconsin - Superior distance online learning program had 177 students in the fall of 2005, 272 by fall 2007 and almost 300 students this semester, he said. UWS' distance learning program has three majors: an individualized major, elementary education and communication arts. Communication arts was added in 2006-2007 because there was interest among students. Several students were completing a communication arts-type of majors through the individual option, so the university added courses to offer the major, Nordgren said. A couple of factors are spurring the growth of UWS' distance learning program, Nordgren said. Some major national organizations are advertising their distance learning programs, which increases awareness and acceptance of distance learning as an option for higher education, he said. The downturn in the economy also is causing more people to look toward completing unfinished college degrees as a way to strengthen their employability, he said. (0) comments Monday, May 12, 2008
'Speak Up' Survey Reveals Online Learning Digital Disconnect - THE Journal
Results of the annual survey indicate a large gap between students and their parents and teachers on the role of technology in learning. The survey findings point to what Project Tomorrow (formerly NetDay) calls "a growing digital disconnect" between students and adults, most evident in their conflicting thoughts on the quality of the education that kids are getting. Sixty-six percent of school administrators, 47 percent of teachers, and 43 percent of parents surveyed agreed that "local schools are doing a good job preparing students for jobs and careers of the future," but 45 percent of middle and high school students said that tools meant to protect them, such as firewalls and filters, are inhibiting their learning. Even greater discord is found in attitudes toward online gaming. More than 50 percent of students in grades 3 to 12 said they'd like to see more educational gaming in school, while only 16 percent of teachers, 15 percent of administrators, and 19 percent of parents said they'd support that. (0) comments
Bridging the online learning curve - India Express Computer
Widespread dissemination of knowledge has been the most important objective of distance education at IITs and IIMs, says Nivedan Prakash. Distance learning education has gained momentum with the advent of innovative technologies. The seamless integration of today’s technologies has literally brought the classroom to your home or workplace where high quality education can be imparted to a large number of participants across the country. (1) comments
Group seeks to shrink digital divide - JOY-ANN REID, South Florida Times
Keeping high-speed Internet access available and affordable to people of color in the U.S. is the goal of a national initiative that launches in Miami on May 7. The study, by Jabari Simama, president of community development at Benedict College and the director of the college’s Center for Excellence in Community Development, notes significant gains by black and Hispanic Americans in closing the so-called digital divide. More blacks and Hispanics have gained access to the Internet, Simama said, but the study calls those gains “fragile,” and the ADE hopes to build a nationwide consensus around expanding high-speed Internet access in minority communities. (0) comments Sunday, May 11, 2008
Teachers to receive iPods to use in class - ROB NOVIT, Aiken Standard
Last year South Aiken High School teacher Sherry Shipes got an idea about using an iPod in her classroom as a technology tool to enhance her instruction. Public Education Partners, the Aiken-based education advocacy organization, thought her proposal was just right for its "Great Ideas" program. Shipes received a $350 grant to purchase a 30GB iPod. Now PEP is taking the concept to the next level. The AT&T Foundation has awarded the organization more than $19,000. PEP will provide iPod Touch models to 40 selected high school teachers, including all seven Aiken County School District high schools and the Aiken County Career Center. (0) comments
Protests to Proposed Arizona Online Learning Cuts - DANIEL RAVEN, Cronkite News Service
About 800 students, parents and teachers marched and carried signs on the Capitol lawn Tuesday to protest funding cuts to distance learning programs proposed during closed-door budget meetings. Organizers said students from 11 of the state's 14 distance-education programs participated. "I feel like they're targeting us because we're not in a building," said Adriana Moerkerken, a Tucson resident who brought her three children. "If they're going to cut education, they should cut it in all schools." Moerkerken said that home-schooling with the help of Arizona Virtual Academy allows her kids to learn at their own pace, not the pace of others, and that her daughter skipped two grades because of that. (0) comments
Online Learning Africa: One kid, one computer - Belinda Anderson, Finweek
Imagine the benefits if every child had access to a computer connected to the Internet? Imagine the long-term benefits to South Africa's economy if every school-going child had access to a computer connected to the Internet? To establish a PC/Internet infrastructure throughout Africa would cost US$240bn (around R1,8 trillion) and take 10 years, Ernst & Young consultant Neil Butcher said at the recent Nepad e-Schools Conference (as reported by ITWeb). The Nepad initiative aims to put the broad principles in place and urge national governments to develop their own e-Schools business plans by 2010. It hopes to transform all secondary schools in participating countries - there were 16 to start with - into Nepad e-Schools by 2015. That's clearly a mammoth task and one that would require different and unique models for each country. (0) comments Saturday, May 10, 2008
Online learning technologies enable tutoring connections between Asian, US - EarthTimes
Max Benning of Scottsdale, Arizona, struggles in school, especially with the subjects chemistry, English and physics. "According to my mom, I don't really care about school," said the 11-year-old. And he admits that he wouldn't make it without tutoring. "I need it, and it is much more efficient than studying by myself." So, a few times a week, he discusses his homework with his tutor, Bindu. What's special about their relationship is they communicate over the internet, and Bindu lives in India. Benning is one of more than 700,000 US students who are tutored this way, and the number of students throughout the world who turn to the internet for tutoring services is growing. (0) comments
Unusual Model for an Online Learning College - Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed
There is no shortage of associate degree programs online, but private four-year colleges don’t tend to run them. This fall, Tiffin University is trying a new model for an online two-year degree program. The institution, which was founded in 1888, is launching an associate of arts degree in general studies as part of what it calls Ivy Bridge College, an online-only program that targets traditional-aged students who intend to transfer into four-year institutions once they’re done. The program is unusual for being developed at a four-year private college, and also because of who it intends to enroll and what kind of degree the students will be earning. (0) comments
CCC schedules orientations for Online Learning Web-based courses - The Grand Island Independent
Central Community College has scheduled orientations on its Web-based courses in Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney and Columbus. The one-hour orientations are designed for students, staff and other individuals who are either planning to take CCC courses on the Web during the 2008 summer session or are interested in doing so but are concerned about their ability to navigate through the courses. In this hands-on computer lab, participants will learn tips on how to use the software program that operates CCC's Web courses. (0) comments Friday, May 09, 2008
UMassOnline logs second online learning record year - Boston Globe
UMassOnline, the online learning division of the University of Massachusetts, today announced a second consecutive fiscal year of record-breaking enrollment and revenue results. Matching last year's results, which were the best in three years, fiscal year 2008 at UMassOnline saw a 26.2% increase in enrollments, to 33,900 over 26,855 in fiscal year 2007, and a 31.9% increase in revenue to $36,977,854 over fiscal year 2007 revenues of $28,030,985. According to the Sloan Consortium's most recent research report entitled 'Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning,' online enrollments nationwide were growing by 9.7% as of the Fall, 2006 semester, while the growth rate in the overall higher education student population was 1.5%. In contrast UMassOnline's enrollment in fiscal year 2008 grew two and a half times faster than the national average for online enrollments. (0) comments
Online Learning: Thousands choosing computers over classroom - CATHRYN ATKINSON, Globe and Mail
Logging onto the computer at home is now the preferred method of education for thousands of British Columbian students who are abandoning bricks-and-mortar schools for Internet classrooms run by teachers kilometres away. The LearnNowBC program has almost tripled its online student body since it began less than three years ago, says Barry Anderson, executive director of the Virtual School Society, the non-profit agency that promotes the program for the Ministry of Education. About 17,000 students signed up for Kindergarten to Grade 12 distance-learning courses when the provincial government initiated them for the 2005-06 school year; the next academic year, 33,000 signed up. This year, the projected enrolment is 48,000, Mr. Anderson said. (0) comments
The Parallel Information Universe Online - Mike Eisenberg, Library Journal
The Web 2.0 “buzz” starts with new technologies such as virtual worlds, cell phones and handheld devices that offer 24/7 web access, tagging, social networks, and blogs and brings together various web capabilities in unique combinations (known as “mashing”—such as maps that also include the latest real estate property assessments). But Web 2.0 is about much more than the technology—it's about a change in focus to participation, user control, sharing, openness, and networking. (0) comments Online Learning News Blog Archives OTEL - Ray's Home Page - Notebook - UIS Online - U of I Online - UIS Home Fair Use
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