There is little doubt about the power of Internet in the field of education. I came across two useful educational sites today, each useful in its own way.
The first is a
site promoted by retired Supreme Court Justice Day O'Connor, aimed at teaching kids about the Government, the Courts and Civics, in general. It a simple and informative site targeted and tuned for kids. To develop greater civic engagement there is no better place to start than with kids. Teachers can make use of this site as well to teach, develop lesson plans etc.
The second is a
site aimed at educating the "citizen journalist" to be a better reporter. (I first read about this site
here). In this day and age where pretty much anyone with Internet access and PC (or cell phone) can be a reporter (of some sort), a site of this nature can be of great help in learning from the experts.
As someone in the education business, it is always great to see new sites emerge to serve specific targeted educational needs.
The WSJ had a
news article about Jack Welch lending his name to an Online University program.
A couple of interesting data points from the article:
Boston research firm EduVentures Inc. estimates that 11% of the roughly 18.5 million U.S. college students took most of their classes online in the fall of 2008, up from 1% a decade ago.
Online higher education will generate revenue of $11.5 billion this year, EduVentures says.Here is another interesting
article describing the threat to traditional universities from the growth of new technologies.
One thing for sure. The smartest students want to get an "A" without having ever gone to the lectures. They understand that there are better ways of learning than being the passive recipient of a one-way, one size fits all, teacher-focused model where the student is isolated in the learning process. When the cream of the crop of an entire generation is boycotting the formal model of pedagogy, the writing is in the wall.The same author has another
article on the same issue with links to related articles.
I argued that 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. The reaction on Twitter, mainly from students has been enormously positive.
I was pleasantly surprised to read that the interest in online courses have risen as a result of increase in gas prices! Check out the
article in the NY Times.
Don't miss the insightful
comments from readers.
From all of us at Vitalect, wish all of you a wonderful new year!
After all the hype and hoopla of the dotcomm days, it is nice to see that online learning seems to be making a come back of sorts, at least in the press! The important change is that unlike in the early days a number of people are taking classes online at schools.
Online Courses Catch On in U.S. Colleges
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Morning Edition, November 28, 2007 ยท When today's college graduates get together for a reunion someday, they may decide to do it by computer. That's because right now, nearly one in five college students takes at least one class online, according to a new survey.
For professors, the growth of e-learning has meant a big shift in the way they deal with students.
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Skype has a
SkypeIn facility which lets you pick a local number in your area code of choice. When someone call that number, your computer rings if you are online. However, the real power is the ability to forward the call to a cell phone. When you are traveling overseas (from the US) this is a terrific capability. The caller from the US pays only local phone charges while you pay the costs in the country where the call is received.
The
WSJ reported that Google is planning to announce storage facility for users to store their files online. It makes a lot of sense and would be an excellent addition to
Google Apps, especially for small businesses.
It is interesting that this news comes out shortly after Microsoft announced its
Home Server product. Both products are at clearly at two extremes of the spectrum. While one tries to minimize the use of hardware, the other sells greater hardware power combined with software.
