E-Learning 2010: E-Educators Evolving — from EducationWeek.com (9/20/10)
This special report, the second in a three-part series on e-learning, aims to answer questions related to the growing role of e-educators in K-12 education. It provides perspectives and advice from state policymakers and virtual school providers navigating through the new and often murky policy waters of online-only education, and features insights from e-educators in the trenches of virtual schooling.
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Addendums:
10-5-10– from Google announces TV deals with HBO, NBA, others
“One of our goals with Google TV is to finally open up the living room and enable new innovation from content creators, programmers, developers and advertisers,” Ambarish Kenghe, developer product manager for Google TV, said in the post.
How the Gates Foundation will spend its education-technology dollars — from The Chronicle by Marc Parry
From DSC:
Mentioned in that article is the following site that I thought further addresses the need to come up with different kinds of assessments/assignments:
Flash interactions the easy way — from theelearningcoach.com
Do you ever wish you had the time, budget or staff to add more interactive learning activities to your online courses? I recently came across a company that fills this gap with engaging Flash Interactions, eLearning Templates, Articulate Skins and Flash Games that can be imported into most rapid development authoring systems. The company is the eLearning Brothers—otherwise known as Andrew and Shawn Scivally.
Surprising facts about online education — from DegreeScout.com [via dontwasteyourtime.co.uk]
Online education is quickly becoming a prominent and important piece of the education pie in the United States. The explosive growth of this segment of education, even during a recession, is nothing short of spectacular. It is becoming clear that there is a fundamental shift in how Americans are being educated after high school. The flexibility, lower cost, and variety of choice are just some of the reasons that online education is growing at its current pace. The following infographic will give you a better idea of the scope, impact, and future of online education. Enjoy!
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The Khan Academy now on iTunesU [via openculture.com]
The Khan Academy, which already has a robust presence on YouTube and the web, now opens up shop on iTunesU. This gives students yet another way to access 1800+ video tutorials that teach the ins-and-outs of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, finance, physics, economics and more. The lectures, all taped and presented by Sal Khan, a Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager, are watched some 70,000 times per day. And, with this new distribution channel, the numbers only promise to move higher. For more on The Khan Academy, see this August CNN piece. To download iTunes, click …
Khan Academy content available for download [via M. Guhlin]
At the start of the year, a Math teacher specialist pulled me aside and asked me, “How come all these awesome videos are blocked?” As we tried to access the different videos, I finally pulled up the web site–The Khan Academy–and noticed that the majority of the content was located at …
Teacher Development: Starter Kit for Teaching Online — from Edutopia.org by Grace Rubenstein
Expert advice on shifting from brick and mortar to bytes and bits.
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Bellevue College launches program to teach educators about online learning — — [via Ray Schroeder] by the Bellevue Reporter
Bellevue College is launching a new “eLearning for Educators” professional development program for K-12 and college teachers who wish to bring the benefits of online learning to their students. “eLearning” is a broad term that includes all forms of teaching and learning that are supported or enhanced by digital technology. The new program at the college teaches educators how to integrate new instructional technology into their courses, whether they teach in a traditional “in-class” venue, a fully online setting or in a hybrid format that blends the two …
Students Are Motivated to Take Online Courses — [via Ray Schroeder] by edreformer.com via e-learning news blog
Susan Patrick, President of iNACOL writes into the Chicago Tribune to voice her support for online learning initiatives in Chicago Public Schools. She finishes off her letter with a valid point, that students actually are motivated to take online courses, because they like it, and because online better influences their learning. What’s more, students want to learn online: a national study showed 40 percent of middle and high school students want to take online courses. Despite what critics say, there is no evidence that children in online or hybrid classes are any less socially adjusted than those children who attend brick-and-mortar, traditional …
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As interest in online learning grows, Udemy lands $1 million in angel funding — from ReadWriteWeb.com by Audrey Watters
In that spirit, Udemy is a website that seeks to “democratize online learning” by providing the tools so that educators can easily create their own online courses. Udemy announces today that is has raised $1 million from a number of prominent angel investors, including Keith Rabois, Naval Ravikant, and Dave McClure’s 500 Startups Fund – a successful round that Udemy co-founder Gagan Biyani notes came with help from both the Founder Institute where the startup was incubated and from VentureHacks’ AngelList. The funding will go, in part, to hire more engineers for the site.
The Wild World of Massively Open Online Courses — from unlimitedmagazine.com by Emily Senger
Would you participate in a class with 2300 other online students?
In a traditional university setting, a student pays to register for a course. The student shows up. A professor hands out an outline, assigns readings, stands at the front and lectures. Students take notes and ask questions. Then there is a test or an essay.
But with advancing online tools innovative educators are examining new ways to break out of this one-to-many model of education, through a concept called massively open online courses. The idea is to use open-source learning tools to make courses transparent and open to all, harnessing the knowledge of anyone who is interested in a topic.
George Siemens, along with colleague Stephen Downes, tried out the open course concept in fall 2008 through the University of Manitoba in a course called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, or CCK08 for short. The course would allow 25 students to register, pay and receive credit for the course. All of the course content, including discussion boards, course readings, podcasts and any other teaching materials, was open to anyone who had an internet connection and created a user profile.
“The course was the platform, but anyone could build on that platform however they wanted,” says Siemens. “There’s this notion that technology is networked and social. It does alter the power relationship between the educator and the learner, a learner has more autonomy, they have more control. The expectation that you wait on the teacher to create everything for you and to tell you what to do is false.”
Top five applications for video in higher education — from Cisco
