A task force to expand the state's online programs at colleges and universities could boost growing programs at local schools, officials say. Online classes are a way for students to gain college credit without entering the classroom. Lectures, homework, discussions and sometimes testing are all handled through the Internet. Bruce Chaloux, an online-learning expert who works at the Southern Educational Regional Board, said national enrollment in online courses is growing at about 17 percent per year compared to 1.2 percent annual growth for traditional college classes. But Chaloux said there is still a lot of room to improve.

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students can now work on part of their foreign language requirements from home. Hybrid courses, a mix of online learning and in-the-classroom instruction, are being introduced as part of the foreign language department’s 2010 Summer Session offerings.

Any residual doubt regarding the explosive growth potential of distance education may have been dispelled last month, when the AFL-CIO announced it was teaming up with the National Labor College and the Princeton Review to launch an online college for the labor federation's 11.5 million members and their families. With projected courses in allied health sciences, business and other disciplines at an estimated $200 per credit, you could almost hear the whir of file servers straining under the anticipated load.

Can people educate themselves? The jury's still out, I think, on this. But these five autodidact sites suggest that, maybe, they can. Jeff Cobb, Mission to Learn, March 10, 2010 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

The emphasis we place on a single word in a sentence can change the whole meaning of the sentence. This is because the meaning is based, in part, on the alternatives excluded by the sentence, snd these are contextually bound and indicated by emphasis. That's (one reason) why we say meaning is not contained solely in the sentence itself, but is distributed across an environment. This post is intended to be a cautionary note abut social media, but extends to the use of text generally. That's why I'll often indicate emphasis in posts, with either italics or *stars*. Steve Borsch, Connecting the Dots, March 10, 2010 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

Just for fun, I have posted a bunch of screenshots from one of my earliest web sites, from 1995. Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, March 10, 2010 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

In this article, a forward for a forthcoming book, I look at the relation between control and software. Web and learning applications, I write, look like language, with all its attendant expressiveness and freedom, but functions like architecture, which can be cold and inflexible. Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, March 10, 2010 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

Pam Ice, online support director for the Colorado Department of Education, said recently, “Students in Colorado continue to see the value of online learning. The 2008-09 school year brought improvements in student success in many of Colorado’s online programs. Graduation rates and completion rates increased, more programs employ guidance counselors and credentialed staff for special education and English Language Learners. These efforts are paying off for the programs.” The Colorado Department of Education monitors 18 online programs around the state, ranging in size from the six-student Crowley County Online Academy to the Colorado Virtual Academy with more than 5,000 students.

The stage for redemption, it turns out, can be a dingy, florescent-lit room tucked down a long hall at Sharpstown High School. Here, on mismatched chairs and a second-hand sofa, teens toil on laptops for hours on end — trying to atone for bad decisions and reclaim their dreams of earning high school diplomas. The Grad Lab — as it's being called at Sharpstown and the Houston Independent School District's 26 other comprehensive high schools — has become a focal point for would-be dropouts since opening in January. More than 100 students come each day, even Saturdays, trying to make good on their second chance.

In Berkshire County, where online courses weren't available even 10 years ago, more than 1,000 high school and college students are enrolled today in online courses -- ranging from bio-ethics symposiums to Mandarin Chinese."This is the technology generation," said Carol Arnold, a Virtual High School spokeswoman. "They live on instant messaging and email and Facebook, so this is really tapping into that."

David Wiley points to the new US $500m OER initiative and notes they will be free for commercial reuse. "We now know that the resources created under the AGI funding will either be licensed CC BY or placed in the public domain. We know this because no CC licenses with SA or NC clauses live up to the promises made in the above statements. And the GFDL has been relegated to the realm of the OPL." Well, we'll see how this works out. The U.S. can provide content infrastructure (I agree with Wiley on this point, that content is infrastructure) free to citizens and corporations if it wants; we'll see how it reacts to what will be the natural impulse of the corporations to block access to the free stuff. David Wiley, iterating toward openness, March 9, 2010 [Tags: Books, Open Educational Resources] [Link] [Comment]

The standard for online courses, we are told, is firmly in place. Mark Guzdial protests. "Surely, this can't be it - it can't be that Sakai + Twitter + a blog or Wiki is what all future studies will call the 'traditional' form of online courses? What about amazingly and powerful collaborative spaces like Kansas, and provably better ways of teaching with technology like cognitive tutors Surely we can do better than what's being used today? It's that second step that's more promising. We can do much better than that.  It's not even very hard.  Have you seen the great new tools that CMU has made available for building your own cognitive tutors I've learned that there is a term for those trying to change education through radical on-line approaches: 'edupunks.'" Mark Guzdial, Computing Education Blog, March 9, 2010 [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Portals, Twitter, Edupunk, Online Learning, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

Is standardisation of curriculum 'an (un)stable and precarious achievement'? It is disquieting, writes Artichoke, "that after reading Edwards this seems increasingly likely." These reflections are based on a reading of Lanier's You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. Some good stuff here, like this: "innovate in order to find a way to describe your internal state instead of trivial external events, to avoid the creeping danger of believing that objectively described events define you, as they would define a machine."

Artichoke considers this in turn with respect to Richard Edwards Translating the Prescribed into the Enacted Curriculum (paywall, sorry) which draws "from actor-network theory (ANT) [to] provide alternative readings of the translations of the prescribed into the enacted curriculum." What we see is essentially a critique of knowledge translation, which has become popular in some public policy circles. Artichoke quotes Latour, "To translate is to betray: ambiguity is part of translation." 'Translating' (evidence-based) theory into practice is a one-way interaction, where what is really needed is diversity and conversation. Artichoke, Weblog, March 9, 2010 [Tags: Networks, Research, Interaction] [Link] [Comment]

The meaning of a word, for Derrida, is in part defined by the alternatives it excludes. (See p. 89, here). What was the range of choices from which one could have selected? We see this explicitly in this model of Google Suggest. What questions can we ask, and what questions are excluded? What do you suggest represents this relationship visually, and interestingly, shows how by reforming language Google Suggest reforms what we can imagine. Alex Chitu, Google Operating System, March 9, 2010 [Tags: Google] [Link] [Comment]

I've heard this from a couple sources, that Moodle is becoming a mish-mash of conflicting technologies. This, I think, is the inevitable outcome of the module-based approach that has come to characterize open source software (and a reason why such an approach doesn't appeal to me). Donald Clark talks about the various offshoots, including Open University's pilot, which he calls a "dead end", and Kineo's commercialization. He suggests that its constructivist intentions are "a lot of rot", not implemented in practise, and "a utopian dream". Donald Clark, Plan B, March 9, 2010 [Tags: Open Source, Constructivism] [Link] [Comment]

Under the bipartisan bill, when a district cancels school, it could immediately post lessons to its Web site for each grade level or class, allowing students to download the material and turn in the work within two weeks. The bill would let schools use the e-lessons to replace up to five days missed because of snow, ice or other unscheduled closures. Supporters say the bill also could have an extra benefit: pushing districts to blend technology with classroom work to expand student learning beyond the traditional school day or year.

Ohio students who may be used to sledding or playing video games on snow days could instead be given schoolwork via computer, under a proposal from state lawmakers. A bill offered by a bipartisan group of legislators would let schools use online lessons so as many as five school days called off for bad weather or other calamities would not have to be made up. Districts could immediately post assignments on their Web sites for students to complete within two weeks.

Hybrid foreign language courses introduced for summer - Amanda Munger, UW Oshkosh TodayUniversity of Wisconsin Oshkosh students can now work on part of their foreign language requirements from home. Hybrid courses, a mix of online learning and in-the-classroom instruction, are being introduced as part of the foreign language department’s 2010 Summer Session offerings.
Catherine Bryan, co-chair of the foreign language department, said hybrid classes combine the convenience of online courses and the personal learning of regular classes.

Let me begin the week with this uplifting post from Dave Pollard. "When much of your life is tied up with work (collaborative or hierarchical) and the schedules and priorities of others, most decisions are made for you, or at least restricted by the constraints of society. It is a bit startling to realize that, suddenly, almost every decision I face is mine alone to make. Each decision may have repercussions for others, which I of course have to think about, but ultimately my decisions are now driven by principles, not by accommodation." What are these principles, he asks? Being generous, valuing time, and living naturally. Dave Pollard, How To Save The World, March 8, 2010 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

Norm Friesen previews a book, "DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education" by Anya Kamenetz. We both received email this week from the publisher announcing the forthcoming release and noting "Dr. Friesen and you are briefly noted within the text, based on a session that the author attended at UBC." In fact, I was interviewed for the book by the author in January, 2009, and as I reported to our own public affairs people, "The interview focused mostly on models of learning for the future - I talked about the idea of personal learning, the idea that assessment will be dis-aggregated, and that credentials would be granted from numerous agencies." Norm Friesen says the book takes a moderate approach, and the publicity materials I've seen seem to agree. Norm Friesen, Weblog, March 8, 2010 [Tags: Assessment, Books] [Link] [Comment]