Source: usnews.com

By: Lynn F. Jacobs… Continue reading

As colleges moved into distance education, many questions were raised about how they could serve this new group of students. And colleges responded, with new ideas about online learning resources, academic advising online and so forth.

But what about after distance education takes off? At what point does the question shift from what a college does to offer quality online programs to how a college needs to change in its entirety when it reaches a tipping point in enrollments — and at what point does such a change take place?

That was the focus of a discussion Monday at the annual meeting here of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, a top meeting of community college faculty members and administrators. The discussion was led by officials from Cerro Coso Community College, a sprawling California district that in the last year saw a majority of its students, any way you count — 3,500 by headcount, 6,000 by full time enrollment — become distance students.

“What do we change — if we change anything?” said Dylan D. Mattina, director of information technology, in introducing the session. “This is something that many institutions will have to deal with at some point.”

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.”

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and I’m handing out an in-class assignment to a small group of Grade 11 students in the class where I’m a substitute teacher.

Fifteen minutes into the one-hour class, a student walks up to me, holding a cellphone in his hand.

My dad just called and wants me to bring home a tank of oxygen. Since we’re not really doing anything here, can I take it to him now?”

Two days later, I’m filling in for a different teacher and during the last class of the day, a girl jumps up and asks to use the washroom.

When she returns five minutes later, she is crying. I hear someone say, ‘he sent her a mean text,’ and realize she was using her cellphone when she was supposed to be working on questions about a novel.

Students may forget to bring pens or textbooks to class but they would score perfect marks for remembering their cellphones. Not only do teachers still have to deal with the usual behaviour issues, electronics now add another level of challenge to maintaining discipline and awareness in the classroom.

Aaron Stubbert is the vice-principal at Oxford Regional High School, and he says the biggest headache with cellphones is “the consistent defiance about using them even after we’ve put rules in place for classrooms.”

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Gadgets such as the Apple iPhone and the iPod Touch are mainstays on college campuses — largely for the devices’ ability to help students escape the pressures of the classroom.

Now the nation’s oldest journalism school is asking students to buy those or similar devices. Not to listen to shoe-gazing indie rock, or watch clips from “The Daily Show,” but to download classroom lectures or confirm facts on the Web while reporting from the scene of a plane crash or town council meeting.

The new rule for incoming freshmen at the University of Missouri School of Journalism appears to mark the first time an American university is requiring specific portable electronic devices. The policy has spurred a debate about the limits and possibilities of technology as well as corporate influence in academia.

Source: www.examiners.com

By: Cindy Wolfe

A report released by the American Association of School Administrators reveals that many school budgets will be cut during the 2009-2010 school year because of reduced funding. The report entitled, “Looking Back, Looking Forward: How the Economic Downturn Continues to Impact School Districts” is the fourth in a series of reports. In [...]

The digital world can be tricky for teachers.

Those who grew up in the pre-Twitter era are often left casting about to learn how to use new technology and keep up with students.

Others, comfortable with using text messages and Facebook to make connections, find themselves questioning, as they navigate the new frontier, just where students fit [...]