What if Online Education Were Free?

That is the concept and idea behind MIT’s decision to go with their OpenCourseWare (OCW) program and make available more than 2000 of their courses online at no charge. The courses will be open to the public—which means available across the Internet to people around the world, and all for no fee. Not all of these 2000 course will be available immediately. It will take MIT a few years to get them all ready and released.

Want to see what’s available? Head over to MIT’s website. Here’s the URL: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

It isn’t necessarily all it sounds at first. According to the MIT Open CourseWare website, their courses do not grant credit for or certification towards a degree, and there’s no access to MIT faculty. But still, if you just want to learn, they do provide the knowledge.

To Blog or Not to Blog…That’s Educations’ Question

(This blog seems quite approriate as I'm currently attending a Blackboard Users' conference.)

Blogging caught on pretty fast. People use it in place of online journals. Marketers use it to spread the news of their product or service. Businesses use it to counteract bad things that are said about them on other blogs and to get a step up on their competition. Traditional media uses it to keep up with online competition, even hiring bloggers to write for their traditional media publications. Educators use it for…well, what do educators use it for? Is there any real reason to use blogging as an educational tool? Does it provide a better education for students than any of its predecessors, such as websites, email, or online journals? What is the blogs’ role in education?

According to some bloggers, there are plenty of ways educators should not use blogs. For example, James Farmer is creating a “what not to do when using blogs in education” list. Farmer is a consultant, writer, technologist, and teacher living in Australia. He believes blogs should not be used to replace other tools that have found effective educational niches for themselves, including “discussion boards, listservs, or learning management systems” (http://blogsavvy.net/how-not-to-use-blogs-in-education). So, if blogs aren’t a replacement for other online technologies, how can they best be used in education, online or classroom?

Through your comments, I’d like to share with the readers some of the best blog sites that are educational in nature. Here’s one that I’ve found. The author’s information on digital storytelling and blogs is quite interesting. Feel free to post links to other blogs related to education that you particularly like when you post a comment to this blog.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Middle school children today think about careers and what they want to be when they grow up just as they did in the previous generation. It's part of the tradition of our educational system. But is it a responsibility of the school system, or should parents and these children's potential employers be handling this kind of education for today's middle-school-age children? For those of you reading this who are already in the work force, do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Did this kind of middle school education help you choose your future career?

While it doesn't answer these questions, this streaming video from the Internet Archives (www.archive.org) shows middle school children from the 1970s learning about possible vocations. It might help you remember those days, particularly if yours were as far away as mine sometimes feel. :-)

Here's the link: http://www.archive.org/stream/WhenYouG1973/WhenYouG1973_256kb.mp4

Will online learning be a thing of the past?

As one of the questions posted this week for the students in the "Blogs: New Independent Media" class that I'm taking is about what technology will be like in the future, I thought this blog entry I found to be particularly interesting. So, I thought I'd share it with you. About five years ago it's author published a list about the future of online learning. He's reviewed that list in this blog so we can judge for ourselves just how accurate he was. It's kind of interesting. But if he can be right, then we students have a good chance of seeing our predictions come true as well.

Here's the link to the Technlearning Blog of Feb. 21, 2006: http://www.techlearning.com/blog/main/archives/2006/02/classroom_of_th.html;jsessionid=P13S2OHO1XMN2QSNDBCCKHSCJUMEKJVN

No Child Left Behind

The "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act was designed to help all students do better in public schools. It was passed by Congress in 2001, and has had its share of controversy ever since.

If you aren't familiar with the details of the NCLB Act, you can read the Act at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html.) Many support the Act but oppose what they see as insufficient funding. And people are beginning to share their opinions online via blogs.

The NSBA (National School Boards Association) is one of those who has put up a blog to talk about the NCLB Act, and share its opinion with others. You can read their blog at: http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/.

The American Federation of Teachers has its own NCLB-related blog as well. You can read it at: http://www.letsgetitright.org/

So, what's your opinion of what is going on with the NCLB Act? Want to share it and see what others think as well? Then...

Please take this "No Child Left Behind" related poll and share your opinion! Just click the link below.

Do you think that the "No Child Left Behind" Act has improved education in our state (Oklahoma?)
	Yes
	No
	Undecided
Free polls from Pollhost.com

The Teacher's Role as an Educator

Dr. Kurt Hochenauer posts a blog called OkieFunk. In his posting titled, "Kern’s Deceitful Bill Makes It Through Committee," I was inspired to consider what I believed to be the teacher's role as an educator. The bottom line for me turned out to be that teachers should be "guides to the gathering and dissemination of knowledge--not the dictators of it." Does this picture of a teacher fit what you think and believe? Or how does your idea of a teacher differ?

So, you've heard one of the important roles that I think teachers fulfill. Do you have others? Please share them.

Blogs for Education

Blogs are making their way into classrooms as a means of educating and communicating with today's schoolage generation. One blog site offers free blogs to educators. I took a look at some of the blog links they have and found some useful information. Have you ever used a blog in a class you've taken that isn't an online class? If so, how did the teacher work it into the class? Was it useful? Did you like using it? What did you think of it in general?

Here's the blog link for the free one for educators: http://www.21publish.com/.

Streaming Knowledge to You

Everytime I go online and research something, in fact, just about anything, I come across something new. The technology growth and change never cease to amaze me. I've been aware of streaming media for awhile now, but I'm really starting to see its use in education and industry. For example, at Francis Tuttle I've been working with an instructor who had our audio/visual professional convert nearly 100 VHS tapes to streaming media so that his students could have online access to them. As I can't give you a link to view any of them because it would violate copyright laws (and you'd have to have a login ID and password anyway), I'm including a link to a business I found that is using streaming media to promote their company. It's kind of interesting to watch it, but what impresses me the most is how clean it is.

Here's the link, but either before or after you take a look about it, please share with me what you see as the benefits or drawbacks of using streaming media to educate today's youth and adults. Do you think it's more just another way to push something down our throats (like advertisements) or do you see real value in it in at least some ways? If you have children, do they like to watch streaming media on the Internet? Do you watch news casts and such that are done in streaming media format?

http://www.modevity.com/commercial/console.html

Sharing the Knowledge by Linking

As I spend more time blogging in addition to online reading and studying, I'm finding there is a great deal out there about education and online learning. There are several blogs on blogger.com that discuss online learning. I thought I'd share here in my blog a few links to some of the ones that I found particularly interesting. Let me know what you think.

• Breaking Barriers of Time and Space
  
• Students Loading Lectures on IPODs--Associated Press>
  
• BBC Interactive Service Spreads the Word

I'm also learning how to make blogs more interesting. One of the students (Minnie) in the class I'm taking suggested adding animations to blogs. I liked her idea, but had no idea how to do it. So I did some Internet research and found andreas.com where there's a good web page with info (http://www.andreas.com/faq-animate.html). And then I tried it. What do you think? Does this lava lamp work? (I won't be able to tell until I publish, so here goes...)

If blogging is educational to you. . .

In working on an assignment for a class I'm taking online, I had to see if I could come up with any ideas for "tricking out a blog." It crossed my mind that adding audio files might be a good way, and since President Bush gave his State of the Union Address last night, I looked for something relevant and found a link to his 2003 State of the Union Address. So I thought I'd share it with you.

Click the photo to listen. The photo above is from: www.voanews.com

Learning from Space

When most people, myself included, think about online learning, the thought goes towards courses developed by professionals that are designed to teach. Many even teach you to think. But as I was reading blogs today, I ran across one that's a good example of online learning that isn't part of an actual course. This one is out of this world.

If you click the link I've provided, you'll be accessing a lesson on relativity that is straight from outer space. Really! Expedition 7's NASA ISS Science Officer, Ed Lu, is blogging from the space station, and he spent one of his blogs talking about relativity and what it means to his current position in space.

He even talks about his own experiment that he did using a square of thin silvery reflective film. It's not an experiment that most people on earth could perform. The best part about it, is that I learned something, and I wasn't even trying.

Is online education a real education?

In reading blogs, website, emails, etc., I've seen opposite opinions about online education. Some people want much more of it and believe it's a great way to learn, and not just because it's anytime/anwhere. Others think the quality of online courses and online education just isn't there. Some even go so far as to say that a degree obtained through online education isn't worth anything. What's your belief about online education and its value? Do you lean one way or the other, or hold a completely different opinion?

What's your opinion about online education's future?

Online and distance learning have been called a noble cause because they bring learning to the disenfranchised--people for whom the traditional classroom just doesn't work. And there are plenty of them. The University of Phoenix is one of the largest, private universities that has really taken online learning and run with it. Estimates shows that they have 150,000 or more students taking courses online from around the world. And that's just one, private university.

So with that said, we all know there are thousands and thousands more of us out there who think online education is the way to go. But what do you really think about its ability to sustain and grow as a viable source of education? Do you think it will change the world by bringing knowledge to all of its corners? Or do you think it's more likely to affect only those who would have had other educational opportunities, but simply chose online instead?

Can Online Education Help U.S. Students Catch Up in the Technology Knowledge Race?
Pat Gelsinger is senior vice president and general manager of Intel Corporation's
Digital Enterprise Group. In March of 2005, he said that, “We have a lousy education system . . . [and] a weak infrastructure that is decaying." He also indicated that companies like Intel will be able to survive by hiring employees from other countries, but points out how fearful that is for America’s long-term survival. (http://news.com.com/Intel+exec+fears+for+U.S.+competitiveness/2100-1008_3-5598936.html)

So, what do you think? Is it possible for U.S. students to take the initiative and make up for their lack of technological knowledge? Do you think U.S. students really need to do that? Are they really behind in the Technology Knowledge Race, or just misunderstood?

Online Education Can Help Reform Prisoners

I doubt the idea of online education came about as a result of wanting some way to educate prisoners. Yet what group of people is more restricted from continuing their education than those who have been incarcerated? Online education in prisons is making a difference, not only to the incarcerated, but to society as well.

In England, thirteen prisons and five probation areas are receiving funds to provide online learning for offenders in prison and on probation. The funds will be directed at a new approach to rehabilitating offenders, which is expected to improve employability and lessen the chances of re-offending. (http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4270&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0)

A study by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons found that among those inmates who received GEDs while in prison, a considerably lower number of them came back to prison than did those who did not receive one. (http://adulted.about.com/cs/prisoneducation/a/prison_ed_2.htm)

There are other examples, but the point is that online education can benefit not only those who receive it, but those who may interact with the recipients. If ignorance is the root of all evil, then perhaps educating everyone should be an important priority for society.

Virtual Courses Fill the Online Learning Gap

In several posts I've recently read, the theme tended towards a belief that online education was not posible for courses that required more hands-on than theory, such as chemistry or brick laying. But I recently received an article that includes information on one way in which such training can be done. It was referred to as "self-guided" training, and was done off the computer, but as part of an online course. The example it showed was of a student conducting a chemistry experiment in a small lab. (The article and picture came from EDUTOPIA APRIL/MAY 2005, pages 32-37.)

The picture above is from that article, and is a live HTML link to it. It contains much of interest to those who want more information about online education.

Should you teach online?

As the audience is generally much larger, most people talk about learning online--what it takes and whether you're the kind of person who can succeed online. Few look at online learning from the educator's point of view. Yet if there is a certain type of person who will be successful as an online student, is there also a certain personality who will be successful as an online educator?

My belief is that good online educators need many of the same qualities that make for a good online student--perseverance, ability to work alone, acceptance (as opposed to dread and reluctance) of computer-related technology, self-motivation, goal-oriented, and ability to meet deadlines. Of course, you also have to have time. So, if you think you fit the bill to be a good online student, then you probably also fit the bill to be a good online educator. Of course, you need to have the subject knowledge and teaching skills of an educator as well, but for me that goes without saying here. We are talking about an existing traditional educator becoming an online educator.

Having the skills to be good at online education doesn't automatically mean you will be. You have a new set of skills to learn in order to be effective as an online instructor, but you'd be surprised at how well your classroom skills convert to online skills once you understand what is required of you and how to do what you need to do. But that's all just a matter of training, and in many cases, it even requires less emotional effort on your part than does standing in front of a classroom.

There is one more crucial skill an online educator needs--enthusiasm. Online education is still in its infancy, and like dealing with most infants, it requires the interest in and willingness to do what it takes to make it through the early years. You will need some excitement about the technology you'll be using to teach online as well as the subject matter. It will take you a long way when it comes to teaching online because, even in the virtual world, your students can tell when you're just trying to fake it

Online Learning: what's it all about?

Online learning is simple. It's all about expanding your knowledge through the Internet. There are many ways to do that. Simple, independent research (i.e., Internet searches using Google) that concentrates on a single subject is one way, and at the less complicated end of the spectrum. Participating in an online course, led by a competent instructor, falls closer to the opposite end. In this blog, I'll be sharing my knowledge about and research of learning online--something I've been an active developer of at Francis Tuttle Technology Center for nearly five years. So stay tuned. There's lots more to online learning than you ever may have guessed.