The federal E-rate program has seen a spike this year in its approval among applicants, according to a new report released this week by Funds For Learning, a firm that provides consulting services to E-rate applicants. The report was announced at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) being held this week in Washington, DC. E-rate provides schools and libraries with discounts on

The United States Department of Education is looking to give girls a boost in science and math. ED revealed this week that it will fund projects from 13 organizations to help high school girls improve their proficiency in STEM subjects. The four-year grants are being provided under the Department of Education's Women's Educational Equity Act Program. The 13 groups--ranging from K-12 school

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has teamed with the National Science Teachers Association and the National Council for Geographic Education to launch the latest in its series of 21st century roadmaps for core academic subjects, in this case K-12 science and geography. The maps were introduced at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) being held this week in Washington, DC. The

Does anyone still use Second Life? The answer, according to a recent report (which is a bit of a pain to get, but free), is a strong yes. Not only is Second Life thriving, its citizens spend more hours each week in world than those in other multi-player online games. The hype around SL has been more subdued in educational conferences this year. Of course, with all new technology, it first needs to go through an insane hype cycle, be declared dead by a prominent theorist/writer, fade into obscurity (i.e. acknowledged by those who hyped it in the first place), and then quietly emerge as a viable tool.

My answer is "yes", but of course there's more depth to my response than that. Much of the harm that comes from institutions, in my view, comes from the way they are structured and governed. But the answer isn't simply to launch oneself at institutions, hoping to (say) "fix them from within," or whatever. Tom Haskins says, "We also keep institutions the same by the ways we perceive, describe, evaluate and think about changing institutions. We inadvertently play into the perpetuation of 'problematic institutions' by the ways we value, favor, contribute, care, get fascinated, and show concern." There's a subtle point here, though. The more we try to fix institutions, the more we reinforce their value, and the more this entrenches their current modus operandi. (This last isn't what he is saying, but it's what follows from what he is saying). Tom Haskins, growing changing learning creating, July 3, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

This year's EduBloggerCom at NECC was a bit smaller than previous years, as evidenced by the team photograph. But do check out their blogs (links are provided in the article). Darren Draper, Drape's Takes, July 3, 2009 [Tags: Blogger, Google, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

I'm not sure I completely endorse this list (I would word some of the items very differently) but it's a fun read. Milton Ramirez, education & tech, July 3, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

I have had the same problem as George Siemens. "After the presentation, a VP (in charge of training and development) approached me and stated that simple messages are preferable. I assumed this to mean that I had delivered a presentation that was too complex." And I ask with him, "when did leading thinkers in corporate learning conclude that their audience can not handle complex subjects?" or, with even more concern: how is it that our institutions promote people who cannot understand complex concepts to positions of leadership? Isn't that tantamount to mismanagement? George Siemens, elearnspace, July 3, 2009 [Tags: Connectivism, Online Learning, Leadership] [Link] [Comment]

Nice analogy from Tom Hoffman. "The GPL is a radical political statement, and as radical political statements go, a damned successful one. If you didn't figure that out immediately, you need to work on your reading comprehension. If you want to eat eggs, go eat eggs, griping at the hippies shouldn't impress anyone." Tom Hoffman, Tuttle SVC, July 3, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

Joanne Jacobs - who writes the most consistently negative (and partisan) blog in the edublogosphere - identifies some science and geography road maps showing how to integrate new skills into old subjects, and then spends her post looking at Common Core blog complaints about the chart. The refrain of oft-stated by the Common Core crowd: "Common Core also wonders how students can learn from the suggested activities if they haven't acquired any information." Leaving aside the question of whether learning is about "acquiring information" (it's not) at all, one could ask, why isn't the activity an appropriate means of acquiring information? What is it about 'content' that requires some sort of rote memorization before you can start doing anything with it? The Common Core crowd reminds me of the type of person who insists that you must read the instructions and memorize them before you can even think of trying to assemble a bicycle or play a video game. But, of course, the opposite is not only true, it's more fun and more productive. Joanne Jacobs, Weblog, July 3, 2009 [Tags: Video, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

One would hope that this is a necessary first step to a library with a web page containing every book ever published. Related: Daniel Livingstone on the future of the textbook. Richard Nantel, Workplace Learning Today, July 3, 2009 [Tags: Books] [Link] [Comment]

Marc Canter figures out a way to make his Digital City and How to Build the Open Mesh manuscripts available in full as PDF downloads. Recommended reads. Marc Canter, Marc's Voice, July 3, 2009 [Tags: Books] [Link] [Comment]

A good example of exactly why proposed copyright laws must be carefully considered as a Canadian television network issues selective takedown notices, focusing only on sites on one side of the contentious political issue. Unattributed, Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights, July 3, 2009 [Tags: Networks, Video, Canada, Copyrights, Patents] [Link] [Comment]

Not surprisingly, the idea of using blogs instead of Blackboard is gaining traction. "Of course," responds Nancy McKeand, "people like the ease of use with Blackboard, the relatively easy learning curve. Some reported that there isn't time to set up a blog for a course." Meanwhile, Jim Groom responds to issues David Wiley is having setting up a directory structure for open courses in WordPress. Nancy McKeand, Random Thoughts, July 3, 2009 [Tags: Open Content, Blackboard Inc., Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

Teacher and learning consultant, Chris Nash, takes a long cold look at how the mLearning revolution failed to deliver on its promise of personalised anytime, anywhere learning. Instead, he suggests, it has become subsumed into delivering the same drill and kill techniques of other technology based learning or ironically, mobile learning in a classroom .

An ambitious new research project aims to revolutionize education by showing that well-implemented technology initiatives can save states money after an initial investment. Project RED (for Revolutionizing EDucation) will examine the outcomes of educational technology initiatives using a cost-benefit analysis to determine which ed-tech programs and devices are having the most cost-effective

School administrators, teachers, and professors were among thousands at the InfoComm audio-video conference in Orlando June 15-19, where technology vendors unveiled the latest in digital signage hardware and software and LED projectors that could prove energy and cost efficient. Projectors powered by LED (Light Emitting Diodes) technology, rather than the traditional lamp, have displayed longer

Students looking for college scholarships are going to have a harder time this year as providers, hammered by falling investment returns and declining philanthropic support, cut back. The Fulfillment Fund, a nonprofit that works with Los Angeles public high school students, has reduced the number of college scholarships offered over the last three years by nearly half and has tightened

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The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are suing Arizona State University for its use of the Amazon Kindle to distribute electronic textbooks to students, saying the device cannot be used by blind students.

The groups say the Kindle has text-to-speech technology that reads books aloud to blind students, but that the device’s menus do not offer a way for blind students to purchase books, select a book to read, or even to activate the text-to-speech feature, according to a joint statement by the two groups.

In a lawsuit filed last week, a journalism student was also named as a plaintiff.

“While my peers will have instant access to their course materials in electronic form, I will still have to wait weeks or months for accessible texts to be prepared for me,” said the student, Darrell Shandrow, in the groups’ statement. “These texts will not provide the access and features available to other students.”

In a statement to the Library Journal, a university spokeswoman, Martha Dennis Christiansen, did not answer any specific questions pertaining to the lawsuit.

“Arizona State University is committed to equal access for all students. Disability Resource Centers are located on all ASU campuses. The centers enable students to establish eligibility and obtain services and accommodations for qualified students with disabilities,” she said. “These efforts are focused on providing the necessary tools so that all students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to be successful in their academic pursuits.”

The complaint asked the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate similar practices at Case Western Reserve University, Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Pace University, Princeton University, and Reed College. —Marc Beja

Last August, President Bush signed into law the 1,200-page Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008, termed by one Senator "a well-intentioned contraption of unnecessary rules and regulations that waste time and money that ought to be spent on students and improving quality." (For the source of that quote and additional HEOA background and references, see On Making Sausage in EDUCAUSE Review.)Several sections of the HEOA deal with unauthorized file-sharing on campus networks, imposing 3 general requirements on all U.S. colleges and universities:

EduBacon is a (relatively) new blog by Steve Egan. Love the slogan: "Before, education was bland. Now it's got extra flavor, salt, fat and cholesterol." And "Large Helpings, Hearty Food, Extra Flavor". The most recent post is on open engagement.
Steve EWgan, Weblog, July 2, 2009 [Tags: Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

You can help Alan Levine prepare for his talk for an upcoming Open Education conference by sending him examples of good things that have happened to you as a result of sharing your work openly. Also, it's worth reading about his issues with YouTube (interestingly, most of my videos are stored elsewhere, as I have never had success with YouTube. Alan Levine, Cogdogblog, July 2, 2009 [Tags: Video, YouTube] [Link] [Comment]

There's trouble in the virtual world. Andy Pulman links to: Andy Powell Loses Faith in Second Life, Fuzzy Buzz on why Linden Lab needs to read Snow Crash again and Zonja Capalini on Openspace. Related, especially to the last item: OpenSim. Andy Pulman, Andy Pulman Edublog, July 2, 2009 [Tags: Second Life] [Link] [Comment]

Of the four universities linked originally by the proto-Internet in 1969, two of them were part of the University of California system: the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara campuses. Now, as the system grapples with a staggering budget crisis that might close institutions and forever alter what’s considered one of the crown jewels of public education, a proposal comes suggesting that salvation lies in going online.

A new cyber-campus “would have selective admissions; tuition somewhere between community college and the on-campus UC price, part-time and ‘anytime’ options and lectures by the best faculty from the entire UC system,” wrote Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the law school at the system’s Berkeley campus, in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times. “Our online students might miss the keg parties, but they would have the same world-class faculty, UC graduate student instructors, and adjunct faculty.”

“UC-XI,” which is what Mr. Edley calls his vision for an 11th system campus, can be built upon social networks that connect students to instructors and to one another. Hard-to-virtualize facilities like science laboratories could be opened up at night or on weekends. And, Mr. Edley says, the faculty can step up to ensure “UC-caliber instruction and learning.”

Mr. Edley does acknowledge that there have been some failures in online education, “but none involved degree-granting instruction by a premier institution with the kind of market appeal that UC campuses enjoy.” Well, the Board of Trustees of the Illinois system, which sent its expensive GlobalCampus online project back to the drawing board earlier this spring, might disagree. And one can argue about the definition of “market appeal,” but officials in Texas and Utah, both struggling with online-education initiatives, clearly thought their institutions had a certain cachet, at least within their states. But Mr. Edley prefers to focus on more successful ventures like Britain’s Open University and the for-profit University of Phoenix.

“We’ve had decades of increasing dysfunction in Sacramento and smoldering doubts in some quarters about the value of supporting public education,” Mr. Edley writes. “Now comes the resulting surge in victims — present and future — in families and throughout the economy.”

Online learning, he concludes, could save the California dream of a top-notch education for all. The best offense in a crisis, he concludes, “is often innovation.” —Josh Fischman

Some professors are unsubscribing from scholarly e-mail lists because they say that discussion has shifted to academic blogs, to social networks like Facebook, and to Twitter. In response, the groups running some of the largest academic e-mail lists are adding Web 2.0 features to their mix of services. Many devoted fans of e-mail lists, meanwhile, say that the form is far from dead, and that discussion on e-mail lists are richer than what’s happening in the blogosphere or other new forms.

The latest installment of The Chronicle’s College 2.0 column argues that e-mail lists may soon occupy a space like radios did in the television age, sticking around but fading to the background. Are e-mail lists still part of your online diet?

For my first use of the video tag, a test pattern (if you are using Firefox 3.5 you should see it).

Your browser does not support the video element.

Here is some more information on the video and audio tags. Here is a link to DailyMotion, which is promoting the use of open video. Various Authors, Mozilla, July 2, 2009 [Tags: Audio, Video] [Link] [Comment]

It has been widely suggested, and in some respects accepted, that a so-called Net Generation of students is passing through our universities. Born roughly between 1980 and 1994 these students have been characterised as being technologically savvy, having grown up in an age where computers, mobile phones and the Internet are part ofmainstream culture and society. A number of commentators have even suggested that educators - whom they label 'digital immigrants' - need to radically adjust their teaching and learning strategies to accommodate their 'digital native' students, predominantly by adopting and capitalising on the affordances of emerging technologies.This project explored the notion of the Net Generation in higher education to gain a better understanding of:

• students' and teachers' current technological experiences and preferences (in the Investigation stage of the project); and
• a range of issues associated with the implementation of emerging technologies in local learning and teaching contexts (in the Implementation stage of the project).