Archive for September, 2004

Teaching online, teaching from a distance

Posted by in Uncategorized Sep 7th, 2004

Via Distance Educator and Learner Associates, an online conference for teachers focusing on distance education.

You are invited to join other educators in a month long online learning experience focused on distance education. Modeling the very best in distance education pedagogy, "Teaching At A Distance: From Concept to Practice" involves you in every aspect of distance education by involving you as a distance education learner.
Join Joe Levine (Michigan State University, Michigan, USA), Jose Chotguis (Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil) and Stanley Mpofu (International Consulting Services, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) for an active look at the world of distance education.

This five week online program (October 3 – November 6, 2004), with a major foundational theme each week, examines key concepts and ideas to support the effective use of distance education as an instructional strategy to bridge the distance between learners and learning resources.

Week 1 Theme ~ The Framework of Distance Education

Week 2 Theme ~ The Learner in Distance Education

Week 3 Theme ~ Distance Education Instructional Strategies

Week 4 Theme ~ Implementing Distance Education

Week 5 Theme ~ Evaluating Distance Education

The workshop has been set up so that it's possible for each participant to interact in an entirely independent/asynchronous manner – allowing you to be involved when it best fits your own day-to-day schedule.

For complete information about "Teaching At A Distance: From Concept to Practice" and an online Registration Form, please go to:

http://www.learnerassociates.net/tad/We hope to "see" you online!
Joe Levine

Survey on the Quality of Online Education

Posted by in Uncategorized Sep 2nd, 2004

A very ecellent survey via the Sloan Consortium. IN pdf format. Link via Infobits.

The Sloan Consortium's 2003 Survey of Online Learning wanted to know would students, faculty, and institutions embrace online education as a delivery method and would the quality of online education match that of face-to-face instruction. The survey found strong evidence that students are willing to sign up for online courses and that institutions consider online courses part of a "critical long-term strategy for their institution." It is less clear that faculty have embraced online teaching with the same degree of enthusiasm. The survey's findings are available in "Sizing the Opportunity: The Quality & Extent of Online Education in the U.S., 2002 and 2003" by I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman, Sloan Center for Online Education at Olin and Babson Colleges.

The Digital Divide

Posted by in Uncategorized Sep 2nd, 2004

From First Monday – Who Benefits from the Digital Divide?New information and communication technologies are seen as a potent source of advancement for many countries in africa, Asia and Latin America and have increasingly featured as topics of discussion in international fora. Who benefits from the rapid rise of this issue on the international agenda?

This article argues that the promotion of the digital divide as a policy issue benefits four major groups: information capital, developing country governments, the development "industry," and global civil society.