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sherrilattimer

Is Broadband Internet Access a Public Utility? | TIME.com - 0 views

  • State and local laws that make it difficult — if not impossible — for new competition to emerge in broadband markets should be reformed, according to Crawford. For example, many states make it very difficult for municipalities to create public wireless networks, thanks to decades of state-level lobbying by the industry giants. In order to help local governments upgrade their communications grids, Crawford is calling for an infrastructure bank to help cities obtain affordable financing to help build high-speed fiber networks for their citizens. Finally, U.S. regulators should apply real oversight to the broadband industry to ensure that these market behemoths abide by open Internet principles and don’t price gouge consumers. Should broadband Internet service be considered a public utility like water and electricity? “We treated the telephone industry like a utility and people don’t seem to be surprised by that,” says Crawford. “High-speed Internet access plays the same role in American life. It’s just that these guys have succeeded in making us think that it’s a luxury.”
  • According to Crawford, the interests of cable and telecom giants like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and AT&T, are not aligned with the interests of the public. Those corporate giants are concerned first and foremost with maximizing the profits of their shareholders. And all too often, profit maximization — especially in a market that lacks robust competition — is not consistent with providing the best possible service at reasonable prices.
  • “You let a little bit of competition exist so you can point to it and say ‘Ha, we’re competing!’ But otherwise it’s mostly controlled by one company.”
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  • One of the main themes in the book is the “digital divide,” which refers to the fact that millions of people in the U.S., mostly in the poorest and most rural communities, don’t have access to affordable broadband service, including 2.2 million people in New York City, according to Crawford. “We’re depriving people of basic communications access,” she says. Still, broadband and wireless services have become so important to our business and personal lives that most people are willing to pay up, even in the face of high prices driven in part by a lack of competition in the broadband and wireless markets.
  • Crawford, who has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Michigan, spent a year on the National Economic Council as a top telecommunications advisor to President Obama. In her book, she directs much of the blame for the sorry state of the U.S. broadband market at the federal government. “Instead of ensuring that everyone in America can compete in a global economy,” she writes, “instead of narrowing the divide between rich and poor, instead of supporting competitive free markets for American inventions that use information — instead, that is, of ensuring that America will lead the world in the information age — U.S. politicians have chosen to keep Comcast and its fellow giants happy.”
  • “Truly high-speed wired Internet access is as basic to innovation, economic growth, social communication, and the country’s competitiveness as electricity was a century ago,” Crawford writes, “but a limited number of Americans have access to it, many can’t afford it, and the country has handed control of it over to Comcast and a few other companies.”
  • Crawford argues that the Internet has replaced traditional phone service as the most essential communications utility in the country, and is now as important as electricity was 100 years ago.
sherrilattimer

Report: Google Spending $1B on Internet Satellites - World Wide Web on Top Tech News - 0 views

  • Search giant Google has been working on Internet expansion technologies for at least a few years and its latest project could involve spending $1 billion on 180 satellites, according to the Wall Street Journal. Just like the balloons in Google's Project Loon, the satellites would be used to extend Internet access to large groups of people in remote areas
  • Since Project Loon was first revealed and subsequently rolled out in a test run over New Zealand, many people have praised Google for its Internet expansion initiatives. The majority of people on earth do not have access to the Internet and with Project Loon ability to provide 3G-like speeds, people could at least get online for simple tasks if there is no ground-based Internet provider.
Amy M

Mobile Access 2010 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project - 0 views

  • Cell phone and wireless laptop internet use have each grown more prevalent over the last year. Nearly half of all adults (47%) go online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card (up from the 39% who did so as of April 2009) while 40% of adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone (up from the 32% of Americans who did this in 2009). This means that 59% of adults now access the internet wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone—that is, they answered “yes” to at least one of these wireless access pathways. That adds up to an increase from the 51% who used a laptop or cell phone wirelessly in April 2009.
  • April 29 and May 30, 2010, among a sample of 2,252
  •  
    Mobile Access Usage Data from 2012
Amy M

Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUC... - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 28 May 09 - Cached
  • 30 million people today qualified to enter a university who have no place to go. During the next decade, this 30 million will grow to 100 million. To meet this staggering demand, a major university needs to be created each week.
  • Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, which has provided free access to a wide range of courses and other educational materials to anyone who wants to use them.
  • Web 2.0,
    • jessica mascle
       
      ?
    • Amy M
       
      Web 1.0 was individuals accessing information.  Web 2.0 is the "social web."  Users focusing on social interaction rather than just getting conent.
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  • from access to information toward access to other people.
  • What do we mean by “social learning”?
  • e that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions. The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning.5
  • Students in these groups can ask questions to clarify areas of uncertainty or confusion, can improve their grasp of the material by hearing the answers to questions from fellow students, and perhaps most powerfully, can take on the role of teacher to help other group members benefit from their understanding (one of the best ways to learn something is, after all, to teach it to others).
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      The dichotomy between Cartesian and Social Learning is problematic, and this is one of the reasons why. If Social Learning still comes down to group learning from each other, it remains unclear what would be the "alternative" model of learning/teaching between group users, if not substance/pedagogy.
  • apprenticeship
  • But viewing learning as the process of joining a community of practice reverses this pattern and allows new students to engage in “learning to be” even as they are mastering the content of a field.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Schools of Ed/teacher prep programs are being charged with providing "clinically rich" programs that engage candidates more actively, earlier, and more frequently in their program of study. This is proving to be difficult to actualize in the current wave of APPR uncertainty.
  • open source movement
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      Open Source Project may be a model for building up knowledge base among devoted users who are willing to follow the "path" set by predecessors. It is quite another issue whether it is a model for education.
  • Digital StudyHall (DSH)
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      It's not clear in what sense this DSH method is an example of social learning.
  • We now need a new approach to learning—one characterized by a demand-pull rather than the traditional supply-push mode of building up an inventory of knowledge in students’ heads. Demand-pull learning shifts the focus to enabling participation in flows of action, where the focus is both on “learning to be” through enculturation into a practice as well as on collateral learning.
  • open participatory learning ecosystems
    • b malczyk
       
      Not only is it a matter of "if" such campuses are a possibility, but "should" such campuses be a priority. If online and distance education can yield at least comparable results to traditional academic settings, then their ease of accessibility and lower overhead costs warrant further exploration as a viable possibility.
  • “I think, therefore I am,” and from the assumption that knowledge is something that is transferred to the student via various pedagogical strategies, the social view of learning says, “We participate, therefore we are
  • provided students with opportunities to observe and then to emulate how experts function
    • b malczyk
       
      How does the open source idea fit with fields like medicine or chemistry where knowledge is less "socially constricted"? 
    • Amy M
       
      Open Source/Access research.  One of the problems right now is that the NIH or fed government will pay for research, but the public then had to pay for the results of that research.  We are paying for the same research twice.  Open Access Journals (see Harvard Memo) hopes to change this.
  • seeking the knowledge when it is needed in order to carry out a particular situated task.
    • b malczyk
       
      Knowledge that is obtained when "needed" then answers the famous question many high school students ask their teachers, "When will I ever use this?" 
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      I grew to see high school as a time for exposure to all disciplines in order to find what best suited one in preparation for college or the workplace. Now I am wondering if the multiplicity of disciplines will be "tailored" to fit the personal interests of the learner. Will differentiating for all eradicate the question Ben mentions?
  • all student writing was done on public blogs
    • b malczyk
       
      This form of education was also based on what could be called an industrial style of education. They education system became an extension of industry--students were passed along on the assembly line from one course to the next, year after year and came out a finished produce with similar skills and altitudes as their peers. Now education has and can become more narrow and niche based and less industrial.
  • This involves acquiring the practices and the norms of established practitioners in that field or acculturating into a community of practice.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is the model embraced by most teacher ed programs.
    • Amy M
       
      Which has its advantages and disadvantages. 
  • In this open environment, both the content and the process by which it is created are equally visible, thereby enabling a new kind of critical reading—almost a new form of literacy—that invites the reader to join in the consideration of what information is reliable and/or important.
  • And at the third level, any participant in Second Life could review the lectures and other course materials online at no cost. This experiment suggests one way that the social life of Internet-based virtual education can coexist with and extend traditional education.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Will the professions embrace as colleague one who excels in a non-credit course of study or will opportunities continue to be closed to those who don't present the "right" credentials?
  • Through these continuing connections, the University of Michigan students can extend the discussions, debates, bull sessions, and study groups that naturally arise on campus to include their broader networks. Even though these extended connections were not developed to serve educational purposes, they amplify the impact that the university is having while also benefiting students on campus.14 If King is right, it makes sense for colleges and universities to consider how they can leverage these new connections through the variety of social software platforms that are being established for other reasons.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      I am wondering if "leveraging" these networks will become a basis for funding in the case of state colleges and universities.
  • he site’s developers note: “We fundamentally believe that the new electronic environment and its tools enable us to revive the humanistic spirit of communal and collaboratively ‘playful’ learning of which the Decameron itself is the utmost expression.”
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      The notion of 'playful' learning is my ideal; this seems to be at odds with the test drill environment I am currently observing in grades 3 - 6. Currently, it seems as though there are two tracks developing in "Learning 2.0": assessment-driven and learner-driven.
  • As more of learning becomes Internet-based, a similar pattern seems to be occurring. Whereas traditional schools offer a finite number of courses of study, the “catalog” of subjects that can be learned online is almost unlimited. There are already several thousand sets of course materials and modules online, and more are being added regularly. Furthermore, for any topic that a student is passionate about, there is likely to be an online niche community of practice of others who share that passion.
  • that will support active, passion-based learning: Learning 2.0. This new form of learning begins with the knowledge and practices acquired in school but is equally suited for continuous, lifelong learning that extends beyond formal schooling.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Surely the content and skills currently being taught and assessed Pk-12 must give way to a new set of literacies.
  • In addition to supporting lecture-style teaching, Terra Incognita includes the capability for small groups of students who want to work together to easily “break off” from the central classroom before rejoining the entire class. Instructors can “visit” or send messages to any of the breakout groups and can summon them to rejoin the larger group.
  • CyberOne Classroom in Second Life
  •  
    Social View of Learning
sherrilattimer

Google Invests in Satellites to Spread Internet Access - WSJ - 0 views

  • the project will start with 180 small, high-capacity satellites orbiting the earth at lower altitudes than traditional satellites, and then could expand.
  • "Wired connectivity only goes so far and wireless cellular networks reach small areas. Satellites can gain much broader access."
  • If Google succeeds, it "could amount to a sea change in the way people will get access to the Internet, from the Third World to even some suburban areas of the U.S.," said Jeremy Rose of Comsys, a London-based satellite consulting firm.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      We often forget about rural areas when considering limitations to access.
b malczyk

Online-Education Trend Will Leave Many Students Behind | TIME Ideas | TIME.com - 0 views

  • could actually widen the learning ga
  • “give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few
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  • democratize learning
  • although the content is free now, it’s unlikely that it will remain that way for long.
  • schools plan to make a profit
  • omputer-aided instruction will actually widen the gap between the financially and educationally privileged and everyone else, instead of close it.
  •  only 35% of households earning less than $25,000 have broadband access to the Internet, compared with 94% of households with income in excess of $100,000. 
  • only half of black and Latino homes have Internet connections at all, compared with almost 65% of white households.
  • , many blacks and Latinos primarily use their cell phones to access the Internet, a much more expensive and less-than-ideal method for taking part in online education.
  • If we really want to democratize education, finding creative ways to realistically open up colleges to different communities will do more to help than a model that, despite its stated intentions, is more beneficial for students who are already wealthy, academically prepared and highly motivated.
kasey8876

Internet Access for All: A New Program Targets Low-Income Students - 0 views

  •  
    Allowing students from all backgrounds to access the same resources and tools. Others see potential for technology to do great harm, widening an already substantial achievement gap related to issues of equity.
sherrilattimer

Author: When It Comes To High-Speed Internet, U.S. 'Falling Way Behind' : All Tech Cons... - 0 views

  • They're just like the railroad in that if you were a farmer in the 1890s, the only way to get your goods to market would be to work through the railroad. ... We just can't operate without it. They're also like them in that they're expensive businesses to build in the first place — it's very hard to come in and compete against one of these guys once they've built one of these giant networks. They're also like the railroad in that it takes intentional policy to make them stretch all the way across the United States.
  • We seem to currently assume that communications access is a luxury, something that should be entirely left to the private market unconstrained by any form of oversight. The problem is that it's just not true in the modern era. You can't get a job, you can't get access to adequate health care, you can't educate your children, we can't keep up with other countries in the developed world without having very high capacity, very high speed access for everybody in the country. And the only way you get there is through government involvement in this market. That's how we did it for the telephone, that's how we did it for the federal highway system, and we seem to have forgotten that when it comes to these utility basic services, we can't create a level playing field for all Americans or indeed compete on the world stage without having some form of government involvement.
  • "Unless somebody in the system has industrial policy in mind, a long-term picture of where the United States needs to be and has the political power to act on it, we'll be a Third World country when it comes to communications."
Amy M

Much of Rural America Still Struggles With Broadband Access - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • In rural America, only 60 percent of households use broadband Internet service, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Commerce. That is 10 percent less than urban households. Over all, 28 percent of Americans do not use the Internet at all.
  • It took her three days to try to arrange a meeting with the governor 150 miles away in Montgomery because such inquiries cannot be made over the phone and she had to drive 45 minutes to her daughter’s house to use e-mail.
  •  
    rural areas still cannot get fast  internet access
alexandra m. pickett

Malczyk Mirror | Am I an online learner or an online teacher? - 1 views

  • access to highspeed internet
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      huge assumption
  • Perhaps the mark of an effective teacher is not that there students have all the right answers but that there students know how to ask the right questions.  
  • I appreciate the chance to reflect and recognize that the “me” that comes out in the blog is different than the “me” in the discussion area. I want my students to have various opportunities to express themselves.
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  • reveals things about myself.
  • his has been a great exercise to realize that my personal preferences are not likely everyone else’s preferences and should therefore be thought through.
  • I really believe that this course has taught me important skills because I was required to actually use the skills I was learning about.
  • when I am able to direct the topic of my learning I am more engaged. It becomes a joy to find additional resources instead of chore. Online courses offer a unique aibilty to have more individually focused learning in discussions that I have greatly benefitted from during this semester.
  • . My learning was enhanced when I sat down and made time for the course. Even though it is an online course, I had to treat it at times like a traditional course and block out an hour or two or three as if it were a class time. Then I was much more productive. Setting aside time for online courses is a must as many others have recognized. 2. If my life was sufficiently complex to hinder learning, how much harder it must be for young students who face much more challenging conditions. I have a very supportive wife and family, a car to get from place to place, an office and access to fast reliable internet. Many youth who we criticize for dropping out or doing poorly in school have no such supports or access. They live in unsafe conditions, lack examples and role models and may even be lacking basic necessities of life like food and safe shelter. These conditions are the real hindrances to learning and have been recognized as such for some time.
Hedy Lowenheim

Libraries Struggle to Close the 'Digital Divide' - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • In the 21st century, high-speed Internet access is almost as essential as electricity. That libraries serve as the provider for millions of Americans isn't something to celebrate. It's a sign that we're in trouble. We're depriving people of basic information access that is central to every policy we care about – including health, education and national security – even though every American should be able to communicate reliably and access information at any time.
Jessica Backus-Foster

5. Increasing Time on Task: 7 Principles Collection of TLT Ideas - 0 views

  • helping communicate to students how much time and energy you and your institution expect them to invest in their work
  • the ability to store work and work-in-process on the school's network
  • ability to send file attachments with email has made it easy for students to send me a draft of their work for feedback at any time.
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  • With randomly generated homework problems, immediate feedback, and the opportunity to try again, students view the homework almost like a game with the challenge of getting all the problems correct. As a result, they seem to spend more time than with paper and pencil homework.
  • availability of many research materials on-line and through electronic databases to which libraries subscribe should enable students to access what they need from their homes or their dorms at time which are convenient to them
  • “capturing students’ beer time
  • streaming video versions of all lectures
  • our approach to students is to encourage students to do what works for them (but to be sure to do it!)
  • Access to the Internet has changed research possibilities. Students have access to much more information faster than in the past.
  • Hot links to articles and other readings
  • E-mail messages are quickly replacing the live visit to professors and probably encouraging more students to talk to professors since it is less scary to them to write rather than face professors face to face.
  • Searching for journal articles using electronic bibliographic databases has been a major time saver for students
  • electronic reserves at the library
  • Use of the Calendar in WebCT to promote planning by students. Can also use the Calendar to highlight particular content or web resources to be ready for in-class discussion. Remind students in different media such as in-class and on-line about the expected completion dates for projects. (Virginia Arp, Gannon University)
  • "2 hours outside to 1 hour in class
  • Some may be spending more time because they’re unfamiliar with the medium. Some may be spending more time because instructions for assignments are not well-written for online use Some may be spending more time because they want to: the assignments are more interesting. And so on. Depending on the reasons, “spending more time” may be a) a triumph, b) a problem to be fixed, c) a temporary situation to be endured.
  • Going 'paperless" has saved me much time on task
  • publisher of one of our texts provides a tutorial CD and website as well as online course support
Sue Rappazzo

Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom - 0 views

  • Until recently, asynchronous online discussions have been largely limited to text-based interactions. The continued development of “web 2.0” technologies, or “read/write web” tools, is changing the online interactive landscape, however. Free web services like YackPack (www.yackpack.net) and Vaestro (www.vaestro.com) permit users to engage in audio-based discussions with others using only a computer microphone and a web browser. The audio recordings are immediately stored to a server on the Internet, rather than being saved on local hard drives and then subsequently uploaded to a server. The process is amazingly easy and straightforward, providing multiple benefits for users as well as instructional possiblities for educators.
  • The respective slogans of both YackPack and Vaestro succinctly communicate their similar goals of empowering users to engage in web-based discussions via audio recordings.
  • These interactive podcasting tools are admittedly examples of potentially “disruptive technologies” which may strike fear into the hearts of some school administrators and classroom teachers. The basic reason for this boils down to issues of control. Could students make poor choices and choose to record offensive or inappropriate comments using these tools? Of course. But as educators, shouldn’t we strive to provide environments where students can make REAL decisions of import and value, so they can learn how to behave appropriately in different contexts? The virtual world is here to stay, and educators at all levels need to get more serious about helping student learn to safely and effectively navigate that environment. An analogy to swimming may be appropriate here. If students are living on the coast, and are exposed daily to the dangers as well as opportunities of the ocean, shouldn’t any responsible caretaker strive to help those students learn to swim? Our answer must be “yes.” Interactive podcasting is one read/write web technology that can be used to help achieve this goal in the virtual enviornment.
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  • udioBlogger (www.audioblogger.com) is a free service which permits users to create audio podcasts using their cell phone, which are directly saved to the Internet and “subscribable” via an automatically generated RSS feed. Just as AudioBlogger permits anyone with a cell phone and access to the Internet to create a free online account to become an international podcaster, services like YackPack and Vaestro are likely to continue maturing and offer increasingly powerful ways for people to interactively podcast. These tools are powerful and rich in their educational potential.
  •  
    interactive podcast tools
Amy M

101 Killer Open Courseware Projects from Around the World: Ivy League and Beyond | The ... - 0 views

  • The list, which also includes a few open source libraries (for textbooks) and some directories (for open source courses only) to expand your tool base, is alphabetized, as each resource offers more than one category; however, a few resources do specialize in one genre.
  • ng list of 100 open courseware projects are designed to offer readers access to supplementary materials for education. They are free (hence “open”) and available to anyone who has access to the Internet.
  •  
    A list of open courseware websites.
Catherine Strattner

The Importance of First Impressions in an Online World | Straight North Internet Market... - 0 views

  • Cliché as it may be, first impressions do last in the cyber world. Since Internet users often choose online methods because of its efficiency, accessibility and reliability, it is greatly important to offer these things as soon as a visitor lands on your page. Chances are if your prospective audience/customer cannot find what he or she is looking for in your site in eight seconds, he or she will be off checking out your competitors.
  •  
    Context is online marketing, but can be connected to online course design.
Amy M

Educational Technology Research and Development, Volume 49, Number 4 - SpringerLink - 0 views

  • The purpose of this study was to analyze a five-week graduate-level education course taught entirely at a distance via the Internet using the Blackboard.comSM e-learning system, with emphasis on exploring the dynamics of sense of classroom community. Subjects were 20 adult learners, evenly divided between males and females, who were administered the sense of classroom community index at the beginning and end of the course in order to measure classroom community. Findings indicated that on-line learners took advantage of the “learn anytime” characteristics of the Internet by accessing the course seven days per week, 24 hours per day. Sense of classroom community grew significantly during the course. Females manifested a stronger sense of community than their male counterparts both at the start and end of the course. Additionally, female students exhibited a mostly connected communication pattern while the communication pattern of males was mostly independent.
  •  
    classroom interaction can lead to retention
Amy M

Barriers to Technology Use, Teachers' Tools for the 21st Century: A Report on Teach... - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 25 Jun 12 - Cached
  • Availability of and Access to Computers and the Internet
  • Among the greatest barriers to the use of technology in instruction reported was lack of time.
  •  
    Various barriers to teacher training and use of tech
Amy M

Adult Learning Activities | California Distance Learning Project - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 24 Jun 12 - Cached
  • From Low Tech to the Internet
  • The California Distance Learning Project (CDLP) defines distance learning as follows. "Distance Learning (DL) is an instructional delivery system that connects learners with educational resources. DL provides educational access to learners not enrolled in educational institutions and can augment the learning opportunities of current students. The implementation of DL is a process that uses available resources and will evolve to incorporate emerging technologies."
  •  
    TYpes of distance learning; low tech to high tech
dkiesel

The Technology Source Archives - Ten Ways Online Education Matches, or Surpasses, Face-... - 6 views

  • Students are empowered to learn on their own and even to teach one another.
    • Erin Fontaine
       
      Students are made accountable for their own education and are able to reflect on what they are learning.
    • Heather Kurto
       
      Students work together with professors to create a learning style that meets their needs. The students guide information that is important to them making the experience meaningful.
  • Students served as instructors to their classmates, and together they worked toward learning goals more effectively than if they had been provided with the answer by the instructor.
    • Erin Fontaine
       
      I have seen my own students achieve better comprehension when they are able to see the information through the eyes of their peers rather than my perspective.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This also supports Shift 4 in ELA Common Core which calls for students to have "rich" conversations centering on a text.
  • When an instructor posts a question on the asynchronous discussion board, every student in the class is expected to respond, respond intelligently, and respond several times.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This expectation is supported by the online instructor's facilitation of discourse and intellectual leadership, identified by Jones et al. as two aspects of teaching presence.
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  • On a more formal note, online tests and quizzes can be constructed with an automatic grading capability that provides immediate feedback and references to text and class notes that explain the correct answers. Assignments, including grades and editorial comments, can be returned to students more promptly and usually with more detail than in the F2F environment.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is something to consider with respect to formative assessment, RtI evidence/data, and computer-based grade books. Wondering how it would work in an open source learning platform for collecting data on teacher effectiveness at the university level?
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      I have used online homework systems with my middle school students, and it works wonderfully. Many students use the immediate feedback to their advantage, reviewing the questions they got wrong. I know they use it well because whenever I happen to make an error in marking the correct answer, I will receive a flood of emails from students quoting resources stating why they believe their answer to be correct.
  • They say that it is common for participants in online courses to develop a strong sense of community that enhances the learning process.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Bodes well for gobalization of education, especially when supported by language conversion apps.
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      Reminds me of a community of inquiry model. See Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000.
  • thrilled
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is indeed the perfect verb for this experience!
  • The thinking, planning, research, learning, and effort that goes into constructing and teaching an online course has rejuvenated many faculty members who were frankly going through the motions after numerous years of teaching the same courses, semester after semester, in the same classroom environment.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      As online learning increases at the secondary level, is it possible that responsibility for curriculum development will become an APPR bargaining issue under the Regents Reform Agenda?
  • the best way to teach students how to write more effectively is to have them write more often.
    • Erin Fontaine
       
      One of my main concerns about creating and online class for a junior high (7th/8th) grade is about how technology is affecting their writing abilities. I was afraid of how all the short hand phrases we all use are affecting students and their abiliity to write. Yes, online courses are writing intensive and a great means of keeping students writing but as the teacher I feel like I have to make sure that the work I recieve is of quality. As I continue to research this fear I am seeing both sides of the argument. Text talk may be both positive and negative. Still looking into this... Here is just one of many articles I have found on this topic: http://www.nst.com.my/nation/extras/zero-to-12-is-technology-deteriorating-language-skills-1.89256
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      Thanks for the link. I know with my students, I emphasize the need for using conventional English in typed school work no matter what device they are using. Most of my middle school students are adept at transitioning from the language they would use while texting to the language I expect in their lab report, even if they are typing the lab on their phone.
  • Students with family or work responsibilities are often unable to commit to a traditional course because they cannot be in the same place at the same time for 15 consecutive weeks.
    • Amy M
       
      This is a huge factor is accessibility for adult-learners.
  • Although some instructors may discover more than they wanted to know about their students, my online teaching experience disproves the notion that online courses are impersonal and do not foster relationships, either between students and instructors or among students themselves.
    • Amy M
       
      I wonder what the limit on class size is for an online course to feel "intimate."
  • In the traditional F2F classroom, the instructor asks a question, and the same four or five extroverted students inevitably raise their hands. They offer spontaneous, often unresearched responses in the limited time allotted for discussion. In the online environment, discussions enter a new dimension.
    • Heather Kurto
       
      This is huge for online learning. Students are able to thoughtfully respond which deepens discussions.
  • . Online education is neither right for all students nor right for all faculty, but it frequently meets the needs of both for an exciting, high-quality educational experience.
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      How do we make the jump and empower students to actually take on the role as a teacher?
  • explain, share, comment upon, critique
  • explain, share, comment upon, critique
  • unresearched responses in the limited time
  • unresearched responses
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      I personally have seen a big difference in my thought and contributions when given time to think, research, and craft a response to an argument.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      There is also something to be said abou the "delete" button. Once you say something, you cannot undo it.
  • can refer to their course materials and think through their answers
    • efleonhardt
       
      I think this is a very important piece of online learning I hadn't thought about t before. When students are online they are able to actually process the information and not be afraid if they're processing skills are slower than other students.
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      The goal is for the student to continue learning throughout life, not just for the course. This links back to the Minds on Fire reading: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/minds-fire-open-education-long-tail-and-learning-20
  • However, I have heard from very few faculty members who are not energized by the creative process of achieving the same instructional goals in an entirely new format.
  • On average, online courses are far more writing-intensive than traditional classes have ever been.
  • he first response that comes to mind rather than the best possible response
    • George Dale
       
      and you don't have the, "Doh! I should have said ..." as you're walking out of the classroom.
  • Many online students have indicated that this is the first time they have ever "spoken up" in class and that they enjoy the opportunity
  • Geared to lifelong learning
    • George Dale
       
      While I'm not a LMS hater, I do see this as a problem in the way LMSs keep a death grip on the content and learning. I'd like to develop a plugin for Balckboard that allows a student to easily "pack up" and take their work with them as they complete a course.
  • as a result of the relative anonymity
    • George Dale
       
      It's almost ironic that the initial anonimity can lead to deeper connections relative to F2F interactions.
  • online education can be done well,
    • George Dale
       
      It seems that some examples that are used to demonstrate a poor online course are often as good as a "normal" (i.e. F2F) class. Being as good as a traditional lecture class is a low bar to set.
    • Arnaldo Robles
       
      I can see this serving as a useful tool for writing activities!
  • In their everyday lives, individuals do not have a teacher at their side to direct them in their acquisition of new information. One of the roles that we need to perform as educators, then, is to teach students to find and learn information on their own or in concert with their colleagues. The online environment fosters self-motivated education. Students direct their own use of Internet links, search engines, discussion boards, chat, e-mail, and other media. While such resources cannot guarantee student initiative, they establish a framework that gives precedence to the autonomy of the learner.
    • Arnaldo Robles
       
      I like this!
  • develop course materials among themselves in a manner rarely seen in the F2F classroom.
    • dkiesel
       
      In f2f classes at masters public health program, we do extensive group projects. I think that k--12 classes may not have had many project-based classes of which hopefully will be more as we are seeing the influence of online teaching and how for practical learning the online environment can greatly compliment a practical session.  But I don't agree that all the practical project based work I have done for my profession with other students and teachers is not as well integrated compared to all the practical group work I have done in my profession with students and teachers. Also the quality of spoken live discussion in group work is very challenging when it is live. Maybe online is helping by giving us more time to think before we say something. 
  •  
    Sorry I didn't want these to go public. These were just my notes to myself so that I could further do some research. Is there a way to remove these or make these private again. Guess I'm still testing the water.
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