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ian august

Worker-run companies show how to profit without a boss | COTO Report - 0 views

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    worker run company
Hedy Lowenheim

Universities Team With Online Course Provider - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • At SUNY, which has 468,000 students at 64 campuses, the Coursera partnership is tied to Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher’s announcement this year of Open SUNY, an online effort to enroll 100,000 new students and make it possible for a quarter of them to earn a degree in three years.
    • Hedy Lowenheim
       
      Great to see that SUNY is partnering up with Coursera! This is a very exciting development for the world of online learning!
  • “We hope this will help public universities do more with the less they’re getting in state support,” Dr. Koller said.
    • Hedy Lowenheim
       
      Public education funding seems to be in constant jeopardy these days. Adding distance learning classes at an extremely low price has the potential to bring college level classes to students who might never have had the opportunity to attend a university.
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  • Some faculty resistance has emerged recently against using online materials, even if they are blended with classroom work. This week, 58 Harvard professors wrote a letter seeking the creation of a new committee to consider the ethical issues related to edX and its impact on higher education.
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    Universities Team With Online Course Provider By TAMAR LEWIN "In a move that could open online classes to 1.25 million students at public institutions, a California company is forming partnerships with 10 large state university systems."
Ryan Mulligan

Good Homework versus Bad Homework - 0 views

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    A company in the business of professional development for teachers. Debating the differences between good homework assignments and bad ones.
Kelly Hermann

Section 508: 508 Law - 0 views

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    508 applies only to websites of the federal government and requires certain provisions to ensure that individuals with disabilities can access them. 508 also offers guidance for software companies and web developers but the standards cannot be enforced. Several states have adopted the 508 standards as state law. New York is moving in this direction this fall as well.
Mike Fortune

Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement - 1 views

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    Under enormous pressure to reform, the nation's public schools are spending millions of dollars each year on gadgets from text-messaging devices to interactive whiteboards that technology companies promise can raise student performance.
Kelly Hermann

AbleData: Welcome to AbleData - 0 views

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    This site has a wealth of resources for those interested in learning more about assistive technology in general as well as those researching specific products.  AbleData provides resources for users, product reviews and a searchable database of companies that manufacture assistive software and devices, as well as a library that allows users to search for publications and other information about assistive technology.  It is a dynamic website that is updated frequently so it helps users to stay current on a rapidly changing field.
ian august

Clearswift's 'Web 2.0 in the Workplace' report launched | Dynamic Business - Small Busi... - 0 views

  • Independent international research undertaken by Clearswift in 2007 found that just 11% of global businesses were making use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Salesforce.com
  • Three years on, the latest figures show over two-thirds of companies are allowing and encouraging the use of web collaboration or social media tools in the workplace.
  • Australian business users enjoy high use of Web 2.0 technologies, such as collaborative meeting, intranet, financial, CRM and social networking applications. However, they appear the least concerned about the security implications (at 53%) despite ranking second highest of respondents who have sent
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  • content via email or online applications they later regretted (29%).
  • however the research shows that half of managers believe that web collaboration te
  • ology is now ‘critical’ to the future success of their business.”
  • Barriers to adoption: Barriers to adoption of social media have shifted from productivity to focus on security, with 53 percent of companies concerned about security threats and 31 percent concerned about data breaches.
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.
Catherine Strattner

Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains - 0 views

  • This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes.
  • Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences. Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of equipment by using logical deduction. Recognize logical fallacies in reasoning. Gathers information from a department and selects the required tasks for training. Key Words: analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, separates. Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure. Examples: Write a company operations or process manual. Design a machine to perform a specific task. Integrates training from several sources to solve a problem. Revises and process to improve the outcome. Key Words: categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes. Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials. Examples: Select the most effective solution. Hire the most qualified candidate. Explain and justify a new budget. Key Words: appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports.
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    Bloom's Taxonomy and designing/writing objectives, but how do we evaluate how well students employ the higher order thinking skills?
Amy M

IT Expenditures To Increase at a Slower Pace in 2012 -- Campus Technology - 0 views

  • While IT expenditures is expected to increase worldwide this year, forecasts are being revised downward. The Eurozone crisis and flooding in Thailand, a major hard-drive manufacturing hub, have put a damper on original projections for global information technology spending in 2012.
  • Hard drive supply is expected to be reduced by at least 25 percent during the next six to nine months, Gordon said. The anticipated shortage prompted the IT research and advisory company to decrease its shipment forecast for PCs.
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    IT spending rate decreasing
Amy M

Pearson, Blackboard, And Education's New "Openwashing" | Fast Company - 0 views

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    how definitions define us
Erin Fontaine

Common Core Standards Boon to E-Learning Industry - SchoolBook - 0 views

  • And the very thing that attracted so many states to adopt Common Core – the widespread standardization of learning goals, as well as the opportunity to do more creative teaching – can also turn it into a windfall for e-learning companies.
  • “It frees teachers up to do the things they went into teaching for. It lets them focus on human interaction.”
Amy M

Alan Singer: Cuomo, Common Core and Pearson-for-Profit - 0 views

  • ts taught in schools across the United States with little or no parental or educational oversight. Pearson standardized exams will assess how well teachers implement Pearson instruction modules and Pearson's common core standards, but not what students really learn or whether students are actually learning things that are important to know. Pearson is already creating teacher certification exams for eighteen states including New York, organizing staff development workshops to promote Pearson products, and providing school district Pearson assessment tools. In New York, Pearson Education currently has a five-year, $32 million contract to administer state test and provides other "testing services" to the State Education Department. It also recently received a share of a federal Race to the Top grant to create what the company calls the "next-generation" of online assessments.
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    pearson
Irene Watts-Politza

Thirty-two Trends Affecting Distance Education: An Informed Foundation for Strategic Pl... - 1 views

  • As universities shift toward competency and institutions cater more closely to learners’ specific needs, the distinctions between high school, undergraduate college, and graduate programs will dissolve. “Incentives will be given to students and institutions to move students through at a faster rate [and] the home school movement will lead to a home-college movement” (Dunn, 2000, p. 37). As leaders in the effort to cater to learners’ needs, distance education programs may be a dominant influence in this trend.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      P-20 pipeline
  • Accreditation and program approval will be based more on educational outcomes. Testing programs will be put in place by discipline organizations, federal and state governments, corporations, and testing companies. Large corporations will develop their own approval systems. By 2025, there will not be one national accreditation system, although the U.S. Department of Education will provide a basic safety net for quality. (p. 37; see also Pond, 2003) Distance educators must plan to accommodate this emphasis on accountability if they are to maintain accreditation and meet consumer demands.
  • Much of distance education programs’ success or failure can be attributed to how it is organized.
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  • the academically decentralized/administratively centralized model
  • Changes in the institutional landscape may magnify competition among educational providers and allow new models and leaders to emerge.
  • Knowledge proliferation may increase content-breadth demands on higher education, spreading distance education resources ever thinner and complicating development decisions.
  • An NEA survey reported that faculty members’ top concern about distance education was that they will do more work for the same amount of pay, apparently a merited concern.
  • As long as distance education contributions are not considered in tenure and promotion decisions, and as long as professors have their own, traditional ways of delivering their courses, many faculty members will be reluctant to participate in online courses (Oravec, 2003). Concerning this reluctance, Dunn has predicted that many faculty members will revolt against technological course delivery and the emerging expectations their institutions will have of faculty members. Dunn forecast that some of the resistance will even be manifest through unionization and strikes (Dunn, 2000). Some have suggested the labor-intensive and time-consuming demands required to develop online modules as reasons for faculty resistance (Brogden, 2002).
  • The results of de Alva’s 2000 survey support this trend: governors rated “maintaining traditional faculty roles and tenure” as the least desirable characteristic of a twenty-first century university (p. 34).
  • Faculty members tend initially to try to use their conventional classroom methods to teach at a distance and then become frustrated when attempts are unsuccessful (Dasher-Alston & Patton, p. 14). In Green’s (2002) survey of the role
  • Distance education teams include administrators, instructional designers, technologists, and instructors/facilitators (Miller, 2001; Williams, 2003). The functions of instructors and facilitators then include being a “facilitator, teacher, organizer, grader, mentor, role model, counselor, coach, supervisor, problem solver, and liaison” (Riffee, 2003, p. 1; see also Roberson, 2002; Scagnoli, 2001). The role of faculty members in distance education requires “some specialized skills and strategies. Distance education instructors must plan ahead, be highly organized, and communicate with learners in new ways. They need to be accessible to students [and] work in teams when appropriate” (PSU, 1998, p. 4). Distance faculty members must be experts in maintaining communication, because there is increased demand for student interaction in distance learning (NEA, 2000). Finally, they may have to assume more administrative responsibilities than is true in a residential model (PSU, 1998).
  • “Rather than incorporating the responsibility for all technology- and competency-based functions into a single concept of ‘faculty member,’ universities are disaggregating faculty instructional activities and [assigning] them to distinct professionals” (Paulson, 2002, p. 124). Doing this involves a “deliberate division of labor among the faculty, creating new kinds of instructional staff, or deploying nontenure-track instructional staff (such as adjunct faculty, graduate teaching assistants, or undergraduate assistants) in new ways” (Paulson, 2002, p. 126
  • Online students are becoming an entirely new subpopulation of higher-education learners. They are “generally older, have completed more college credit hours and more degree programs, and have a higher all-college GPA than their traditional counterparts” (Diaz, 2002, pp. 1-2). For example, Diaz has noted that online students received twice as many A’s as traditional students and half as many D’s and F’s.
  • One result of the highly competitive e-learning market will be institutions that specialize in meeting particular niches in the market (Gallagher, 2003). Morrison and Barone (2003, p. 4) observed, “We can see the beginnings of the trend toward the unbundling of courses, credits, services, and fee structures.” Dunn foresaw a similar trend, predicting that “courseware producers will sell courses and award credits directly to the end user and thus, through intermediation, bypass the institutional middleman” (Dunn, 2000, p. 37). The transition may also blur the distinction between two- and four-year colleges and universities (Carr, 1999). In this context of greater “portability,” more educational “brokers” (e.g., Western Governor’s University, Excelsior College, Charter Oak State College, etc.) will exist (Pond, 2003). Further, as de Alva has asserted, “Institutional success for any higher education enterprise will depend more on successful marketing, solid quality-assurance and control systems, and effective use of the new media than on production and communication of knowledge” (de Alva, 2000, p. 40).
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    Trends that affect distance education. The part that shows how different online students are now is very interesting.
Amy M

What Is Crowdsourcing? - CBS News - 0 views

  • but the basic idea is to tap into the collective intelligence of the public at large to complete business-related tasks that a company would normally either perform itself or outsource to a third-party provider.
  • Crowdsourcing can improve productivity and creativity while minimizing labor and research expenses.
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    A general article explaining crowdsourcing
cpcampbell88

Achieve Global - 1 views

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    This company is designed to teach employee's both using online and traditional classroom experience with practical hands on experience.
Joan Erickson

Disrupting Class: Student-Centric Education Is the Future | Edutopia - 0 views

  • Although computer-based learning is in its infancy
    • Joan Erickson
       
      This is a 2008 article, computer-based learning is still considered to be in its infancy?
  • disruptively
  • The classroom of today doesn't even look that much different from the classroom of thirty years ago, save for some interactive whiteboards instead of chalkboards, as well as some computers in the back of the room. How can we start down the path to transform the classroom
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  • leading companies' trajectory in an industry sustaining innovations
  • disruptive innovation extends its benefits to people who, for one reason or another, are unable to consume the original product -- so-called nonconsumers.
Sue Rappazzo

Teaching versus training - 0 views

  • Last term I asked my students to provide feedback on the software engineering course I teach. One student reported that, although he liked the course and appreciated that I'd spent most of my career in the "real world," many times he felt that I was doing corporate training rather than teaching.
  • For many years of my business career, it was my responsibility to train clients on the best ways to use the products and services my company sold them. My student's remarks led me to ask myself many questions. Was I really still behaving like a trainer? What assumptions was I making about teaching and my primary responsibility to my students? And fundamentally, what is the difference between teaching and training? In this column I'd like to share my thoughts on these issues and examine how teaching and training are viewed differently in the halls of academia from in corporate boardrooms. Perhaps this will help you think constructively about what your organization values in its employees and what it does to further their professional development.
  • each has many alternate definitions, including: To cause to know something To guide the studies of To impart the knowledge of To instruct by precept, example, or experience Definitions for train are: To form by instruction, discipline, or drill To make prepared for a test of skill
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  • Everything we do in our lives requires a balance between two things or more - a compromise. This column talks about the balance between theory and practice, so it is appropriate to consider that balance with respect to training and teaching. In my January 2004 column, I explained how I am seeking the right blend of theory and practice in my software development courses. My primary job is to prepare students for the rest of their working lives and help them succeed in their careers. So I first have to ensure that they learn fundamental principles and then teach them to use specific tools and techniques as time allows.
Sue Rappazzo

Teaching at an Internet Distance-----MERLOT - 1 views

  • Several of our speakers were able to shed light on the cause of this rising tide of faculty opposition to computer mediated instruction. Andrew Feenberg of San Diego State University summarizes the situation in the opening paragraph of his "Distance Learning: Promise or Threat" (1999) article: "Once the stepchild of the academy, distance learning is finally taken seriously. But not in precisely the way early innovators like myself had hoped. It is not faculty who are in the forefront of the movement to network education. Instead politicians, university administrations and computer and telecommunications companies have decided there is money in it. But proposals for a radical "retooling" of the university emanating from these sources are guaranteed to provoke instant faculty hostility."
    • Kelly Hermann
       
      As a red-head, I'm just glad they didn't use the phrase "red-headed stepchild." LOL
  • The implementation of online education shows both promise and peril. Computer mediated instruction may indeed introduce new and highly effective teaching paradigms, but high-quality teaching is not always assured. Administrative decisions made without due consideration to pedagogy, or worse, with policies or technology that hampers quality, may cause much wasted time, money and effort of both faculty and students.
  • In training, a particular package of knowledge is imparted to an individual so that he or she can assume work within a system, as the firefighters do for example. According to Noble, training and education are appropriately distinguished in terms of autonomy (Noble, 1999). In becoming trained, an individual relinquishes autonomy. The purpose of education, as compared to training, is to impart autonomy to the student. In teaching students to think critically, we say in effect "Student, know thyself." Education is not just the transmission of knowledge, important as that is, but also has to do with the transformation of persons (and the development of critical thinking skills).
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  • Does good teaching in the classroom translate to good teaching online? If so, what elements can be translated and which ones can't or shouldn't?
  • "The shared mantra of the faculty and staff during the development of this document was that "good teaching is good teaching!" An Emerging Set of Guiding Principles... is less about distance education and more about what makes for an effective educational experience, regardless of where or when it is delivered."
  • Good practice encourages student-faculty contact. Good practice encourages cooperation among students. Good practice encourages active learning. Good practice gives prompt feedback. Good practice emphasizes time on task. Good practice communicates high expectations. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
  • Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of class is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.
  • At first glance, teaching a class without the ability to see and hear the students in person appears daunting. The enlightened, quizzical, or stony facial expressions, the sighs of distress or gasps of wonder, and even the less-than-subtle raised hands or interjected queries that constitute immediate feedback to a lecture, discussion, or clinical situation are absent. Yet the proponents of online instruction will argue that these obstacles can be overcome, and that the online format has its own advantages. In the online experiences documented in the "Net.Learning" (www.pbs.org/netlearning/home.html) videotape, which our seminar viewed early in the year, Peggy Lant of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo presented a striking example that occurred in her class' online discussion of civil war. One student's comments were especially gripping as she had just survived a civil war in her home country. Shy students who have trouble participating in a classroom discussion are said to feel more comfortable in an online setting. The ability to sit and think as one composes a question or comment also can raise the quality of the discussion. Susan Montgomery at the University of Michigan has developed an interactive website that addresses diverse learning styles through the use of multimedia (Montgomery, 1998).
  • Teachers, trainers, and professors with years of experience in classrooms report that computer networking encourages the high-quality interaction and sharing that is at the heart of education. ...(The) characteristics of online classes... generally result in students' contributing material that is much better than something they would say off the top of their heads in a face-to-face class. There is a converse side, however. Just after the passage above, Harasim cautions (Harasim et al. 1995) On the other hand, unless the teacher facilitates the networking activities skillfully, serious problems may develop. A conference may turn into a monologue of lecture-type material to which very few responses are made. It may become a disorganized mountain of information that is confusing and overwhelming for the participants. It may even break down socially into name calling rather than building a sense of community.
  • At what cost is this high degree of interaction, the need for which we suspect is student motivation and the professor's (online) attentiveness, achieved? In the previous section it was noted that charismatic professors of large (several hundred student) classes might indeed reach and motivate the students in the back row by intangible displays of attentiveness. Online, attentiveness must be tangible, and may involve more effort than in a face-to-face setting. These considerations imply an inherent limitation of online class size; size is determined by the amount of effort required to form a "community of learners."
  • Small class sizes and the linear dependence of effort on student numbers are indicative of the high level of interaction needed for high quality online teaching
  • The best way to maintain the connection [between online education and the values of traditional education] is through ensuring that distance learning is 'delivered' not just by CD ROMs, but by living teachers, fully qualified and interested in doing so online ... [P]repackaged material will be seen to replace not the teacher as a mentor and guide but the lecture and the textbook. Interaction with the professor will continue to be the centerpiece of education, no matter what the medium.
  • and Ronald Owston, who points out (Owston, 1997) "...we cannot simply ask 'Do students learn better with the Web as compared to traditional classroom instruction?' We have to realize that no medium, in and of itself, will likely improve learning in a significant way when it is used to deliver instruction. Nor is it realistic to expect the Web, when used as a tool, to develop in students any unique skills."
  • Facilitating Online Courses: A Checklist for Action The key concept in network teaching is to facilitate collaborative learning, not to deliver a course in a fixed and rigid, one-way format. Do not lecture. Be clear about expectations of the participants. Be flexible and patient. Be responsive. Do not overload. Monitor and prompt for participation. For assignments, set up small groups and assign tasks to them. Be a process facilitator. Write weaving comments every week or two... Organize the interaction. Set rules and standards for good netiquette (network etiquette)... Establish clear norms for participation and procedures for grading... Assign individuals or small groups to play the role of teacher and of moderator for portions of the course. Close and purge moribund conferences in stages... Adopt a flexible approach toward curriculum integration on global networks.
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    Love the step child reference!
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    Have I not struggled with this throughout this course?!
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    Joy and I talked about this in discussions. I am now struggling with making a project mgr. aware of this at work. The vendor training online was boring so lets deliver it all in person. Junk is Junk online or in person!
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    That body language we mentioned in discussions this week in ETAP687
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    MERLOT-Teaching at internet distance
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    module 4 merlot
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