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Telling those students that the IT help desk is only available certain times during the week, and more limited hours on the weekend, for exampl

ho are enrolled in the graduate program and also working full-time jobs. Accustomed to 24/7 access to the school's learning management system, library systems, and other processes, an increasing number of students were asking for an around-the-clock help desk.

That meant stretching the help desk hou

The course allows students to meet requirements by exercising how they want, when they want. They are required to work out hard for 30 minutes four times a week and report to their teachers by e-mail. Parents must certify that the students did the workouts.

Still, some committed online educators remain unconvinced. Tim Snyder, the executive director of Colorado Online Learning, which offers more than 50 online courses to Colorado schools, included physical education with studio art, marching band and the laboratory sciences as subjects best left to brick-and-mortar schools. "These are still better experienced in a hands-on setting," Dr. Snyder said. But online gym has prospered. That has been possible in part because physical education itself has evolved. Once a highly regimented class centered on team sports and competition, physical education now emphasizes healthy living and personal fitness, topics some see as eminently suited for independent Internet study.

Even the course's author, Brenda Corbin, who writes curriculums for the Minneapolis district, was dismissive at first. "I refused to be a part of it," Ms. Corbin said of her initial reaction a year ago, when Ms. Braaten and district administrators approached her about writing the physical education course. "How do you know they're really working out?" Ms. Corbin said she asked. But she later changed her mind. "I was uninformed about what you can do over the computer," she said.

And for the network folks, it's geek fun time to see if the wireless network has enough bandwidth for all those multiple choice "A, B, C, or D" answers zipping through the air

Fun times.

one year from now?

Seventy-nine percent of teachers surveyed by Education Week said they spent "a great deal" or "somewhat" of their time instructing students in test-taking skills, and 53 percent said they used state practice tests a great deal or somewhat

Test-Taking Strategies that Work

Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week).  And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

CMC11  is an open online course that over 13 weeks explores the domain of Creativity and global communication in multidisciplinary venues. Participation is open to everyone and there are no fees or subscriptions required. Please make sure you register here to receive the daily newsletter, NewPosts.

Barnes & Noble's Nook, and the Intel Reader. But the jury is still out on just how effective those digital tools are in helping struggling readers.

Foss, who himself has dyslexia, created the Intel Reader, a mobile e-reader that can take pictures of text and then convert the text into an audio file within seconds. Students can also change the size of the text on the screen and the speed of the voice that reads the text aloud.

Using YouTube, we learn that people all over the world can connect and share ideas, but it has become way more of a teaching tool. People are using this to reflect on themselves and the world around them. One student mentioned how they saw this as an inner thought process: how others would perceive them and how the conversation became inner-mediated. With the activities that we have in the course, the discussions, and blogs we learn to become self-sufficient learners. Not only through the reflective process, but in the activities geared towards the process of learning and why it is important to learn and help each other learn.

Go for vanilla the first time and work your way up to rocky road. : )

2. Online learning enables student-centered teaching approaches

Course material is accessible 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Students have the ability to read and re read lectures, discussions, explanations and comments. Often spoken material in the classroom passes students by due to a number of distractions, missed classes, tiredness or boredom.

Over 75% of colleges and universities in the U.S. offer online degree programs, with online degrees as respected as "on the ground" degrees. (Lewis)

Last week 34 mathematicians issued a statement denouncing “a system in which commercial publishers make profits based on the free labor of mathematicians and subscription fees from their institutions’ libraries, for a service that has become largely unnecessary.”

For 2010, Elsevier reported a 36 percent profit on revenues of $3.2 billion

Make the chunks or pieces of information small enough to appeal to and be processed by those who have only 15 to 30 minutes a day to log in. These small pieces of information can quickly be processed by the student who can then return later to finish other assignments. There can be more than one chunk of information per unit or module, but the unit itself should be broke into manageable chunks.

An online syllabus should also contain information relating to the length of time a given assignment is anticipated to take for the average student.

With an engaging course in which many students are active participants, the number of messages posted within any course discussion forum can quickly grow. When such a case presents itself, it is a good idea to give specific minimum (and maximum if necessary) requirements concerning the number of posts each student is required to submit. For example, in an ice-breaking activity, you could require each student to post responses to 2 other student posts chosen by selecting the student above and below that student in a listing of students sorted by some criteria such as alphabetically by login. When minimum requirements and other guidelines are given, students know how much work is expected of them for the assignment, ensuring that they will allocate enough time to do an adequate job and enabling them able to prioritize their time. Even an active student can have a busy week in which he/she must schedule time to properly meet this minimum requirement.

We must hear from the instructor within 24 hours!” “I would not think twice about withdrawing if the instructor is not available five days a week.” “The worst thing is waiting for a graded paper.”

Require students to post a minimum number of times to demonstrate that they have visited and revisited the material and conversations over several days. Often times, students go the discussion boards once a week, post a flurry of messages, and then never return to read any responses to their postings. Requiring students to post over several days encourages them to read and respond to the range of responses. Online discussion boards facilitate student reflection. As such, postings to the discussion boards should demonstrate a thoughtful approach to the content. Research indicates that when using online discussion boards, students are more likely to cite research and class readings in their responses. Use this to your advantage by calling for the use of supporting evidence in student postings. Stude

nts should incorporate quotes from other student responses as a way of synthesizing and extending the conversation.

Sample Rubric 3