"June 21, 2011, 6:52 pm
By Marc Parry
"What happens when you invite the whole world to join an online class?
As The Chronicle reported last year, a growing number of educators are giving that idea a try by offering free "massive open online courses," or MOOC's, to anyone who wants to learn. Today, that experimental idea gained some more traction in mainstream higher education. The University of Illinois at Springfield announced a new not-for-credit MOOC devoted to examining the state of online education and where e-learning is heading. Nearly 500 people from two dozen countries have registered so far, with 1,000 expected to sign up by the time the course begins next Monday. (...)
Not enough MOOC for you? Stay tuned. Starting in September, another group will organize what the MOOC pioneer George Siemens calls the "Mother of all MOOCs."
In a blog post Monday, Mr. Siemens welcomed the growing interest from traditional universities. And he countered the more skeptical take offered by another open-education leader, David Wiley, who wrote recently that "MOOCs and their like are not the answer to higher-education's problems." (...)"
By David Nagel
05/26/11
"...The United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights Thursday issued a "dear colleague letter" to public K-12 institutions (as well as a separate letter to higher education institutions) and a set of answers to frequently asked questions that expands on a letter sent out exclusively to college and university presidents last June (DCL).
In the FAQ, OCR makes explicit some legal obligations of all education institutions, including K-12 institutions, to "ensure equal access to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology and equal treatment in the use of the technology for all students, including students with disabilities." At the same time, the FAQ said the intent is not to stifle the use of new and emerging technologies, but to "remind everyone that equal access for students with disabilities is the law and must be considered as new technology is integrated into the educational environment. ..."
"June 8, 2011, 7:01 pm
By Marc Parry
A budget approved by a legislative committee last week would force the University of Wisconsin to return $39-million in federal grants awarded to expand high-speed Internet access across the state, state education officials said.
The plan would also require all University of Wisconsin institutions to withdraw from WiscNet, a nonprofit network cooperative that services the public universities, most of the technical and private colleges in Wisconsin, about 75 percent of the state's elementary and high schools, and 95 percent of its public libraries, according to David F. Giroux, a spokesman for the university system. (...)
Another provision in the plan would bar any University of Wisconsin campus from participating in advanced networks connecting research institutions worldwide, according to Mr. Evers's memo. For example, the Madison campus would have to withdraw from Internet2, a high-speed networking consortium, said Mr. Giroux."
That's what Lessig had in mind when he said:
"Think about the question of broadband policy. (…) The US has been a dismal failure in this respect. As we watch the US going from number 1 in broadband penetration, now to, depending on the scale, number 18, 19, or 28.
And that change is because of policies that effectively block competition for broadband providers. Their answer, these broadband providers brought to our government, and got our government to impose actually benefited them and destroyed the incentives for them to compete in a way that would drive broadband penetration. (…)"
From Lessig's Keynote Address at g8 7:48 - 8:42 - http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/C6wmjKWrZwlP/
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