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While we are debating e-learning, developing countries are forging ahead, including engaging private sector, setting up long term strategy and policy, and starting Asia e University. "Think of it this way. We are preparing them for jobs that don't yet exist and for technologies that haven't been invented," Policarpio, Philippine Education Dept. official, says. He also compares what we do at Harvard stating that there is a big difference in accessing resources vs. e-learning., "For example, Harvard and Yale have an online portal for learning-a place where they can share their lectures and reports online. But those are just resources anyone can access. e-learning goes beyond that. It melds all kinds of academic activities with ICT (Information and Communication Technology)."

Free e-learning report o on-line education in the k-12 space.

Special report on e-learning highlights policy issues related to teaching

This paper presents the first experimental evidence on the effects of live versus internet media of instruction. Students in a large introductory microeconomics course at a major research university were randomly assigned to live lectures versus watching these same lectures in an internet setting, where all other factors (e.g., instruction, supplemental materials) were the same. Counter to the conclusions drawn by a recent U.S. Department of Education meta-analysis of non-experimental analyses of internet instruction in higher education, we find modest evidence that live-only instruction dominates internet instruction. These results are particularly strong for Hispanic students, male students, and lower-achieving students. We also provide suggestions for future experimentation in other settings.

The authors are very misleading in their claim that this study is the first on live versus internet. There is a huge literature on this topic stretching back decades. The claims about the generalizability of the study are also very suspect.

Chris, I think the authors are claiming it is the first experimental trial where participants were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition. They contrast their study with the DOE meta-analysis, which I don't think includes experimental studies--at least as experiments are defined within econometrics. My problem with the study is that they are aren't really comparing live vs. internet so much as live vs. recorded video. They are very careful to not take advantage of any of the potential affordances of internet mediated instruction, except broadcasting a lecture, to preserve the "purity" of their experiment. Of course, that's not a terribly interesting experiment. The more interesting experiments, which they deride as "not apples-to-apples," is to compare a traditional lecture format with an online course that takes full advantage of the affordances of the internet. These studies would confound the carefully balanced design of an apples-to-apples comparison, but no serious education technologist thinks we should just record all the lectures and post them...

Obama should put more money into educational technology. This seems like a very one sided and simplistic view of how technology can be used to improve education. Only at the end of the article do you realize that the author is selling something: he's an officer at a company that works with educational technology

Lawrence Summers, former Harvard President, touts e-book and role to technology in education.

Concord Consortium is mentioned in #1, 4 and 5: 1. Better Simulations and Models 2. Global Learning 3. Virtual Manipulatives 4. Probes and Sensors 5. More Efficient Assessment 6. Storytelling and Multimedia 7. E-books 8. Epistemic Games

Simulations, Global Learning, Virtual Manipulatives, Probes and Sensors, More efficient assessment, storytelling and media, e-books - good overview of how technology is enhancing education

This list almost feels like it could be used as a litmus test to judge new technology a school is considering.

I've always been interested in the use of these so called 'e-readers', how they hopefully will take the place of books, will let you take notes right there on the digital text and will seriously lighten you backpack. Obviously these things haven't quite caught on yet, but the techology is certainly starting to get better and better in this area!

"E-learning programmes often offer training schemes which could help educate employees on the necessary rules and regulations surrounding manual labour jobs, such as construction...Online learning programs which specialise in health and safety and employee training are being increasingly adopted by businesses and large organisations."

Naomi S. Baron, a linguistics professor at American University, studies how cell phones and online messaging change social interactions. She talks to the Tech Therapy team about her concern that colleges push too much technology on students and professors. Should colleges encourage e-mail-free Fridays?

Interesting to think about technology saturation is impacting college students. Some college professors are even resisting technology integration in the classroom because of it - if you're interested in Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education has many interesting articles about technology in university settings.

Along the lines of the discussions we've been having on the isites, mobile learning has major potential in the developing world. "Mobile phones are increasingly ubiquitous in poor countries, which now account for FOUR IN EVERY FIVE connections worldwide". This means that almost everyone owns or has access to a mobile phone. How can we leverage this reality? Well, we can't impose anything that requires a smart phone, since most of these mobile phones cannot access 3G or wifi networks. Perhaps we can start to send podcasts as voice notes? Audio wikis of information sent via sms? In-phone calculators for math homework completion? I think all we need is an educational system that supports this type of learning, and m-learning can possible change the face of education in the developing world. 

I did not buy the article to get the details, but this paper seems pertinent to this course.

"Skid-e-Kids says it offers children help with homework and parents a dashboard to keep tabs on what their kids are up to. "Skid-e-Kids is the only social network that is truly committed to not only keeping our children safe, but also making sure that they are systematically learning while they are having fun," the site promises."

Does digitisation make e-learning simpler? Low cost tablets in India are leading the charge.

Interesting article on the steps that Google has taken toward building an e-learning ecosystem.

Do e-readers aid dyslexic students? They actually could do much more, but the vendors are happy to make claims without building in those capabilities...

A wide spectrum of handy tools

I would be for this. I could not believe a place so big on recycling (Harvard) murdered so many trees with the printing of course packs. I like this idea if you could get the material from other sources than just the school (say the author or publisher directly or something like Amazon). Otherwise, there is no opportunity for competition or bargaining.