http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/
An online professional development program for K-12 teachers is receiving kudos from ISTE (http://www.cblohm.com/news/pbstl/PBSTL_090630/). What does this mean for the education of pre-service teachers? How old - or how experienced - do you need to be to be capable of learning how to teach online?
http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/
Back when Bruce Reeves and I did our Masters of Education thesis together, we found study after study showed that there was no significant difference in the performance of students who were studying a class at a distance and those who were studying on campus.
This website (and the corresponding book) pulls together hundreds of studies comparing online versus on-campus student performance ... which point generally to either no significant difference between them ... or that online students actually outperform their campus-based counterparts. And this result is during the infancy of online teaching, in which we are still trying to teach the old way using new tools, "blind to the possibilities of doing new and different things" (McDonald, J. (2002). Is "as good as face-to-face" as good as it gets?).
http://www.cio.com/article/4
As a group, physicians almost define the need for accurate, up-to-date information at your fingertips combined with an understanding of multiple, complex systems.
But if they are moving away from the old school model of "memorize everything you'll need for the future while in school", what does that tell us about our current, banking model of school?
To foster more give and take, I started a Wiki page associated with the bridge between education and technology. See the experiment at: Educational Technology Bridge Wiki and contribute freely.
I think it is helpful for many faculty -- and students too -- to practice these new tools in low-stakes environments.
Seems like we keep trying to get this idea up off the ground - a repository of learning objects that is freely available to educators but is still vetted and peer reviewed by .... well, our fellow teachers.
The latest offering in my email box is Curriki, developed and maintained by a nonprofit organization (Curriki.org) which includes staff to maintain and evaluate shared materials.
Read all about it at the MMISchools website.
There's a new blog on the block, run by a number of the leading lights in educational gaming, so I recommend checking out .... the Learning Games Network. It's new - in fact, it is in beta - so bear with people as they ramp up.
Meanwhile, here is a chance to experience for yourself the advantages of distance/online learning: the reading group, which is entirely virtual. So distance can't be your excuse not to attend! The first book they are reading is even available for free online. And it is a good one - The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning, edited by Katie Salen, game designer and educator (high school level). Not only is the book excellent (I've read some chapters already), but each chapter stands on its own, so you can jump into the discussion group as your weekly schedule allows.
One thing I love about the web, even if you're avoiding work or killing time, you can't avoid running across useful web sites! Makes you want to find a quiet cabin off the grid .... but, never mind that! Here is what I found:
The Encyclopedia of Education Technology is a searchable and categorized list of topics pertaining to the intersection of technology and education. It is multimedia enhanced, written for educators, and contains references, suggested uses for technology and links for more information.
Frankly, it is awesome and looks like a wonderfully useful tool!
The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (commonly known simply as MERLOT) has been a well-kept secret for 10 years.
In essence, it is a collection of educational materials, contributed and rated by author educators. The peer review ensures some degree of quality, which is lacking in many other online content sites. Much of the collection is freely available - without charge - to the general public, although some content is restricted to access by members or partners only.
Materials are grouped by category, and the site is searchable.
Discipline communities have also grown up within MERLOT as a whole, to help educators with instructional and professional development applicable to their unique needs.
While the idea of freely contributed and distributed learning modules is enticing, several difficulties exist with MERLOT. While materials are categorized and searchable, the process still can be cumbersome and time consuming if you are looking for a module on a specific concept. Even if you find one, you need to look through the whole thing to see if it will fit into your particular curriculum without raising issues or topics you are not ready to address.
The materials are also not sorted or categorized by appropriate age group. Many modules can be used for K-12 classes, although the site generally seems written to cater to the needs of higher education faculty.
Finally, many of the materials are web sites without any specific guidance for an instructor regarding what type of objectives the module was intended to meet or where it would fit into a curriculum.
All these problems aside, MERLOT is an excellent place to start looking for online support materials if your text book company does not already have a web site for that particular book. And, it may be a good place to connect with other educators or even an outlet for your own materials, if you think they would be helpful to other teachers or faculty members.