US: Arizona Considers Cutting Funds for Virtual Schools
Posted July 6th, 2008 by Heidi Bakk-Hansen
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Proposal to Cut Funding for Public Virtual Schools is Shortsighted
By Ann Robinett, Arizona Republic (Opinion)
6/1/08
In our 21st-century economy, work is done around the clock. The numbers of workers who telecommute are growing daily. Time and distance are less relevant today than ever before. What's most important is progress. The same can be applied to public education.
Since 1999, Arizona has embraced public virtual schools. These public schools are open 24/7, teaching Arizona kids anytime, anywhere, any place and continue to prove a lifesaver for many children.
But now, Arizona leaders are considering a proposal to arbitrarily cut funding for my children's public virtual school. The proposed cuts are deep and put a significant risk to the quality programs I and other Arizona parents have come to rely on for their children.
US: Teaching is More Than Textbooks
Posted July 2nd, 2008 by Heidi Bakk-Hansen
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Education Changing By Incorporating Technology
By S. Alexander Gerould, Jamestown Post-Journal (NY)
5/30/08
Rick Walters doesn’t like being confined to one way of instructing his students.
As the teacher of an American history course using distance learning, he knows he has many tools at his fingertips to enhance the learning experience of those in his classes, including textbooks, the Internet and other multimedia.
For Walters, and others involved in education, the face of education is evolving.
US: More Universities Turning to Open Source e-Learning
Posted July 2nd, 2008 by Heidi Bakk-Hansen
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Open Source Making the Grade in Higher Education
By Sean Michael Kerner, InternetNews.com
5/28/08
Open source and higher education have a long and storied history. After all, BSD Unix originally came from the University of California at Berkeley, and Linux itself was created while Linus Torvalds was a student at the University of Helsinki.
Yet new research from Gartner indicates that open source is taking hold in universities in more areas than ever before, a fact supported by a string of wins from commercial open source vendor GroundWork.
