|
THE NEWS
ACADEMIC PREPARATION
Virtual Ed. in Canada Favors Centralized Programs
By Michelle R. Davis, Education Week
Canada's approach to online learning comes rooted in a history of distance education for students living in remote areas and is often unique to the province where the brick-and-mortar schools are located.
But unlike the way online learning has evolved in some parts of the United States, there's very little private company involvement in creating or providing virtual courses in Canada. Few schools buy online courses from private vendors, and organizations that provide those courses within the country are either mostly nonprofits or operated directly by school districts. In the past few years, the paths of the two countries have diverged when it comes to online learning, said Michael K. Barbour, an assistant professor of instructional technology at Detroit-based Wayne State University. He has written several reports about the status of online learning in Canada for the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL.
Julia Steiny: Chronic Absenteeism Reveals and Causes Problems
By Julia Steiny, Education News
Showing up every day and on time are skills absolutely necessary to success, especially at the entry level of any job or profession. Who would argue? And yet, high absenteeism is a huge problem across the nation. Hedy Chang, the Director of Attendance Works, says that Americans are perfectly aware that compulsory attendance at school is the law. They just don’t much care. And no one teaches parents how to get 3 kids up, dressed, fed and out the door on time. It’s a feat. More challenging for some than others. So Attendance Works’ mission is to help communities get their kids to school. High absenteeism is a chronic problem that contributes to the more famous problems of low achievement and kids dropping out. Urban schools in particular are vilified for their poor academic performance, but they have limited control over whether or not the kids’ butts are in the seats.
Kindergarten attention span predicts good work habits down the road: research
By Vinay Menon, Parentcentral.ca
Kindergarten students with poor attention spans are less likely to develop strong workplace skills compared to peers, a new study has found. “For children, the classroom is the workplace, and this is why productive, task-oriented behaviour in that context later translates to the labour market,” said lead researcher Linda Pagani, a professor at the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine. The study started in 1997 when teachers first rated 1,369 kindergarten students on how well they worked autonomously and with classmates. The students, all from low-income areas in Montreal, were also assessed for self-control, self-confidence, as well as their ability to follow directions and complete assignments on time. The children were then tracked through Grade 6. Three natural groupings emerged: those with high, medium, and low classroom engagement. The kids who fell into the latter group in kindergarten were more likely to remain disengaged all the way through.
POSTSECONDARY ACCESS SUCCESS
Canadian two-year colleges show path to jobs
By Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report
TORONTO—At the University of Manitoba, where she enrolled after high school, it seemed to take Angela Conrad forever to satisfy her degree requirements by taking courses in women’s studies, Greek mythology, and other courses she considered impractical. All she really wanted was a job in marketing. “It takes people two years, sometimes three years, to finish” their mandatory 30 credit hours of general studies at the university, Conrad said. “It made me think there had to be a learning style that was faster and more practical than that.” Conrad, 23, recounts this in the student lounge at Toronto’s George Brown College, the Canadian equivalent of an American community college, where she transferred after giving up on a four-year degree from a university in favor of a two-year diploma.
Union, students want gov't to protect college
By Terrance Standard.com
THE HEAD of a provincial association of post secondary instructors believes a united front is needed to convince the provincial government to avoid program closures and layoffs at Northwest Community College. Cindy Oliver from the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC is asking that college president Denise Henning and college board chair Rhoda Witherly join her in lobbying the provincial advanced education minister. Oliver said cuts and layoffs at the college to cure a deficit don't make any sense given the need to train northwestern residents for the major economic development projects now underway or about to start. Various provincial estimates indicate northwestern residents aren't prepared to take advantage of the work to be generated because they lack the necessary employment and education skills.
U of A head preaches quiet diplomacy
By Sheila Pratt, Edmonton Journal
Working behind the scenes with the provincial government is more effective than public advocacy to make the case for better university funding, University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera says.
A group of professors in the arts and science faculties who last month publicly protested cuts to staff and faculty in the coming year are free to do so, but such "negative advocacy" is not effective and could send the wrong message about the quality of education at the university, Samarasekera told a meeting Monday of the general faculties council. "It has been our strategic choice to have these conversations with government directly, not through the media, and the government is listening," Samarasekera said.
Despite belt-tightening due to two years of no increases in provincial grants, Alberta universities still get higher per-student operating grants than other universities, she said, adding there are more professors than in 2004-05 when she arrived.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
U.S., Chinese Schools Build Virtual Ed. Partnerships
By Katie Ash, Education Week
Several schools aiming to better prepare students for a global economy and foster cultural understanding between the United States and China have turned to virtual exchange programs between American and Chinese schools. "The global market is changing 24-7," said William Skilling, the superintendent of the 4,600-student Oxford community school system in Michigan. "We feel it is mission-critical for every student to become fluent in a world language and fluent in multiple world cultures." To that end, the district hires only native speakers to teach foreign languages, hosts both virtual and physical exchange programs with Chinese students and educators, and launched an international school in China that will allow students from the district to study there.
Mobile Devices Address Tech. Equity in Africa
By Michelle R. Davis, Education Week
In Ghana, elementary-school-age children who have rarely seen more than a handful of books are now using e-readers to access whole libraries. In South Africa, students are text-chatting with math tutors by cell phone for help with their homework. And in Liberia, educators will soon use electronic tablets to collect vital and accurate information about schools, students, and resources throughout the country.
On the continent of Africa, the use of mobile technology and online content in various forms is gaining steam as a way to bypass some countries' most significant education hurdles, including rural settings, limited electricity, and a lack of educational resources. Experts say mobile technology—whether cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, tablet computers, or e-readers—is likely to aid many African countries in making a leap in education that was impracticable not long ago.
U.S. Agency Will Offer $100-Million to Universities to Study Development Issues
By Ian Wilhelm, The Chronicle of Higher Education
As part of an effort to reinvigorate its work with higher education, the U.S. Agency for International Development is starting a new $100-million program to study foreign aid and generate solutions to problems facing the developing world, like lack of adequate food resources, government corruption, and environmental degradation. The goal is to get the world's poor on the research agenda of the nation's top universities. The agency wants the money, which will be doled out over five years, to forge multidisciplinary partnerships between universities with different areas of expertise, say, in water conservation and disease control, or broader coalitions that could include companies, nonprofits, and foreign higher-education institutions.
|
.jpg)
