Historia de la Educación a Distancia

Línea del Tiempo de la Educación a Distancia from robertorlicea on Vimeo.

Presentación de Claudio Rama

La regulación de la educación virtual en América Latina

View more presentations from Claudio Rama

Libro gratis: Concepción y tendencias de la educación a distancia en América Latina

García Aretio, Lorenzo (coord.)
El proyecto de investigación COSYPEDAL aborda la situación de la educación a distancia en América Latina y su evolución. Para conocer las condiciones presentes del contexto, se analizan tres factores que influyen en la implantación de la educación a distancia: el primero es la calidad educativa; el segundo, el coste económico que suponen los recursos tecnológicos que requiere este tipo de educación, y el tercer factor es la infraestructura tecnológica necesaria.

Para acceder a este libro, oprima aquí.

Libro gratuito: educación y tecnologias las voces de los expertos

Para acceder a este líbro, oprima aquí.

Las TICs, más allá de la integración… hacia la transformación de la educación

Leyes y Normas que regulan la Educación a Distancia

Oprima sobre la cubierta del libro para acceder al contenido...

Hacia un programa a distancia de calidad en la UPR

Mi presentación en el Congreso Mundial de Educación Abierta y a Distancia, en Bali 2011

Mi hotel durante mi estadía en Bali

Día 1 en el viaje a Bali, para el Congreso de Educación a Distancia

Ya estoy en camino a Indonesia... pero tuve un tropiezo leve en Nueva York... perdí el vuelo. Resulta que cuando salí del avión en Nueva York (a las 11:30pm), el tablón de información sobre los vuelos de American Airlines indicaba que mi vuelo a Hong Kong esta a tiempo (a la 1:20am). Pero no indicaba el salida.

¿Qué hice? Pues hice lo que pareció lógico... me senté cerca del tablón, leyendo y mirando hacia el tablón ocasionalmente. Estaba esperando que salga el número de la salida. Pero nunca de publicó. Cuando veo que se acerca la hora de la salida pautada (ya eran las 12:30pm) comienzo a buscar información sobre Cathay Airlines (que es la otra línea de vuelo que tomo en este viaje --son socios de American Airlines-- y lo hice para abaratar el costo). Pues un empleado me indica que se encuentran la ala 7 del aeropuerto (yo estaba en la ala 8, con American Airlines).

Cuando por fin llego al mostrador de Cathay Airlines, era muy tarde para darme un boleto de abordaje. Ya estaban abordando los demás pasajeros. Resignado, me fui a recostarme en la ala 4, que es el área que se que abierto toda la noche y habían otros pasajeros tratando de dormir... tratando!!!

Regresé más tarde, a las 6:30am cuando el mostrador estuviese abierto para hablar con un representante sobre mi caso, y me indican que la confusión era común, y me dieron una reservación para la noche (10:20pm). Iré a Vancouver (en Canadá), y luego bajo a Hong Kong, para finalmente terminar en Indonesia.

Escribo esto desde en la biblioteca pública en la calle 42 de Nueva York. Y pienso... si esto pasa a menudo, ¿porqué no borran el información del vuelo que no existe para American Airlines? Así uno busca la información pertinente directamente en Cathey Airlines. ¡Me parece lógico!

Espero no quedarme dormido aquí... no he dormido nada.

New guidelines for open educational resources

Open educational resources (OER) can increase access to education while cutting costs and improving quality. That is why, argues SIR JOHN DANIEL, they offer the potential to enable the greatest increase in access to education that the world has ever seen. The Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO have drafted international guidelines for OER in higher education, and are inviting comments on them. Para ver el documento, oprima aquí.

Historia de la educación a distancia en los EEUU

Midiendo la Calidad en la Educación a Distancia

Presentación en el Congreso Interamericano de Profesores de Contabilidad.
2 al 3 de septiembre, 2011
CENTRO DE CONVENCIONES DE PUERTO RICO

Noveno Congreso Educación y Tecnología

The Digital Revolution and Higher Education

Nuevo estudio del Pew Research Center.
Por Kim Parker, Amanda Lenhart and Kathleen Moore

Esto es un resumen de los datos:

The Value of Online Learning. The public and college presidents differ over the educational value of online courses. Only 29% of the public says online courses offer an equal value compared with courses taken in a classroom. Half (51%) of the college presidents surveyed say online courses provide the same value.

The Prevalence of Online Courses. More than three-quarters of college presidents (77%) report that their institutions now offer online courses. These courses are more prevalent in some sectors of higher education than in others. While 89% of four-year public colleges and universities offer online classes, just 60% of four-year private schools offer them.

Online Students. Roughly one-in-four college graduates (23%) report that they have taken a class online. However, the share doubles to 46% among those who have graduated in the past ten years. Among all adults who have taken a class online, 39% say the format’s educational value is equal to that of a course taken in a classroom.
The Future of Online Learning. College presidents predict substantial growth in online learning: 15% say most of their current undergraduate students have taken a class online, and 50% predict that 10 years from now most of their students will take classes online.

College Presidents and Social Networking. Roughly one-third of college presidents (32%) report that they use Facebook weekly or more often; 18% say they use Twitter at least occasionally.

Para ver el informe completo, oprima aquí.

Blog de la Cátedra UNESCO de Educación a Distancia

Para ver su blog, oprima aquí.

Encuentro de pensamiento

Unleashing the Potential of Technology in Education

The long-promised technology revolution in education is now possible—but hardly inevitable. Educators and policymakers must act today to unleash the potential of technology to improve instruction, learning, and student outcomes. Successful institutions will deploy technology in a strategic way to enable a closed-loop instructional system—a comprehensive, holistic approach to education.

Lea el informe del Boston Consulting Group, al oprimir aquí.

La ciencia tras el aprendizaje

Publicación que trata sobre las últimas investigaciones sobre el proceso de aprender.
Es una publicación de eSchool Media.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Para obtener su copia, oprima aquí.

Manual de Uso del Software Social en la Educación Superior

Launched in October 2005, iCamp (a research and development project) is working to create an open virtual learning environment for university students across Europe by connecting different open source learning systems and tools and providing interoperability amongst them. In this learner-centered space, students and educators may work collaboratively on assignments across disciplines and across countries - with a focus on the integration of students and universities from the New Member States (NMS) and the Accession Countries (AC). iCamp offers students and educators tools for collaboration and interaction as well as access to a variety of resources.

The iCamp project is offering a new Spanish version of their Handbook, issued by Win-Win Consultores, with the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Turism under its “avanza2” programme for promoting Information Society, managed by red.es.

Para obtener una copia, oprima aquí.

Reseña del libro: Reinventing Higher Education: The promise of innovation

Reinventing Higher Education: The promise of innovation is a highly readable and important collection of essays edited by Ben Wildavsky, Andrew P Kelly and Kevin Carey. The book reads as a call to arms to the US higher education system to reform itself to remain what they unashamedly describe as the "best higher education system in the world".

The book is a series of interconnected chapters by leading experts that outline and provide solutions to the problems facing US higher education as it grapples with issues that will be familiar to international readers - balancing the competing pressures of expanding access, improving quality and reducing costs in a context of intensifying global competition, the challenges posed by new technologies and the introduction of severe funding reductions in public higher education.

Para leer la reseña completa del libro, oprima aquí.

La educación a distancia del futuro

Cracking the Code: Synchronizing Policy and Practice for Performance-Based Learning

The report sets a policy framework for advancing performance-based learning and builds on recommendations made during the 2011 Competency-Based Learning Summit cohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnvened by iNACOL and CCSSO earlier this year. The report recommends that states begin to transform policies from "rigid compliance" to "enabling policies," by offering seat-time waivers or "credit flex" policies that allow for the flexibility to offer competency-based learning in K-12. The policy development is multi-stage -- building towards a "comprehensive policy redesign" that would require school districts to offer competency-based credits; provide proper training and information systems; establish quality-control; support individual growth models for accountability; and align higher education with K-12 competency-based efforts.

Para ver el informe completo, oprima aquí

Estudiantes en línea no completan los cursos como los estudiantes presenciales

This report investigates enrollment patterns and academic outcomes in online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses among students who enrolled in Washington State community and technical colleges in the fall of 2004. Students were tracked for nearly five years, until the spring of 2009. Results were similar to those found in a parallel study in Virginia.

Students who were employed for more hours and students who had demographic characteristics associated with stronger academic preparation were more likely to enroll in online courses; however, students who enrolled in hybrid courses were quite similar to those who enrolled in a purely face-to-face curriculum. After controlling for student characteristics using multilevel regression techniques, results indicated that students were more likely to fail or withdraw from online courses than from face-to-face courses. In addition, students who took online coursework in early terms were slightly but significantly less likely to return to school in subsequent terms, and students who took a higher proportion of credits online were slightly but significantly less likely to attain an educational award or transfer to a four-year institution. In contrast, students were equally likely to complete a hybrid course as to complete a face-to-face course. Additional analyses with a new cohort of students entering in 2008 showed short-term results consistent with those of the 2004 cohort.

Para ver el estudio, oprima aquí.

From Information to Action: Revamping Higher Education Accountability Systems

La futura política pública del gobierno de fortuño sobre la UPR:

Public colleges and universities, which educate the vast majority of the nation's students, are an important part of states' economic competitiveness efforts. These institutions face three pressures that will demand increased productivity and a datadriven investment strategy moving forward:
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
1. The percentage of jobs requiring postsecondary education continues to rise and is expected to reach 63 percent by 2018. At the same time, there is growing evidence of a mismatch between the skill requirements of new jobs and the skills of individuals seeking them.

2. State budgets will continue to be squeezed amid slower revenue growth. Competition for resources will intensify, particularly from health care.

3. The number of students from groups (e.g., adults, low-income students, and students of color) that have historically enrolled in and completed certificate and degree programs at lower rates continues to grow as a share of total enrollment.

Para ver el documento, oprima aquí.

Guía práctica para el docente

Tiene cuatro secciones:
1. El rol del ordenador en el aula
2. No todo vale. Criterios para la selección de la información en la red
3. Trabajo en equipo
4. Actividades Creativas

Para ver la guía, oprima aquí.

Despertando el Guru

Quiero presentarles un libro difícil de clasificar.
Es un libro de negocios, es un libro para organizaciones sin fines de lucro, pero también es un libro filosófico.

El libro orienta sobre el proceso de hacer ganancias, pero pone en perspecitva que la búsqueda de dinero no es el fin... aún para el negociante.

El un libro para provocar, mientras uno busca una orientación sobre las formas para levantar o transformar una empresa... cualquier empresa.

Si quieres estimularte en lo cognitivo, afectivo y espiritual... ¡léalo!

Lo puedes conseguir en: www.wakeuptheguru.com

Capítulo del libro sobre calidad en la educación a distancia

Educación virtual: educación del siglo 21

Me resultó curioso leer el editorial del Nuevo Día, que llamó a investigar la educación virtual. Esta educación es fácil de evaluar con criterios de calidad que son muy similares a los que se aplican a la educación tradicional. ¿Tiene una facultad capacitada? ¿Tiene un currículo adecuado? ¿Están bien definidas las competencias en los cursos? ¿Las evaluaciones son confiables? ¿Tiene una administración capacitada? Naturalmente, los criterios se tienen que ajustar a la realidad de la virtualidad.

Pero me pregunto si se evaluarán con criterios que también indaguen sobre su adecuacidad para el siglo 21. Si analizamos bien el asunto, la premisa del editorial es certera: la proliferación de centros que ofrecen estudios a través de Internet puede ser una alternativa educativa ante los múltiples males de la escuela. Lo que añadiría es que los males de la rigidez y obsolescencia están presentes en las escuelas privadas también, y no es algo exclusivo de las públicas.

Creo que la directora del Consejo de Educación General, Carmen Berríos, está equivocada al argumentó que la institución carece de reglamentos al respecto. Actualmente existen criterios de calidad que son aplicables, con unos ajustes leves. Por ejemplo, las facilidades físicas adecuadas se tienen que ajustar para servidores y redes adecuadas para ofrecer una conectividad confiable.

Sin embargo, pregunto si habrá otros criterios relacionado a la adecuacidad para la sociedad de información. Por ejemplo, ¿habrá un criterio sobre la posibilidad para una educación más personalizada? Estoy de acuerdo que un Puerto Rico del siglo 21 necesita unas evaluaciones adecuadas. Estas evaluaciones ayudarían a sacar del mercado a las escuelas que se crearon sólo para hacer dinero fácil. Pero estas evaluaciones, si se orientan al siglo 21, deben también sacar del mercado a las escuelas que se aferran a métodos educativos caducados que se crearon para sustentar la producción masiva del siglo 20.

Para ver el editorial del Nuevo Día, oprima aquí.

Informe sobre la creación de empleos del Siglo 21

For the United States to return to full employment—finding work for the
currently unemployed and accommodating new entrants into the labor force this decade—the US economy will need to create 21 million jobs by 2020, according to an McKinsey Global Institute analysis.

To understand how this might happen, the McKinsey Global Institute launched a research project
that combines extensive sector analysis, interviews with human resource executives, a proprietary survey of 2,000 business leaders, and
our own scenario analysis and modeling.

The research analyzes the causes of slow job creation in the period before the recession and during the recovery and the implications of these forces for future job growth. The research projects how the US labor force will evolve over the next ten years and creates different scenarios for job growth based on extensive analysis of sector trends. MGI's central finding is that a return to full employment will occur in only the most optimistic job growth scenario. This will require not only a robust economic recovery, but also a concerted effort to address other factors that impede employment, including growing gaps in skill and education.

Para leer el informe, del McKinsey Global Institute, oprima aqui.

Preparando estudiantes para el siglo 21

The goal of “College for All”—the notion that every student should engage in some form of postsecondary education—was hotly debated this week, from a forum sponsored by Education Week to the pages of The New Yorker. Individuals on both sides of the controversy make cogent points, in my view, but I think there is more reason to be troubled by the push-back against, than by the aspiration behind, College for All.

President Obama has strongly supported the idea that all Americans should obtain at least one year of postsecondary training or education. Major resistance was voiced in February when a highly respected group of leaders at the Harvard Graduate School of Education published a report entitled, “Pathways to Prosperity.”

Pathways to Prosperity es una contribución de la escuela graduada de la facultad de Educación de la Universidad de Harvard.

Para leer el documento, oprima aquí.

Las TIC en Europa y en España

El Instituto de Tecnologías Educativas (ITE) perteneciente al Ministerio de Educación de nuestro país ha generado un informe correspondiente a este último año, donde figuran los indicadores y datos más destacados referentes al uso que se hace de las TIC en Europa y en España.

A lo largo del documento podemos observar información sobre el empleo de las TIC en las aulas, disponibilidad de ordenadores, número de equipos por alumnos, conexión a Internet,..., todo ello desglosado por países y comunidades autónomas en el caso de España.

Para ver el informe completo oprima aquí.

Variedades de educación híbrida

How does blended learning look in the trenches? What tools and policies are making it work? Innosight Institute explores these questions in a 178-page white paper, titled “The rise of K-12 blended learning: Profiles of emerging models.”

The report reveals 40 organizations that are early blended-learning pioneers and the technology that is leading the way.

Click here to read the report.

Presentación del Libro: Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educación Virtual

Durante el desarrollo del XII Encuentro Internacional Virtual Educa, a realizarse en la semana del 20 al 24 de junio en la ciudad de México, se presentará el libro denominado: EL ASEGURAMIENTO DE LA CALIDAD DE LA EDUCACIÓN VIRTUAL. Este importante aporte cuenta con la participación de destacados especialistas de diferentes países y tiene como editores al Dr. Claudio Rama del Observatorio Virtual Educa y al Dr. Julio B. Dominguez Granda, Rector de la Universidad Católica Los Ángeles de Chimbote y Presidente de la Red de Universidades Inclusivas de Virtual Educa.

La calidad de la educación a distancia está asociada a los procesos de evaluación y acreditación, así como a sus criterios, enfoques e indicadores de medición, haciendo así de ellos componentes imprescindibles de análisis y reflexión para el conocimiento de la dinámica de las instituciones y de política pública. Es ésta sin embargo una realidad poco conocida en la región que es necesario develar para contribuir al desarrollo de la educación a distancia.

El libro tiene un artículo sobre Puerto Rico, escrito por Juan Meléndez y Carmen Pacheco.

Para más informa, oprima aquí.

Proyecto de Ley para la economía del conocimiento

P de la C 2923 (2010)

Para establecer que será política pública del Gobierno de Puerto Rico de promover y desarrollar la economía del conocimiento; establecer los parámetros necesarios para solidificar la economía del conocimiento como herramienta esencial para el crecimiento y el desarrollo sostenido de la economía de Puerto Rico; crear el Consejo para el Desarrollo de la Economía del Conocimiento de Puerto Rico; establecer las funciones y responsabilidades de dicho Consejo; y otros fines.

Para ver el proyecto de ley, oprima aquí.

¿Para qué sirve la Universidad?

Sharply rising college costs, enrollments and student debt loads have touched off a debate about the role of higher education in the 21st Century.

A Pew Research Center report attempts to inform that debate. It is based on two surveys—one of the American public; the other of college presidents—that explore attitudes about the cost, value, quality, mission and payoff of a college education. The survey of college presidents was done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Para acceder al estudio, oprima aquí.

Creating education hubs

World demand for higher education continues to climb, driven by the insatiable desires for the socio-economic mobility of individuals, and by governments who now widely recognise that broad access to higher education, and the production of degrees at the baccalaureate, professional and doctoral level, is one of the primary factors for economic development.

At the same time education, and specifically higher education, could play a much larger role in rebalancing the US balance of trade. The US is http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifan underachiever in enrolling international students at the undergraduate level, and is still strong at the graduate level. But indicators show that this strength is eroding as universities elsewhere in the world are improving their quality and marketing, and as governments expand programmes intended to draw the world's pool of talented and increasingly mobile young people.

Para una copia del estudio sobre esta situación, por el Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California - Berkeley, oprima aquí.

Con más estudiantes a distancia, más profesores a distancia

Enrollment growth in distance education at community colleges outpaced overall growth in higher education, and colleges are increasingly turning to off-campus instructors who telecommute to deal with that demand, according to the results of the Instructional Technology Council’s 2010 Distance Education Survey.

The survey of 139 colleges found a 9-percent increase in online enrollment from fall 2009 to fall 2010, which is greater than the 7-percent overall growth and 8-percent community-college growth reported by the National Center for Education Statistics. Enrollment in online courses grew among both traditional and nontraditional students, according to the survey conducted by the council, which is affiliated with the American Association of Community Colleges.

Para ver el estudio, oprima aquí.

El próximo sábado 21 de mayo será la 4ta conferencia en el año. Habrá una transmisión por Internet auspiciada por EdNet. En esta ocasión es un evento muy significativo... EducaPR cumple un año.

Solicitamos que ayuden con la promoción de la actividad en las redes sociales, blogs, twitter, fb inviten a otros educadores a participar.

8.30 - 9.00 Bienvenida
9.00 – 9.40 Espiritualidad y sabiduría en la era digita. Dr. Mario Nuñez Molina
9.40 – 10.20 El uso de videos en la sala de clases Dr. Edgar León
10.20 10.50 Apps for Mobile Education. Prof. James Lynn
10.50- 11.00 Receso 11.00 -11.40 Tecnología e Innovación por Wilton Vargas, Tecnéctico
11.40 – 12.00 Actitud 2.0 transformando nuestro entorno escolar. Jeanette Delgado

Otro Recinto es posible

Blended Learning in K-12 environment

A report released this week identified six emerging models for blended learning in K-12, ranging from guided online instruction in the classroom to "self-blended" models where students take courses a la carte.

The report, "The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning: Profiles of Emerging Models," detailed blended learning programs that illustrate emerging trends in hybrid online and classroom-based instruction. It was authored by the Innosight Institute, a research firm focused on education and healthcare, and co-produced with the Charter School Growth Fund, a group that invests in charter school management organizations.

Despite the unique nature of each individual program studied, the researchers identified six "distinct clusters" of blended learning models that shared some common characteristics, all of which appear to be gaining adherents.
The group defined blended learning as "any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace."

For a copy of the report, click here.

Presentación sobre el estado del magisterio en Puerto Rico

UOC publica estudio sobre las características de sus estudiantes

Lea un articulo por la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), España, que apareció recientemente en la revista eLearning Papers.

El título es Flexible education: Analysing the changing demographic of online students at the Open University of Catalonia.


Para ver el artículo, oprima aquí.

Fareed Zakaria hace llamado indirecta a la independencia

En el artículo del Nuevo Día que reseña la charla del conocido editor de la revista Time y experto en relaciones exteriores, se dice que la Isla tiene que cambiar la política de subsidios y abandonar las políticas de la dependencia. También exhorta a que dejemos de mirar al gobierno federal como una máquina de dinero fácil.

Este mensaje va en la dirección contraria a la prédica histórica de los estadistas y estadolibristas.

Según Zakaria, Puerto Rico tiene los elementos para ser el Dubai o el Hong Kong de este hemisferio. No dijo que tenemos los elementos de ser un buen estado de la nación norteamericana. Él nos ubicó en el contexto internacional. Inclusive, abundó más sobre esto diciendo que en esta coyuntura, Puerto Rico necesita trazarse un curso de acción distinto ya que la Isla tiene los elementos necesarios para ocupar una posición de mayor relieve en el continente americano, pero que no lo ha hecho. Obviamente, si la mira de los líderes políticos tradicionales en Puerto Rico es hacia el norte, no pueden ver el potencial del sur, éste y oeste.

Zakaria correctamente nos ubicó en América Latina y sobre esto dijo que “Puerto Rico es el único país en América Latina que tiene una población en declive”. Indicó que si la Isla no cambia su debate en torno a crear riquezas y no detiene su política de subsidiar a su población, quedará sin recursos. Yo añado, que nos quedaremos sin futuro.

Vea mis comentarios en el Nuevo Día.

Luego, el Editorial del Nuevo Día hace un llamado contra la dependencia.
Y el analista Ángel Rosa comenta sobre esto mismo en su columna.

Un comentario excelente sobre la presentación se encuentra en las páginas del Center for the New Economy (CNE).

Definitivamente, este es un tema que los educadores deben discutir, para saber hacia donde debe ir la educación.

Puerto Rico atrás en el uso de las tecnologías

Según un estudio del Foro Económico Mundial, Puerto Rico terminó 43 en un estudio comparativo sobre el uso de las tecnologías.

El estudio señala que "Sweden was first, followed by Singapore, Finland and Switzerland".

"These rankings, for 2010, are based on an index of 71 economic and social indicators, as diverse as new patents, mobile phone subscriptions and availability of venture capital".

Para ver el estudio, oprima aquí.

¿Cómo es que los educadores usan a los medios sociales?

Un informe de Pearson sobre la forma que los educadores usan a Twitter, YouTube y otros medios sociales.

Para ver el informe, oprima aquí.

Informe internacional sobre el dominio del inglés

Vea las clasificaciones detalladas por país, la metodología de cálculo y el papel asumido por el inglés en el mundo hoy en día.

El informe EPI EF 2011 compara el nivel de inglés entre adultos de todo el mundo. El informe consta de elementos que incluyen:

Contiene:
*Una descripción de las personas que aprenden inglés y como lo hacen
*Una discusión acerca del papel asumido por el inglés en el mundo en 2011
*42 países y 2 territorios clasificados según su nivel de inglés
*Explicaciones acerca del rendimiento de los factores educativos, económicos y sociales
*Recomendaciones acerca de la manera en la cual los países pueden mejorar su nivel de inglés.
*Una explicación completa sobre la metodología y las referencias.

Para acceder al informe, oprima aquí.

Se buscan educadores a distancia

Si ofrece u ofreció cursos en cualquier modalidad a distancia (en línea o híbridos), favor de responder a un breve cuestionario sobre las destrezas y/o habilidades que debe poseer un estudiante antes de iniciarse en un curso en modalidad híbrida. Este cuestionario es parte de la investigación doctoral de Norma Ortiz Rodríguez y los resultados se utilizarán para desarrollar un taller a estudiantes universitarios.

Para obtener más detalles y colaborar, puede visitar el blog: http://profanortiz.wordpress.com

Introducing Skype in the classroom

Skype in the classroom is a free community to help teachers everywhere use Skype to help their students learn. It’s a place for teachers to connect with each other, find partner classes and share inspiration. This is a global initiative that was created in response to the growing number of teachers using Skype in their classrooms. Read more.

Lecciones de la Escuela Virtual de Florida

Trends in student enrollment at Florida Virtual School (FLVS) have been increasing steadily since its inception in 1997, with over 250,000 students enrolled today. The majority of FLVS students are completing or supplementing their traditional classroom coursework, many for the convenience of virtual work and others because a particular course is not offered in their own district. Courses are free for Florida residents but available to students around the world, providing limitless access to award-winning curriculum and instructors. Both the school's model and its individual educators have been recognized for success in bridging the gap between knowledge and physical proximity of teacher and student. In being recently named Best Virtual School by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), FLVS follows several critical pillars for e-Learning success.

See the full article by clicking here.

Train teachers as education researchers

The most successful countries educationally make teaching an attractive, high status profession, and provide training for teachers to become educational innovators and researchers who have responsibility for reform. These were among findings presented last week in New York at the International Summit on the Teaching Profession, the first of its kind, held to identify best practices for recruiting, training and supporting teachers.

For the full report, click here.

Many countries want to become education hubs

A number of countries have declared their desire to become higher education hubs in order to develop as knowledge economies. They are setting up facilities and initiating policies to attract foreign students, researchers and faculty as well as branch campuses of foreign institutions, in what amounts to a major change in attitude towards higher education from purely local to regional and international.

For documents and videos, click here.

Presentación del Congreso de Investigación

El potencial de la tecnología para transformar la educación

Siempre es un placer presentar los comentarios de Sir John Daniel, del Commonwealth of Learning.

En esta ocasión, se presenta sus comentarios, hechos el 8 de marzo, en el 4th Annual Australian Higher Education Congress.

Aunque el título de su presentación fue Innovation in boosting participation: considering the potential of IT, su ponencia giró hacia la transformación en la educación.

Para ver su ponencia, oprima aquí.

Roadmap for Ensuring America's Future

The evidence is clear. The USA cannot become the world leader in college degrees by 2020 or have the globally competitive workforce of the future without a tactical plan for increasing Latino college completion.

The product of collaboration among 60 partners, the Roadmap for Ensuring America's Future (March 2011) is a tool for stimulating and facilitating dialogue in communities across the USA about action needed to increase degree attainment generally, and Latino degree attainment specifically.

To read the report, click here.

Catálogo de Software Educativo Libre

El Catálogo de Software Educativo Libre es una publicación del Centro Internacional de Desarrollo Tecnológico y Software Libre (CIDETYS) de Panamá, con la que se pretende introducir al profesorado en el uso del software libre.

Como su nombre indica, el Catálogo de Software Educativo Libre es una suerte de guía introductoria, dedicada especialmente al personal docente panameño como acompañamiento a la nueva política oficial de implantación de software libre en la enseñanza.

A través de sus 91 páginas, el Catálogo de Software Educativo Libre presenta los conceptos del software libre, distribuciones GNU/Linux específicas para la enseñanza, aplicaciones educativas… En definitiva, un más que buen recurso informativo, no solo para profesores, también para padres.

Oprima aquí para ver el catálogo.

Open Content in Practice

A virtual high school in Utah shuns textbooks and relies on open content for 100 percent of its coursework.

When Open High School of Utah started up in 2009, there were no textbooks to order, no buildings to construct, and no classrooms to outfit. The traditional "classroom" as we know it was overlooked in favor of a virtual environment that not only didn't require physical facilities but also didn't rely on age-old conventions like textbooks.

For more information, click here.

IRRODL special issue on ODL and prior learning

The refereed e-journal, the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL), has published the first of three special issues on theory and practice in open and distance learning worldwide.

Entitled, 'Prior, Experiential and Informal Learning in the Age of Information and Communication Technologies', the first of this series of special issues focuses on the exciting convergence of interests between open and distance learning and the recognition of prior learning. The guest editor of this special issue is Dr Dianne Conrad, Director of the Centre for Learning Accreditation at Athabasca University, Canada. Dr Conrad has used her contacts in the community to solicit the quality research articles and field notes that facilitate a deeper understanding of this important and timely topic.

This open access publication is available on the IRRODL website

Primer Encuentro de Instituciones de Educación Superior sobre la Inclusión del Estudiante con Impedimento en la Educación a Distancia

La Asociación Puertorriqueña de Aprendizaje a Distancia se complace en invitarle a usted y a su personal y a las demás personas interesadas, al Primer Encuentro de Instituciones de Educación Superior sobre la Inclusión del Estudiante con Impedimento en la Educación a Distancia. En esta actividad se reunirán los expertos en educación a distancia de las instituciones universitarias más reconocidas en Puerto Rico para presentar los siguientes temas:
1. Accesibilidad Electrónica
2. Fundamentos de Asistencia Tecnológica
3. Presentación de los Avances Tecnológicos Móviles que proveen “Android, iPhone y Blackberry”.

Para más información, visite la página de APAD.

Supporting policies create increased impact for OER

The Open Educational Quality Initiative "Beyond OER" study report is now published. Among its conclusions it finds that OER are more widely used where programmes or inititatives for open resources exist at the institutional level. The lesser the fear, insecurity or discomfort towards Open Educational Resources (OER), the higher the frequency of OER use. The report thus advocates building trust in OER in order to increase their actual usage, and building open learning architectures to transform learning.

Institutional policies for OER are still a long way from impacting on educational institutions according to findings from the Open Educational Quality Initiative (OPAL) quantative survey. The perception by respondents that OER lead to institutional innovation still does not translate into implementation at the organization level. This is further compounded on the one hand by the very modest levels of support to factors that induce or enable the implementation of Open Educational Practices (OEP) in educational institutions, and on the other hand by the level of importance attached by respondents to institutional policy barriers to the use of OER.

The study report (file size 6MB) is available by clicking here.

GLOBAL: Higher education becomes more costly

University students are having to meet more of the cost of their higher education in countries with existing mass higher education systems and “ageing demographics” – and the trend towards reduced public spending on universities looks set to continue. A new report, released last week, by Toronto based Higher Education Strategy Associates says governments facing budget-balancing exercises, such as Britain and some US states including California, are already imposing cuts.

Another study reports that the rise in Europe's student population and public funding cuts across the continent are combining to produce an unprecedented higher education crisis which can only be met by much greater diversifying of income sources, experts heard in Brussels on Tuesday at the launch of a major European Universities Association survey of 27 countries.

To read the first report, click here.

To read the second report, click here.

International Higher Education spreads wings

In an increasingly globalised world, higher education is no longer the monopoly of Europe and the United States. With countries like Brazil, India and China generating innovative research and producing top academic minds, higher education news and issues have truly taken to the world stage. One American academic publication is also spreading its wings.

International Higher Education (IHE), published by the Center for International Higher Education (CIHE) at Boston College in the US, is working to make itself more accessible in the non-English speaking world.

To see the publication, click here.

Christensen examines Higher Ed

In a new report, Clayton M. Christensen who examined how technology has "disrupted" and reshaped those and other manufacturing industries has turned his gaze to higher education, arguing that it faces peril if it does not change to meet the challenge.

The report is called "Disrupting College".

To see the report, click here.

Horizon Report 2011

Mobile devices are one year away from transforming education. For the third straight year.

The 2011 Horizon Report, an annual look at technology trends affecting higher education, points to mobile devices as one of six technologies to watch. Of the other five trends, game-based learning and learning analytics—using data to track student progress—are new additions for 2011.

The report, produced by the New Media Consortium and Educause, notes that mobile devices have been listed before, but it says that resistance by many schools continues to slow the full integration of mobile devices into higher education.

Click here to see the report.

Articulo New York Times: Online Courses, Still Lacking That Third Dimension

Summary: Universities have hesitated in offering online courses for
credit without assigning a human instructor, too.
Click here for article.
Click here for graphic.

ISTE Standards exercise

ISTE standards worksheet

View more documents from Juan Melendez.

What Degrees Should Mean

What should a college graduate know and be able to do? There are as many views on that as there are colleges (thousands), if not individual professors and students (many more).

The diversity of opinions about what a college education means has long been seen as a strength of American higher education. But in recent years, many employers and policy makers have argued that the lack of a common definition of what students should know and be able to do -- and a dearth of adequate methods of gauging whether they know it and can do it -- has contributed to a decline in the quality of higher education and to the awarding of more degrees, but of lesser value.

The push to set such standards at a national (and even federal) level has, in turn, led many college and faculty leaders to complain that a one-size-fits-all approach to defining student learning would result in greatly oversimplified definitions of learning.

To try to provide a shared understanding of what degrees mean -- but without, its designers insist, turning that into a government or other mandate -- the Lumina Foundation for Education is today releasing a draft of its Degree Qualifications Profile, created by four leading higher education researchers and policy experts.

Click here to see the report.

Paper explores whether and how repetition can breed competence in a business setting

The paper explores the specificity of volume-based learning in an outsourced setting. When producing a unit of output, the content of the knowledge gained can vary dramatically from one unit to the next. This suggests that while aggregate experience in learning-by-doing is generally valuable, not all prior experience has an equal impact on performance. To examine these differences we introduce a framework
to unpack the multiple dimensions of experience that exist within one unit of work.

The paper then empirically examines the customer-, domain-, and technology-specificity of learning. The empirical setting is the context of outsourced radiological services where individual doctors at an outsourcing firm complete radiological reads for hospital customers. We find that customer-, domain-, and technology-specific experience—as compared to other experience—leads to improved productivity. We discuss the implications of our results for the study of learning and experience, as well as for outsourcers and the firms that use their services.

Press here to access the paper.

Uso de la tecnología en las escuelas de PR

Oprima aquí para ver el video.

Educating Students for Success in the Global Economy

The single biggest issue on the minds of people today, and likely well into the future, is the state of the economy. How long will a recovery take? What will be needed to ensure that a future of economic vitality, innovation, and competitiveness on the global stage is possible for the United States when the current crisis subsides?

Even amid the most dismal financial circumstances in decades and a political environment in which disagreements about the way forward appear to outweigh common ground, we remain committed to the principle that in order to thrive in the future, we must prepare students today by giving them the skills necessary to navigate life and careers in an age of global connectedness and global competition.

To download the report, press here.

Educación a Distancia: Actores y Experiencias

Patricia Ávila Muñoz ofrece la versión digital del libro sobre los 20 años del Consorcio Red de Educación a Distancia (CREAD).

El libro se denomina CREAD: Educación a Distancia: Actores y Experiencias. Cuenta con la participación de reconocidos especialistas de la educación a distancia, y cada artículo nos brinda una visión panorámica de la educación a distancia en América Latina y el Caribe.

Para las instrucciones para su descarga, oprima aquí.