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