As internet giants Google and Microsoft jockey for dominance in the realm of web-based services, institutions of higher learning have benefited from this competition in the form of free services. Google so far leads Microsoft by a wide margin: roughly 2000 institutions worldwide have outsourced some aspect of their web services (generally email) to Google since 2006. This September, Google will be touring the country in an environmentally-friendly bus as part of the aptly-named “App to School” tour. The tour aims to promote Google’s portfolio of web-based applications as well as solicit feedback from student end-users.

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Tags: Learning Technologies, Online Education by editor
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  Knol screenshot, courtesy of Wikipedia

Google’s recently-acquired reference site, Knol, entered into public beta on 23 July. The site is similar to Wikipedia in that it relies entirely on user-submitted content, but the similarities end there. Instead of encouraging collaboration between users, Knol emphasizes individual authorship, and encourages users to verify that their username is their legal name via credit card or phone. As such, each entry is controlled by a single person, although other users may suggest edits. Knol aims to incentivize contribution by paying authors a share of the ad revenue generated by their content.

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European researchers participating in the European Learning Grid Infrastructure (ELeGI) project recently completed an online learning platform that automatically responds to individual students’ learning styles as well as teacher input. The ELeGI promises to revolutionize online pedagogy by rendering the online learning platform fluid: instead of adapting to the platform, teachers have the platform adapt to them.

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Blackboard + open source = future?

The course management behemoth Blackboard has recently announced a partnership with the open-source course manager Sakai at Syracuse University. While the move is unlikely to inspire a great deal of confidence from the open source community—the partnership is at only one of thousands of Blackboard-using schools—it is a step in the right direction. Given the abundance of competent coders among students and faculty on most college campuses, it would make sense for universities to adopt open source course management software en masse. The implication for online schools is the same—each online program has its own specific needs in terms of how students are interacting or submitting course materials: students in a programming course require a different user experience than art students. (Click here for the full story over at Inside Higher Education)

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Old school.

Anyone who has attended an institution of higher learning in the last several decades can attest to the astronomically high cost of textbooks. Students frustrated by the seemingly unjustifiably high price of course materials can take solace in the rising popularity of “open textbooks.” These books contain all the same content as their “closed” counterparts, with one important difference—they are free. While some online schools have been using free or low cost ebooks in the place of traditional textbooks for several years, the expansion of this trend to brick-and-mortar institutions is encouraging. Once again, technology first adopted by online schools is spreading to the mainstream. (Story via Online Learning Update)

Tags: Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by editor
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One of the biggest barriers to creating an online learning environment identical in experience to traditional education is test proctoring. A provision in a bill expected to pass before Congress by the fall aims to resolve this issue by mandating that universities use biometric technologies to proctor online tests.

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But is the program accredited?

The Je Khenpo, Bhutan’s highest-ranking religious official, awarded 21 masters degrees last week to monks who had completed their studies primarily via correspondence. The courses, organized by the Royal University of Bhutan in collaboration with the Je Khenpo, mark the first time monks’ learnings have been recognized in the form of a diploma—proving that even ancient teachings can make use of distance learning technology. (Story via Online Learning Update)

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The School of Athens by Raphael depicts the Academy founded by Plato in Athens in the 4th Century B.C.

While much has been said about the liberation of musical content as its free proliferation across the internet increases, attempting to locate this phenomenon in online learning—as some have—is fundamentally misguided. The experiment of the so-called “open” university is not a new one, and its failings have been well-documented: shoddy scholarship, inconsistent curricula, and ideological radicalism.

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Stephen Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, is one of the world’s foremost intellectuals and known for his use of assistive technologies.

Over the last decade, online learning has made earning a degree possible for millions who had previously been left at the gates of upper education. Included in this group are countless disabled individuals for whom pursuing higher education presented a serious challenge and often an even larger financial burden. Indeed, thanks to divers new technologies, online learning environments are being adapted to meet their needs–everything from customized input devices to text-to-speech programs.

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Apple’s new 3G iPhone offers plenty of promise as a platform for elearning developers, providing unprecedented access and convenience to potential distance learners

The upcoming release of Apple’s second-generation iPhone 3G is being eagerly anticipated by millions of technophiles around the world. Nevertheless, gadget aficionados are not the only ones looking forward to the iPhone’s arrival—elearning companies Mohive and Learnosity have both launched iPhone platforms for their educational services.

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