Video game technology has improved dramatically, but creative games are still hard to come by

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Plato’s Republic. Machiavelli’s The Prince. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. To many, these works are considered the classics—some of humanity’s most enduring accomplishments.

Others, however, look to a different classical canon. Pong. Pac-Man. Duke Nukem. Halo. Grand Theft Auto. These hardcore gamers scorn the scholars of old, embracing instead the pixilated prose of video game designers. Many long to rise up out of their parents’ basements (just kidding…) and join their ranks as creators of virtual worlds.

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Tags: Career Education, Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by editor
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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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Tags: Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by editor
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Prices at the pump have forced many Americans to rethink traditional campus-based learning, turning instead to online alternatives.

As gas prices continue to soar nationwide, cost-conscious students are increasingly turning to online programs to fulfill their educational needs. In an article appearing in the Seattle Post Intelligencer on the 23^rd of June, one of the students interviewed noted that due to the high cost of gas, “[S]ome days right now it’s easier for me to miss class and miss work than to drive in.”

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Tags: Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by editor
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The stormy economic forecast, while hardly foreshadowing a crisis like the Great Depression, threatens to raise America’s historically stable unemployment rate

It’s no secret that the U.S. economy has not been the healthiest the last few years. Homes aren’t selling, good jobs are hard to come by, other jobs are being cut and salary increases are at a near standstill. For those looking for jobs during a recession, times can be tough. The general rule is that the best career during a recession is the one you already have – do whatever you can to protect your job and wait out the hard times.

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Tags: Career Education, Non-Traditional Students by Jenny
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For many students, the Internet is an amazing learning tool that has the capability to open up entire new worlds of learning for them. These students have virtually (and virtual) instant access to knowledge about almost anything they wish to learn about, and they can learn anywhere they are connected to a computer with an Internet connection. Similarly, online classes afford students a tremendous amount of flexibility. They don’t have to commute to school, they can take classes at their own pace and they can juggle busy work and school schedules. All of this has been made possible because of the Internet.

This all sounds wonderful, and it is – but there are many students who still do not have easy access to the Internet. Not all families can afford to have Internet connections in their own homes, and many adult students work full-time jobs to pay the bills, and for them an Internet connection is a luxury that they cannot yet afford. But shouldn’t these students be exactly the type of students who should have access to the Internet? The ones who are less fortunate and who need the extra help and assistance?

This situation has become known as the Digital Divide, and while it’s not a new idea, it’s becoming an increasingly important one as more and more schools require, due to No Child Left Behind, that all students be “technologically literate” before they reach the 8^th grade. An 8^th grader keep up with his or her peers in this department if his or her parents can’t afford to have an Internet connection at home? There are libraries, of course – but this means finding a ride to the library, which can be tough with two parents working full-time. And most public libraries don’t have enough computers to accommodate all of the students who need to use them. And most schools nowadays have computers connected to the Internet – but it’s not cheap for them to do so, and the poorest schools often don’t even have computers to begin with.

There are many good thinkers out there proposing solutions to this problem. For example, there’s a federal e-rate program on the table that would subsidize Internet access for low-income schools and for libraries. And, MIT has come up with what they call the “$100 laptop,” an attempt to make computers accessible to as many people as possible.

The Digital Divide is a problem that’s not easily solved, but it is a problem that needs to continue to be discussed – and action needs to be taken. Otherwise, our less fortunate students are going to miss the Internet wave that’s sweeping into our schools and homes.

Tags: Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by Jenny
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When many people think about online learning, they envision college-age students as well as older adults. But what about high school students? Can they, and are they, taking courses online as well? Recently, the online high school vs. home schooling debate has begun to heat up, as educators, parents and students begin to ask questions about these two forms of learning. Some of the main questions being asked include: Can high school students get the same quality education from online classes as they would from homeschooling? Does it take more effort to do well in online classes than in home school classes? Should home schooling include online classes for high school kids? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

For families who have the time to put together materials, teach material and help with assignments, homeschooling can be a great option. Parents can control exactly what their kids study, how much they study and they can also provide personalized, one-on-one feedback and attention, something that is missing in many of today’s public school classrooms. Homeschooling can be a great choice for kids who need a large amount of supervision with their school work, as well as for kids who are very bright and independent and who want to move much faster than their classmates.

Some parents choose to incorporate online classes into their home school curriculum as a way of involving a trained teacher in their child’s studies, especially if they do not have the teaching background themselves. Or, the student can take a class online on a topic that the parent has little or no knowledge about, but that the student would like to explore. Online classes can also add a social component to home schooling; this lack of social interaction with peers is what holds some parents back from enrolling their kids in home school classes. However, with chat rooms, forums, discussion boards and web cams, students can discuss topics with other students all over the world and have the advantage of getting multiple perspectives on a topic easily and from the comfort of their own homes.

However, unless the high school student is particularly motivated and has excellent study skills, a home schooling program that is entirely online might not be the best option. With a lot of support from parents and from online instructors, however, online courses can certainly have a very positive impact on high school students’ educations.

Tags: Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by Jenny
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For disabled students, especially those who are blind, issues of Web accessibility are very important. Those with vision might never think about how difficult it would be to navigate around a Web site without site, but a quick test makes the situation much more real: if you close your eyes and have a friend read the Web site to you, and give you commands on how to navigate the site, how easy is it? Is there information that you need that you weren’t told?

On the flip side, sites that have been made accessible to the blind can make online learning one of the best options for blind students. Think about it: instead of having to have someone drive a blind person to the bank, or to the grocery store, or anywhere else, for errands, everything can be done online with the help of verbal commands from the computer. For example, a blind person can order groceries online and have them delivered, and they can check their bank statements on a bank site, too.

This convenience goes for achieving a college education or an advanced degree, as well. Rather than having to commute to a college campus every day, disabled students can take classes from the comforts of their own home. They can use what are called “assistive technologies” such as Braille displays, software that reads screens and special clicking devices.

These are all wonderful developments which can help disabled people to fully enjoy the Web, but there are still many improvements which need to be made. For example, sites that have a lot of text are easy for screen reading software to handle – but what about Web sites that are composed mainly of images? If there is no text to accompany the images, the screen reading software hits a brick wall. However, the problem is easily fixed – the Web site builders only need to add text or HTML tags to accompany the images, and then those who are visually impaired can understand what is on the page. Also, sites with a lot of text can be turned into audio recordings which visually impaired can listen to. Also, vague terms and links need to be changed so that they make sense when taken out of the Web site itself; this means changing terms like “click here” to “click on the picture of the woman on the bench.”

Changes are coming, but they are coming slowly. There are already laws in place which have an impact on the accessibility of distance learning courses, but more laws and regulations need to pass before the Web is fully accessible to the disabled.

Tags: Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students by Jenny
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In an interesting experiment in online education, some teachers at the University of Washington required their students to publish their papers on Wikipedia. The assignment was intended to enhance the learning experience of writing a term paper by requiring the students to write their paper for a mass audience, thus allowing them to have the chance to get feedback from a large community of peers.

According to a presentation made by these professors, traditionally, term papers have an audience of one, their objectives are limited, and their impact outside of class is limited. However, this term paper project was designed with the hope that students would benefit from interacting with a wider community of peers and that student researchers could benefit from their exposure to comments from the community at large. The issue of motivation was also considered; if students knew that their work was going to be reviewed by a large audience of people knowledgeable about their topic, then they would be more likely to do real research and attempt to present some new, interesting results.

Wikipedia is an online authoring site on which all material can be edited by anyone who has access to it. According to the site, there are currently 7.5 million articles written in 250 different languages, and two million of the articles are written in English. Everything that is published on Wikipedia is immediately available to a mass, worldwide audience. Wikipedia does have its inherent problems; the reliability of information often comes into question, even though it can be edited by anyone using the site, and articles are published anonymously, which means that there is limited accountability to those authoring the articles.

Two groups of students were given the Wikipedia assignment. In Autumn of 2006, a group of Environmental History and Globalization students were tasked with writing a 1500-word minimum paper that would be 60% of their grade and posting it on Wikipedia, according to Wikipedia guidelines. In Spring of 2007, a group of Conservation and Sustainable Development students were tasked with creating a paper which would be worth 40% of their grade; the length was based upon group size. 34 of the Autum students published papers to Wikipedia, and 14 groups in the Spring class published papers to Wikipedia.

And the results? Some of the Wikipedia feedback was difficult to swallow. Some Wikipedia members deleted student articles, drastically edited content and there was apparently some rude discussion in the Wikipedia community. However, none of the students had difficulty actually publishing their information, and surprisingly, most of the students reported having very positive experience with the assignment. Some students reported feeling a sense of accomplishment that their papers were being read by a wide community of people, and that their research could go on other help other people. All but one of the students in the two courses reported that they felt the assignment was a valuable experience.

Some of the issues to be worked out included helping students translate their paper “voices” from term paper to encyclopedia entry, more time to post entries and more instructor time was needed to help students through the process.

Tags: Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by editor
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Imagine you’re in a piazza in Florence, and you want to take an interesting walk around the city, but you want one a little different from the traditional ones found in most guide books. So, you break out your iPod and download a tour called “Florence’s historic cafes and wine bars.” Perfect! Sound interesting? It is, and it’s pretty new

Most of us have heard about online learning, distance education and virtual learning environments. Some of us may have even experienced one of these, either by taking classes, or by teaching one. But what about e-learning on a mobile device? There are scores of companies popping up recently which are offering downloadable lectures and talks related to tourism, languages and “how-to” articles. Some companies are making software which allows courses to be viewed through the small windows of hand-held devices such as PDAs and cell phones. A company called Atlantic Link is one of the pioneers in this exciting new field, and the company says that its software can revolutionize the way virtual learning takes place.

Stuck in line at the grocery store? Why not download a quiz or activity from your online class and take it while you’re waiting in line? Things like quizzes, games, activities, audio, video and Flash animations are all supported by the company’s software, and are supposed to play back perfectly, so that users will not be able to tell the difference between the PDA version and the computer screen version. The company says that courses can be accessed from phones’ hard drives, or can be accessed from the Internet. The ramifications of this technology are virtually endless. Students, tourists and everyone else can use their phones and PDA’s to access tourist guides for a new city they’re visiting, or to learn a new language. These mobile devices can also be used for product training and updates, maintenance guides and training, medical training, interactive museum guides and schools training.

While this technology is in its infancy, it is becoming rapidly available. Now, learning can take place whenever and wherever someone is in the world, even if they are not in front of a computer. People can share their own personal experiences and “insider tips,” make them available for downloading and then share the information with whoever wants to listen to or look at it. It’s an exciting new field, to be sure, so stay tuned.

Tags: Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students by editor
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We added Reviews to our site last month!!!! It has been great to hear from everyone. Our company has been involved with online schools for years, but never have we been understood so much about the student experience as we do now that we are able to hear from all of you.

So, what have we learned from all these reviews? A lot. We asked you to comment on your experience with learning technologies, professors, the other students, and the administration. The general response has resulted in two main reactions.

First, most students thoroughly enjoyed learning, using new technologies, and interacting with other students and professors. However, the second common response was that the administrators of online colleges and universities were sometimes hard to reach and communicate with.

Online student reviews often included references to flexibility, Kim from Niagara Falls, NY wrote, “They offer a wide variety of classes that can be completed around your schedule – however chaotic it may be.” Other students focused more on the positive atmosphere of online learning as Jenn from Taos, NM, did when she explained “I used the internet a lot, to write papers and do research, as well as to watch professor lectures on occasion, and email and instant messaging to chat with a professor and with classmates when there was a group assignment.” Though there have been few negative responses to the online learning coursework or interface, some reviews had unenthusiastic comments about the administration, one student complained that her career counselor wasn’t quick to help her with her course selection and another reviewer had trouble asking questions about their financial aid.

Considered more thoroughly both of these compliments and complaints re-affirm the one stipulation that most experienced online students, professors and schools continually preach, which is, in order to be a successful online student, you must be an independent learner. This sentiment was echoed by Zane in his review that stated “A certain type of learner will have success in an online environment. They need to be self-reliant, self-motivated and prepared to meet the inevitable frustration of technology mishaps.” If you are the type of student frequently seeking advice or consultation with an administrator online learning might not be the right choice.

The reviews have been great and we look forward to interacting with our users more and more. The more we can learn about your experiences in online learning and choosing an online school the more we can provide the resources that other prospective students need. Overall the experience has been a great one and we can’t wait to get more reviews and hear more about the online learning experience first hand.

Tags: Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students, Online Education by editor
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