News: How Competition Is Killing Higher Education

Mark C. Taylor of Bloomberg Views gives his opinions on how competition is detrimental to higher education. Here is a snippet of his article:

But in higher education, competition often discourages risk taking, leads to overly cautious short-term decisions, produces a mediocre product for the price, and promotes excessive spending on physical plants and bureaucracies. 

The construction arms race on campus is the most visible example of competition run amok. To become more attractive to potential consumers, many colleges and universities undertake overly ambitious expansions. In some cases, new facilities contribute to educational programs, but too often they are tangential and trap institutions in a costly cycle: The new athletic center, dorm or student center starts to look faded when competing schools open theirs, and it never ends.

You can read the rest of Taylor's writing here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/competition-is-killing-higher-education-part-1-.html

Education News: Russia's University Mergers Pit the Old School Against the New

Anna Nemtsova of the Chronicle for Higher Learning writes about how "bringing together Soviet-style instructors and Western-influenced researchers has led to impasse, not improvement." You can read more about how societal and cultural influences affects education by clicking the link below. 

http://chronicle.com/article/Russias-University-Mergers/131844/

MIT Names Its Provost, Who Led Online-Education Efforts, as New President

Jack Stripling of The Chronicle for Higher Learning wrote this article about the promotion of a new president at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) who happens to be an innovator of online learning. You can read more at the link below:

http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/131896/

Education News: Students Learning With Online Textbooks

Nicole Winters of Keloland Television wrote this news report about schools using online textbooks as tools for learning. You can read more about this educational tool at the link below. Here is a brief preview:

"We don't really use the textbook anymore," Harrisburg High School sophomore Taylor Mouw said.

Instead, the students log on to Math Excel. 

"I like this because you can see how to do it and you can see if you get the answer right, right away," Harrisburg High School sophomore Sommer Williams said. 

"It gives them that engagement. They like having their computer and being able to use those things," Harrisburg High School Math Teacher John Stearns said.

Stearns uses the program in two of his math classes. Besides engaging the students, it also makes teaching and learning more efficient.

"It grades it instantly for the students and instantly for me as well," Stearns said

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm/Students_Learning_With_Online_Textbooks_/?Id=131484

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News Column: Online Courses Could Lead to Big Changes

Peter Cohan wrote this article on the educational phenomenon of online learning. Here is a brief preview:

Online education is getting a sudden burst of media attention. That’s because the two biggest brands in the business — Harvard and MIT — announced a multimillion-dollar program to deliver some courses online. And since these schools are widely admired, other colleges and universities are asking questions about what they should be doing with online learning. But this leads to a fundamental question: Why do people go to college?

What’s all the online-education fuss about? On May 4, Harvard and MIT announced a $60 million online-classroom venture, called edX, that will launch in the fall. It’s a nonprofit enterprise that will deliver free courses in different academic disciplines to anyone who can get online. And edX goes beyond passive viewing of videos — it includes discussions, labs, quizzes and other so-called interactive learning techniques. Moreover, people who take the online courses and fulfill their requirements get a certificate of completion.

What do you think of online learning? If you are interested in learning opportunities and educational services, visit Kingston University USA at http://www.kingstonuniversityusa.com/

Online learning: Districts find strong interest from students

This article from MSNBC discusses the interest students in school districts such as East Valley prefer a hybrid of traditional schooling and online learning. You can read the article at the link below and share your thoughts in the comment section of the blog.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47356038/ns/local_news-phoenix_az/t/online-learning-districts-find-strong-interest-students/#.T7Vad-uCqSo

Are universities scared of the online learning movement?

Peter G. Klein of The Christian Science Monitor wrote this article about online learning and how traditional universities are reacting to it. You can read a preview of it here:

As Morgan Brown wrote earlier this year, universities are guilds, and it’s this organizational structure, not bad leadership or the wrong ideology, that underlies the universities’ hostility to markets. If there is fundamental reform, it will surely come from outside the guild system, not within it. It’s great that Harvard and MIT and other elite universities are offering some classes online. But look instead to bolder experiments like the Mises Academy — not a duplicate of the standard degree program, but a modular, flexible, focused approach to teaching Austrian economics and related subjects. Call it guerrilla teaching. Let’s see where this new movement can go!

News: Creating a Genuinely Sustainable Higher Education System

This article from The Guardian by Matt Grist discusses the future of higher education in the United Kingdom and some possibilities for improvement. Follow the link below to read more about some of the opportunities that are being proposed for students and future students at universities in the United Kingdom.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/may/16/financial-sustainability-universties

Education News: Reform in Washington

This special opinion article by Rosemary McAuliffe of the Seattle Times discusses the educational reforms in Washington state. Here is a brief preview:

Gov. Chris Gregoire recently said Washington cannot fulfill its education responsibilities without new revenue. I couldn't agree more. No amount of shifting state dollars or slashing health and human services will free up the kind of money needed to fully fund the reforms our kids deserve.

 Unfortunately, our state has a chronic history of passing reforms, without funding them. With education as our paramount duty, we need the public's support of new funding to achieve full implementation.

Education News: The Presidential Campaign And Latino Education

This article by Gabriel Sanchez Zinny of the Huffington Post discusses the relation of education, politics and demographics in the USA. It is entitled "The Presidential Campaign And Latino Education." Here is a brief preview of his reporting:

The achievement gap between Hispanics and other ethnic groups in standardized testing and overall education is significant. The U.S. Department of Education found that the average SAT scores of Latinos lag behind the U.S. average by 100 points. Additionally, 13.9 percent of the Latino population holds a bachelor's degree, whereas 29.9 percent of the total U.S. population does.

The reasons for this are related not only to lackluster education policies, but also to other factors such as poverty, language skills and school attendance. The 2010 Census found that 35 percent of Latinos were living in poverty, compared to 12.4 percent of Caucasians; Latinos typically attend schools where a higher percentage of students speak English as a second language, making instruction more cumbersome. In addition, Latinos drop out of high school at a 17.6 percent rate, compared to the 8.1 percent rate of the entire U.S. population.

Education News: Education Protests in Chile

This article by the Associated Press discusses the Chilean education crisis and the protests in response to it. Here is a brief preview:

The march, organized by the Confederation of University Students of Chile, was the second of its kind this year.

Thousands of protests were held last year by high school and college students demanding an end to for-profit education and the implementation of free higher education.

The Santiago Times said President Sebastian Pinera has proposed ending reliance on student loans from private banks, which made an estimated $500 million last year off of government-backed student aid.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/05/17/Chile-Students-protest-education-system/UPI-43161337270383/#ixzz1v9QlyGJU

Education News: Course Era Offers New Opportunities

This article by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times discusses new developments in online education. Here is a short preview:

Andrew Ng is an associate professor of computer science at Stanford, and he has a rather charming way of explaining how the new interactive online education company that he cofounded, Coursera, hopes to revolutionize higher education by allowing students from all over the world to not only hear his lectures, but to do homework assignments, be graded, receive a certificate for completing the course and use that to get a better job or gain admission to a better school.

"I normally teach 400 students," Ng explained, but last semester he taught 100,000 in an online course on machine learning. "To reach that many students before," he said, "I would have had to teach my normal Stanford class for 250 years."

Educational News: ESL Students Using I-Pods

This article by Brittany Cooper of KMVT of Idaho discusses the use of Ipods by ESL students to improve their English language skills. It is very interesting. Here is a brief preview:

Currently there are I–Pods in a couple of specialty classrooms and one general class in the school, But the overall goal is to expand this technology.

"Today we're doing Hot Timing and they've practiced that. And they'll chart it," says ESL Teacher Loretta Crockett.

These ESL students are recording passages into individual I–Pods.

Crockett tells the students, "you're the teacher...Now listen to yourself."

The use of I–Pods in the ESL classroom provides a way to improve fluency among english language learners. They can read, record their passage quickly And then check themselves again.

Principal Matt Seely says, "it helps them self–correct so the teacher isn't always correcting them and I think it's a powerful tool."

News: ESL Now Free For Canadian Citizens

This article by Julie Larsen discusses a change in tuition for ESL (English as a second language) students in Canada. Here is an excerpt:

English as a Second Language courses are now tuition-free for everyone at 17 public post-secondary institutions in B.C., including the College of New Caledonia.

Dean of Community and International Education, Barbara Old, says while the course was free for non-citizens, that has now been expanded.

News Commentary: No Child Left Behind Increases Gap in Arts Education

This article by Laura Sauer at Yahoo! discusses the effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in American education. Here is a brief excerpt:

A recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics comparing changes in arts education in public schools from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010 shows that since the start of No Child Left Behind, our public schools have seen a reduction in the arts education offered to students. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, commented on the results, stating it is imperative that "we continue to elevate, enrich, and expand arts education in our nation's schools", according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Among the most disturbing findings in the report is that economically disadvantaged students, many of whom do not have access to arts education anywhere but in public schools, have suffered a 20 percent reduction in arts education offerings, from 100 percent of schools offering such programs in 1999-2000 to only 80 percent in 2009-2010.

"SAT and ACT to Change Tests' Rules After Cheating Scandal"

This article by Jennie Anderson of the New York Times discusses the changes for the ACT and SAT, American university entrance tests, after recent cheating scandals. Here is an excerpt:

The SAT and ACT college entrance exams will now require students to provide a photograph when they sign up for the exams, and officials will check those images against the identification the students present when they take the test.

The new rules were part of a broad set of changes announced on Tuesday in the aftermath of the cheating cases, in which high-scoring students used fake IDs to take the SAT or ACT for other students. The revelations had proved embarrassing for the testing services, on which virtually every American college relies in making admissions decisions.

ESL News: Teachers Uses New Method to Teach ESL

This article by Alla O. Schlate in the Tribuna Connecticut is about the use of recordings to help students to start to think, speak and express themselves in English. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Since I believe that language is more than just “plugging in the words of one language into the English slots” (J. McWhorter 2000) and that students must share ownership of the second language acquisition, I require that my students keep journals, starting with their reflections on my classes and then proceeding to insightful observations of their learning process. 

One example is a grammar course, “Recording Your Inner Voice: Think and Dream in English” for ESL students, in which I complement a learning centered syllabus based on the readings from S. Pinker and P. Bloom with interpretive dance, Kundalini meditations and other non-orthodox techniques. Students are required to think and “speak inside themselves” in English while outside the classroom and to reflect upon the process of their learning in the form of journals documenting every obstacle they came across when expressing themselves in English. (A major benchmark of success has been the moment the students begin dreaming in English, hence, the title.)

The rest of the article can be read here.

ESL News: ESL Class Incorporates Slang

This article by David Britto of the Daily Pennsylvanian discusses a  learning strategy used in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. This class embraces informal English with slang, idiom and other overlooked components of English. Here is an excerpt of the article:

While most would easily call the presidential election a ‘big deal,’ foreign students may be stumped by these kinds of idioms.

Thankfully, one English as a Second Language program, that is celebrating its 15th anniversary at Penn, helps internationals cross the language barrier.

‘SLANGuage,’ a free ESL class hosted by The Christian Association at Penn, aims to educate students about idioms and slang language that they might not learn in a more formal English language course.

According to William Kelly, the founder of SLANGuage and the Coordinator of International Programs at the Christian Association, the ESL course is designed to allow foreigners to interact more successfully with Americans.

The full article can be read here.

ESL News: Professor Articulates the Need for ESL Teachers

This article by Christine Metz at JL World discusses Professor Hyesun Cho's speaking on the importance of ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers. Here is a brief excerpt:

“Every teacher will have an ESL (English as Second Language) student at some time. If not now, in the future. That is pretty much guaranteed. Unfortunately, these teachers aren’t being prepared to utilize the student’s background,” said Hyesun Cho, an assistant professor of curriculum and teaching at KU. 

Cho has co-authored an article with Terri Rodriguez of Duquesne University that examines the experiences of bi- and multilingual student teachers and the insight it could provide in developing more effective teaching practices. 

The article, published in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education, studied the experiences of Latino teaching candidates in the Midwest and a group of bilingual student teachers in Hawaii. Those in the study described what it was like to be a bi- or multilingual student and how their backgrounds influenced their teaching styles.

The rest of the article is available here.

ESL News Article: Schools on Shoestring Budgets

This article by Manny Fernandez of the New York Times discusses what schools in the USA are like after heavy budget cuts. You can read an excerpt here:

For Hutto and the 1,264 other public school districts in Texas, this has been the year of doing without. Texas lawmakers cut public education financing by roughly $5.4 billion to balance the state’s two-year budget during the last legislative session, with the cuts taking effect this school year and next.
The budget reductions that districts large and small have had to make have transformed school life in a host of ways — increasing class sizes, reducing services and supplies and thinning the ranks of teachers, custodians, librarians and others, school administrators said.

The rest of the article is available here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/us/for-texas-schools-a-year-of-doing-without.html?_r=1&ref=education