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U.S. Dept. of Education Releases National Education Technology Plan

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Technology Education has released an 80-page draft of a five-year National Educational Technology Plan (NETP), which presents a model of 21st-century learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five important areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Titled "Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology," the report advocates empowering students to take control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions.

“A core set of standards-based concepts and competencies form the basis of what all students should learn, but beyond that students and educators have options for engaging in learning: large groups, small groups, and work tailored to individual goals, needs, and interests,” the report says. “To prepare students to learn throughout their lives and in settings far beyond classrooms, we must change what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, and where and when they learn and change our perception of who needs to learn. We must bring 21st century technology into learning in meaningful ways to engage, motivate, and inspire learners of all ages to achieve.”

The draft technology plan highlights Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools, which has built an online one-stop shop to connect teaching resources, assessments, and system-wide data. Teachers use a Web-based system called the Electronic Curriculum Resource Assessment Tool to create and access lesson plans, worksheets, assessment tools, and other resources tied to district-approved standards. Students take assessments online or on paper, and the results help link teachers to resources that will help address specific students' needs.

“It brings joy to my heart that learning is the first goal,” says J. Ana Donaldson, the recently elected president of the Association of Educational Communication and Technology, about the plan. “Learners are engaged inside and outside the school environment.”

Six Best Practices to Create a Mature Leadership Development Program

In early February, eCornell hosted an education webinar Six Best Practices to Create a Mature Leadership Development Program presented by Kim Lamoureux of Bersin & Associates. An archive of that event is available at www.ecornell.com/feb3archive, and the presentation slides can be downloaded from www.ecornell.com/feb3ppt.

According to Lamoureux,, leadership development has “risen to the top of mind” due to the stresses of the global financial environment. A well-conceived and developed leadership development program is going to help you grow and retain the best leaders possible for your organization in these trying times.

It is therefore time to consider the “maturity” of your leadership training programs, and assess where your organization stands in this model. The maturity of an organization's leadership development program is not determined by financial resources or age of the company, but rather by several key practices used in its training programs.

In addition to improving leadership training programs, this Leadership Development Maturity Model will help you create an enterprise-wide understanding and adoption of leadership development strategies.

To learn more about this maturity model and the methods used by successful leadership development programs, please download the whitepaper available at www.ecornell.com/maturity.

Predictions for 2010

At the start of each year, contributors to eLearn Magazine predict what changes are afoot for the coming 12 months. This year's installment features the thoughts of such e-learning luminaries as Stephen Downes, Roger Schank, Jay Cross, Elliott Masie, Allison Rossett, Clark Quinn, and others. 

How the iPhone Could Reboot Education

How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum.

That’s the idea Abilene Christian University has to refresh classroom learning. Located in Texas, the private university just finished its first year of a pilot program, in which 1,000 freshman students had the choice between a free iPhone or an iPod Touch.

The initiative’s goal was to explore how the always-connected iPhone might revolutionize the classroom experience with a dash of digital interactivity. Think web apps to turn in homework, look up campus maps, watch lecture podcasts and check class schedules and grades. For classroom participation, there’s even polling software for Abilene students to digitally raise their hand.

The verdict? It’s working quite well. 2,100 Abilene students, or 48 percent of the population, are now equipped with a free iPhone. Fully 97 percent of the faculty population has iPhones, too. The iPhone is aiding Abilene in giving students the information they need — when they want it, wherever they want it, said Bill Rankin, a professor of medieval studies who helped plan the initiative. . . .

The traditional classroom, where an instructor assigns a textbook, is heading toward obsolescence. Why listen to a single source talk about a printed textbook that will inevitably be outdated in a few years? That setting seems stale and hopelessly limited when pitted against the internet, which opens a portal to a live stream of information provided by billions of minds. . . .

These are the specific educational problems Abilene is targeting with the iPhone. Instead of standing in front of a classroom and talking for an hour, Rankin instructs his students to use their iPhones to look up relevant information on the fly. Then, the students can discuss the information they’ve found, and Rankin leads the dialogue by helping assess which sources are accurate and useful.

It’s like a mashup of a 1960s teach-in with smartphone technology from the 2000s.

Read the entire article.

Hybrid Education 2.0

What if you could teach a college course without a classroom or a professor, and lose nothing?

According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, there’s no "what if" about it. Earlier in the decade, Carnegie Mellon set out to design software for independent learners taking courses through the university’s Open Learning Initiative, an effort to make courses freely available to non-enrolled learners. But rather than merely making course materials available to non-students, like MIT's famous OpenCourseware project, Carnegie Mellon wanted to design courses that would respond to the individual needs of each student. It currently has courses in 12 different subjects available on its Web site, mostly in math and science.

In the process of testing the software on Carnegie Mellon students to make sure it would “do no harm” if used, the researchers found that, over a two-semester trial period, students in a traditional classroom introductory statistics course scored no better than similar students who used the open-learning program and skipped the three weekly lectures and lab period. . . .

As intriguing it was to find that a computer program could prepare students to pass tests just as well as a professor, the researchers seem more excited by a hybrid application of the open-learning program that, instead of replacing professors, tries to use them more effectively. By combining the open-learning software with two weekly 50-minute class sessions in an intro-level statistics course, they found that they could get students to learn the same amount of material in half the time.

So what exactly is the pedagogical model Carnegie Mellon has discovered, that has inspired such faith? Essentially, it’s an online program that teaches students itself, rather than just being the medium a professor uses to teach. Furthermore, it leverages the opportunity to interact directly with a unique student -- an opportunity a professor addressing dozens of students in a lecture hall does not have. . . .

In other words, the software acts like a private tutor, quizzing students constantly as they work through linear lessons and adjusting in accordance with how quickly they show they are grasping different concepts. . . .

The virtual tutor takes care of the basic concepts that typically dominate lectures, leaving professors open to plan the face-to-face component of the course according to what parts of the curriculum the software tells him students are picking up more slowly, and what concepts could bear reinforcement. For example, if a statistics professor notices in the data he receives from activity in the open-learning program that a great number of students struggled with the assessments the program gave while teaching conditional probability, the professor could use the class periods to hold a discussion with his students about that concept until he is confident they get it -- a preferable alternative, Thille says, to rolling through concepts didactically and hoping they stick.

Read the entire article.

Blackboard Drops Suit Against Desire2Learn

Blackboard, known for its tenacity in the e-learning market, announced on December 15 that it is backing off from its long patent feud with the Canadian company Desire2Learn.

The dispute dates back to 2006, when Blackboard sued Desire2Learn in a Texas district court for 38 counts of patent infringement, seeking millions in damages. The court only upheld three counts, and both companies appealed the parts of the decision they had lost to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which in 2008 dismissed all of Blackboard’s claims against Desire2Learn. But by then the industry giant had filed additional patent-infringement lawsuits against its smaller competitor, which were pending--until December 15, when the rivals announced the détente.

. . .

Many advocates of open source learning management systems strongly backed Desire2Learn in the dispute, and feared that a Blackboard victory might open the way for the company to attack their products and give the giant in the market too much control over it. While Blackboard officials repeatedly said that their actions against Desire2Learn didn't suggest any course of action against anyone else, the dispute led to much public bashing of the company.

Read the complete article.

eCornell Voted “Best Leadership Development Program” by Readers of eLearning Magazine

eCornell’s suite of online Leadership & Strategic Management Certificate Programs has been named “Best Leadership Development Program” at the 2009 Best of eLearning Reader’s Choice Awards hosted by eLearning magazine. The winners in 16 categories were announced at the virtual eLearning! Summit on November 5.

eCornell was also a finalist for “Best Software-as-a-Service Learning Management System (SaaS LMS).” Readers nominated and voted for products and solutions via eLearning magazine’s online ballot. The 2009 program received 1,755 nominations, twice the volume from a year ago.

“The Best of eLearning Awards program is the only reader’s choice awards in the market,” said Catherine Upton, group publisher of eLearning and Government eLearning magazines. “Recognition of this type is increasingly important as more companies deploy e-learning initiatives to impact business and improve efficiencies. The Best of eLearning program offers professionals a reliable resource to learn from users and gather information that influences their future purchases.”

eCornell offers more than 20 online certificate programs, and six in Leadership & Strategic Management that received the honor:

• Business Leadership Skills
• High Performance Leadership
• Leading Management Teams
• Executive Leadership
• Change Leadership
• Managing for Execution

Selected voter comments about eCornell will be published in the January 2010 issues of eLearning magazine and Government eLearning magazine and include:

• “Their method of teaching is very suitable and meets the students at their very point of need. It’s also very applicable to the student.”
• “This is a brilliantly structured course. It encourages students to use discussion forums very efficiently and it’s almost like a live class discussion—even with a diversity of time zones in our class.”
• “I have learned a lot from eCornell online classes. It’s the best place to take courses and expert advisors are always available when needed to help with questions and answers.”

“It is extremely gratifying to be honored by our enterprise customers and students,” said Chris Proulx, CEO of eCornell. “This open vote enables the users of eCornell’s online training programs and those of our competitors to cast a ballot. It’s an important measure for the products and services in our industry. To be recognized among the top training providers validates that our solutions provide engaging learning for students and bottom-line performance results for our enterprise customers.”

5 Ways E-Learning Can Improve Your Leadership Development Program

Why Leadership Development is Important
Leadership development is a high priority and increasing as an overall percentage of training delivered in many organizations because of several positive business benefits:

• Financial return.
• Employee satisfaction and retention.
• Building bench strength.
• Strategic and competitive advantage.
• Enhanced productivity and faster resolution of problems.
• Continuous innovation.
• Organizational agility.

Leaders drive performance, and the higher the leader and the broader the scope of his or her responsibility, the greater the impact that the individual can have on an organization. So while it may difficult to measure exactly now much leadership development programs contribute to something like financial return, it is generally accepted that good leaders and managers produce higher performing teams that produce better results.

Demographic shifts are also forcing companies to focus on their leadership development efforts. With almost 80 million baby boomers approaching retirement in the next decade, there will be significant impact on pipeline of available leadership talent, and the cost of recruiting and retaining competent managers is going to increase.

E-Learning Can Improve Leadership Development Programs
While e-learning is not a complete solution when it comes to leadership development, it can be used to increase its effectiveness in several important ways:

Increased Reach
Traditionally, leadership training has been confined to employees who can attend a classroom event. This makes it difficult and/or expensive to reach geographically dispersed employees. The increasingly global and mobile nature of today’s workforce means that many employees may be left out of traditional classroom-based leadership training programs.

But technology-based learning content can provide basic soft skills training and information to any learner with an Internet connection. E-learning can effectively eliminate the barriers of time and geography.

Consistency
Ensuring a consistent approach to leadership often means instituting a talent management process based on a system of competencies that align with specific company objectives. If leadership competencies are identified for all levels and job roles, there can be a systematic process for assessing employees and recommending training interventions based on job role and level. Competency management gives organizations better visibility into their leadership strengths and weaknesses, and aids in long-term planning.

Speed & Efficiency
While leadership training must include “high touch” activities to be effective, e-learning can often be used to reach the training goal quicker and at a lower cost. There are numerous models for blended learning ranging from the very simple to complex. One of the most common is to use e-learning as a pre-requisite to classroom training. This can shorten the overall time needed for employees to complete training. It also ensures that learners arrive at the training event with a common understanding and baseline of knowledge, ready to take advantage of the unique benefits of being with other students and a live instructor.

E-Learning also shortens the amount of time that employees are physically away from their jobs. Online learning also offers the opportunity for learners to take classes when it is most convenient for them, and to progress as quickly or slowly as necessary.

Skills can also be assessed online prior to training, which may allow some learners to test-out of certain parts of training. Shortening time away from the job can be an especially important benefit in leadership training, which often involves key employees with significant responsibilities.

Reinforcement Over Time
Training impact tends to fade over time. But research shows that when learning is reinforced before and after the training event, the positive effects are greater and last longer. Managers can use e-learning to reinforce key points of training, thereby taking leadership development from a series of disconnected events to more of a continuous development process.

Support Collaboration & Relationship Building
Managing global teams is a reality in today’s workplace, and also one of the greatest challenges managers face. Technology such as the virtual classroom, blogs, wikis and social networks are being used to support collaboration for geographically dispersed teams. “Blended” does not have to imply “classroom.” Many of today’s leadership programs are exclusively conducted virtually. In this format, participants take online courses that are augmented with online collaboration sessions, conference calls or virtual collaboration exercises.

eCornell Named Finalist for “Best Leadership Development Program” & “Best SaaS LMS” by Readers of E-Learning! Magazine

eCornell’s  Enterprise Learning Solution has been named a Finalist in two categories of the 2009 Best of  E-Learning! Awards hosted by E-Learning! Magazine: “Best Leadership Development Program” and “Best Software-as-a-Service Learning Management System (SaaS LMS).”

The winners in 16 categories of the “Best of E-Learning” Reader’s Choice awards will be announced at the virtual E-Learning! Summit on November 5 and in the January 2010 issues of E-Learning! magazine and Government E-Learning! magazine.

“It is extremely gratifying to be honored by our enterprise customers and students,” said Chris Proulx, CEO of eCornell. “This open vote enables the users of eCornell’s online training programs and those of our competitors to cast a ballot. It’s an important measure for the products and services in our industry. To be recognized among the top training providers validates that our solutions provide engaging learning for students and bottom-line performance results for our enterprise customers.”

“The Best of E-Learning! Awards program is the only reader’s choice awards in the market,” said Catherine Upton, group publisher of E-Learning! and Government E-Learning! magazines. “This year, the E-Learning! Magazine Group received 1,755 nominations, twice the volume of last year’s program, making each category very competitive.”

Readers nominated and voted for products and solutions via E-Learning! magazine’s online ballot. All ballots were cast between August 1 and September 30, 2009. Each ballot was reviewed and validated by the editorial team.

How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education

Is a college education really like a string quartet? Back in 1966, that was the assertion of economists William Bowen, later president of Princeton, and William Baumol. In a seminal study, Bowen and Baumol used the analogy to show why universities can't easily improve efficiency.

If you want to perform a proper string quartet, they noted, you can't cut out the cellist nor can you squeeze in more performances by playing the music faster. But that was then -- before MP3s and iPods proved just how freely music could flow. Before Google scanned and digitized 7 million books and Wikipedia users created the world's largest encyclopedia. Before YouTube Edu and iTunes U made video and audio lectures by the best professors in the country available for free, and before college students built Facebook into the world's largest social network, changing the way we all share information. Suddenly, it is possible to imagine a new model of education using online resources to serve more students, more cheaply than ever before.

But higher education remains, on the whole, a string quartet. MIT's courseware may be free, yet an MIT degree still costs upward of $189,000. College tuition has gone up more than any other good or service since 1990, and our nation's students and graduates hold a staggering $714 billion in outstanding student-loan debt. Once the world's most educated country, the United States today ranks 10th globally in the percentage of young people with postsecondary degrees. "Colleges have become outrageously expensive, yet there remains a general refusal to acknowledge the implications of new technologies," says Jim Groom, an "instructional technologist" at Virginia's University of Mary Washington and a prominent voice in the blogosphere for blowing up college as we know it. Groom, a chain-smoker with an ever-present five days' growth of beard, coined the term "edupunk" to describe the growing movement toward high-tech do-it-yourself education. "Edupunk," he tells me in the opening notes of his first email, "is about the utter irresponsibility and lethargy of educational institutions and the means by which they are financially cannibalizing their own mission."

The edupunks are on the march. From VC-funded startups to the ivied walls of Harvard, new experiments and business models are springing up from entrepreneurs, professors, and students alike. Want a class that's structured like a role-playing game? An accredited bachelor's degree for a few thousand dollars? A free, peer-to-peer Wiki university? These all exist today, the overture to a complete educational remix.

The architects of education 2.0 predict that traditional universities that cling to the string-quartet model will find themselves on the wrong side of history, alongside newspaper chains and record stores. "If universities can't find the will to innovate and adapt to changes in the world around them," professor David Wiley of Brigham Young University has written, "universities will be irrelevant by 2020."

Read the full article.