E-learning

The New York Times has an excellent report on the promise of digital education: “I don’t believe that charters and vouchers are the threat to schools in Orange County,” [Superintendent William M. Habermehl] said. “What’s a threat is the digital world — that someone’s going to put together brilliant $200 courses in French, in geometry by the best teachers in the world.” The economics of digital courses will be so compelling that no vested interest will be able to stop it. If each course is approximately $200, students can sign up for 10 digital courses for approximately $2,000 plus the cost of a computer and a broadband connection versus — in the case of the D.C. public schools, for example Read More ›

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert laments in “Miracles Take Time” that Barack Obama has only been president for six weeks, but there is a surprising amount of ire, anger, even outrage that he hasn’t yet solved the problems of the U.S. economy, that he hasn’t saved us from the increasingly tragic devastation wrought by the clownish ideas of right-wing conservatives and the many long years of radical Republican misrule. So he is trying. He has potential. His heart is in the right place. And don’t forget he is a symbol. It’s not just that the administration is still grasping for a blueprint for relieving the banking problem, the impact of which may be spiraling (a report in the same Read More ›

Ball State University has released findings from Middletown University Studies 2, which it terms “the most comrehensive observational media use study ever undertaken”: involving 400 participants, 5,000 hours of media use in Muncie and Indianapolis, recording information every 15 seconds on the use of 15 varieties of media–print, broadcast, telecom and Internet. The study’s key findings: (1) per waking day (figure 16 hours), 30% with media as sole activiy, 39% with media while doing something else and 21% work activity; (2) in any given hour 30% had the TV on, with 70% in peak hours; (3) TV still tops at 240.9 minutes (4 hours). cedon is the computer at 120 mins. (2 hours); (4) 30% of all media time is Read More ›