November 18th, 2008 by Robin Green
Homeschooling and online courseware shouldn’t put your child at a social disadvantage. Remember that when you homeschool your child, you have almost complete control over the social contacts he or she makes. For this reason it’s important to make greater efforts to arrange get-togethers for your child.
Another factor to consider when debating whether or not to homeschool your child is household organization. Though online courseware and other learning materials are relatively mess-free, you’ll be doing all kinds of projects (including art and science) that will inevitably cause clutter. And that’s on top of the regular house chores.
If you’re a real neat-freak, you’ll want to think long and hard about homeschooling. But just like finding alone time, time management is key. Take advantage of online courseware time or other low maintenance activities to throw the whites in the wash or iron shirts.
November 18th, 2008 by Robin Green
One important consideration when contemplating whether or not to homeschool your child is the personal sacrifice you’ll be accepting. Homeschool parents have very little personal time. Each day, you’ll need to make an effort create even a small amount of alone time. While your child is working on online courseware, for example, you might find a moment for yourself. Or perhaps a tutor comes a couple of hours a week to teach math or aide with an online courseware subject. Just remember that your personal time–however small–is important for your mental health, so be sure to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself.
Another point to deliberate on is the financial strain involved in homeschooling. Homeschooling itself, even with the addition of online courseware, can be done very inexpensively. However, homeschool parents usually aren’t able to work outside of the home, so a family accustomed to two incomes may need to adjust accordingly.
November 17th, 2008 by Robin Green
One of my earliest childhood playmates was homeschooled by his mother. I always wondered exactly how she did it, and I still do. Where do home educators find learning material? Do they depend on online courseware and other web-based learning systems?
With the increasing homeschooled population, online courseware designed specifically for homeschoolers is ubiquitous. Homeschool.com, for instance, provides a list of online courseware for students of all ages. Shaping your own child’s education and choosing their material, it seems, has never been easier.
But how do homeschoolers do academically? According to a study by the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, homeschoolers perform an average of one grade level above their counterparts in public and private schools in the elementary grades. Lawrence Rudner, the national testing expert who conducted the study, says that “it shows that homeschooling works for those who make the commitment. It is not proof that homeschooling is superior to traditional education.”
November 17th, 2008 by Robin Green
For private schools, how important is keeping up with cutting edge technology? Is the use of online courseware and blended learning environments a testament to the quality of a school’s education system?
The private high school I attended was certainly not known for its facilities. Our computer lab was a small, anciently-equipped place, and there was certainly no online courseware to be found. But times are changing, and with a faltering economy affecting families’ pockets, private schools are marketing themselves more competitively.
For instance, Avonbourne Business and Enterprise College, a girls’ secondary school in the UK, now boasts a high-tech virtual reality studio. The studio includes a video conferencing center, a projection room, a laptop suite for online courseware, and various virtual learning experiences. Using 3D glasses, students can explore a virtual Tudor town or study the movements of a volcano. “The world is changing,” says one Avonbourne educator, “and we need to respond in how we’re educating our children today.”
November 14th, 2008 by Robin Green
In medication management, cultural understanding is increasingly important. Health insurance provider Aetna uses online courseware to help doctors and nurses become more culturally sensitive. Clinicians who are part of the Aetna network or who have filed a claim with the insurer can take the online courseware in cross-cultural care for free.
Partly because many Latinos come from countries where health care is state-run, diabetes and other chronic diseases disproportionately affect them. Additionally, language barriers hinder doctor-patient communication. Aetna’s online courseware is part of a suite of other resources for ethnically diverse populations, including a training video and Spanish brochures covering a variety of medical issues. Physicians and nurses who complete the course receive credit toward their continuing education requirements.
Do you have your own online courseware that you want to share with the world? From now until November 15, take advantage of Coggno’s exciting promotion. We’ll migrate your content for you, absolutely free of charge.
November 14th, 2008 by Robin Green
Feeds may become a greater part of the open source online courseware wave. Tony Hirst of Open University describes online courseware projects like OpenLearn and MIT’s OpenCourseWare, which use feeds to disaggregate content, republishing the learning material as separate course units–all in a single RSS feed.
With the offering of Google Reader’s new Google Translate technology, any feed can be converted to almost any language. To use the new service, subscribe to a feed, select “Translate into my language” from “Feed settings…” and the feed will be immediately translated.
Of course, translating technologies still have a long way to go. But as they develop in sophistication, we may see a universally expanding student base of online courseware that uses feeds to share learning content.
November 12th, 2008 by Robin Green
Besides creating easy-to-use, comfortable and convenient eBook reader models, more will have to be done to convince the public to switch from their traditional paper books. Many people regard the shift in a similar way to learning material like online courseware. That is, although there may be something special about a paper-bound book (or a face-to-face learning environment), the format isn’t really what’s important–it’s the content and availability. The ability to choose from a vast collection of works, cheaply, will reel people in.
Those of us who depend on the internet, whether we’re online courseware students or internet socializers, are used to depending on information that’s floating around in that amorphous “cloud” of data. But many people keep very little information on the internet. Some might fear that if some terrible, apocalyptic disaster were to catapult us into a primitive state, all those precious stories, not to mention learning tools like online courseware, would disappear into thin, cloudless air.
November 12th, 2008 by Robin Green
Price will probably be the greatest obstacle to overcome for eBook readers. Kindle’s price of $400 puts it out of the average online courseware user’s budget. And though Kindle’s rights protection technology is convenient in some ways, users also complain that Kindle charges for material that’s free on the internet. There are costs for accessing blogs and newspapers, as well as surcharges for uploading your own documents.
Many online courseware students enjoy e-learning not only for the conveniences of distance learning, but also its cost-effectiveness. If eBook reader companies don’t rethink their models and systems, expensive readers coupled with costly reading material will deter not only online courseware users, but the majority of eBook reader users.
