Web Accessibility Laws and Issues

The concept of access to information has changed in the past three decades to reflect the changes in the methods of receiving and conveying information. With the advent of information technology and the unprecedented opportunities created by the technology for people with and without disabilities, it has become apparent that information technologies have a tremendous potential for allowing people with disabilities to participate in mainstream activities and to support their ability to live independently. However, the new forms of access to information that have made it easier for non-disabled people have often created barriers for people with disabilities.

Virtual School Administration

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest district in Texas and has often served as a model in the implementation of new methods, materials, and strategies to enhance learning. The district has often utilized input from a number of higher educational institutions in the city to assist not only in the training of employees, but in the research to implement and measure the effectiveness of teachers and programs on various levels. Therefore, a number of professionals from colleges and universities—not only from the Houston area, but also in various parts of the country— provided consultation during the planning process for the HISD Virtual School.

Using Heutagogy to Address the Needs of Online Learners

In 2002, approximately 1,680 institutions offered over 54,000 online courses (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2003). While there has been a dramatic increase in the number of such courses, the real question is, how effective are they? Are we, in fact, developing capable people who possess an ‘all round’ capacity centered on the characteristics of: high self-efficacy, knowing how to learn, creativity, the ability to use competencies in novel as well as familiar situations, possessing appropriate values, and working well with others (Hase, 2004)?

Understanding Different Categories of Attrition in Distance Education Program

Distance learning is often referred to as taking training or education courses that are either synchronously or asynchronously delivered via various media such as audio, video, or computer, especially Internet technologies in recent years. The number of corporate training programs delivered via Internet technologies (a.k.a., e-learning) has dramatically increased over the last several years. According to ASTD reports (2002, 2003), the percentage of e-learning programs delivered in the Benchmark Service companies in the U.S. increased from 8.8% of total training hours in 2000 to 10.5% in 2001. The number of distance programs offered at degree-granting educational institutions in the U.S. has also gradually increased each year. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2003), 56% of two-year or four-year degree-granting educational institutions offered distance education (DE) courses during the 12-month 2000-2001 academic year, and during the time period, about 2.8 million students were enrolled in college-level credit-granting DE courses, the majority of which were Internet-based courses. Internet-delivered instruction has gained credibility during recent years as well. Research has shown that there seems to be no significant difference in terms of the effectiveness of instruction delivered in traditional classroom settings and the effectiveness of instruction delivered via the Internet (van Schaik, Barker & Beckstrand, 2003). Such research findings, coupled with potential benefits such as cost-effectiveness and convenience, have likely contributed to the increasing popularity of Internet-delivered distance learning programs.

The Two Most Important Competencies for Millennium Teachers

Of all of the levers for educational reform and improvement in this new technologically rich millennium, clearly the two most powerful are students, whose needs and talents should be at the center of any and all new K-16 reforms in teaching and learning, and the Internet, which will enable every student to touch and feel and know and master this new world. In the process, these two dynamos will become the teachers’ and schools’ most vital resources and energize the reinvention of schooling as we know it. Further, students will become better prepared to excel in our technology-centered society, and add dramatically to the nation’s already impressive pool of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Trends and Issues of Virtual K-12 Schools

Increasingly, K-12 schools are delivering instruction via Internet courses that allow students to access course content and complete assignments from home. According to a recent survey conducted by Education Week, 27 states in the United States have spent public monies to establish virtual public or charter schools. For example, over the past 5 years, the Florida Virtual School has spent $23 million and offered 62 online courses to over 8,000 students. Kentucky Virtual High School, which offers approximately 40 courses and enrolls approximately 750 students annually, has a budget of about $400,000 per. The Michigan Virtual High School is funded for $15 million for start-up costs with $1.5 million allocated annually for operational costs. And the Virtual High School International, a nonprofit collaborative of 200 national and international schools with a budget of $10 million, offers 160 courses to students in 16 countries. In spite of declining budgets, the growth of K-12 virtual schools continues at a rapid pace (Park & Staresina, 2004).

Teachers for the New Millennium

They say if you drop a live frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump right out. But, if you place the same frog into a pot of water at room temperature and then gradually raise the flame under it, the frog will not notice the changes and remain in the pot until it is cooked.

Supporting Online Collaborative Learning in Mathematics

One of the most promising pedagogical advances for online collaborative learning that has emerged in recent years is Scardamalia and Bereiter’s (1996) notion of knowledge-building communities. Unfortunately, establishing and maintaining knowledge-building communities in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments such as Knowledge Forum® (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1998) in the domain of mathematics has been found to be a rather intractable problem (Bereiter, 2002a; Nason, Brett, & Woodruff, 1996).

SSM-Based IS Support for Online Learning

Imagine attending a class where the instructor, after giving an introduction of what the course is entailed, invites you to visit the Web-based course support environment (Vat, 2001). On entering the online environment, you are offered the privilege of creating your own personal space in the form of a customizable information system (IS), guarded by your personal self-assigned identifier and password. Within the personal electronic space, you are furnished with a whole set of tools to experience your learning in the subsequent course enactment (Vat, 2000). Perhaps, you may discover that this support environment is just one of the many environments available for each course offered. Indeed, each such environment is embedded inside the course organizational space, and your personal space is designed such that once inside your own electronic space, you can manage as many courses as you want. Your personal space is like your private workspace, in which you have to perform, keep track of and manage your learning activities. More excitingly, you are given the opportunity to participate in teamwork in the course you are enrolled. This is demonstrated by the provision of possible group spaces associated with the course. Each group space is often called the course collaborative space. Consequently, in your personal space, you can have access to many course organizational spaces, and the respective collaborative spaces installed for such courses (Vat, 2004). Let us further assume that group-based project work is considered as an essential component of the course you are taking. And your instructor has just uploaded the latest information on problem-based learning (PBL) to the course organizational space for your first research assignment. Thereby, it should be worthwhile to begin exploring the context behind the IS support (Vat, 2002a, 2002b), which aims to develop in the learners their abilities to learn, to engage in collaboration, to appreciate multiple perspectives, to evaluate and to actively use and construct knowledge in such an environment.

Re-Enacted Affiliative Meanings and "Branding" in Open and Distance Education

Entwistle (1981) found it was possible and useful to categorize students in three categories: surface learners who want to acquire and use specific knowledge and skills, deep learners who seek a deeper coherent understanding of a field, and credential seekers who want a good diploma and will do whatever may be necessary to get it. The surface learners do not need formal distance education degree studies; they can more and more readily find just-in-time just-on-topic e-learning for a modest price. So the main clientele for distance education institutions are and will continue to be both those wanting a really deep meaningful education, and those who need really respectable credentials who also lack convenient affordable access to traditional universities. More and more it is becoming incumbent upon us to cater to the credential seekers and help to socialize them into their chosen fields, if possible converting them into people proud to be deep learners. Such socialization is not possible if all one provides is a cafeteria of online courses.