Free Education for All

Category — Equal Opportunity

Two National Universities Demonstrate Why Online Schools Are Today’s Educational Innovators

While traditional, campus-based colleges continue to see flat enrollments, online universities are seeing steady up-ticks in student numbers. The primary reason for that growth is due to the flexibility online programs offer. However, two recent innovations by two different national online schools also demonstrate why these institutions continue to be so popular; they are simply [...]

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February 17, 2008   3 Comments
Distance Learning, Equal Opportunity, Technology

Real Economic Stimulus Needs a Long Range, Educational Approach

Over the past couple of weeks we have heard the phrase stimulus package to describe a short term approach to help our declining economy. At the behest of our president and apparently supported by the House and the Senate, the current package comes in a rather troubling form accompanied by an equally bizarre directive. The [...]

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February 6, 2008   4 Comments
Equal Opportunity, Public Policy

Infants and Savants - Bringing New Meaning to the Idea of Intelligence

Each year I become more and more amazed by the discoveries taking place regarding intelligence and the learning process. The first video in our post The Twelve Must See Videos of 2007 proves we knew little about learning and learned behavior in infants.
In that first video an infant of six months is exposed to shapes [...]

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January 10, 2008   2 Comments
Equal Opportunity, Public Policy

Looping in Education - Time to Make It a Fundamental Practice?

I read with great interest the story of retiring teacher Mary Barrera-Gomez. Currently a fifth-grade teacher at Forbes Elementary School in San Antonio she will be retiring after 29 years in education.
What makes her story truly unusual is twofold. First there is the fact she left the administrative ranks six years ago for one [...]

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January 6, 2008   8 Comments
Equal Opportunity, Public Policy, Teaching and Learning

To Increase Student Achievement Should We Focus on Social Skills?

It was quite some time ago we wrote about Martin Haberman’s viewpoint regarding learning and teacher preparation programs. In his article “The Source and Nature of Best Practice in Teaching,” the columnist and Board advisor to EdNews.org defined learning as “changed behavior.” We noted at the time that Haberman made no specific mention of traditional [...]

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December 26, 2007   5 Comments
Equal Opportunity, Public Policy

What Does a Business Do With Inferior Blueberries?

Accountability has moved to the forefront of all educational discussions. Tough federal mandates on schools have pushed administrators to implement a number of major educational initiatives. Self-proclaimed “education experts” have been quick to offer “solutions” like the insidious No Child Left Behind Act, all with the well-intentioned goal of making schools more effective.
One of [...]

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December 21, 2007   2 Comments
Equal Opportunity, Public Policy

Maine Philanthropist Steps in Where Hillary Suggests Government Should Tread

It was in September that Senator Hillary Clinton told folks at a Congressional Black Caucus forum: “I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time so when that young person turns 18, if they have finished high school, they will be able to access it [...]

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December 18, 2007   2 Comments
Equal Opportunity, Public Policy

Kudos to Negroponte

We noticed a very nice development this weekend: the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation of Cambridge is enjoying a surge of new orders.

We want to offer kudos to the oft-maligned visionary Nicholas Negroponte, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who had the idea of a $100 laptop. When the concept could not meet that [...]

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December 2, 2007   No Comments
Equal Opportunity, Technology

MIT Offers Free Education to the Self-Motivated

Today, you do not have to enter the hallowed halls of MIT to have access to an MIT education. At the MIT OpenCourse website, interested learners are now but a click of a mouse away from the curriculum of 1,800 courses offered at tone of the premiere educational institutions in America.
That means access to [...]

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December 1, 2007   No Comments
Equal Opportunity, Multimedia Content, OpenCourseWare, Technology

Technology Debate - Giant Nuisance or Answer to Educational Ills

Over the past few days we have focused a great deal on technology, particularly the possibilities of technology to enhance teaching and learning. As we ponder the potential, it is important to recognize that many educators view all these new gadgets very negatively. In fact, many see them as nothing more than a giant nuisance.
Technology [...]

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November 29, 2007   3 Comments
Equal Opportunity, Technology