Archive for January, 2010
London International Conference on Education (LICE 2010)
January 31st, 2010
Education
LONDON INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION (LICE 2010)
CALL FOR PAPERS
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London International Conference on Education (LICE-2010)
September 6-8, 2010, London, UK
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The London International Conference on Education (LICE) is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practices in education. The LICE promotes collaborative excellence between academicians and professionals from Education.
The aim of LICE is to provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various educational fields with cross-disciplinary interests to bridge the knowledge gap, promote research esteem and the evolution of pedagogy. The LICE-2010 invites research papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance evaluation. All accepted papers will appear in the proceedings and modified version of selected papers will be published in special issues peer reviewed journals.
The topics in LICE-2010 include but are not confined to
the following areas:
*Academic Advising and Counselling
*Art Education
*Adult Education
*APD/Listening and Acoustics in Education Environment
*Business Education
*Counsellor Education
*Curriculum, Research and Development
*Distance Education
*Early Childhood Education
*Educational Administration
*Educational Foundations
*Educational Psychology
*Educational Technology
*Education Policy and Leadership
*Elementary Education
*E-Learning
*ESL/TESL
*Health Education
*Higher Education
*History
*Human Resource Development
*Indigenous Education
*ICT Education
*Kinesiology & Leisure Science
*K12
*Language Education
*Mathematics Education
*Multi-Virtual Environment
*Music Education
*Pedagogy
*Physical Education (PE)
*Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
*Reading Education
*Religion and Education Studies
*Rural Education
*Science Education
*Secondary Education
*Second life Educators
*Social Studies Education
*Special Education
*Student Affairs
*Teacher Education
*Cross-disciplinary areas of Education
*E-Society
*Other Areas of Education
IMPORTANT DATES:
Extended Abstract (Work in Progress) Submission Date: March 01, 2010
Research Paper, Case Study, Report Submission Date: March 30, 2010
Proposal for Workshops: February 15, 2010
Notification of Workshop Acceptance/Rejection: February 15, 2010
Notification of Extended Abstract (Work in Progress) Acceptance/Rejection: March 15, 2010
Notification of Research Paper, Case Study, Report Acceptance /Rejection: April 15, 2010
Camera Ready Paper Due: June 01, 2010
Participant(s) Registration (Open): January 2010
Early Bird Registration Deadline: May 31, 2010
Late Bird Registration Deadline: September 06, 2010
Conference Dates: September 06-08, 2010
For further information please visit LICE-2010 at:
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
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An Educational Extinction Event?
January 30th, 2010
My colleague, Dick Lipton, asks a really interesting question in his blog: Could Georgia Tech (GIT = Georgia Institute of Technology) and all other universities simply disappear?
I think there is a danger that GIT as we know it today could disappear by 2035. Not just GIT, but all schools, colleges, and universities—at all levels. I think that there is a chance that they could all be gone. They will be replaced by something, but that something may be very different from GIT.
via .
His belief is that the University (Uns) will be replaced by On-Line University (Ons). I have significant concerns about that., by flunking out or . On-line courses tend to, and mostly at the lower-knowledge and poor levels.
I think it’s , in terms of improving learning and engaging a broader range of students. CMU has done it in . Computer science is a great . The work has to happen first. If Uns disappear in favor of Ons, before we make Ons better, will lead to worse education for society, especially for weaker students.
Εκμάθηση από απόσταση
January 30th, 2010
Έκανα browse σε ένα blog που μου τράβηξε την προσοχή επειδή ονομάζεται “Life is too short to drink bad coffee”. Μεγάλη αλήθεια.
Ένα από τα άρθρα του, έκανε αναφορά στο , ένα δικτυακό τόπο για εκμάθηση από απόσταση σε καθημερινή βάση. Το target group είναι κυρίως τα παιδιά στο 12τάξιο σύστημα των ΗΠΑ και τα μαθήματα τα Math, English, Integrated Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Essay Review, Precalculus, Statistics Math Answers, Math Problems, Algebra Help και Homework Help. Πληρώνεις με την πιστωτική σου κάρτα για ένα εύρος χρόνου (από ημέρες μέχρι χρόνο) και αναζητάς λύση στο πρόβλημά σου οποιαδήποτε στιγμή (24×7) το επιθυμείς.
Σε κάθε απαίτηση του χρήση για την λύση/ανάλυση ενός θέματος/προβλήματος το tutornext εντοπίζει ένα ελεύθερο tutor που αναλαμβάνει add hoc την εξυπηρέτηση και να βοηθήσει στο πρόβλημα.
Πολύ καλή ιδέα. Στην χώρα μας θα μπορούσε να είναι μια πρωτοβουλία ακόμη και του ίδιου του Υπουργείου.
Χαρακτηριστικά να αναφέρω ότι στις Πολυτεχνικές Σχολές που διδάσκεται η Επιστήμη της Πληροφορικής, το “Distance Learning” είναι μάθημα και πολλές διπλωματικές εργασίες έχουν αφιερωθεί σε αυτό. Η τεχνογνωσία λοιπόν θα έπρεπε να υπάρχει.
Αν ένα κράτος έπαιρνε την πρωτοβουλία να ιδρύσει ένα τέτοιο σύστημα, με υλοποίηση και ανάπτυξη σε μια επαρχία, κανείς δεν θα το κατηγορούσε ακόμη και αν αποτύγχανε. Κανένας δεν θα το κατηγορούσε αν το ίδιο το κράτος εισέπραττε ένα τμήμα των χρημάτων που απαιτούνται για την λειτουργία ενός τέτοιου συστήματος από τους ίδιους τους χρήστες.
Top Earners and Leaders
January 29th, 2010
Everyone wants to know the inner dealings of top producers. Many factors come into play and they are all valid and essential yet there are two that are personal and at times overlooked. They aren’t normally seen as part of the process but they are key items.
There are different reasons some people always earn the most income. One of them is their attitude toward learning. These people are seldom satisfied with the level of knowledge they have in any area of life. They feel there is always more understanding to be gained no matter how well they know the subject. The application of this knowledge is also required but you must have the knowledge in order to apply it. This desire to always know things better and fuller, keep their minds actively trying to advance in those areas. This in turn blocks the idle or nonproductive time they would normally have.
Another reason is the leader they have become. Many people believe leaders are born that way. Though this may be partly true, leadership traits are acquired and only certain leadership qualities are genetic. These qualities make the acquired traits more easily applied and seem more natural. Therefore the acquiring of leadership abilities is possible and required by all to be leaders. Acquiring these comes from reading, reading about those that have become or are leaders and the accounts of their actions. Reading gives knowledge and insight into how each reacted in adverse or complicated situations as well as their mindset and thinking process. In doing this we also open our own minds to the possibility of the accomplishment of our “impossible” tasks. Seeing others achieve things beyond the norm strengthens our belief that it is possible for us also.
Together these actions are a vital part of producing top income and acquiring the position of leadership. It is so important to constantly be learning more and reading the writings of other leaders that without either we will be at a stand still in our personal growth. We must strive to be more knowledgeable and more positively driven than those around us or we will be as they are. In order to be more we must do more, no matter where we apply it.
So what ever you attempt to do remember, the top earners are learners and the top leaders are readers.
Poetry Videoconferences for Grades 2-5
January 29th, 2010
St. Louis author Amy E. Sklansky gives elementary students a peek inside the mind of a poet in this one hour videoconference from New Links to New Learning.
This distance learning program, available for students in grades second through fifth, is offered upon request (point-to-point) and on the following set dates (multipoint): Tuesday, April 22 (during National Poetry Month): 9:30; 10:45; 1:00 and Tuesday, May 4: 9:30; 10:45; 1:00. All times listed are Central. (If a second grade teacher would like to participate, the program would be shortened to 45 minutes and would not include the interactive poetry writing and would be scheduled point-to-point). The cost for the videoconference is $135 for New Links to New Learning members and $175 for non-members.
*from From the Doghouse: Poems to Chew On:
My tail won’t stop its wagging.
My rear end has an ache.
Back and forth and back and forth–
it never takes a break.
To sign up, click .
E-Learning Innovations, Lori Reed, and Destination Learning
January 29th, 2010
We seem, in many ways, to be in a training-teaching-learning renaissance. The stunning burst of creativity among practitioners—what we colloquially and inadequately call “trainers”—is virtually nonstop, exhilarating, and just plain fun to watch.
is abundant, and , a who serves as Learning & Development Coordinator for (), has just provided another wonderful example of where we might and should be going.
Like at , Reed has started with a blog and innovatively manipulated it to create a visually attractive and dynamic website () offering numerous learning opportunities which are available to us at the moment we need them and in a format which makes them incredibly easy to navigate.
If you’re looking for well reasoned and heartfelt writing—the centerpiece of any great blog–she consistently meets your expectations by delivering pieces like , where she considers her transition from thinking and working on training to “focusing more on the end result—performance and answering the question of how…we improve the services and quality of service we provide to our customers.”
Those in search of other training-teaching-learning resources will find plenty on her , where links to published articles, educational presentations, and webinars are included among the standard background information about her own skills and expertise.
But what is most innovative here is something rarely seen on blogs, which often become dumping grounds rather than useable repositories of retrievable resource because of or other clues as to what resides within the site. Reed’s begin with the sort of admirably simple and user-centric set of explanations great trainers provide:
“Categories are sorted alphabetically.
“Hierarchical categories are grouped and indented under their parent category.
“Reports are listed once only, under the category they are first shown.
“A count (in brackets) is given of comments received against individual reports.
“The number of reports under each category is given (in brackets) after each category name. “Reports may be filed under more than one category and are included in the total for all categories under which they are filed, but are not included in a parent category’s total.”
We then find ourselves on familiar ground via an alphabetized index, by category, to every piece posted on the blog. If we are looking for articles about , we easily find them grouped under that heading. The same is true for and a variety of other topics. Simply clicking on any of those headings produces the same results you achieve by pursuing the links in this paragraph: you’re led to the titles of various articles she has written on those topics, and each title provides a direct link to the individual piece.
What we have here, therefore, is the same sort of creative hybrid available on the Smart History website: a living, constantly evolving, and free-ranging combination of a traditional printed work on a broad topic; a wiki (via readers’ comments); a blog; and a providing learning opportunities at the moment of need. In other words, a masterful lesson by a master trainer on how to master the organization of information in a compelling and assessable fashion for all trainer-teacher-learners.
Let’s see how long it takes the rest of us to catch up.
Does private tutoring actually help students?
January 29th, 2010
So you’re studying at University, at what point do you need to engage a private tutor and will it actually make a difference. You seem to be doing well and achieving not bad grades, but is this good enough? It has become evident that achieving just a pass is not good enough these days. Sometimes the motivation to find a tutor is out of desperation to pass a course, but in today’s fiercely competitive job market, employees are paying a lot more attention to grades than ever, to select only the best candidates. There is a lot more scrutiny that graduates face to get their first job to ensure the right organisation fit as well as a strong level of academic achievement, which is playing an important piece in this process.
CA, of , has been running a private accounting tuition business for the past two year focusing mainly on undergraduate and postgraduate students who are taking accounting subjects. He has found a growing trend in students wanting additional support for the studies not merely to pass but to obtain higher grades. “I have extremely smart students who want more than just a passing grade, they are looking to take their understanding of accounting concepts to the next level”. He says it is extremely rewarding to see students achieving distinctions and high distinctions, coming from a limited knowledge base, prior to commencing tuition. “What makes it good for students is that they can talk to a real accountant and not an academic, which makes the concepts a lot more real due to all of the practical experience & advice that I can offer.”
What is important when finding a good tutor?
It is important to ensure that they have a good knowledge base on their prospective subject matter. Try to find a tutor that specialises in a particular area rather than being too much of a generalist, tutoring multiple subjects from different disciplines. It is ideal that the tutor has extensive work experience in the subjects as well to ensure depth of knowledge. Finally look for testimonies from other students to ensure that they actually can walk their talk.
What can you expect form a private tutoring session?
At the end of the day to achieve the marks you desire requires hard work and focus and a tutor can’t guarantee this unless you put in the time and effort by listing to their guidance and advice. They should be able to answer most of your questions and set you up on the right path to achieving your goals and understanding more difficult concepts easily. If they know their material well, then you should be able to bound ideas off them and be able to pick up a lot from their practical experience. A good tutor will give you a lot of confidence in preparation for the exam and develop a deeper appreciation for the subject matter. You also pay for what you get so searching around purely based on cost is most likely going to cost you in the long run.
How to get the most out of your tutor?
Its important to make it clear upfront why you want tuition and the areas you need help. Wanting help to write an assignment that you haven’t yet started and is due tomorrow morning probably isn’t the best idea. Best to do some preparation and readings prior to the sessions, along with some question that you may have will give you a head start. Don’t be afraid to ask silly questions as they are here to help. Take things at your own pace and don’t be afraid to tell the tutor if you do not understand something.
If you haven’t tried private tutoring it is highly recommended that you give it a go and you may surprise yourself how much you will get out of it. When you consider the total cost of your education, it is a small price to pay to develop the extra level of knowledge and understanding that you can take with you throughout your career. Its all as well reading a textbook and attending lectures, but to really take it the next level requires additional support above what resources are provided in a course to achieve top marks. Employers are looking for what you understand and being able to apply knowledge to any situation. If you are looking to understand the concepts better there is nothing like sitting down with an expert on the subject matter to explain it in clear terms.
On a final note, enjoy the experience, try to list and absorb as much knowledge and wisdom from your tutor. There are a couple of good websites in Australia that you can locate a good tutor such as:
To see my other blogs go to:
If you would like any further information feel free to or goto
Web Teaching Journal (Week 2) “Failures in Communication”
January 28th, 2010
This is the second in a fifteen part, weekly journal on my experience teaching a web class. Each post explores how things are going in the current week and ideas for future revisions of the course. For my first post, see . To see entries posted after this one, you can also just pull down the categories menu on the right and select the Web Teaching Journals category.
When I used to have bad dreams about my teaching, they usually went like this: I’m teaching in a huge quad and my students are so dispersed that they are mixed with passersby and out of the reach of my voice. A variation on this dream had me teaching in a long “L” shaped room with the students at one end (around a corner) and me on the other. I’m sorry to report that teaching web classes is often like those nightmares. In fact, the one kind of teaching that really instantiates my nightmares in transparent ways are web classes. This one, at least in week 2, is no exception. Let me tell you what’s going on.
Students are not using the message boards as much as they should to talk to each other. I am still getting questions that have been covered on the boards and that’s disappointing. I prepared a SurveyMonkey survey to try to determine ways of tweaking the class but after posting it in my announcement board, even after force-subscribing all students to that board, only 5 out of 30+ students have taken the survey. (One student claims they are not getting email copies of the force-subscribed messages in my Announcements board, and I have no idea if this is occurring with other students…now you’re getting the flavor of my nightmares!). In short, I can’t get a read on what’s going on or get the students to tell me what’s going on via the survey. I put some CD-ROMs on my door for students to copy onto their laptops with a sign-out sheet next to them, and now one of the CD’s is gone and the sign-out sheet is blank. Apart from deadlines for quizzes and assignments, I’m not feeling like I’m reaching the students. Thank goodness for the 5 or 6 students who are dedicated message board users.
Apart from the first quiz, we’ve had our first assignment, divided up into separate categories. Some students had to write reactions to the readings, others had to do a web search and find, and evaluate web pages on selected topics. I instructed them to use the Berkeley “How to assess a web page” rubric but many of the students did not follow it at all.
The last time I taught this class in WebCT I did not have a lot of the feelings I’m having this week and last week. I can’t figure out what it was about WebCT that might have made the difference because, on the surface, Moodle seems so much better to me. Right now I feel frustrated, but more confident in several changes that I have made in the class. I feel more in control of elements at my own disposal. The problem is I’m not sure it will make a difference.
The crux of the issue for me today, one week since my last post is this: should I even expect some semblance of community and generalized communication in a web class? Maybe a web class should be pretty much automated and we should dispense with “community” and “interaction.” I know these are verboten concepts among teachers who prize experiential learning and active learning, myself among them, but I’m really not sure this class will work in those ways.
In closing I want to say two things. The first is that this class is not running on autopilot. I am one week or two weeks ahead of the students with regards to building the class. Don’t get me wrong: I have 95% of the components at my disposal, but I am building as I go to ensure a “presence” in the class. Perhaps this was a mistake. The second item is that this week I spent 5 or 6 hours dealing with this class, easy, that’s already double the amount of time I would have spent teaching this very same class live.
Micromanaging…. A Necessary Evil?
January 28th, 2010
According to Webster’s Dictionary, to micromanage is to manage with excessive control, or attention to detail. According to Dictioary.com, it is to manage with excessive attention to detail. Most employees simply view micromanagement as nerve racking. Employees also equate micromanagement with lack of trust. Despite all of the negativity that surrounds this term, there may be situations where micromanagement is necessary.
For example, if a small business owner decides to hire their first employee, they may need to spend a great deal of time getting them acclimated to everything. After all, they are going to be helping the owner grow their business. This is especially true if the newbie is entering into a new field. They are going to need to be trained on whatever industry they’re entering into; as well as how the company operates. Consequently, the owner will have to engage in “micromanagement”.
Micromanaging may also be helpful for companies with a staff. It’s important for owners and managers to get to know their staff for a number of reasons. What better way to get to know the people that will be doing the bulk of the work than to micromanage them? Micromanaging helps the owner/manager learn each employee’s strengths as well as weaknesses. This is important information for maximizing the potential of any company.
Even though some managers may view micromanaging as a necessary evil, there is an art to micromanaging. In many cases, small business owners have a hard time turning over a great deal of responsibility to new employees. From the beginning of the company, the business owner may have taken care of everything; therefore, they view their company much like someone else may view their child. So they are extremely careful with their baby, which in this case is their business. Managers must figure out when to back away and trust their employees, otherwise they will move from micromanaging into mismanaging.
by: Gminski Stubbs
Apex Hosting Solutions Now Offers Tool to Optimize Your Internet Presence
January 28th, 2010
McDonough, GA (January 26, 2010) – According to analyst firm Netcraft, there are more than 238 million Websites online. Getting a Web site noticed online can be daunting, which is why Apex Hosting Solutions decided to offer Search Engine Visibility.
Search Engine Visibility walks users through a step-by-step process to make their Website search engine friendly. This not only makes a search engine more likely to index the entire site, but to help get the Website higher in search engine rankings.
Search Engine Visibility lets users optimize their site by defining keywords, analyzing content and tracking keyword performance. Search Engine Visibility also provides a “Top 10 SEO Checklist,” which helps identify commonly made mistakes and techniques on how to make a Web site stronger.
Search Engine Visibility also provides a video tutorial and other educational materials which help users understand the search engine optimization process. Once a Website is optimized, users can submit their Web site to the most commonly used search engines on the Internet.
Users can call Apex Hosting Solutions’ 24/7 customer care representatives if they have any questions during the optimization process.
For more information about Search Engine Visibility or any of Apex Hosting Solutions’ services, visit .
