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Hits: 347
"College Inc.," For-Profit Colleges in the USA
Originally broadcast on US public television stations May 4, 2010, "College Inc." is a 54 minute long Frontline streaming-video program about for-profit colleges in the USA as of 2010. The show gives a brief review of the history of for-profit colleges since the early 1990s. Among other problems, the costs of for-profit college classes far exceed the costs of course at US community colleges and major universities... the latter two which remain severely underfunded at the Federal and State levels. In the show the narrator gives some "bad marks" for the online University of Phoenix as well as several other colleges that were turned into for-profit colleges. And the formerly private colleges turned into non-profit colleges may not be doing any better. In this PI's opinion: For-Profit colleges are another example, a left-over, of the US "Free Market" run wild in the 1980s, 90s ,and 2000s. They appear to be indulging in the exploitation of desperate unemployed and under-employed individuals. Like the US-created mortgage and banking crisis of 2008 to-date, like the "US credit card scams" of the 80s through 2000s, for-profit colleges primarily make a profit for themselves. Apparently many of them do not well prepare their students in their fields of study. And all of them put students deeper into debt, a debt from which the for-profits end up getting a "cut". Â See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ for more Frontline documentaries about many different subjects.
Hits: 450
(USA) Community College Cutbacks article
In the New York Times of June 23, 2010, Tamar Lewin reports on the difficulties community college students face in Walnut (or Walnut Creek?), California, to just register to take classes that, when passed, could enable them to transfer to four-year colleges.
Hits: 405
(USA) For Profit Colleges Have a New Market Niche
In the New York Times of June 23, 2010, Tamar Lewin reports how the current difficult economic climate and cutbacks in funding to community colleges in California has created a new market opportunity, or 'niche', for the For-Profit colleges. See also the documentary video-stream about the problematic creation and operation of For-Profit colleges in the USA linked-to on this web site.
Hits: 744
New York Times Articles Index about USA Community Colleges
The New York Times online and in-print newspaper operation in New York City, NY, USA, keeps an index to all the articles it has printed and web-published about (USA) Community Colleges.
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The Community College Times: California budget cuts for 2009-2010
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NYT: Stores See Google as Ally in EBook Market
The giant commercial players on the Internet see great profits in selling EBooks, no doubt including textbooks, and Google may be the latest giant to join the pack. This is a New York Times article of June 30, 2010.
Hits: 393
(USA) Colleges Spend More on Recreation than (on) Classes
The New York Times of Friday 10.07.09 reports on a new study showing "stratification by wealth" in USA colleges than exists in any other country. The study also shows that US colleges are spending more on recreation and administration improvements than on classes. (JGW: Welcome to the 1920s? These colleges also are not yet spending on making classes -- or class materials -- available, perhaps online, to the poorer students and to the un-matriculated students unable to pay basic tuition and fees, should they actually apply and be accepted into a college).
Hits: 341
Video: Introduction to the NYU's Global Network University Project
On the USA Charlie Rose public television show of 7/24/10, NYU's President since 2002, Dr. John Sexton, talks about New York University's Global University Project. NYU intends to setup and run 60 campuses world-wide using the Internet for conducting classes and seminars. But also flying faculty and students around to these campuses. His enthusiastic, inspiring 'visions' for global higher education are well worth considering and are increasingly wide-spread in the USA. His observations about the good and bad effects of the Internet are noteworthy, well articulated, if also 'late in coming' by this PI's 44+ years of technical experience. But more concerning to this PI is Sexton's remarks on this show about undergraduate student suicides and what that fact implies about academic community on campus and online.
Hits: 426
NYT: Replacing a Pile of Textbooks with an iPad
In the 10.08.23 New York Times, writer / costly technology-promoter Nick Bilton extols the virtues of replacing piles of heavy textbooks (needed in a single term in a U.S. high school or college) with all the digital versions of those books stored on one 1.5 lb. Apple iPad. Except the iPad costs $500-$600 as of summer 2010 and the books, normally $1000-$1200 per college term, might cost $500-$750 for the digital versions. So this is not free, open education or free, open libraries that Bilton is promoting. However interestingly, some textbook web sites cited in the article / blog-post are offering additional collaborative study and student-student, student-instructor discussions resources online along with their texts for those individuals and schools that pay their price for the digital text and the access to the extra proprietary, restricted-use "learning" services.
Hits: 353
NYT: Mid-Level US, UK Universities Seek India Branches
But top level, "tier 1", US and UK universities still avoid setting up branch campuses and programs in India.
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NYT: Shallow study shows children like digital eBook reading
A shallow and possibly product promoting study by Scholastic magazine shows children like reading digital eBooks but also want their hard and soft-bound books with paper pages to turn.
Hits: 375
NYT: Opportunities for "World Education" On the Rise
The New York Times of Sunday 10.10.03 reports about the increase in popularity of and demand for "World Education" as a sort of umbrella academic area of study -- for those who can afford it. In other words, this will be a largely private school experience involving "study abroad". However the opportunities for lower cost, high quality, more educationally diverse "world education" seem to be increasing.
Hits: 367
NYT: Britain Looks to Graduates to Pick Up the Tuition Tab
By the work of (who this PI assumes is a free market advocating conservative) former British Petroleum CEO, John Browne, and his "Browne Review" commission, there may be dramatic changes in how the British pay for their education. Britain may soon require successful graduates to pay for the tuition of undergraduate and graduate students in the nations colleges and universities. In the original Oct. 17, 2010, article, the author opens with the trenchant rhetorical question: "What is a university education worth? Who derives the benefits? And who should pay for it?"
Hits: 436
NYT: Average (USA) College Debt Rose to $24,000 in 2009
In the 10.10.22 New York Time, they report that USA student debt for their college education rose to $24,000 on average in 2009.
Hits: 445
NYT: For Exposure, Universities Put Courses on the Web
The New York Times Education section of 10.11.01 reports that increasing numbers of (US) universities are promoting themselves by putting some of their courses, lectures, and course materials on the Internet.
Hits: 455
NYT: Haiti School Struggles to Live
The New York Times of 10.11.15 reports that at least one Haitian school is struggling to continue providing it's services. This PI wonders to what extent digital eBooks and the low-cost computers to read them (perhaps $100 to $150 $OLPCs or work-better and cost-more $250 netbooks), as well as on-call online additional out-of-country educators, might help provide better education to all Haitians sooner than later.
Hits: 390
NYT: Facebooks Offers "New" Messaging Tool
The New York Times of 10.11.15 afternoon reports that Facebook has announced their new multi-modal messaging system for all Facebook users. Supposedly this system is better than ordinary email. However this PI could make technical arguments that "it is nothing new" and that it is just another attempt by an arrogant profit-hungry management intent on dominating the Internet and the majority of its users. The service, if successful, threatens to take away free email customers from the three leaders: Google GMail, Yahoo mail and MSN Hotmail, the latter three which as yet have failed to add "social networking" to their free email-only services.
Hits: 367
NYT: Humanities Scholars Embrace Digital Technologies
The New York Times of 10.11.16 reports that digitally savvy UK and US professors and scholars in the Humanities are embracing the use of digital technologies to teach. Some claim the vast storage capacity available with digital media and the search, retrieval, and variable collation techniques of that data are changing our understanding of the liberal arts.
Hits: 425
NYT: Using Animation to Study Cell Structure (and Processes?)
The New York Times of 10.11.18 reported about a new effort within the Biology research community to study cell structures and processes with animation. That simulation attempt adds to decades of precedent of modeling natural processes with super-computers. The super-computers have run complex programs that use linear and non-linear differential equations and other mathematical methods to "model" natural processes without the pretty animated graphics. But since 2000 graphic animation computers have been cheaper, more powerful, and more easy to program. At the very least a scientist and computer-graphic artist can simulate activities and processes of macro and micro objects as scientists observe or imagine them to be. But then the scientists can check if the primitive math models that derive from the simulations "hold up" mathematically and in-the-real-world. Then the scientists revise the simulations and any "math" involved with it and re-run their simulation program, comparing new results with old and new findings in-the-real-world.
Hits: 451
NYT: MBAs (returning to) Japan Struggle for Respect
The New York Times of 10.11.24 reported that Japanese citizens who studied abroad to obtain an M.B.A. often struggle for respect from their co-workers when they return to Japan and wish to resume a normal cooperative work and personal life there. The phenomenon exposes the unaddressed problem of cultural differences and problematic norms and expectations which a person's studies out-of-country of origin and upbringing may unwittingly aggravate.
Hits: 327
NYT: Parents embrace "Race to Nowhere" Documentary about education
The New York Times of 10.12.08 reports that (USA) parents are embracing (highly supportive of) the documentary "Race to Nowhere". They stay after the showing of the film to discuss it's messages. The primary message is that (USA) children are being constantly pushed in effect to become resumé builders to "look better" than their peers in an unforgiving, highly competitive, job market. This PI believes that means there is less and less "joy of learning", little to no self-paced learning or learning how to be a self-paced learner, and little to no joy in using what you have learned for personal expression or to help others.
Hits: 335
NYT: To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take Tests
In the Science section of the New York Times of 11.01.20, Pam Belluck reports on recent findings showing test takers have better recall of recently learned material than do students using other memory aids including repeated study of the same material.
Hits: 332
NYT: Skipping Rote Memorization in Indian Schools
The New York Times of 11.02.18 reported that a growing number of elementary schools in India are putting aside the traditional "drill and practice" rote memorization exercises for students in favor of directing students to write short stories using the desired words and concepts.
Hits: 404
NYT: Public Universities Seek More Autonomy as Financing From States Shrinks
The New York Times Eduction section of 11.03.02 reported that many U.S. Public Universities are working to divorce themselves for State rules and regulations as well as from State money as State funding decreases. In effect this trend has the university administrators privatizing their own universities with or without State permission in order to survive.
Hits: 354
NYT: NYC Schools Suffer Layoffs, Buy More Technology
The New York Time of 11.03.30 reported that New York City schools, burdened by the ongoing US Recession and cut in State funding, have made more layoffs of teachers and staff. However, the same schools are buying more computer technology. Will the technology somehow make up for the lost teachers?
Hits: 365
NYT: Academic Freedom or not?
The New York Times of 11.04.03 reports that traditional Academic Freedom offered tenured faculty (in the UK) is under threat.
Hits: 353
MindShift: Is Instant Assessment an Important Teaching Tool?
In a web article dated 11.04.18, the MindShift educational information department of public television station KQED, San Francisco, wrote about the uses and results of instant assessment of and feedback to students.
Hits: 347
SFGate: A First: Women Surpass Men in Advanced Degrees
The San Francisco Chronicle online, SFGate.com, reported this Associated Press story on 11.04.26.
Hits: 436
KNTV: Taking a Free College Course at Coursera.org: MOOCs debut (12.12.24)
KNTV.com, NBC affiliate station in the south San Francisco Bay Area serving the entire SFBA, broadcast this story on October 30, 2012, as one of their "Class Action" series of reports. Coursera.org, which offers free no-credit college level classes online that were recorded at Stanford, Princeton and Johns Hopkins universities, had just web-published 2 new courses for the Fall 2012 semester / quarter. English-only, 7:23 minutes:seconds running time, no English transcript. This report is, of course, a promotion to attract students world-wide to take a MOOC, massive online open course, also called a free no-credit college course online with thousand of students taking the same class more or less at the same time. The report also mentions ways students who are able to take college level classes can use these free no-credit classes to fortify their other not-so-free for-credit college learning activities.
Hits: 348
NYT: Gates & Pearson Foundations Join to Fund Development of Online Courses
The New York Times of 11.04.28 reported that the Gates and Pearson Foundations are collaborating to produce "common core" standardized courses for schools for US grades K-10. The very recent "common core" standards for curricula which debuted in May 2010 have been adopted by 40 US states as of April 2011. See the July 2010 NYT "Common Core standards" article for more information about these standards. Will these new courses be the multi-media Internet-delivered version of one-size-fits-all courses for students, just as textbooks have been for centuries, but with more entertainment value and some forced computer-mediated interactivity between student and lesson?
Hits: 327
NYT: Common Core Standards (USA)
The New York Times of 10.07.21, reported the development of new (US) nation-wide standards for K-12 education called the "Common Core". See also the NYT article of 11.04.28, xxxxx, referenced on this site which reports the adoption of these standards by 40 US states as of April 2011 and the new collaboration as of April 2011 of two very large foundations to create "standards-based" high quality (a.k.a. good production values) multi-media online courses for K-10 students in these 40 US states. Will these new courses be the multi-media Internet-delivered version of one-size-fits-all courses for students, just as textbooks have been for centuries, but with more entertainment value and some forced computer-mediated interactivity between student and lesson?
Hits: 312
NYT: Students Speak Up in Class, Silently, Using Social Media
The New York Times of 11.05.13 reports of an Iowa (USA) teacher who is one of a small but growing group of teachers who are trying to use Twitter to improve student discussions in the classroom.
Hits: 334
NYT: Behind Grass-Roots School Advocacy: Bill Gates
Are the super-rich corrupting or improving public education in the USA? The New York Times of 11.05.21 reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the largest investors and is a major policy setter in the "astro-turf" (phoney) grass-roots movement fronted by Teach Plus and similar organizations. Teach Plus and others provide funds to help reorganize and revitalize smaller schools. But they also advocate very hard that the schools reduce or eliminate unions and seniority rights. They may also be revising curricula and school student-teacher practices. The net effect is that through the boots-on-the-ground organizations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and similar private super-funding sources are revising national education policies and standard practices. Who voted for these changes in public schools?
Hits: 360
NYT: Private School Offers Longer Classes to Learn Deeper
The New York Times of 11.06.01 reported that the private Calhoun School has been offering longer classes to allow students to learn better and probe deeper into a subject.
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NYT: Helping (US) Teachers Help Themselves - the PAR program
The New York Times of Sunday 11.06.05 reported about the "Peer Assistance and Review" program in Montgomery County Maryland (USA), or "PAR". PAR connects struggling teachers with successful senior teachers who mentor the younger less experienced ones to help improve the younger ones' effectiveness.
Hits: 343
NYT: Home Schooled students now have graduation
The New York Times of 11.06.18 reported that in Miami, Florida parents of home schooled students held a high school graduation ceremony for them. Home School Graduation is a new trend (US) nation wide to which some graduation supplies companies are catering.
Hits: 324
NYT: Geographic Information Systems Help Humanities Scholars
The New York Times of 11.07.26 reported that scholars in the Humanities have recently discovered very useful purposes for computer based Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In effect viewing any part of planet earth with a GIS is like having Google Earth with 10s or 100s of times more information available to view about any particular plot of land. GIS have been around since the 1970s, but the systems were too complex and too expensive for most academics to adopt and use in research until recently.
Hits: 353
NYT: Online Enterprises Gain Foothold as Path to College
The New York Times of 11.08.25 presented this article describing how some for-profit online enterprises (distance learning businesses) have created a viable (working, practical, possibly lower-cost) path from primary and secondary schooling to college entry. The article also notes that apparently the accredited online (US) colleges are graduating well qualified students with bachelor degrees. See also any articles on this site about the successes (and failures) of the United Kingdom's Open University program which has offered distance learning for decades.
Hits: 337
NYT: Questions about increasing technology in schools
The New York Times of Sunday 11.09.04 offered this article exploring the revolutionary effects of increased technology use in the (US) classroom.
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NBC: New Cal Law: Linked Learning for High Schools
Is the new California Law mandating "Linked Learning" between public high schools and employers really a good thing. NBC News in the San Francisco Bay Area seems to think so.
Hits: 339
NYT: Online Education Personalized for Math and Science (11.12.04)
The New York Times Education section of Monday 11.12.04 reported that 36 schools nation wide (USA) are combining in-classroom instruction with selected videos from YouTube.com using a program designed by the Khan Academy. The report goes on to describe the approach of the Khan Academy in combining Internet math and science "instruction" with classroom instruction.
Hits: 344
NYT: Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor (12.02.09)
In the Education section of the New York Times of Thursday, 12.02.09, reporter Sabrina Tavernise describes the growing gaps in the USA of individual access to education and the quality of that education for the rich and for the poor.
Hits: 286
BBC: Web-Ed in NYC (12.03.05)
In a 3 minutes 40 seconds video stream, the BBC reported Monday 12.03.05 that "Udemy.com" based in New York City has begun offering free and for a low fee classes online. Anyone can author a course and make it available as a free or for-a-fee course on the Udemy web site. Udemy supporters call this: do-it-yourself (DIY) education. The BBC reporter asks "has the Internet sparked a revolution in eduction?" This observer (JGW) believes: Not yet. Furthermore Udemy concentrates on technology vocational classes and "courses" of questionable merit." Technology courses are at best demonstration and practice at following technical procedures. To the extent there are online tests, they are the same old true-false and multiple choice questions. Ethics, abstract thinking, reflections on social consequences of the vocations being learned... apparently these kinds of courses or classes do not yet exist, nor is Udemy prepared to offer or facilitate the authoring of them. So Udemy is not "humanities" or "liberal arts" education, not math or science ed at K-12 or "higher ed" levels, nor in my opinion can it be so any time soon. The Web-Ed revolution in this instance is "rudimentary" but has enthusiastic young supporters.
Hits: 391
KNTV: Putting Kids on the College Track (12.12.24)
KNTV.com, NBC affiliate station in the south San Francisco Bay Area serving the entire SFBA, broadcast this story on November 21, 2012, as one of their "Class Action" series reports. The report summarizes an Oakland, Palo Alto and San Francisco Bay View California program to help put more poor, under privileged and insufficiently educated middle school and high school students on a track (path) to a successful college experience. English-only, 8:50 minutes:seconds running time, no English transcript.
Hits: 441
KNTV: Inside EdSurge.com: a Consumer Reports for Ed-Tech (12.12.24)
KNTV.com, NBC affiliate station in the south San Francisco Bay Area serving the entire SFBA, broadcast this story on November 21, 2012, as one of their "Class Action" series of reports. EdSurge.com is a new start-up since October or November 2012 that wants to be a Consumer Reports for Ed-Tech news and information developments that occur primarily in the USA but possibly in other countries world-wide as well. English-only, 6:50 minutes:seconds running time, no English transcript. Funding sources for EdSurge.com included the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation, the Washington Post, the New Schools Venture Fund, and the Interest in Education fund. So this operation is likely to be a commercial venture which like Consumer Reports "baits" the site-visitor with some free information about ed-tech that is somewhat useful, then requires the site-visitor to pay a fee to get the more useful technical details about that ed-tech and detailed comparisons of it to other "similar" ed-tech. As of 12.12.24 it remains to be seen if EdSurge will receive "donations" from commercial ed-tech / distance learning operations that wish to be reviewed and their evaluations reported on the EdSurge site.
Hits: 389
PBS: US Fed Grants, Rise of Charter Schools, Expand Teacher Evaluation Efforts (13.02.04)
The PBS News Hour of Monday February 4, 2013 (13.02.04) presented this almost 8 minutes long report about how new U.S. Federal Grants and the increase in numbers of and support for more privately-run Charter Schools across the USA is resulting in more formal and frequent evaluations of teacher performance in classrooms. Charter Schools tend to replace and lead to the closing down of so-called "under-performing" public schools in the USA. Those closed public school facilities, suddenly "useless white elephants" for the school districts, municipalities and perhaps the states in which they reside, become a stronger temptation for the municipal or state owners (guardians of these investments made with public taxes) to sell the facilities and property to for-profit, private school, community college or university businesses.
Hits: 440
PBS: India Organization of Learning Centers Sparks Enthusiasm for School (13.05.14)
On the USA PBS Newshour program of Tuesday May 14, 2013 (13.05.14) correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports "on what is possibly the world's largest campaign to improve remedial education. The educational group called Pratham aims to change the perception of school as a solemn enterprise and to offer instead a love of learning to the youngest -- and poorest -- students. Pratham's operations are sponsored by a mix of corporate donations, non-profit monies and foundation grants." The video stream runs 8 minutes 40 seconds; an MP3 audio file of this segment and a transcript are downloadable from the PBS site.
Hits: 390
NYT: Kenya: EBook Ed for $5/month (13.05.21)
"A By-the-E-Book Education, for $5 a Month" is the title of this New York Times story provided in turn by the Fixes group which looks at solutions to social problems [world-wide] and why they work. They report that Kenya has arranged for K-12 e-textbooks will be made available to all Kenyan children for $5 per month per child with the teaching occurring in a private school. One assumes a private school in Kenya has superior facilities, better teachers and smaller class sizes if not also other amenities than do Kenyan public schools. However unless there are alternative or supplemental e-books, alternative textbooks, prequel and sequel textbooks to the primary textbook, it seems likely the program will constrain students and teachers to using one and only one government-approved e-textbook. In turn if there are continuing economic constraints on public or private education, that one textbook most likely will be made to serve all students in a given grade level or maybe students in several successive grade levels. Since the US historical average number of years taken for paper-based textbook revisions and replacements at all grade levels (K-12, undergraduate and graduate higher education) is about ten years, then for Kenya in less favorable circumstances it may take 10 or more years even several decades to obtain the latest and best translated textbooks that are culturally appropriate for all segments of Kenya. Thus the digital divide will still exist more dramatically there and other developing countries adopting this method. But also the much wanted shrinking educational divide in Kenya and elsewhere and the related better job opportunities for graduating students -- at least for those in the private schools -- could fall short as well. Are these e-books programs prepared to avoid these negative outcomes?
Hits: 3653
NYT: Tablets in Dutch Schools Usher in a New Era (13.06.09)
The Sunday June 9, 2013 New York Times (13.06.09) presented a report summarizing how some Dutch "primary" schools are experimenting with the use of Apple iPad tablets in the classroom and at student's homes. Tablet classes in what would be a US middle school class use "grade-appropriate" course ware educational games in a subject such as elementary mathematics. The course ware is one of a series in a multi term, multi grade-level curriculum of increasingly more advanced material in the subject area. Who prepared this course ware material and what development and school acquisition expenses were involved are not discussed. However, more interesting than the use of technology is that the Dutch Education Ministry is considering enacting a more flexible, multi B&M location based, 50 weeks per year instruction period for students. This would be a radical departure from the centuries old traditional model of fixed hours of instruction taking place in a specific classroom at specific times of day. It also implies that students in "a class" would not all have to accomplish their studies at the same pace or complete a course on the same day.
Hits: 400
PBS: Searching for Lessons on Education Internationally (13.09.23)
The PBS Newshour program of Monday, 13.09.23, ended with this interview with the author of the new book "The Smartest Kids in The World: And How They Got That Way," Amanda Ripley. Simon and Schuster, (c) 2013. The interview transcript is available on the video stream's web page. See also the "Principle Characters" world-wide whom she interviewed and reported in the book in the Books of Interest web links category.
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