As connection speeds increase and the ubiquity of the Internet pervades, digital content reigns. And in this era, free education has never been so accessible. The Web gives lifelong learners the tools to become autodidacts, eschewing exorbitant tuition and joining the ranks of other self-taught great thinkers in history such as Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Paul Allen and Ernest Hemingway.

“Learning is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” -Albert Einstein

10 years ago in April 2001, Charles M. Vest, the MIT President at the time, announced that the university would make its materials for all its courses freely available on the Internet. This initiative, found at OpenCourseWare, has enabled other teachers and lifelong learners around the world to listen and read what is being taught at MIT. 5 years later, in April 2006, UC Berkeley announcedits plan to put complete academic courses on Apple’s iTunes U, beginning what is now one of the biggest collections of recorded classroom lectures in the world. One year later, in October 2007, the school launched UC Berkeley on YouTube. According to Benjamin Hubbard the Manager of Webcast at UC Berkeley, the school has had well over 120 million downloads since first sharing videos online, which they began doing in 2001.

He says, “I think there’s a wide array of reasons why faculty should be engaged in recording and publishing lectures online. The first is wanting students to have access to materials. The second is for cultivating a really great affinity for a public university that’s providing research and community service. The third is closely aligned with this opportunity to provide educational resources all over the world to those from all walks of life, despite what disadvantages they have faced. It’s so important that we recognize as a public institution that this is something people value greatly and has great value for us too.”

Both Yale and Stanford have followed suit, and even Harvard has jumped on board in the last two years. Open Yale features free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars, supported by funding from the William and Flora Hewlitt Foundation. Outside of the U.S., some of the most selective universities in India have created a vast body of online content in order to reach more of the country’s exploding student population. At Stanford, you can freely “attend” The Stanford Mini Med Schoolfeaturing 3 year long series of courses by more than thirty distinguished faculty, scientists and physicians.

The world’s encyclopedia is as weightless, free and instantly accessible as Wikipedia, which is quickly gaining legitimacy in the education sphere. Using the Internet, you can learn a new language or delve into the depths of metaphysics with just a click of a mouse. The Web has unlocked the keys to a worldwide virtual school, potentially leveling the playing field for students around the world.

Read the full article here from TheNextWeb.com

Over the next five years, six technologies will have a profound impact on teaching and learning, according to a new report released Tuesday by the New Media Consortium (NMC) in collaboration with theConsortium for School Networking (CoSN), "2011 Horizon Report K-12 Edition."

The annual Horizon Report focuses on the key technology areas that researchers identify as likely to have a major impact on educational institutions and other learning-focused organizations within the next five years, broken down into the technologies that will have an impact in the near term, those that are in the early stages of adoption (two to three years out), and those that are a bit further out (four to five years). The report also identifies trends and "critical" challenges facing education in the near future.

Researchers and analysts this year identified six technologies that they indicated have the potential to expand the classroom toolset without increasing costs, that will extend learning into the home, that will inform decision making, and that will increase student engagement.

Near-Term Technologies 
In the near term--one year or less--those technologies include cloud computing and mobile devices.

For education, the relevance of cloud computing this year--as opposed to last year, when cloud computing was focused more heavily on data systems--will be in allowing schools to expand the tools available for learning and teaching in ways that desktop software, with its restrictive licensing and often high costs, cannot.

"Schools are increasingly taking advantage of ready-made applications hosted on a dynamic, ever-expanding cloud that enables end users to perform tasks that have traditionally required site licensing, installation, and maintenance of individual software packages," according to the authors. "E-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, collaboration, media editing, and more can all be done inside a Web browser, while the software and files are housed in the cloud."

Mobile devices, of course, are already having an impact, but their potential, according to the report, has increased considerably with the launch of Apple's iPad, as well as the new and upcoming slate of Android- and webOS-based tablets that will help solidify the mobile/handheld device class as a well rounded and feature-rich technology category.

"With always-on Internet, mobiles embody the convergence of several technologies that lend themselves to educational use, including electronic book readers, annotation tools, applications for creation and composition, and social networking tools," the report said.

Read more from The Journal here

Can online education be the rock that disturbs the placid waters of American higher education? Several industry experts believe it will have a significant ripple effect on colleges and universities of all sizes in coming years—but only if it's subject to regulation, governed by a common set of accreditation standards, and widely accepted by institutions who have long clung to the traditional face-to-face model of instruction. 

Citing the vast online enrollment gains made by for-profit institutions like the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University, Louis Soares, director of postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, recently dubbed online education a potential "disruptive innovator" in the higher ed landscape. Much in the way cell phones disrupted the traditional landline-based model or discount retailers like Wal-Mart revolutionized the nation's retail market, the for-profit sector—though a subject of intense scrutiny in recent years—has driven changes that could greatly affect the world of higher education, Soares argues. 

"A disruptive innovation always starts out at a lower quality," he says. "[But], if you take that for-profit energy out of higher education, online [education] wouldn't have grown the way it has in the last 10 years." 

Read the full article here

Rolling backpacks are lame.  There, I said it.  No one wants to be that kid rolling into class, crushing people’s toes and running into desks with their weapon on wheels.  On the flip side of that coin, no one wants to be the kid in the back brace either.  But textbooks are heavy, and there’s really no way around them, or is there?  Trinity College in Melbourne Australia recently conducted a study to find out – they dispatched iPads to a small group of students and teachers at the start of term, and monitored how the new technology affected the classroom.  The results of their study – called the Step Forward Pilot Project – were recently published online and outline a few of the pros and cons of iPads as a learning tool.  Trinity College isn’t alone – schools around the world are incorporating iPads into their daily routine and changing the way students of all ages access and learn new information.

Read the full article from Singularity Hub here

UMass Lowell Classrooms Get ‘Smart’ Technology

100 Percent Are Technology-Enhanced to Aid in Student Comprehension, Retention

LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell announced today that 100 percent of its classrooms are equipped with technology that helps faculty explain complex topics to students.

“One hundred and ninety classrooms on campus are ‘smart,’ or technology-enhanced,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan. “This generation of students expects to use technology in every aspect of their lives, especially in education. This investment gives faculty the tools needed in the classroom to help students absorb and retain complicated information, which is key to student success.”

The university’s technology-enhanced classrooms include a teaching podium, computer, digital document camera, DVD/VCR player, laptop and network connections, integrated sound and a system that controls all audio and video from the lectern. Faculty and students are extremely positive about how the technology aids learning not only in the classroom, but also later as students review materials and lectures to prepare for exams.

Lecture Capture Technology Helps Students Retain Information

Some classrooms also include an interactive LCD touchscreen that acts like an electronic writing tablet with the ability to save, share and print class notes. In addition, UMass Lowell recently outfitted 60 classrooms with Echo360 lecture capture technology, the largest deployment of its kind in New England.

Read more HERE