New online tool aids literacy programs.

This post comes from eSchoolNews. Schools, libraries, and other organizations that aim to improve students' reading skills have a new online tool to help them evaluate how well their literacy programs work: the Verizon Literacy Program Self-Assessment Tool (VLP-SAT).

Developed by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) with funding from the Verizon Foundation, VLP-SAT is available free of charge to all literacy programs from one location, the Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity.org.

"Thousands of people give their time and effort daily to advance the cause of literacy, but unfortunately, despite those great efforts, literacy rates in our country are still not where they need to be," said Sharon Darling, president and founder of NCFL.

"We believe this self-assessment tool can play a tremendous role in improving literacy rates," Darling said. "It provides a roadmap with more scope and depth than any other tool currently available."

This "roadmap" incorporates the latest scientific research on the effectiveness of literacy programs that serve populations from birth through childhood, its makers say. The online tool provides a detailed questionnaire that asks about a literacy program's methods, the education level of its students, parental involvement, and current methods used to assess the program's success.

Based on answers to the questionnaire, the literacy provider is given a grade of 1 to 5 in each of several areas. These grades describe whether the organization is using proven, research-based methods and achieving the best possible results.

For schools and other organizations that receive a score of "3" or lower in any particular area, the tool provides a list of recommended resources created by literacy and education experts. All of these resources are available free of charge at Tghinkfinity.org as part of the Thinkfinity Literacy Network.

Thinkfinity.org is the Verizon Foundation's free online portal, where visitors can access more than 55,000 standards- and research-based educational resources. These include free online courses, K-12 lesson plans, best practices, program assessment tools, teaching and learning tools, model programs that demystify technology for parents, and abundant research highlighting the importance of literacy development.

Ideally, program staff will use the VLP-SAT as a benchmark to evaluate current literacy practices, seek out resources to improve key areas, and return to the VLP-SAT to assess program improvement, its creators say.

The tool was unveiled last month as part of the Verizon Foundation's National Literacy Summit.3, held at Georgetown University.

"We asked ourselves at the last summit where our philanthropy dollars should go, and we answered: to help leverage each other's assets and skills and to start some sort of measurement ... here are some measurements!" said Kathy Brown, senior vice president of public policy and corporate responsibility for Verizon. Click here to read the rest of this post.

Fail-Proof Tips for Adults Back at School.

This article is from Jobs.Aol.com.Full-time job, family, and friends -- these commitments are challenging enough to juggle without the added education factor. How can you make the school reentry process as seamless as possible? Check out these study tips, college support services, and insider strategies to get you started on your own personal back-to-school transition.

The Art of Time Management
Stephen Gatlin, president and CEO of Gatlin Education Services, which provides online workforce development programs to colleges, considers time management the biggest factor in back-to-school success. He recommends that students determine when they focus best, such as in the morning or at night, before caffeine or after. Then, Gatlin says, "Reserve time to dedicate to your course. Stay committed and treat [that time] like an appointment that can't be budged."

Frank Hilty, a mining engineer, has experienced the back-to-school adjustment twice. He returned to college to complete his bachelor's degree 12 years after starting, and now, eight years after earning that degree, he's pursuing an MBA at Waynesburg College. Hilty, who blocks out two to three hours of study time for every hour of in-class time, advises, "If you are working, you must treat class work as a part-time job with specific responsibilities. Do not procrastinate. Even if you only take one course at a time, you will find yourself quickly overwhelmed if you let the work pile up. Our regular jobs and families have a way, and they should, of commanding our attention."

Jason Yaple, a geologist who has been taking courses at Penn State and West Chester University of Pennsylvania to earn a professional geology certification, echoes these sentiments. "Figure out the amount of time you will need to study and perform the coursework. Then be prepared to invest even more time." Click here to read the rest of this article.

For the Health-Care Work Force, a Critical Prognosis.

This article comes from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

This The United States faces a looming shortage of many types of health-care professionals, including nurses, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, and allied-health and public-health workers. The results will be felt acutely within the next 10 years. Colleges and health-science programs will all be affected by the demographic, technological, and bureaucratic trends driving the pending crisis. But they can also be part of the solution.

The growth of the American population and the aging of the baby-boomer generation will continue to increase the demand for health-care services and providers. More than 100 million people in America already have chronic illnesses or suffer from degenerative conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis, which require long-term management by different kinds of health-care providers — and that number will only get larger with time. It is estimated that over the next decade we will need at least 20,000 more physicians specifically trained to care for elderly patients. Fewer than 8,000 geriatricians are in practice today. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics also projects that, during that same time period, we will need 3.5 million more workers to meet the increasing demand, in addition to replacements for the two million health-care workers who will leave their positions.

On top of that, advances in fields like genetics and information technology will create additional work-force requirements that we can't even begin to estimate. We will need more and different kinds of practitioners and technicians, be they robotic-surgery operators or new types of radiology technologists. But given the current number of people entering the health-care work force, it will be virtually impossible to meet those projections.

After September 11, 2001, there was a slight uptick in applications and enrollments at many health-professions schools, following a period of decline during the 1990s. This fall the nation's medical schools experienced a 2.3-percent increase in enrollment and an 8.2-percent increase in applications, the Association of American Medical Colleges reports. That is heartening news, but there have not been changes of the magnitude needed to make a difference in our health work force.

Different expectations and lifestyle preferences on the part of today's health-care workers are partly to blame. Thirty years ago, in what was more of a manufacturing economy, young people saw health care as high tech. In today's information age, it is now viewed as more low tech. The messiness and stress of caring for people with complex illnesses may not be attractive to young people who have many career options. The hurdles to degrees in the health professions — including extensive math and science course work, expensive education, daunting debts, and lengthy training — are also likely deterrents.

Other potential problems are related to generational change. The future health-care work force will come largely from Generations X and Y, both smaller demographic groups than the baby boomers. Compared with the boomers, who placed a high priority on careers and had a greater tendency to stay with one career for a lifetime, Xers and Yers appear more interested in work that can accommodate their families and personal lives. They often seek flexibility, telecommuting, family leave, and part-time options — almost none of which can be met by the demands of a career in the health-care professions. Even if the same proportion of individuals was recruited into health-care careers from the two younger generations as from the boomers, however, we would still not have enough people to replace those who will soon retire, let alone expand our capacity.

More bad news: Our country faces worsening shortages of faculty members in the health sciences. In July the Association of Academic Health Centers released a report that said 94 percent of CEOs at academic-health centers deemed faculty shortages a problem in at least one health-professions school; 69 percent thought those shortages were a problem for their entire institutions.

Several factors account for the widespread faculty shortages, including a low level of interest in academic careers among those entering the health-care professions, heavy faculty workloads, disparities in salaries between academe and private practice or industry, and retirements among baby boomers.

In colleges of nursing, for example, where master's or doctoral degrees are required, the mean age of faculty members with master's degrees in nursing is 48.5. Retirement projections for nursing-faculty members show that from 2004 to 2012, 200 to 300 Ph.D.'s will be eligible for retirement each year. We do not have enough nursing educators in the pipeline to stem such losses.

The situation is similar in pharmacy programs. Of the nation's 82 schools of pharmacy, 67 reported in a survey that they had an average of 6.2 vacant faculty positions last year. Thirty percent of the open academic positions had been vacant for at least a year. Most important, 92 percent of those vacancies represented teaching positions that directly affect the number of pharmacy students a school can enroll.

In radiology, a specialty that suffers one of the worst shortages in the health field, the average age of full-time professors is 54. It is anticipated that within the next couple of years, 27 percent of full-time and 80 percent of part-time positions will be vacant, in large part because of retirements — a trend not dissimilar to those in other health-care professions. The shortages in radiology are compounded, however, by an escalating reliance on (and consumer demand for) medical-imaging procedures and a decreasing number of programs for training those health professionals.

The final crucial factor precipitating the health-care-work-force crisis is a lack of comprehensive work-force planning on the parts of academe, government, and the health-care professions. We need strategic direction instead of the current piecemeal approach at the national and state levels; both federal and state policy making has tended to respond to immediate crises or issues related to one particular profession or constituency. Commissions and task forces abound, yet many reports gather dust on shelves; the infrastructure for putting good ideas or new policies into effect is at best uneven.

Shortages in the health-care work force are not local or isolated issues. They require attention at the highest levels of the federal and state governments. College leaders should work together with government officials to make that a top priority on the domestic-policy agenda.

Some states — with the help of their university systems — have looked across the professions to confront health-care-worker shortages. In 2005 the University System of Georgia appointed a task force on health-professions education to analyze future needs and inform decision making in response to the needs of the state. In its final report, the Task Force on Health Professions Education cited projected faculty retirements, smaller pools of potential faculty members, inadequate facilities to support expanded enrollments, and a limited number of clinical sites to support the clinical-education needs of students enrolled in the state's health-professions programs as barriers to an effective and coordinated response to market demand. Programmatic integration also was identified as a confounding issue: The report identified a crucial need for the university system to work closely with the state's technical-college system, the primary educator of health-care technicians and paraprofessionals, to ensure transparency and clarity in educational requirements so that students are able to move successfully between the educational systems.

Such collaborations between colleges and states are a good beginning. But higher education and the government must become partners on the federal level as well. The institutions that educate the nation's future health-care professionals must work together to devise innovative solutions to the myriad challenges we face — and must finance them, too.

The federal government should enlist the leaders of academic health centers nationwide as key advisers to tackle the challenges confronting the health-care work force, thus reinvigorating a longstand-ing partnership to support education in the health professions and ensure quality care to the public for the future.

The creation of a national commission on the health-care work force would also be a boon. Such a commission, renewable every 10 years, would serve as the chief advising body to Congress and the president on the subject. While it would have no regulatory power, it would be the independent expert panel to identify issues, analyze policy affecting the health-care work force, examine the benefits and risks of health-care legislation, evaluate the education and research functions of academic health centers and other educational institutions, and recommend ways to resolve problems as well as to plan proactively. The commission would provide a forum for interaction at the national level for groups representing health educators, biomedical scientists, and health-care providers.

Colleges and health-sciences centers must also deal with the work-force shortage issue at their own institutions. They should address the growing shortages of health-professions faculty members by supporting faculty-development programs and expanding accelerated training programs. Continuing education is a key strategy in retaining health-professions faculty members, as are mentorship programs — particularly for retaining junior members of the professoriate and those groups that have been historically underrepresented in the health-care professions.

Offering loan-repayment and loan-forgiveness programs would also be a draw. The high incidence of debt among graduates often drives health-care professionals to the most lucrative employment settings. Forgiving debt or offering generous loan-repayment plans creates more flexibility for colleges and universities in efforts to attract professionals to academic careers. And to augment their core faculty members with nonsalaried, community-based clinicians who can provide valuable field-based clinical experiences, as health-professions programs must do, institutions can offer enticements like discounted or free registration in the continuing-education programs, tuition discounts or waivers, and access to other institutional resources (recreational facilities, for instance).

Colleges and health-science centers must also focus on increasing and improving the applicant pool, not simply in terms of sheer numbers and mix of health professions, but also with regard to diversity.

Alarming disparities in health status continue to plague our nation. A health-care work force that mirrors the population it serves is widely believed to increase access to care and improve quality of care; therefore, increasing the recruitment of individuals from diverse backgrounds to the health professions is crucial in light of the increasing diversity of the American population. Colleges and health-science centers must focus on untapped populations, such as underrepresented minorities and health professionals trained abroad. Accelerated training programs could be offered to ensure that the clinical and language skills of such health-care providers are at acceptable levels. In areas with rapidly growing Hispanic populations, bilingual students could be targeted as medical interpreters, providing invaluable exposure to the health-care system — and increasing the likelihood that they will pursue careers in the health professions.

The health-care shortage we face in the United States is serious. Some experts may argue that there is no cause for alarm, because work-force shortages are cyclical, market-driven, and easily ameliorated. But that perspective is not valid today. The work-force shortfall in health care cannot be resolved in the marketplace alone. It is time for organized action, not only within colleges, but also at our nation's highest levels.

Daniel W. Rahn is president of the Medical College of Georgia and senior vice chancellor for health and medical programs at the University System of Georgia. Steven A. Wartman is president and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centers.

Gatlin Education launches Cisco® CCENT™ Authorized Certification Online Training.

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of our new Cisco® CCENT™ Authorized Certification Online Training. This nationally recognized Cisco® CCENT™ online course and authorized certification training program provides students with the essential knowledge to install, operate, and troubleshoot a small branch office Enterprise network, including configuring a switch, a router, and connecting to a WAN and implementing network security. A student should be able to complete configuration and implementation of a small branch office network under supervision. The program will be mapped to exam objectives and prepare you for Cisco® Exam 640-822. This online certificate program is offered in partnership with major accredited colleges and universities.

Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere.

This article comes from The New York Times. The university classroom of the future is in Janet Duck’s dining room on East Chocolate Avenue here.

There is no blackboard and no lectern, and, most glaringly, no students. Dr. Duck teaches her classes in Pennsylvania State University’s master’s program in business administration by sitting for several hours each day in jeans and shag-lined slippers at her dining table, which in soccer mom fashion is cluttered with crayon sketches by her 6-year-old Elijah and shoulder pads for her 9-year-old Olivia’s Halloween costume.

In this homespun setting, the spirited Dr. Duck pecks at a Toshiba laptop and posts lesson content, readings and questions for her two courses on “managing human resources” that touch on topics like performance evaluations and recruitment. The instructional software allows her 54 students to log on from almost anywhere at any time and post remarkably extended responses, the equivalent of a blog about the course. Recently, the class exchanged hard-earned experiences about how managers deal with lackluster workers.

Those students, mostly 30-ish middle managers and professionals trying to enhance their skills, cannot be with her in a Penn State classroom at a set time. One woman is an Air Force pilot flying missions over Afghanistan; other global travelers filed comments last week from Tokyo, Athens, São Paulo and Copenhagen. Dr. Duck cannot regularly be at Penn State, largely because of her three children. Yet she and other instructors will help the students acquire standard M.B.A.’s next August at a total cost of $52,000, with each side having barely stepped into a traditional classroom. To read the rest of this article click here.

Gatlin Education's Cisco CCNA online certification program has been updated.

Gatlin Education's Cisco CCNA Certification online training program has been updated to map to the newly released CCNA Certification Exam 640-802. In order to prepare students to obtain the most current CCNA® certification credential, this program is comprised of content from both Interconnecting Cisco® Network Devices Part 1 and Interconnecting Cisco® Network Devices Part 2.

No other online self-paced program is as up-to-date or as complete as this package! This Cisco® Authorized program contains elearning and a 24/7 mentor to answer any questions you may have and to provide feedback on your performance. In addition, each student will receive an actual Cisco IOS® simulation to provide students with a playground to practice CCNA®, enabling students to interact with routers and switches just like real devices. This 100 hour course is available now!

Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web.

This post is from The New York Times. Several major research libraries have rebuffed offers from Google and Microsoft to scan their books into computer databases, saying they are put off by restrictions these companies want to place on the new digital collections.

The research libraries, including a large consortium in the Boston area, are instead signing on with the Open Content Alliance, a nonprofit effort aimed at making their materials broadly available.

Libraries that agree to work with Google must agree to a set of terms, which include making the material unavailable to other commercial search services. Microsoft places a similar restriction on the books it converts to electronic form. The Open Content Alliance, by contrast, is making the material available to any search service. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Online Education: Tailoring, Measuring and ‘Bridging’.

This post comes from Inside Higher Ed. As information technology leaders convened for the Educause meetings Thursday in Seattle, they talked about some of the same issues that are attracting attention in higher ed outside of technology circles: links to K-12, making courses more engaging and measuring what students learn.

Looming over the proceedings was the stepped-up pressure from state governments, accreditors and the Department of Education that has led in recent years to a greater focus on assessment and learning outcomes. The implication of the accountability movement on information technology is clear in an example offered by Blackboard’s Peter Segall, the company’s president for higher education in North America: The two-year public colleges in Mississippi have adopted the company’s outcome system to track student progress against specific goals, he said. The reason? To “demonstrate accountability” to the citizens of the state. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Eduventures launches schools of Education Learning Collaborative.

Eduventures, the leader in collaborative research and consulting for higher education, has launched a new member-based research consortium – the Schools of Education Learning Collaborative – designed to help education schools address the challenges associated with recruiting and serving students, demonstrating accountability, and managing faculty and operations.

Members of the Schools of Education Learning Collaborative will be provided with a wide range of collective and individual opportunities that take advantage of shared data. As with Eduventures other Learning Collaboratives, members will have access to custom analysis, implementation support, and networking events.

"In the prevailing climate where critical attention is being paid to public P-12 education, schools of education are facing scrutiny of a great many of their policies and practices," said Eduventures' Executive Vice President Peter Stokes, Ph.D. "The goal of this collaborative research program is to assist deans of Schools of Education in defining meaningful success measures and demonstrating their performance relative to those measures en route to making the right decisions for today – and the future."

According to Stokes, Eduventures analysts are preparing the first collaborative research study for members of the Schools of Education Learning Collaborative – Common Indicators for Schools of Education. The report, which focuses on core program success measures and analyzes productivity at peer institutions, is designed to put the responsibility for defining these success measures back in the hands of the deans of Schools of Education.

Charter members of Eduventures Schools of Education Learning Collaborative include Fordham University, Lesley University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Southern California.

About Eduventures

Eduventures is the industry leader in collaborative research and consulting for higher education. Eduventures is committed to providing colleges and universities with cost-effective, data-driven research and analysis designed to improve critical operations and practices. More than 300 higher education institutions participate in one or more of Eduventures' six Learning Collaboratives: Continuing and Professional Education, Development, Enrollment Management, Online Higher Education, Schools of Education, and Student Affairs. These collaboratives provide members with research reports on current trends and issues, custom analysis and implementation support, including opportunities to network with fellow professionals. More about Eduventures can be found at www.eduventures.com.

Using Technology in the Classroom.

This posts comes from The Wall Street Journal Online Edition.

The use of technology in the classroom has changed the way children learn, allowing both students and teachers to unlock their creativity. Tim Magner, director of the office of educational technology for the U.S. Department of Education, remembers the impact a simple computer program had on his eighth grade geography class when computers were first becoming main stream.

"I saw the power it had," he says. "It gave us the opportunity to engage the students in a thoughtful discussion that until that time had been static facts in books." Now as technology continues to evolve and children become more tech-savvy, the computer is an even more powerful learning aid that enables collaboration and communication in the classroom, Mr. Magner says.

We asked Mr. Magner to recommend books on the intersection of technology and the classroom. Here are his picks.

• "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms," by Will Richardson
A public school teacher looks at how to take these Web 2.0 tools and begin to use them in the classroom. The book is more practitioner-focused but gives a nice overview of what Web 2.0 and social collaboration models are, how they facilitate types of interactions and how to use them in school.

• "Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative," by Ken Robinson

Robinson identifies and explains what he feels is the creation of an unnatural separation between arts and sciences, and creativity and intelligence. He believes this separation is enforced in formal education. He addresses how we need to re-engage with kids in different ways to encourage them to tap into their creativity. Robinson spends a lot of time talking about finding your medium, and we are seeing that digital tools are the medium of choice for a lot of students.

Click here to discover the rest of his recommended picks!

Apollo Group and Private Firm to Invest Up to $1-Billion in International Ventures.

This post is from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The company that owns the University of Phoenix announced on Monday a venture with the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, that will invest up to $1-billion in education institutions and services abroad. The parent company, the Apollo Group, will control 80.1 percent of the joint venture, to be called Apollo Global Inc.

The venture is likely to focus on regions with a profitable mix of robust young populations and government-financed universities that are slow to expand, such as Latin America and Asia. The deal has yet to announce any investments.

The Apollo Group, whose University of Phoenix is the largest university in the United States, has dabbled in international investments before, putting money into a small company called Apollo International that was formed in 1998 (The Chronicle, August 11, 2000). That company has quietly been dissolved, and most of its personnel and investments have been brought into the Apollo Group, said Trace A. Urdan, an education-industry analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group.

Apollo International sought to use Apollo's U.S. model, which is aimed at working adults, and adapt it to full-time students at traditional universities overseas, primarily through preset curricula. One venture in South America created a private college with standardized lectures, in partnership with a Brazilian company (The Chronicle, June 27, 2003).

The new Apollo Global group may operate under a similar strategy, said Mr. Urdan, but it would receive greater contacts and investment discipline from the Carlyle Group, which has experience in structuring successful international deals. The Carlyle Group also has experience in investments involving higher education. In 2005 it acquired the Universidad Latinoamericana, a private university with campuses in Mexico City and Cuernavaca, Mexico.

"The money is more like a headline because the reality is you're only investing it one investment at a time," said Mr. Urdan. "It's going to be a while before they spend $1-billion."

The Apollo Group also announced Monday that Ann Kirschner, dean of the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York, will join its board of directors on November 1.

Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning.

This post comes from the Sloan Consortium.

Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning represents the fifth annual report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education. This year’s study, like those for the previous four years, is aimed at answering some of the fundamental questions about the nature and extent of online education. Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and based on responses from more than 2,500 colleges and universities, the study addresses the following key questions:

What are the Prospects for Future Online Enrollment Growth?

Background: Compound annual enrollment growth rates of over twenty percent are not sustainable. The demand for online among potential students is finite, as is the ability of institutions to grow existing offerings or add new ones. Where can we expect the additional growth to occur?

The evidence: Approximately one-third of higher education institutions account for three-quarters of all online enrollments. Future growth will come predominately from these and similar institutions as they add new programs and grow existing ones.

• Much of the past growth in online enrollments has been fueled by new institutions entering the online learning arena. This transition is now nearing its end; most institutions that plan to offer online education are already doing so.

• A large majority (69 percent) of academic leaders believe that student demand for online learning is still growing.

• Virtually all (83 percent) institutions with online offerings expect their online enrollments to increase over the coming year.

• Future growth in online enrollments will most likely come from those institutions that are currently the most engaged; they enroll the most online learning students and have the highest expectations for growth.

What are the Barriers to Widespread Adoption of Online Education?

Background: Previous studies in this series have shown that academic leaders have consistently commented that their faculty often do not accept the value of online learning and that it takes more time and effort to teach an online course. To what extent do these leaders see these and other issues as critical barriers to the widespread adoption of online learning?

The evidence: Identification of the most important barriers differs widely between those with online offerings and those who do not offer any. Current results replicate our previous studies in identifying faculty acceptance and the need for more discipline on the part of students as the
most common concerns.

• Academic leaders cite the need for more discipline on the part of online students as the most critical barrier, matching the results of last year’s survey.

• Faculty acceptance of online instruction remains a key issue. Those institutions most engaged in online do not believe it is a concern for their own campus, but do see it as a barrier to more wide-spread adoption of online education.

• Higher costs for online development and delivery are seen as barriers among those who are planning online offerings, but not among those who have online offerings.

• Academic leaders do not believe that there is a lack of acceptance of online degrees by potential employers.

To download a free copy of this report click here.

Colorado Technical University Online Launches CTUMobile(TM).

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- (Business Wire)-- Colorado Technical University's Online campus, a well known degree-granting institution, announced the launch of CTUMobile - an easy-to-use mobile learning channel that delivers elements of Colorado Tech's online educational programs via web-enabled cell phones and other wireless devices. CTUMobile, an extension of Colorado Tech's highly successful virtual campus - CTU Online - brings the classroom directly to mobile phones and other PDAs and personalizes the education experience to an even greater degree. CTUMobile works with most cell phones, and is at its most exciting when combined with Apple's stunning new iPhone. While the topic of mobile learning has generated a great deal of interest in online education circles for quite a while, it is the latest iteration of cell phones and other mobile hardware that allowed Colorado Tech to take its mobile learning platform to the next level.

CTUMobile includes two important capabilities - a live access technology that allows students to access school-related information such as class assignments, instructor directories, campus email, and grades, as well as a video technology that makes it easy to download and view video courseware and podcasts. Combined, the features add up to a "college-on-the-run" experience. CTUMobile-equipped students will now be able to conveniently access CTU's successful virtual campus while away from their computers. It's also more than cool. The new learning technology, combined with a device with the panache of Apple's new iPhone, is all about portable education, and it's all about style.

Dr. Marijane Paulsen, Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Technical University, offered her own observation about the benefits of using CTUMobile. "We all spend too much time waiting on the many delays in our daily lives. With CTUMobile, at least some of that down time can be put to better use. There are times, too, when transporting a computer, even a small laptop, isn't that convenient - through a large airport for instance. Technology marches on, and CTUMobile will be there as a great alternative." Paulsen continues, "Colorado Tech students are very smart and I suspect they'll jump at a chance to streamline their lives and make their days more productive."

For more information about CTU Online, please phone 800-416-8904 or visit www.ctuonline.edu. For a more detailed description of CTUMobile, or to see a video that showcases the benefits of integrating the new mobile technology into daily student life, please visit www.ctumobile.com.

About Colorado Technical University and CTU Online

Since 1965, Colorado Technical University (CTU) - an institution of higher learning that provides career-oriented education by teaching applied industry programs, has given students a pathway towards personal, academic, and professional advancement. Colorado Tech offers degree-track programs at the Associate, Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral levels in a wide range of fields of study. For more information on CTU, visit www.coloradotech.edu. Through its web-based virtual campus, CTU Online, the university offers degree programs that are 100% online. For additional information on CTU Online, visit www.ctuonline.edu. Colorado Technical University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association.

Gatlin announces new Administrative Professional with Microsoft 2007 Certified Application Specialist Training.

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of our new Administrative Professional with Microsoft 2007 with Microsoft Certified Application Specialist Training. This online course and training program teaches the skills that students must acquire to be successful as an Administrative Professional using the Microsoft® Office 2007 suite of programs. Students receive training on the most popular Microsoft Office 2007 programs including Word, Excel, Access, Power Point, and Outlook as well as the new Vista operating system. Upon successful completion of this program students will be prepared to sit for the MCAS certification offered by Microsoft®. An introduction to QuickBooks is also provided.

National Survey Indicates High School Students Preference for Online Learning.

National School Boards Association Annual T+L conference -- Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) a leading provider of enterprise solutions for the education industry and Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit group, today announce the release of Learning in the 21st Century: A National Report of Online Learning. The report underscores the importance and value which online learning plays in increasing student and teacher achievement. Key findings from the report include:

• 47 percent of surveyed students in grades 9-12 and 32 percent of students in grades 6-8 would pursue online learning to secure courses not offered at school.
• One in five student respondents in grades 6-12 have taken an online or distance learning course at school or on their own, and one in three students selected online classes as a component of their ideal school.
• 77 percent of teachers believe that technology makes a difference in learning and 28 percent would like to see online courses offered as an alternative in their district.
• 42 percent of parents believe that online classes are a good investment to improve student achievement and to track their child's progress.

"As schools are exploring new ways to engage today's students, online learning options are crucial," said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow. "Increasingly, students, teachers and parents say that online learning is an essential component of the ideal 21st century school environment." The findings of Learning in the 21st Century are based upon data collected as part of the Speak Up 2006 survey conducted from over 250,000 students, teachers and parents representing almost 3,000 schools in the United States. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Online courses increase in popularity.

This post comes from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Al Turgeon knows turf.

The Penn State University professor of turf grass management is world-renown, but students don't have to travel to University Park to learn from him.

Some of his classes are as handy as the nearest computer, whether it's in Pennsylvania or China, at home or in a war zone in Iraq.

Since Dr. Turgeon began offering Penn State's first online course in 1998, the Penn State World Campus has grown from the initial 15 students to more than 5,000 enrollments from all 50 states and more than 40 countries.

Penn State's not the only one with a burgeoning enrollment in online classes. Over the past decade, online education has been growing throughout higher education.

Nationwide in the fall of 2005, nearly 3.2 million students at degree-granting institutions were taking at least one course with at least 80 percent of its content delivered online, according to the most recent available survey by the Sloan Consortium, which helps schools improve online education.

That's nearly double the number doing so just three years earlier.

Two-thirds of the schools surveyed had at least some online programs. Click here to read the rest of this article.

EMS courses to receive continuing education credit.

This post comes from the Texas Engineering and Extension Service. TEEX's Emergency Services Training Institute WMD/EMS Program has been approved for Organizational Accreditation by the Continuing Education Coordinating Board for Emergency Medical Services (CECBEMS). Of some 80 training providers recognized by the board, TEEX is one of only 25 providers nationwide approved for CECBEMS Organizational Accreditation.

"We can now use this accreditation to review and approve both online and hands-on EMS and other TEEX courses for continuing education credit," said Kathy Wall, TEEX Associate Training Specialist. "We are approved to review a course and see if it meets the standards, and then assign continuing education credits and hours." Any TEEX rescue and disaster medical course may be eligible for continuing education credit, she added.

CECBEMS is a national accrediting body for EMS continuing education courses and course providers. To be approved, TEEX had to meet or exceed criteria established by CECBEMS for educational planning, implementation and evaluation as well as demonstrate a commitment to excellence in EMS continuing education.

NYU to Open Branch Campus in Persian Gulf Emirate.

This post comes from The Chronicle. Cornell in Qatar, Michigan State in Dubai. Now it’s New York University in Abu Dhabi. NYU’s announcement today that it is opening a branch campus in the United Arab Emirates makes it the latest, but probably not the last, American university to plant its flag in the wealthy Persian Gulf region.

“NYU Abu Dhabi,” which was described as a “residential research university,” will open its doors to students in 2010. The university hopes to attract as many as 2,000 of them from around the world, not just the Middle East. NYU says that the emirate is providing land and financing for the campus’s development and operations.

Abu Dhabi has made news lately for its efforts to become a cultural hub, which include establishing branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums. —Beth McMurtrie

Washington Post purchases Course Advisor student lead generation firm.

The Washington Post Co. has acquired CourseAdvisor Inc. for an undisclosed price.

The D.C. media company leveraged a small investment it made last year in the search engine marketing company based in Wakefield, Mass. CourseAdvisor, founded in 2004, matches students skills with college and university programs nationwide.

The move comes as The Washington Post Co. tries to regain advertising, readership and circulation at its publications.

The company also has seen positive results from its education business, Kaplan Inc., which helps people prepare for college and graduate school entrance exams.

In August, The Washington Post Co. (NYSE:WPO) reported its second-quarter earnings dropped to $68.8 million in the quarter ended July 1 from $78.7 million a year ago.

However, total revenue moved up to $1 billion from $969 million.

The education segment grew 23 percent to $503 million in the second quarter, up from $409 million a year ago.

The Washington Post Co. not only owns its flagship newspaper, but also publications including Slate, El Tiempo Latino, The Gazette and Southern Maryland Newspapers, Newsweek magazine and Cable ONE.

CourseAdvisor will act as an independent subsidiary of The Washington Post Co.

Time Management For Distance Learning.

This article comes from ArticleCrazy.com. As a busy professional, it is vitally important to manage your time. There are some broad principles, approaches, that you need to learn and apply. The first is to take the view that your time is precious, and should not be wasted. By the way, relaxation time, leisure time, relationship time is not wasted, it’s important, valuable time that you need to plan into your life. These broad principles include, you need to take control. That is, to take control of your time and the way in which you approach the activities that you have to be involved in, such as work activities and family commitments, and ensure that there is also time in your life for the personal activities that you wish to be involved in, such as leisure and relaxation activities. You need to plan ahead. This is vital. Being successful means being busy, and to manage being busy you need to plan ahead. You don’t have to perform at genius level. If you work hard and as efficiently as you reasonably can, you are doing well. You need to prioritise. You need to rank activities into an order where you can see which activities, what work, which tasks, are the most important and need urgent attention or a specific amount of time spent on them, and which activities are less important and can be pushed back, or worked on over a longer period, or delegated to others, or even abandoned. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Gatlin launches rap video on YouTube.

We are proud to announce the release of the Gatlin Rap Video. If your job has you down and out our video will "lift your spirits."

Online learning has opened up wealth of educational opportunities.

This post comes from the Newark Advocate. Jason Hetterscheidt, like many 31-year-old men, has an extremely demanding schedule. He has been married for five years, has a 1-year-old son and works at Ruth's Chris Steak House to support his family. While this scenario might not seem remarkable, Hetterscheidt also is a full-time student in the Associate of Applied Science Registered Nursing Technology Program at Central Ohio Technical College. Hetterscheidt admits that "the only way that he can remain in the nursing program [due to his hectic family life and his odd work schedule is to take online courses whenever possible."

Online courses have come a long way in the last 10 years. The first online courses were nothing more than notes on a Web page. They did little to motivate or engage the learner. Today's online courses are rich with multimedia learning tools such as animations, tutorials, recorded lectures, practice tests and even a set of online flashcards that can be customized to accommodate the individual learning needs of each student. In fact, as the quality of online learning tools has increased, instructors have increasingly incorporated the use of these materials into their traditional courses. To read the rest this article click here.

Is lost luggage a thing of the past with RFID technology?

Las Vegas International Airport is now experimenting with using RFID Technology to track luggage. Watch a video segment about this from the Today Show by clicking here. If you find this segment interesting and you are looking for a new career take a look at Gatlin's RFID Online Training Course. You can get RFID certification in as little as 90 days.

Gone Fishing: A New Sport Makes Waves in College Athletics.

This post comes form The Chronicle.

Many college athletes are used to waking up before sunrise for workouts, but most aren't used to competing at that hour.

Enter the exploding intercollegiate sport of bass fishing, where the biggest catches often come before breakfast.

"Collegiate angling is spreading like a brush fire," said Troy J. Heckaman, commissioner of the Collegiate Bass Anglers Association, which acts as a governing body for the sport.

While Mr. Heckaman admits the sport is "still in its infancy," he said that students from more than 150 colleges and universities have contacted his group with interest in forming a team, or have already started one.

And more growth means more competition. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Online Debates on Education sponsored by The Economist Oct. 15 - 23rd.

The Economist is sponsoring a series of online debates. The first debate will be on education. You can vote on their five education propositions. Judge them carefully. Issues center on education and the role of technology, corporate initiatives, social networking, limits on foreign students and the digital divide. To review the propositions and vote for your favorite one click here.

Bush Administration Spars With Accreditors.

This article comes from The Chronicle.

American college leaders, under growing pressure to prove the value of their product, have been falsely accusing the Bush administration of seeking more federal control over their operations, the administration's top higher-education official said on Friday.

"I can't tell you how disappointed we were" by some allegations about administration intentions, Sara Martinez Tucker, the under secretary of education, told a conference of accreditation officials here.

Ms. Tucker, who was a member of the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education, faulted critics for arguing that the commission's push for colleges to devise more reliable methods of measuring their success represented a new federal intrusion.

The under secretary's complaint suggested hardening divisions over the administration's effort to make colleges more responsive to American economic needs, even while some higher-education groups are taking tentative steps toward finding ways to meet the administration's overall goals (see article). Click here to read the rest of this article.

UK firm to export education to China.

This post comes from Broadband Finder. "A unique broadband link-up will see British educational establishments supplying Chinese schools with learning aids, it has been announced.

Software firm LP+ has announced plans to build an online learning system which is based in the UK but will be used to teach up to 20 million Chinese school pupils.

The broadband-based teaching materials supplied will be aimed at 20 major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. The exporting of the British education system has been welcomed by the government and could see schools in the UK twinned with establishments in China.

Mehool Sanghrajka, chief executive of LP+, said: "As a nation, we recognize the growing importance of the Chinese economy and we need to start working and collaborating with counterparts there. If we can start that collaboration within education, then our pupils will come out fully trained for a global economy."

Other British education organisations have forged links with China, including the University of Nottingham, which has a campus in the city of Ningbo."

The Intel Ministry of Education.

This post comes from the New York Times. There’s been a lot of activity on the technology-and-education front this week. First, One Laptop Per Child, the nonprofit project to bring computers to the developing world’s child, announced an innovative campaign to jumpstart its program.

Today, Intel announced a new initiative to rapidly broaden the reach of its program, Intel Teach. The Intel effort, started in 2000, focuses on training teachers around the world to use personal computers as a tool in classrooms. The company announced at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York that its program, up to now based on face-to-face instruction for teachers, would add a hybrid online program. In the past, Intel Teach involved 40 hours of in-class training for teachers. The new online offering will include eight to 12 hours of face-to-face instruction, and the rest over the Internet, at the teacher’s convenience. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Leading Education Industry Solution Providers to Offer Wimba Collaboration Suite Express to K-12 Community.

This post comes from CNNMoney. Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) and Wimba today announced a definitive agreement to distribute Wimba Collaboration Suite Express(TM) to Blackboard® K-12 schools and districts in the United States, Canada and Mexico. This strategic alliance will provide new and existing Blackboard Learning System(TM) clients (including Blackboard Learning System -- Basic Edition clients) access to the Wimba Collaboration Suite Express, at no additional cost.

The Wimba Collaboration Suite Express facilitates online access to voice, video and instant messaging tools (among other tools for today's 21st Century learners) for instructors and students to enhance teaching and learning.

Under terms of the agreement, Blackboard will distribute the Wimba Collaboration Suite Express, which includes limited versions of Wimba Classroom(TM), Wimba Voice(TM), and Wimba Pronto(TM) to its K-12 clients. The new partnership provides a unique benefit to members of the Blackboard K-12 community who will gain easy, free access to the industry's leading multi-modal solution for virtual and blended classes, professional development, and intercession and tutoring. Click here to read the rest of this article.

The Not-So-Great Fire Wall of China.

This post comes from the Chronicle's Wired Campus Blog.

China’s attempts to filter Web surfing might well be keeping citizens away from sites about Falun Gong and the Tiananmen Square incident. But even if the Web blockades are working, that doesn’t mean they’re especially staunch.

In fact, researchers at the University of New Mexico argue in a new study that China’s fire wall is surprisingly sievelike. Instead of simply blocking certain Web pages, the nation watches data passing through the Internet and filters out banned words and Web addresses on a case-by-case basis. According to the New Mexico researchers, that system allows Chinese Web surfers to browse freely, at least on occasion, and it causes the fire wall to become “particularly erratic” when a lot of people are online.

Still, there’s little doubt that the online surveillance restricts the flow of information: As the researchers told BBC News, many Web users censor their own searches for fear of the government’s prying eyes. —Brock Read

Get ready for the $40 school computer.

This post comes from eSchoolNews. One way or another, the idea of ubiquitous, low-cost computer access for schoolchildren, both in the United States and abroad, is fast approaching the point where goals turn into realities. Major technology players, including several large companies and a nonprofit group that is focusing on developing countries, have been working in different ways to advance the cause.

Things are moving along so quickly, in fact, that Stephen Dukker, chairman and CEO of the small, California-based company NComputing, predicts that by 2009 many schools will be able to provide their students with portable, online capabilities for as little as $100 each--and perhaps as little as $30 or $40 per user for non-mobile devices. Wireless capacity, says Dukker, should be a relatively inexpensive bonus by then.

NComputing has just broken new ground with an announcement that the Republic of Macedonia will become the first nation in the world to provide computer workstations for every elementary and secondary school student. Macedonia's Ministry of Education and Science selected NComputing over four other bidders and will use the company's "multi-user virtual desktop software," along with inexpensive terminals, to provide computing for some 400,000 students, most of whom attend school in half-day sessions.

The first 770 student "seats" were installed in three of Macadonia's high schools in August, with about 100,000 more scheduled to be deployed by the end of this year and another 80,000 expected to be ready by the end of 2008. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Military education: Online Education "Mythbusters"

This post comes from Military.com.

Learn to separate the myths from realities when it comes to online coursework.

Military education counselors have noticed an increasing number of their students signing up for online distance learning courses. A recent report by The Sloan Consortium confirms the rising popularity in online education. The report shows the following substantial increases in online enrollments over the last few years:

• 2002 = 1.6 million enrollments*
• 2004 = 2.3 million enrollments*
• 2005 Fall term = 3.1 million enrollments*

Although the number of students enrolling in online education is growing, some servicemembers and veterans still fear going "online" for their education. One possible cause for student wariness may be the number of "urban myths" that circulate about the online education experience. The following is a list of urban myths regarding online education:

Myth: Students are not as satisfied with online education.

Busted: At least 97 percent of students surveyed said they were "at least as satisfied." According to the Sloan Consortium — this is true for all types and sizes of institutions.

Myth: Online Education is a flash in the pan — It won't be around for the long term.

Busted: According to the number of enrollments noted above the rate of growth has increased. In addition — chief academic officers believe in it. Online education isn't going away anytime soon.

Myth: An online degree is not real.

Busted: An online degree from an accredited school is just as real as a degree you would earn by traditional means. In fact, many traditional education programs allow students to take online or hybrid courses — courses that combine online and classroom time. In most cases your diploma will not even reflect that it was earned online.

Myth: All online courses require students to log-on at the same time every week.

Busted: Most online courses are now offered in an asynchronous format, which allows students to log on when they are able, not all at the same time.

Of the many online education myths at least one has been substantiated:

Myth: Online students need self-discipline.

Confirmed: Online students need to be focused on their goals and need to have self-discipline to do well. Think of online education as a trade-off; what is gained in flexibility must be made up for in personal drive and determination.

In the digital universe of Second Life, classroom instruction also takes on a new personality.

This post comes from The Chronicle. Despite its image as an all-American city, downtown Peoria, Ill., home of Bradley University, is also a place of strip clubs and violent crime. For undergraduates, it's a risky environment in which to conduct field research. Edward L. Lamoureux, an associate professor in Bradley's multimedia program, saw a better place in the virtual world Second Life.

This fall he is teaching his second ethnography class online in a computer-created environment featuring buildings, lakes, and avatars — digital characters who fly from place to place, chat, and form communities. The program is Bradley's first foray into using Second Life as a platform for education. Students have analyzed, among other topics, online hackers (known as "griefers" in Second Life) and avatar fans of musicians who perform in Second Life. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Online-learning patent dispute with Blackboard heats up!

This post comes from eSchoolNews. With a lot of intricate back-and-forth on the legal front lately, online-learning enthusiasts might be forgiven for wondering whether a high-stakes patent dispute between Blackboard Inc. and Desire2Learn Inc. (D2L)--two companies that make enterprise software for web-based course management--will be resolved anytime soon.

In a recent development, a magistrate judge in a federal district court in Texas challenged terminology involved in Blackboard's claims in a patent-infringement lawsuit against D2L--invalidating some of the claims, at least for the time being. Some observers saw the magistrate's opinion, which was issued in early August after a hearing and arguments by both sides, as a major setback for Blackboard, but the company disagreed with that interpretation.

In a separate action, the federal agency that originally granted the patent has agreed to re-examine it--a process that takes an average of about two years to complete. Meanwhile, it is far from clear which party, Blackboard or D2L, might hold the upper hand if and when the lawsuit ultimately goes to a jury. A trial is currently slated for February, and the discovery process has begun. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Why many Universities are saying "NO" to Microsoft Vista.

This post comes from the Greentree Gazette. More often than Microsoft would prefer, universities are simply refusing to upgrade to its new Vista operating system, fearing the switch offers little more than a headache.Margaret McFee, a senior systems administrator for Harvard University’s Physics Computer Services, typifies university IT administrators who are saying ‘thanks, but no thanks.’

”Our bottom line is, 'Do we need this? Is this worth the effort?'” McFee says. “The answer continues to be 'No' each time we re-visit it.”

Such anti-Vista backlash is also in full swing at Princeton, where its Desktop Systems Council has posted a notice on the university website urging its computing community to hold off upgrading to Vista until 2008. Oregon State, Miami University and the University of Pennsylvania, among others, have published similar ‘wait-and-see’ cautions online.

Like many businesses, these and other institutions have given Vista’s initial release a test drive, and have discovered that much of their hardware – as well as many of their software apps – simply don’t work with Vista. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Chief Learning Officers Link Training and Business Goals.

This post comes from Workforce Magazine. Earlier this year, the medical device company Guidant Corporation decided to promote a longtime employee to the title of vice president, employee development, the equivalent of a chief learning officer, or CLO. The Indianapolis company’s executive staff thought that the time was right to better organize training and developmental opportunities and match them more closely with the business goals of the organization, as well as offer employees a map for reaching their own career aspirations.

"We felt we could be better at telling employees, when they start here, how they can grow and develop professionally," says Barbara Reindl, vice president of the St. Paul-based Cardiac Rhythm Management Group, Guidant’s largest division.

"We get many employees who just got out of college and want to have an idea of what kind of career they can have at Guidant," she says. "We want to be able to say, ‘This is the curriculum if you want to be a manager.’ We’d really love to create a feeling among new hires that they’re joining a learning organization, but it’s not as well marketed here as it is at Motorola and other learning organizations."

Susan Norton, who became head of employee development in August, has begun talking to divisional vice presidents about their training and development needs and how they should be strategically organized to meet business challenges.

One of Norton’s discussions resulted in the creation of a three-day workshop where Guidant managers from around the world had an opportunity to hear senior executives address leadership issues, network among themselves, and spend their evenings informally talking with other managers from all levels of the company. Guidant has held the workshops in Brussels, St. Paul, and California, and has received positive comments from managers about the program. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Smart continuing education produces ROI.

This article comes from the Business Times.

Question:

I recently read an article about the return on investment (ROI) of continuing education. It was refreshing to see some people talking about learning within the context of business, that learning can be a business driver. What are your views on the relationship between learning and business? What can be done to demonstrate that a positive relationship exists?

Answer:

One of the biggest issues facing human resources professionals today is the need to train and develop the organization’s employees. The development of a skilled and educated workforce is seen as an ongoing priority that is being woven into many organization’s strategic plans.

Let’s be clear on this point from the beginning: training and development is big business today. It has been estimated that more than $60 billion is spent annually on training for approximately 50 million employees in the United States. A confluence of events, including global competition, an infusion of information, and rapidly changing technology, has fueled the need for continuous learning in organizations. Many experts have come to believe that learning and competitiveness are now interdependent in this information age. After all, companies are facing more competitive challenges with fewer people, and those people must learn how to work harder, smarter, faster, and better. Click here to read the rest of this article.

New York Times Develops Online Course Content.

This post comes from the Chronicle's Wired Campus blog.

The New York Times today began to pair its articles, multimedia offerings, and even its reporters with faculty-created course material from about a dozen institutions, letting professors use the new resource for both credit-bearing and continuing-education courses.

The project puts the newspaper’s Knowledge Network on an interactive Web platform called Epsilen Environment, developed at Purdue and Indiana Universities. Epsilen works like an academic version of Facebook, says Felice Nudelman, director of education at the newspaper. “Faculty members can put up profiles, including résumés and important papers, and work they would like reviewed by their peers,” she says. “They can form working groups around topics of common interest.”

They can also develop courses around those topics, and students at different universities will have the chance to participate. Mount Holyoke College, for instance, is developing course work around the art and craft of film; Northern Kentucky University is creating a series of studies on women and entrepeneurship.

The cost for universities to participate varies, Ms. Nudelman says, but can be as low as $1 per student per year.­—Josh Fischman

Why Facebook has 40,000,000 users already and growing!

This article is from the L.A. Times. Mark Pincus may hold a winning hand with his latest Internet venture.

More than 130,000 Facebook users a day play an online version of Texas Hold 'Em that the San Francisco entrepreneur created at his kitchen table while his American bulldog, Zinga, slept at his feet.

This is not the poker of smoky backrooms or illicit gambling sites but a free, friendly game at one of the Internet's hottest hangouts, Facebook. Chips serve as social currency: The more you win, the bigger the swagger. Run low and you can earn more by inviting chums to join.

Welcome to the emerging Facebook economy.

Software developers have built more than 3,000 programs to run on the social networking site in the last three months. The uses range from the practical, such as buying music or scouting vacation spots, to the quirky, including sending virtual gifts or biting your friends to turn them into zombies.

About 80% of Facebook's 40 million users have added at least one feature to their profiles. The most successful applications claim millions of users. Click here to read the rest of this article.

America's 10 Most-Wanted Workers (in demand careers).

This post comes from Career Builder. A number of the in-demand careers mentioned have online training programs offered by Gatlin Education Services.

As more workers from the baby boomer generation retire, millions of jobs are opening up across a variety of industries; unfortunately, hiring managers are having trouble filling these vacant positions.

The reason? In some instances, there is simply a lack of interest in certain industries, such as manufacturing. Many of today's young professionals are focusing on jobs that require computer and analytical thinking skills, rather than ones that require working with their hands. In many cases, however, especially for hiring managers looking to fill management positions, the problem isn't a lack of candidates, but a lack of qualified candidates.

In order to resolve this problem, some employers are offering incentives to older workers who are willing to delay retirement for a few years. Others are offering hiring bonuses to attract new, more-qualified workers. Still, other companies are going right to the source of the problem, setting up courses with colleges and universities that train skilled workers or to pay students' tuition to prepare them for specialized work. Companies like Exelon and General Electric are providing research grants and scholarships for power engineering programs at four-year colleges. And the Natural Association of Manufacturers recently established the "Dream It. Do It." program to train young professionals and garner interest in manufacturing careers among students. To read the rest of this article click here.

Filipino farmers turning to government sponsored online learning.

This article comes from the Inquirer.net. GONE ARE the days when Filipino farmers just went about their work with bare feet, looking scrawny in stained, tattered clothes.

As today's farmer starts to ride on the technology wave, he now tinkers with modern equipment and is slowly acquiring knowledge through the information-rich cyberspace.

Various farming technologies have already been made available.

This is evident in some of the 4.8 million farms around the country, covering about 9.7 million hectares of land.

Farmers can also freely make use of the Department of Agriculture's "Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture." Click here to read the rest of this article.

Online courses click with busy students.

This post comes from the Tucson Citizen. The digital era is helping remove the need for college students to show up on campus. It's become more common for students to log on to the Web to apply for college, register, pay tuition, get tutorials and chat with faculty and advisers.

And more students complete entire programs online.

"There is a lot more interaction going on online," said Pima Community College Chancellor Roy Flores. Just think: No more long lines, scheduling around family and work, prowling for on-campus parking or sweat-breaking attempts to get to class on time.

PCC, as is the University of Arizona, is not only adding online classes, but is also increasing the number of programs entirely on the Web.

"People communicate online now as comfortably as we used to communicate face to face," Flores said. "We're obviously gearing up for online, but we're not making superhuman efforts to increase those enrollments. People just want them." Click here to read the rest of this article.

View on career-focused education

This post comes from the Opinion section of USA Today's blog. As thousands of eighth- and ninth-graders in Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi head back to school, they are being asked to make a choice that was once reserved for higher education: declare "majors" to pursue during their high school years.

How, you might wonder, can kids who can barely choose their favorite pizza possibly lay out their life paths? After all, many college students — and graduates — struggle with that decision. On closer examination, however, what sounds like an outlandish idea actually makes some sense, as long as it's flexible and doesn't detract from basic studies.

One reason so many students drop out of high school is that they don't see a connection between their school work and life beyond high school. Early matching of talents and interests can strengthen that connection.

Moreover, careers have changed. Many traditional blue-collar jobs, such as mechanic or chef, now require post-high school training. That takes preparation. Many high-level white-collar jobs require students to take algebra as early as eighth grade. That takes planning. Click here to read the rest of this piece.

America's Workforce: Healthy, Competitive and Growing.

This posts comes from the United States Department of Labor. The U.S. Department of Labor today released America's Dynamic Workforce 2007, a new report highlighting major trends in the American labor market and the importance of education and skills training to maintaining the competitiveness of America's workforce.

"America's workforce is the envy of the world! Despite some recent market uncertainties, the fundamentals of the American economy are strong,
unemployment is near record lows, overall compensation continues to increase, and more than 8.3 million new jobs have been created since August
2003," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "What our country does face is a 'skills gap.' In a worldwide economy, the competitive strength of
America's workforce lies in its productivity, innovation, creativity and knowledge base. The majority of new jobs created over the next decade will
require more skills, higher education and pay above average wages, so it is important to ensure that workers are able to get the education and training
they need to access these growing opportunities."

Here are some of the current trends that illustrate the state of the economy and importance of education and job training: Many of these figures
were compiled from the newly released "America's Dynamic Workforce 2007,"
which is available online at http://www.dol.gov/asp/media/reports/workforce2007.
        
Highlights of America's Workforce:  Labor Day 2007

• In the first half of 2007, the national unemployment rate ranged between 4.4 percent and 4.6 percent. That is a full point lower than the average 5.7 percent unemployment rate of the 1990s.
• As of June 2007, more than 8.3 million net new jobs had been created in the United States since August 2003.
• Job growth in 2006 alone netted 2.3 million new jobs.
• By June 2007, total jobs reached an all-time high of 138.0 million nearly 5.5 million more jobs than the pre-recession high of February 2001.
• Through June 2007, the United States experienced 46 consecutive months of job growth.
• Unfilled job openings have increased by one million since 2003 and averaged 4.2 million vacancies at the end of May 2007.
• Between 2001 and 2006, non-farm labor productivity increased 15.3 percent and real compensation per hour increased 7.2 percent.
• Between 2001 and 2006, much employment growth was in industries with above average hourly earnings. Employment in professional and business
• services, construction and financial activities (all paying above average) increased 2.5 million.
• Between 2001 and 2006, employment in jobs associated with bachelor's degree or higher educational attainment increased 18.8 percent -- faster than any other category.
• In 2006, employer-paid benefits such as health insurance, paid leave, retirement savings, life insurance, workers' compensation insurance,
• 
  
• Social Security contributions and unemployment insurance amounted to 30 percent of average total compensation.
• The United States leads the world in manufacturing, accounting for 21 percent of worldwide manufacturing value-added, followed by Japan (13 percent), China (12 percent) and Germany (eight percent).
• With gross domestic product per hour worked at $48.30 in 2005, American workers are among the most productive in the world.
• Between 1970 and 2006, the proportion of persons age 25 to 64 with a bachelor's degree or higher more than doubled.

U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at http://www.dol.gov.
regulations. 

Interview with the Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco.

This podcast comes from The Chronicle. In this podcast Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco discusses the challenges of rebuilding the Louisiana education system after Hurricane Katrina. Click here to listen to this interesting interview.