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.