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The biggest obstacle Smith faced in launching StraighterLine was a process called accreditation. Over time, colleges and universities have built sturdy walls and deep moats around their academic city-states. Students will only pay for courses that lead to college credits and universally recognized degrees. Credits and degrees can only be granted by—and students paying for college with federal grants and loans can only attend—institutions that are officially recognized by federally approved accreditors. And the most prestigious accreditors will only recognize institutions: organizations with academic departments, highly credentialed faculty, bureaucrats, libraries, and all the other pricey accoutrements of the modern university. These things make higher education more expensive, and they’re not necessary if all you want to do is offer standard introductory courses online. To compete, Smith needed StraighterLine courses to be as inexpensive as they could be.

College for $99 a month could literally save a persons life!!! It might even be a darn good Healthcare plan. After all, health has been linked to level of education.

This article discusses StraighterLine, an online college that costs $99 per month. Yep, it's too good to be true. Not because you don't get a quality education, but because their degree is not "recognized". Also known as "Accreditation".

StraighterLine has worked around this by partnering with "Accredited" colleges that will recognize it's credits for those who wish to transfer. Understandably, but unfortunately, some partners have backed off under pressure from students and others arguing that quality of the college's degree is being cheapened.

StraighterLine should perhaps "Partner up" with corporations who'll promise to interview and hire their students. I would also target the masses of people who could not afford an education otherwise.

The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.

I'm sure many like me long suspected this. This is good news for Teachers, contrary to what they might think. They need help, and now they have a trusted and "proven" partner - "online education".  I've always preferred teachers who inspire me over those that force my attention on uninteresting and sometimes useless information.

On-line education will allow us the time to discover and unleash great teachers.

Find the study here http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

(via @interfolio)

This Frontline segment, "Education in the Digital Age", explores the impact technology at what was once a troubled school in the Bronx, NY and a more progressive school in Chatham, NJ.

I. Intermediate School 339 in the Bronx
3 Years ago... lots of gang activity, low test scores... only 9% of children were performing at grade level math.

Now... 64% at or above grade level math. Every child has access to laptop. Teachers use computers and software to track answers and focus on the hardest questions. Board of Ed blocks sites like Youtube and MySpace but the kids hack through controls:)

"As long as kids are productive, teachers don't have a problem with students chatting..." - comment from teacher discussing how the kids are learning to multi-task.

II. Chatham School, NJ
Instruction at Chatham is interactive because the kids expect it to be. Classrooms have Smart boards and teachers create podcasts of lessons. One teacher set up a Ning Social Network to study Hamlet.

Some observations from teachers include:
- Teachers are entertainers...
- More students struggle with focus than before.
- some teachers accept, Sparknotes as the reality of how the 'real' world works

"Walking into classroom without all that media is like walking into a desert" - comment from teacher about expectations and reality of technology in life and education.

The takeaways for me are...
1. Children can simply benefit from access to computers and the freedom to use them how they like.

2. Experiment a lot with technology... risk of failure is far out-weighed by reward of the experience.

3. Standardizing use of technology across classrooms is far less important than allowing teachers to explore with tools they are comfortable with.

It's hard to ignore the differences between the schools, like ethnic make up, access to resources and more. One school seems more focused on needs while the other reacts to expectations. That said, it's clear technology has a profoundly positive impact on learning across the board.

Watch the vid and discover a lot more.

grit isn’t just about stubborn perseverance - it’s also about finding a goal that can sustain our interest for years at a time. Consider two children learning to play the piano, each with the same level of raw talent and each expending the same effort toward musical training. However, while one child focuses on the piano, the other child experiments with the saxophone and cello. “The kid who sticks with one instrument is demonstrating grit,” Duckworth says. “Maybe it’s more fun to try something new, but high levels of achievement require a certain single-mindedness.”

Is it a surprise that scientists are finally discovering that setting a goal and sticking with it, "Grit", is the secret to success? Probably not. However, the science does provide some insights that might help us harness, increase, instill, and hack "Grit". That's good news. Given the state of the world, we can all use a little more "Grit".

This article,"The truth about grit", explores what some scientist are researching and finding... such as that IQ is important but not a "key" for success and that we can motivate children to be grittier.

Good luck Hacking and teaching "Grit".

authors highlight are three principles to guide the study of human learning across a range of areas and ages: learning is computational— machine learning provides a unique framework to understand the computational skills that infants and young children possess that allow them to infer structured models of their environment; learning is social—a finding that is supported by studies showing that the extent to which children interact with and learn from a robot depends on how social and responsive its behavior is; and learning is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action— human learning is grounded in the incredibly complex brain machinery that supports perception and action and that requires continuous adaptation and plasticity.

...

“Social interaction is key to everything,” Sejnowski says. “The technology to merge the social with the instructional is out there, but it hasn’t been brought to bear on the classroom to create a personalized, individualized environment for each student.” He foresees a time when these social robots may offer personalized pedagogy tailored to the needs of each child and help track the student’s mastery of curriculum. “By developing a very sophisticated computational model of a child’s mind we can help improve that child’s performance.”

Read "A New Model for Digital Publishing ... From an Academic Journal?" on Advertising Age. (article)

Scitable is Social Network meets Wikipedia. A "trusted" alternative to Wikipedia for Science. Scitable also has guided lessons called "Learning Paths".

Student discovers and organizes content into a virtual text book, then blogs and shares with other students.

What are teachers good for? They serve and mentors and teach students how to organize and evaluate the content she discovers...

Teacher as... Learning Architect, Modeler, Learning Concierge, Change Agent, Synthesizer and more.