Online Education in the News –

Ready or not, massive changes in online education are on the way.  Several universities, like Stanford and MIT, are now offering Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) and the Gates foundation has donated a total of $9 million towards these online programs.  This model has been growing in popularity and might turn into a “disruptive” change in education overall.  Some affiliate colleges are using the online content from the major university, such as lectures and exercises, and then locally they provide additional material locally.  

-For more information- from the Chronicle of Higher Education

 

Some of the major recipients of the funding are pioneering programs with an emphasis on low cost, high quality educational opportunities.  This potentially could fundamentally change education, just like Windows and the PC fundamentally changed the office environment.

One of the other innovations that the Gates Foundation is sponsoring is a response to the high cost of education, a "MyCollege Foundation" to help lower income students and provide educational opportunities.  Very interesting, and opens up new opportunities if it proves successful.

-For more information-  My College Foundation

What does all of this mean to educators?  It is hard to say at this point.  What I find hopeful is that education, even presentations from some of the best teachers in the world, are now available free or for very low cost.  For educational institutions, this means that they will have to have extra value in their offerings to compete with this programs.  I think it means it is more imperative than ever that we wisely use technology, we can't just "go online," we have to thoughtfully make choices that will best serve the particular students that we are trying to reach.