"Online, Blended and Distance Education in Schools" provides students enrolled in Education Technology and Masters and PhD programs with expert opinions and insights on the practice and policy regarding K-12 distance, online and blended programs, including curriculum, instruction, technology and management aspects. It describes the status and trends of the field, provides illustrative program examples, explores the issues and challenges that programs face and highlights ongoing research in key areas related to program effectiveness. Topics discussed: * The current status of K-12 online, distance and blended learning in the U.S.* Policy, funding, and management issues in relation to program implementation* Research on effective programs within governmental jurisdiction and various program types* Global case studies that represent the variety of ways programs are being successfully implemented * A synthesis of key findings and lessons learned, and local and global visions for the future of K-12 distance and online learningThis text is highly appropriate for students enrolled in Educational Technology and Higher Education Administration Masters and PhD programs. The pedagogical features added throughout were created to enhance the text in a classroom setting.

Best Practices in Online Program Development is a practical, hands-on guide that provides the concrete strategies that academic and administrative departments within institutions of higher learning need to develop in order to create and maintain coherent and effective online educational programs. Unlike individual courses, an online education program requires a comprehensive, inter-departmental effort to be integrated into the ongoing educational project of a college or university. This book focuses on the:

• Integration of online education into the institutional mission
• Complex faculty-related issues including recruiting, training, and teaching
• Multifaceted support required for student retention and success
• Need for multilayered assessment at the course, program, technical, and institutional levels
• Challenges posed to governance and by the need to garner resources across the institution
• Model to insure ongoing, comprehensive development of online educational programs

Best Practices in Online Program Development" covers the above topics and more, giving all the stakeholders in online educational programs the building blocks to foster successful programs while encouraging them to determine what role online education should play in their academic offerings.

As colleges, universities and other learning institutions explore teaching and learning through online environments, online communities of practice may provide solutions to organizational and professional development needs. The purpose of this book is to develop a set of guidelines for creating a virtual community of practice for faculty teaching at a distance that can easily be implemented by faculty development professionals. Designing a virtual community of practice can be operationalized using the ADDIE model to guide the process. Based on an instructional systems design process, the ADDIE model emphasizes the five core elements of the instructional systems design process: analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate; often it serves as a project management tool or to provide a visual aid for organization of relevant tasks.

What for decades could only be dreamed of is now almost within reach: the widespread provision of free online education, regardless of a geographic location, financial status, or ability to access conventional institutions of learning. But does open education really offer the openness, democracy and cost-effectiveness its supporters promise? Or will it lead to a two-tier system, where those who can't afford to attend a traditional university will have to make do with online, second-rate alternatives? Open Education engages critically with the creative disruption of the university through free online education. It puts into political context not just the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) but also TED Talks, Wikiversity along with self-organised 'pirate' libraries and 'free universities' associated with the anti-austerity protests and the global Occupy movement. Questioning many of the ideas open education projects take for granted, including Creative Commons, it proposes a radically different model for the university and education in the twenty-first century.

Engaging the Online Learner This updated edition includes an innovative framework the Phases of Engagement that helps learners become more involved as knowledge generators and cofacilitators of a course. The book also provides specific ideas for tested activities (collected from experienced online instructors across the nation) that can go a long way to improving online learning. Engaging the Online Learner offers the tools and information needed to: * Convert classroom activities to an online environment * Assess the learning that occurs as a result of collaborative activities * Phase in activities that promote engagement among online learners * Build peer interaction through peer partnerships and team activities * Create authentic activities and implement games and simulations Praise for Engaging the Online Learner "The Phases of Engagement framework provides a road map for creating community at each phase of an online course. This book is an invaluable guide to innovative practices for online learning." Judith V. Boettcher, coauthor of The Online Teaching Survival Guide "Engagement is the heart of online learning. The authors have developed an encyclopedia of tried-and-true learner engagement activities that are authentic and ready to use." Donald P. Ely, professor emeritus, instructional design, development and evaluation in the School of Education, Syracuse University

Are there better ways to address community challenges than expending funds on international service-learning? In attempting to wed learning and service, are we are exploiting the "other" for new, or recycled, aims? As these questions attest, of all types of service-learning, international service-learning (ISL) most starkly illuminates the tensions between the liberatory and oppressive potentials of practice. This book explores the ramifications of realizing a new age of service-learning that pushes beyond single episodic course-based projects to rebalance student learning and community outcome priorities, and provides insight into what it looks like in its execution. In describing eleven international programs designed to achieve reciprocal, sustained relationships in which learning is co-created, the contributors reveal their struggles to change the balance of power relationships and move to a more transformative practice. Common themes are the developmental nature of this work; the recognition that it takes multiple attempts, often over years, for an individual or an institution to get this work even nearly right; that resolving the challenges of unequal resources, power, and privilege can never be completely erased; and that attention has to be given to the micro-level details. What emerge are seven guiding principles that define the nature of partnerships in liberatory practice, and that apply to all forms of service learning. They must be: strategic--linked to the mission and expertise of the institution; long-term; multifaceted--allowing both partners to play a multiplicity of roles; developmental in building capacities; contextualized in historic and cultural understanding; fully reciprocal; and create the potential for community-driven change. In addressing the problematic nature of ISL, and of service-learning in general, this book interrogates whether its experiences create the necessary conditions for the formation of individual values, convictions, and action; and whether their pivotal teaching and learning moments are indeed replicable and transferable across individual, institutional and even cultural contexts. Its conclusions and insights will be of intense interest to administrators and practitioners alike.

How race and racism shape middle-class families’ decisions to homeschool their children While families of color make up 41 percent of homeschoolers in America, little is known about the racial dimensions of this alternate form of education. In The Color of Homeschooling, Mahala Dyer Stewart explores why this percentage has grown exponentially in the past twenty years, and reveals how families’ schooling decisions are heavily shaped by race, class, and gender. Drawing from almost a hundred interviews with Black and white middle-class homeschooling and nonhomeschooling families, Stewart’s findings contradict many commonly held beliefs about the rationales for homeschooling. Rather than choosing to homeschool based on religious or political beliefs, many middle-class Black mothers explain their schooling choices as motivated by their concerns of racial discrimination in public schools and the school-to-prison pipeline. Indeed, these mothers often voiced concerns that their children would be mistreated by teachers, administrators, or students on account of their race, or that they would be excessively surveilled and policed. Conversely, middle-class white mothers had the privilege of not having to consider race in their decision-making process, opting for homeschooling because of concerns that traditional schools would not adequately cater to their child's behavioral or academic needs. While appearing nonracial, these same decisions often contributed to racial segregation. The Color of Homeschooling is a timely and much-needed study on how homeschooling serves as a canary in the coal mine, highlighting the perils of school choice policies for reproducing, rather than correcting, long-standing race, class, and gender inequalities in America.

Culture plays an overarching role that impacts investment, planning, design, development, delivery, and the learning outcomes of online education. This groundbreaking book remedies a dearth of empirical research on how digital cultures and teaching and learning cultures intersect, and offers grounded theory and practical guidance on how to integrate cultural needs and sensibilities with the innovative opportunities offered by online learning. This book provides a unique analysis of culture in online education from a global perspective, and offers: * An overview of the influences that culture has on teaching, online learning, and technology* Culture-sensitive instructional design strategies and teaching guidelines for online instructors and trainers * Facilitation and support strategies for online learners from different cultures * An overview on issues of design, development, communication, and support from a cross-cultural perspective* An overview of how online education is perceived, planned, implemented, and evaluated differently in various cultural contextsWritten by international experts in the field of online learning, this text constitutes with a comprehensive comparative introduction to the role of culture in online education. It offers essential guidance for practitioners, researchers, instructors, and anyone working with online students from around the world. This text is also appropriate for graduate-level Educational Technology and Comparative and International Learning programs.

Join Fiona the hippo, the adorable internet sensation from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, as she and her friends start a zoo school to learn more about their fellow animals. Fiona and a few of her animal friends attend zoo school for the very first time and find out just how fun it is to learn new things in the classroom. Young readers will enjoy learning more about Fiona and her friends in this Level One I Can Read about the little hippo that has captured hearts around the world with her inspiring story and plucky personality. Fiona Goes to School?is: An endearing animal book that's a perfect gift from parents and grandparents? A sweet story about the importance of learning and being good listeners A?Level One I Can Read story geared for children learning to read Perfect for back-to-school reading, summer reading, birthday gifts, and holiday?gift-giving Created?by New York Times bestselling artist Richard Cowdrey of Fiona the Hippo; A?Very Fiona Christmas; Fiona, It's Bedtime; Legend of the Candy Cane; Bad?Dog, Marley; and A Very Marley Christmas fame Fiona Goes to School?is one title in an I Can Read series that focuses on Fiona the hippo. Other titles include:?Meet Fiona, Fiona Saves the Day, Fantastic Fiona, Fiona and the Rainy Day,?and?Fiona's Train Ride.

The Architecture of Productive Learning Networks explores the characteristics of productive networked learning situations and, through a series of case studies, identifies some of the key qualities of successful designs. The case studies include networks from a variety of disciplinary and professional fields, including graphic design, chemistry, health care, library science, and teacher education. These learning networks have been implemented in a variety of settings: undergraduate courses in higher education, continuing professional development, and informal networks for creating and sharing knowledge on a particular topic. They are rich in reusable design ideas.

The book introduces a framework for analyzing learning networks to show how knowledge, human interaction and physical and digital resources combine in the operation of productive learning networks. The book also argues that learning through interaction in networks has a long history. It combines ideas from architecture, anthropology, archaeology, education, sociology and organizational theory to illustrate and understand networked forms of learning.

Online distance education continues to grow at a fast pace, even outpacing the overall growth of U.S. higher education. Demands for quality are coming from all shareholders involved. As if caught by surprise, a patchwork response to quality is often the typical organizational response. The result can be inconsistent and uncoordinated levels of value to those invested in online learning. This often promotes negative images of the educational experience and institution.Comprised of highly regarded experts in the field, this edited volume provides a comprehensive overview of quality assurance, a snapshot of current practices and proven recommendations for raising standards of quality in online education.Topics discussed include: improving practices for teaching online; using educational analytics for quality assurance and improvement; accessibility an important dimension of quality assurance; assuring quality in online course design; assuring quality in learner support, academic resources, advising and counseling; the role and realities of accreditation.This text clearly answers the call for addressing quality from a broad, deep and coordinated understanding. It addresses the complexities of quality assurance in higher education and offers professionals top-shelf advice and support."

Technology-Enhanced Professional Learning addresses the need for continuous workplace learning that derives from the emergence of new, specialized, and constantly changing work practices. While continuous learning is fundamental to enabling individuals to function in and productively shape contemporary workplaces, digital technology is increasingly central to productive workplace practice. By examining the intersection of human learning processes, emergent work practices, and patterns of use of digital technology to support learning and work, this edited collection brings the disparate fields of professional learning and technology-enhanced learning together to advance theory and practice in both realms.

The Savvy Student's Guide to Online Learning prepares students of all kinds for contemporary online learning. While technologies and formats vary, this book serves as an authoritative resource for any student enrolling in an online degree program or taking an online course. Topics covered include: * How to become a great online student * Creating an online presence * Interaction and communication techniques * Online group projects and individual work * Technological requirements and how to get technical support * Online classroom "netiquette" and time management The authors, both experts in online education, introduce the information and skills required of successful online students to navigate this new learning landscape with confidence. A highly useful companion website provides video presentations that explain the different types of online learning as well as a real online course with activities for students to practice and interact with other learners around the world.

A Science "Reading List for Uncertain Times" Selection "A must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the present and future of higher education." -Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Lower Ed "A must-read for the education-invested as well as the education-interested." -Forbes Proponents of massive online learning have promised that technology will radically accelerate learning and democratize education. Much-publicized experiments, often underwritten by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, have been launched at elite universities and elementary schools in the poorest neighborhoods. But a decade after the "year of the MOOC," the promise of disruption seems premature. In Failure to Disrupt, Justin Reich takes us on a tour of MOOCs, autograders, "intelligent tutors," and other edtech platforms and delivers a sobering report card. Institutions and investors favor programs that scale up quickly at the expense of true innovation. Learning technologies-even those that are free-do little to combat the growing inequality in education. Technology is a phenomenal tool in the right hands, but no killer app will shortcut the hard road of institutional change. "I'm not sure if Reich is as famous outside of learning science and online education circles as he is inside. He should be...Reading and talking about Failure to Disrupt should be a prerequisite for any big institutional learning technology initiatives coming out of COVID-19." -Inside Higher Ed "The desire to educate students well using online tools and platforms is more pressing than ever. But as Justin Reich illustrates...many recent technologies that were expected to radically change schooling have instead been used in ways that perpetuate existing systems and their attendant inequalities." -Science

New to the Revised Edition, this Student Book contains all the text your child will need for the lessons in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, Revised Edition. Created and designed based on feedback from parents and teachers over the past 20 years, the Student Book allows children to focus only on the material they are using, without being distracted by additional text in the Instructor Book. From "a" to "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," these pages are the doorway to a whole lifetime of reading.

Distrust. Division. Disparity. Is our world in disrepair? Ethics and civics have always mattered, but perhaps they matter now more than ever before. Recently, with the rise of online teaching and movements like #PlayApartTogether, games have become increasingly acknowledged as platforms for civic deliberation and value sharing. We the Gamers explores these possibilities by examining how we connect, communicate, analyze, and discover when we play games. Combining research-based perspectives and current examples, this volume shows how games can be used in ethics, civics, and social studies education to inspire learning, critical thinking, and civic change. We the Gamers introduces and explores various educational frameworks through a range of games and interactive experiences including board and card games, online games, virtual reality and augmented reality games, and digital games like Minecraft, Executive Command, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Fortnite, When Rivers Were Trails, Politicraft, Quandary, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The book systematically evaluates the types of skills, concepts, and knowledge needed for civic and ethical engagement, and details how games can foster these skills in classrooms, remote learning environments, and other educational settings. We the Gamers also explores the obstacles to learning with games and how to overcome those obstacles by encouraging equity and inclusion, care and compassion, and fairness and justice. Featuring helpful tips and case studies, We the Gamers shows teachers the strengths and limitations of games in helping students connect with civics and ethics, and imagines how we might repair and remake our world through gaming, together.

Tools such as Blackboard and Google Classroom have seen wide-scale adoption and standardized implementation in colleges and universities. So why is K-12 a step behind? This book will not only answer this question, but it will provide the solution. This is a roadmap that will allow you (yes, you) to become the champion of advanced curriculum development for your school / district and achieve the promise of technology in the classroom.

Digital resources-from games to blogs to social networking-are strong forces in education today, but how can those tools be effectively utilized by educators and course designers in higher education? Filled with practical advice, the e-Learning and Social Networking Handbook, Second Edition provides a comprehensive overview of online learning tools and offers strategies for using these resources in course design, highlighting some of the most relevant and challenging topics in e-learning today, including: * using social networking for educational purposes * designing for a distributed environment * strengths and weaknesses of delivering content in various formats (text, audio, and video) * potential constraints on course design * implementation, evaluation, induction, and training Illustrated by short, descriptive case studies, the e-Learning and Social Networking Handbook, Second Edition also directs the reader to useful resources that will enhance their course design. This helpful guide will be invaluable to all those involved in the design and delivery of online learning in higher education.

In this long-awaited volume, Jeremy Shearmur and Piers Norris Turner bring to light Popper's most important unpublished and uncollected writings from the time of The Open Society until his death in 1994.
After The Open Society: Selected Social and Political Writings reveals the development of Popper's political and philosophical thought during and after the Second World War, from his early socialism through to the radical humanitarianism of The Open Society. The papers in this collection, many of which are available here for the first time, demonstrate the clarity and pertinence of Popper's thinking on such topics as religion, history, Plato and Aristotle, while revealing a lifetime of unwavering political commitment.
After The Open Society illuminates the thought of one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers and is essential reading for anyone interested in the recent course of philosophy, politics, history and society.

The new edition of what is now considered a classic on online learning has been expanded by about a third to reflect new opportunities offered by social media, new insights and ideas derived from the author's teaching in the eight years since she wrote the first edition, as well as from extensive research in the latest literature. In particular, Tisha Bender investigates whether the existing paradigm of teaching and learning has been changed, not so much because of the advent of the Internet, but because of the potential divide between the expectations and practices of students who are "digital natives" of the digital revolution, and those of their teachers who are mostly "digital immigrants". She addresses the question: do we need to change the way we teach in order to reach and engage digital natives fruitfully and enjoyably in their education. This accessible and comprehensive book offers an engaging and practical approach to online teaching that is rooted in the author's experience and enthusiasm for creating a virtual environment that engages students and fosters their deep learning. This is a book for all educators and administrators in higher education, in any discipline, engaged in, or contemplating offering, online classes that involve discussion or collaborative learning. It is relevant both to faculty teaching a hybrid and face-to-face classes, and courses conducted entirely online.

The new edition of what is now considered a classic on online learning has been expanded by about a third to reflect new opportunities offered by social media, new insights and ideas derived from the author's teaching in the eight years since she wrote the first edition, as well as from extensive research in the latest literature. In particular, Tisha Bender investigates whether the existing paradigm of teaching and learning has been changed, not so much because of the advent of the Internet, but because of the potential divide between the expectations and practices of students who are "digital natives" of the digital revolution, and those of their teachers who are mostly "digital immigrants". She addresses the question: do we need to change the way we teach in order to reach and engage digital natives fruitfully and enjoyably in their education. This accessible and comprehensive book offers an engaging and practical approach to online teaching that is rooted in the author's experience and enthusiasm for creating a virtual environment that engages students and fosters their deep learning. This is a book for all educators and administrators in higher education, in any discipline, engaged in, or contemplating offering, online classes that involve discussion or collaborative learning. It is relevant both to faculty teaching a hybrid and face-to-face classes, and courses conducted entirely online.

Networked learning is learning in which information and communications technology (ICT) is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners; between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources. Networked learning is an area which has great practical and theoretical importance. It is a rapidly growing area of educational practice, particularly in higher education and the corporate sector.

This volume brings together some of the best research in the field, and uses it to signpost some directions for future work. The papers in this collection represent a major contribution to our collective sense of recent progress in research on networked learning. In addition, they serve to highlight some of the largest or most important gaps in our understanding of students perspectives on networked learning, patterns of interaction and online discourse, and the role of contextual factors. The range of topics and methods addressed in these papers attests to the vitality of this important field of work. More significant yet is the complex understanding of the field that they combine to create. In combination, they help explain some of the key relationships between teachers and learners intentions and experiences, the affordances of text-based communications technologies and processes of informed and intelligent educational change. "

Exploring how digital resources are being used to engage students in learning and improve educational quality, Digital Agency in Higher Education promotes an awareness of relations and interplay between humans and digital artifacts. Examining the impacts in higher education through experience-based knowledge and a conceptual framework, this book: * provides a detailed analysis of how transformative agency can be identified, enacted, and cultivated, * offers up-to-date cases and a future-orientated perspective on technology and knowledge work, * addresses fundamental assumptions about how teacher education has needed to and needs to continue to develop, * explores issues of epistemology and ethics when facing increasingly 'intelligent' technologies, and * argues for transformative agency to place a firm focus on human interests. Essential reading for teachers in higher education and educational researchers with an interest in how technologies impact learning and teaching, Digital Agency in Higher Education uses cutting-edge research to bridge the gap between theoretical perspectives and practices.

This is a practical introduction to blended learning, presenting examples of implementation across a broad spectrum of disciplines. For faculty unfamiliar with this mode of teaching, it illustrates how to address the core challenge of blended learning to link the activities in each medium so that they reinforce each other to create a single, unified, course and offers models they can adapt.Francine Glazer and the contributors to this book describe how they integrate a wide range of pedagogical approaches in their blended courses, use groups to build learning communities, and make the online environment attractive to students. They illustrate under what circumstances particular tasks and activities work best online or face-to-face, and when to incorporate synchronous and asynchronous interactions. They introduce the concept of layering the content of courses to appropriately sequence material for beginning and experienced learners, and to ensure that students see both the online and the face-to-face components as being equal in value and devote equal effort to both modalities. The underlying theme of this book is encouraging students to develop the skills to continue learning throughout their lives.By allowing students to take more time and reflect on the course content, blended learning can promote more student engagement and, consequently, deeper learning. It appeals to today s digital natives who are accustomed to using technology to find and share information, communicate, and collaborate, and also enables non-traditional students to juggle their commitments more efficiently and successfully."