Formation of Character is the fifth volume of Charlotte Mason's Homeschooling series. The chapters stand alone and are valuable to parents of children of all ages. Part I includes case studies of children (and adults) who cured themselves of bad habits. Part II is a series of reflections on subjects including both schooling and vacations (or "stay-cations" as we now call them). Part III covers various aspects of home schooling, with a special section detailing the things that Charlotte Mason thought were important to teach to girls in particular. Part IV consists of examples of how education affected outcome of character in famous writers of her day. Charlotte Mason was a late nineteenth-century British educator whose ideas were far ahead of her time. She believed that children are born persons worthy of respect, rather than blank slates, and that it was better to feed their growing minds with living literature and vital ideas and knowledge, rather than dry facts and knowledge filtered and pre-digested by the teacher. Her method of education, still used by some private schools and many homeschooling families, is gentle and flexible, especially with younger children, and includes first-hand exposure to great and noble ideas through books in each school subject, conveying wonder and arousing curiosity, and through reflection upon great art, music, and poetry; nature observation as the primary means of early science teaching; use of manipulatives and real-life application to understand mathematical concepts and learning to reason, rather than rote memorization and working endless sums; and an emphasis on character and on cultivating and maintaining good personal habits. Schooling is teacher-directed, not child-led, but school time should be short enough to allow students free time to play and to pursue their own worthy interests such as handicrafts. Traditional Charlotte Mason schooling is firmly based on Christianity, although the method is also used successfully by secular families and families of other religions.

Teaching and Learning at a Distance is written for introductory distance education courses for preservice or in- service teachers, and for training programs that discuss teaching distant learners or managing distance education systems. This text provides readers with the basic information needed to be knowledgeable distance educators and leaders of distance education programs. The teacher or trainer who uses this book will be able to distinguish between appropriate uses of distance education. In this text we take the following themes. The first theme is the definition of distance education. Before we started writing the first edition of Teaching and Learning at a Distance we carefully reviewed the literature to determine the definition that would be at the foundation of our writing. This definition is based on the work of Desmond Keegan, but is unique to this book. This definition of distance education has been adopted by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and by the Encyclopedia Britannica. The second theme of the book was the importance of research to the development of the contents of the book. The best practices presented in Teaching and Learning at a Distance are validated by scientific evidence. Certainly there are "rules of thumb", but we have always attempted to only include recommendations that can be supported by research. The third theme of Teaching and Learning at a Distance is derived from Richard Clark's famous quote published in the Review of Educational Research that states that media are mere vehicles that do not directly influence achievement. Clark's controversial work is discussed in the book, but is also fundamental to the book's advocacy for distance education - in other words, we authors did not make the claim that education delivered at a distance was inherently better than other ways people learn. Distance delivered instruction is not a "magical" approach that makes learners achieve more. The fourth theme of the book is equivalency theory. Here we presented the concept that instruction should be provided to learners that is equivalent rather than identical to what might be delivered in a traditional environment. Equivalency theory helps the instructional designer approach the development of instruction for each learner without attempting to duplicate what happens in a face to face classroom. The final theme for Teaching and Learning at a Distance is the idea that the book should be comprehensive - that it should cover as much of the various ways instruction is made available to distant learners as is possible. It should be a single source of information about the field.

Modern education is characterized by continual change, as educators and students engage with new devices, systems, and resources for improving and enhancing teaching and learning. Online Courses and ICT in Education: Emerging Practices and Applications offers a critical review of current research in technology-supported education, focusing on the development and design of successful education programs, student success factors, and the creation and use of online courses. This work offers solutions, best practices and emerging trends in integrating technology into the traditional and online classroom.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought great disruption in education systems around the world, calling for many institutions to shut down and change to online teaching. Language teaching programs across the globe have responded to the call of distance education, and in the blink of an eye teachers have been challenged to transform their material on to online platforms and/or Learning Management Systems (LMS), even though their material was not initially designed with distance learning in mind. This has led to ELT programs extending their online material for the semesters to come, trying to adjust the material and deliver high quality teaching to their students. The education emergency caused by the virus has revealed that, now more than ever, the world is in need of an education system that favours flexibility and resilience to equip educators, of all sectors, to face an unpredictable emergency that may arise. The aim of the proposed book is to examine the phenomenon of emergency language education further and provide an avenue for teachers and researchers to share their experience, thoughts and suggestions about transferring their material and teaching approaches from Face-to-Face (f2f) to an online setting. The current situation in the language education community has brought a great deal of disruption and frustration among practitioners and language learners. This book examines this phenomenon further and provides an avenue for teachers and researchers to share their experience, thoughts and suggestions about transferring their material and teaching approaches from Face-to-Face (f2f) to an online setting. This book gives practitioners a voice and spotlights their efforts to keep their language teaching afloat during these trying times. Additionally, it will showcase how researchers systematically documented their data with the use of technology, evaluations and reflections, and highlight on creative research paths, which could only take place in a fully online environment.

User-Centered Design (UCD) is gaining popularity in both the educational and business sectors. This is due to the fact that UCD sheds light on the entire process of analyzing, planning, designing, developing, using, evaluating, and maintaining computer-based learning. ""User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities"" explains how computers can be used to augment human intellect for productivity and innovation, both nationally and globally. This book gives guidance to all stakeholders involved in online learning: organizations and businesses, developers, tutors, students, and evaluators; as well as provides best practices for the different phases of developing online learning communities from the analysis and design phase to the development, use, evaluation, and maintenance stage.

This book documents progress to date in what works in distance learning (DL). An overriding goal of this effort was to create a robust and clear set of design guidelines to support the next generation of DL training. The book is targeted mainly toward the research and program management communities. A companion book contains a set of lessons organized by guideline area. The lessons depict specific guideline areas in terms of how a particular guideline would look instantiated in a lesson.

Higher education institutions around the world are increasingly turning to e-learning as a way of dealing with growing and changing student populations. Education for the knowledge society means new skills and knowledge are needed and it means that lifelong learning has become a necessity. Higher education institutions are looking to e-learning to provide convenient and flexible access to high quality education and training that is needed to meet these emerging demands. As they implement e-learning, however, institutions are struggling with the many pedagogical, organizational and technological issues. Making the Transition to E-learning: Strategies and Issues provides insights and experiences from e-learning experts from around the world. It addresses the institutional, pedagogical, and technological issues that higher education institutions are grappling with as they move from conventional face-to-face teaching to e-learning in its diverse forms.

Virtual reality is the next frontier of communication. As technology exponentially evolves, so do the ways in which humans interact and depend upon it. It only follows that to educate and stimulate the next generation of industry leaders, one must use the most innovative tools available. By coupling education with the most immersive technology available, teachers may inspire students in exciting new ways. Emerging Tools and Applications of Virtual Reality in Education explores the potential and practical uses of virtual reality in classrooms with a focus on pedagogical and instructional outcomes and strategies. This title features current experiments in the use of augmented reality in teaching and highlights the effects it had on students. The authors also illustrate the use of technology in teaching the humanities, as students well-rounded in the fields of technology and communication are covetable in the workforce. This book will inspire educators, administrators, librarians, students of education, and virtual reality software developers to push the limits of their craft.

"School's Out" examines the alternatives to failing public schools. It offers parents the means to give their children a real education that prepares them for life as an adult. It includes examples and anecdotes from the writer's thirty-six years of teaching and counseling children in the public schools of San Francisco.

"School's Out" guides parents in planning and carrying out a sound educational program with references to print and electronic sources, teaching techniques, and psychological principles in mentoring their children.

Based on a selection of the most relevant and high quality research papers from the 2010 Networked Learning Conference, this book is an indispensible resource for all researchers, instructional designers, program managers, and learning technologists interested in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning. The book was an important catalyst for the Springer "Research in Networked Learning" Book Series edited by Vivien Hodgson and David McConnell. Details of the "Research in Networked Learning" Book Series and current titles can be found at http: //www.springer.com/series/11810

This volume provides information on current trends and advances in research on networked learning, technology enhanced learning, and e-learning. Specifically, it provides cutting edge information in the areas of: Designing and Facilitating Learning in a Networked World Methodologies for Research in Networked Learning Learning in Social Networks Embedding Networked Learning in Public and Private Organizations Problem based Networked Learning Globalization and Multiculturalism in Networked Learning Networked Learning and International Development Participation and Alienation in Networked Learning "

The Handbook of Research on Transformative Online Education and Liberation: Models for Social Equality discusses the potential for transformative models to liberate online education. With a focus on the societal, social, political, economic, and philosophical perspectives of transformative models, this handbook examines how digital learning communities foster critical reflections and prospective change, particularly within virtual groups. This scrutiny of transformative models serves to educate faculty, administrators, professionals, researchers, community activists, and parents on the injustices that challenge digital societies.

Advances in technology are making virtual education a force behind the educational policies and programs being developed for use in today's colleges and universities. And, the faster the technology advances and changes, the more opportunities and requirements there are within organizations to adapt and implement these technologies in support of their ongoing missions to create effective and efficient environments. Virtual Education: Cases in Learning and Teaching Technologies examines the challenges and issues that universities face when implementing and utilizing virtual education technologies.

School Education, the third volume of Charlotte Mason's Homeschooling Series, consists of thoughts about the teaching and curriculum of children aged 9-12, either at school or at home. She suggests that parents should practice what she calls "masterly inactivity"-not neglectful or permissive parenting, but simply allowing children to work things out for themselves, do things for themselves, learn from their own mistakes, and to have time for free play, and space for spontaneity. Charlotte Mason education uses "living books" instead of dry textbooks; in this book, she discusses what kinds of books to look for in each subject, and how to use them to teach children to love knowledge and become real readers and lifelong learners. Charlotte Mason was a late nineteenth-century British educator whose ideas were far ahead of her time. She believed that children are born persons worthy of respect, rather than blank slates, and that it was better to feed their growing minds with living literature and vital ideas and knowledge, rather than dry facts and knowledge filtered and pre-digested by the teacher. Her method of education, still used by some private schools and many homeschooling families, is gentle and flexible, especially with younger children, and includes first-hand exposure to great and noble ideas through books in each school subject, conveying wonder and arousing curiosity, and through reflection upon great art, music, and poetry; nature observation as the primary means of early science teaching; use of manipulatives and real-life application to understand mathematical concepts and learning to reason, rather than rote memorization and working endless sums; and an emphasis on character and on cultivating and maintaining good personal habits. Schooling is teacher-directed, not child-led, but school time should be short enough to allow students free time to play and to pursue their own worthy interests such as handicrafts. Traditional Charlotte Mason schooling is firmly based on Christianity, although the method is also used successfully by secular families and families of other religions.

The world of education is being radically altered with the change being driven by technology, openness, and unprecedented access to knowledge. Older correspondence-style methods of instructional delivery are passe and "classroom adapted to the web" approaches to learning are often ineffective and do little to harness the transformational potential of technology. E-Learning scenarios, mobile technologies, communication and information access, and personal learning environmentsare becoming mainstream and, as a result, control of the learning process is shifting away from institutions and into the hands of learners. This volumes promotes a forward-thinking agenda for research and scholarship that highlights new ideas, deep insights, and novel approaches to "unconstrained" learning.

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The proliferation of technology has affected all aspects of human life, yet the continuing possibilities of their effects on education have yet to be fully explored. When viewed separately, one may believe that only paltry solutions can be wrought from online and web-based education; however, when applied and studied in a dynamic, interactive sense, these advancements may alter the very notion of learning and education. Revolutionizing Education through Web-Based Instruction is a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary exploration of the emerging digital opportunities available to educators. This book presents contemporary theoretical frameworks as well as practical research findings that support the use of these new computer-assisted teaching techniques. The myriad of research-based topics featured in this book allow for a thorough, diverse discussion about education, technology, and the intersection therein. This title is an invaluable resource for instructors, students of education, and researchers and professionals in the fields of knowledge management.

Today we are seeing a new form of blended learning: not only is technology enhancing the learning environment but formal and informal learning are combining and there is self- and peer-assessment of results. Open learning cultures are challenging the old and long-practiced methods used by educators and transforming learning into a more student-driven and independent activity, which uses online tools such as blogs, wikis or podcasts to connect resources, students and teachers in a novel way.

While in higher education institutions most assessments are still tied to formal learning scenarios, teachers are more and more bound to recognize their students' informal learning processes and networks. This book will help teachers, lecturers and students to better understand how open learning landscapes work, how to define quality and create assessments in such environments, and how to apply these new measures.

To this end, Ehlers first elaborates the technological background for more collaborative, distributed, informal, and self-guided learning. He covers the rise of social media for learning and shows how an architecture of participation can change learning activities. These new paradigms are then applied to learning and education to outline what open learning landscapes look like. Here he highlights the shift from knowledge transfer to competence development, the increase in lifelong learning, and the importance of informal learning, user generated content, and open educational resources. He then shows how to manage quality by presenting a step by step guide to developing customized quality concepts for open learning landscapes. Finally, several methods dealing with assessment in these new environments are presented, including guidelines, templates and use cases to exemplify the approaches.

Overall, Ehlers argues for assessment as an integral part of learning processes, with quality assurance as a method of stimulating a quality culture and continuous quality development rather than as a simple controlling exercise.

Despite the considerable, growing interest in online education, most studies have focused only on the students' perspective. Merely a handful of studies have attempted to address the teachers' perspectives and little has been published on the online teaching experience itself. Expectations and Demands in Online Teaching: Practical Experiences offers a better understanding of how teachers experience the online environment by exploring various dimensions of online teaching, including class preparation, process effectiveness and quality, and technology utilization. The book assists educational institution administrators supporting online education improve their understanding of how teachers experience online teaching, and of the issues these teachers face in their teaching.