The best of the web on education from kindergarten to postsecondary, as chosen by Globe and Mail education editor Simona Chiose.
Online learning could decrease achievement
A new and extensive study of online education concludes that students are less likely to graduate than when enrolled in a traditional classroom. Among groups who were already struggling – like those made up of students with lower grade-point averages – the results were even more negatively skewed. If the online option is to be the equal of, or surpass, a physical learning environment, professors have to be taught how to virtually reach out to students.
$1-billion in one year
Stanford University raised that amount last year, due in no small part to its location in Silicon Valley. A tenth of that amount came from a single investor. When the amounts are broken down by the amount raised per student, however, the usual suspects are joined by medical schools and five schools of theology. For comparison, UBC is currently at the $1-billion mark in its start an evolution campaign which seeks to reach $1.5-billion by 2015.
Essential skill for an entrepreneur: ironing?
A student discovers that she has trouble putting up a shelf and ironing clothes and connects the failure to adequately perform these tasks of daily life with the failure of universities to produce innovative entrepreneurs. Instead, students are able to sit and gather information in front of a computer but can't 'make' anything, she writes.
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