ProfNet Wire: Education & Science: Distance Learning
ROUND-UP: DISTANCE LEARNING (continued)
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**1. PAM BELL, provost of STRAYER UNIVERSITY: "Students who attend degree programs online are more likely to be changing careers than are non-online students. Online programs give adult students the convenience and flexibility to chart a new career path. And with the shift to a knowledge-based economy, many students are finding that advanced degrees can open doors once closed."
ROUND-UP: THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS (continued)
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**1. JONATHAN D. BECKER, J.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of the department of foundations, leadership and policy studies at HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY: "If a school hired a new teacher for $50,000 and the students only got 10 percent of that teacher's potential value, (s)he would be terminated after a few years. Technology has suffered that same fate. Schools have borne the full cost of installing technological infrastructures, yet educators use the technology in such limited ways, the full value is never realized. Cost-benefit analyses never come out in favor of educational technology. Until more school leaders foster an all-encompassing vision of technology as a means towards more equitable and effective teaching and learning, schools will continue to debate the usefulness of technology."
ROUND-UP: HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS (continued)
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**1. DAVID PREVATT, hurricane chaser and wind engineer at CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: "It's a question of understanding that hurricane damage is not always inevitable or an act of God. If we can improve our prediction of the wind forces and failure mechanisms occurring in buildings, we can develop construction materials and building codes that will help produce safer homes and minimize the fear factor. By taking data from the field, we can improve how to predict loads on residential houses. This knowledge helps us to find low-cost, off-the-shelf solutions to protect homes, schools and businesses from severe wind damage or structural failures."
ROUND-UP: STEM-CELL RESEARCH (continued)
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**1. TIM GORDINIER, Ph.D., registered humanist lobbyist and director of public policy at the INSTITUTE FOR HUMANIST STUDIES, a non-profit think tank based in Albany, N.Y., that defends the rights of the non-religious: "In areas like stem-cell research, I believe that the states have to take the lead because the federal government has dropped the ball." Gordinier lobbies the New York State Legislature on stem-cell research. He has a Ph.D. in public law with a concentration on the First Amendment religion clauses. He is also the author of the online course "Religion and the Constitution."
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LEADS
**1. ADMINISTRATION: TRUSTEES ARE OFTEN AGGRESSIVE IN MANDATING DISCOUNT RATES. JOHN MAGUIRE, Ph.D., chairman of MAGUIRE ASSOCIATES, INC.: "Even the best leaders misunderstand the concepts of pricing and 'discounting.' Only those colleges and universities with stable enrollments and large endowments per student can afford to view financial aid as a true expense. And it is only for those fortunate few that merit scholarships ultimately take money away from need-based grants that defray college costs for lower-income families. For schools with low endowments and excess capacity, it is often possible to use merit scholarships to compete with endowment subsidies, increase net revenue substantially, and thereby, generate additional aid for lower-income families. Trustees often miss this point and are overly aggressive in mandating discount rates too low to allow for net revenue optimization." Maquire is the author of numerous papers, has served as a faculty member for the Harvard Summer Institute and been featured in Money, The Chronicle of Higher Education and on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation."
**2. EDUCATION: FROM TRADITIONAL TEXTBOOKS TO ONLINE LEARNING CONTENT. STEVE PEHA, president of TEACHING THAT MAKES SENSE, INC.: "The Vail, Ariz., schools are moving from traditional textbooks to online learning content. But if we want to prepare kids for life in the 21st century, we need to abandon the idea of a single text or a predefined set of texts for a particular grade level or subject in favor of an inquiry approach where teachers model a variety of research strategies best suited to their students' learning styles and abilities. What we should be providing are different ways to find information, not different information sources. Moving textbooks online will change the medium, not improve the message."
**3. ENVIRONMENT: GOVERNMENT TO HELP U.S. TECHNOLOGY FIRMS PROMOTE AT EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL SHOW. STEVE HILLMAN, president of the ENVIRONMENTAL MARKETING GROUP, can discuss Pollutec, the U.S. Commercial Service's comprehensive trade promotion program offer to U.S. environmental technology companies who want to participate in Europe's environmental technology trade: "The European Union regulations are more stringent. The fact is that they have less land and they spend more per capita to protect it. Usually, U.S. firms need to establish a local means of distribution and representation. And they need to have their services validated and approved for use. This helps streamline the entire process with translators and government officials all together at one location."
