Electronic Distance Education via the Internet

“ E-Learning is the effective learning process created by combining digitally delivered content with (learning) support and services.” www.trainingfoundation.com

“E-Learning combines communication, education, information, and training and is a core element of a successful e-business strategy. The new Internet economy demands that people’s knowledge and skill levels be constantly updated. The people, companies, and countries with the greatest knowledge, skills and the ability to efficiently create and share knowledge will have the best chance at success in the new, knowledge-based Internet economy.”
www.cisco.com

“E-Learning is technology based training that covers a wide set of applications and processes such as: Web-based learning; Computer-based learning; Virtual classrooms, and Digital collaboration. It includes the delivery of content via Internet, intranet/extranet, (LAN/WAN), audio/video tape, satellite broadcast, interactive TV, and CD-ROM, online learning, audio and video conferencing, interactive TV, and facsimile. Distance learning does not preclude the use of the traditional classroom.”
www.digitalwebpartners.com

“What is E-Learning? E-Learning can be described as ‘supporting a learning experience by either developing or applying Information & Communication Technology (ICT)’. One of the primary roles of E-Learning within the University sector is to enable students to access, investigate, analyze, construct and evaluate concepts and ideas encountered in their courses. Within research-led universities, E-Learning is typically used as an enhancement of, rather than a replacement of traditional face-to-face teaching.”
Trinity College
www.tcd.ie/CLT/elearning/definition.htm

BUILDING THE DIGITAL CURRICULUM

“ Strategies for Growth: Districts and schools seeking help in providing technology training for their teachers can look to a booming industry that has followed the influx of digital content in schools – a field that is crowded with small startups and consultancies, but also big players such as computer, telecommunications, and cable TV companies, colleges, television stations, and publishers in traditional new media.”
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“ Educators are recognizing that they need to focus on what kinds of computer-based learning resources, or “digital content”, they should use in their classrooms.”

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“ ‘Now is the time to look at the content,’ says Linda G. Roberts, the director of the US Department of Education’s Office of Technology. The department considers digital content one of four “pillars” of school technology, along with hardware, connectivity and professional development.”
www.edweek.org

DIGITAL HIGH SCHOOLS

California Technical Assistance Project (CTAP) has among its goals (that)
“ All high schools in the state become ‘digital high schools’ by the end of the first year of the 21st century.”

Purpose: Provide pupils with basic computer skills – email, word processing, publishing, Internet; improve pupil achievement in all areas; increase collaboration with private industry, post-secondary schools, and community.”
www.acoeissi.k12.ca.us

California Digital High School Grant Program: Provides assistance to schools serving students in grades 9-12 so that these schools may install and support technology … Two of the most important outcomes of the Digital High School Program are: (1) every classroom will be connected to the internet by the end of the Technology Installation Grant; and (2) technology will be integrated into the curriculum to enhance teaching and learning.” www.cde.ca.gov/digitalhigh

 

MacCentral Online: “High Schools across America are waking up this fall to the
‘ Net Generation’. It’s bigger than the Baby Boomer generation. Of the 83 million Net Geners, 81% of them are using the Internet frequently and knowledgeably.”
www.maccentral.macworld.com

US Department of Education programs provide substantial funding to help American schools and communities bridge the “digital divide”, reducing inequities in access to information technology and the Internet.” www.ed.gov/Technology

Abraham Lincoln Digital High School: School-wide Vision

“It is our vision to produce problem solving, critical thinkers who are responsible citizens and assets to their community. Lincoln High graduates will be technologically literate and prepared to function successfully within family, job and society in our modern world.”
www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Lincoln_HS

“The Soquel High Digital High School Project (SHDHS) will focus on improving student achievement in literacy by providing the technical resources and training to fully integrate technology into all curricular areas. The SHDHS Project will effect a school-wide transition from traditional educational methodology to a highly interactive, student-oriented system of learning. Technology integration throughout the curriculum will support this transition.

Ongoing professional growth of the teaching staff in technology integration will ensure that our future students receive a state-of-the-art education to prepare them for productive lives in the information age.”
www.soquelhs.santacruz.k12.ca.us

DIGITAL EUROPE

“Three new web services come from the European Commission, CORDIS:

The first is called Innovation in Practice: Obtain latest news on innovation opportunities, legal or financial information to support your research project and assistance of how to turn your idea into a successful product or service;The second is Innovation Relay Centre Gateway: Directed to owners of a particular innovative technology who are interested in marketing their innovation;The third is Enlargement: Offers candidate States and their people information, tools and feature to enhance integration in the area of research. All three underscore the Commission’s commitment to making Europe the “most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.” “As regards E-Learning, and as part of this same commitment, there is a new European Commission programme called eContent, which integrates E-Learning into the larger scope of the eEurope Action Plan.
The new programme is based on three main lines of action with two objectives: support the production and dissemination of digital content and promote linguistic diversity on a global network. The three principle lines of action – each open for proposals during the 2001-2005 duration of the programme are:

(1) improving access to and expanding the use of public sector information;

(2) enhancing content production in a multilingual and multicultural environment;

(3) increasing dynamism of the digital content market.

But what is perhaps the most important for E-Learning and its Initiative is eContent’s third objective: “to stimulate the use of Internet”. This implies accelerating the effective use of digital technologies, creating digital content and ensuring all Europeans have the necessary ICT skills to access the content.”www.europa.eu.int/comm/education/elearning