1. EDUCATION GONE DIGITAL ! The future of online education

5. teachers and to reduce class sizes.” My question for Schwarzenegger would be if we were to go totally digital, could it possibly open up for the opportunity for smaller class sizes, because the students would not have to attend class on a daily basis ? I like the fact that going digital would save money and an even better idea would be to take the money being saved and increase the teachers salary. Schwarzenegger’s proposal would also require schools to invest more money in technology to access the online material and pay for professional development classes so teachers could effectively use it. Schwarzenegger mentions “We expect the first science and math books to be digital by this fall. If we expand this to more textbooks, schools could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and that’s a hundred millions of dollars that could be used to hire more

8. The article from the Gulf Times quotes Graham Taylor, director of educational and academic publishing at the Publishers’ Association, in the UK says: “ In (the UK) even more than in the US, there’s a 25-year history of making learning resources available digitally. I would estimate that 20% of learning resources delivered to primary and secondary schools in the UK are already purely digital. Further down in the article I found another very important fact it reads; But the textbook isn’t about to die a sudden death- especially not in the UK, where many children still do not have access to the Internet at home.

11. IPHONES INVADE COLLEGE CAMPUSES, BUT WILL THEY REPLACE THE STUDENT ID: THE REASON I CHOSE THE THIRD ARTICLE IS BECAUSE IT GAVE ME SOME INSIGHT ON THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ACCESSIBILITY AVAILABLE FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN THROUGH TECHNOLOGY, WHILE THIS ARTICLE MENTIONS THE IPHONE AS ONE WAY, THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS AS WELL, LIKE THE HOME COMPUTER, A NOTEBOOK LAPTOP, OR THE BLACKBERRY. MY CONCERN WITH THIS ARTICLE IS FOR INSTANCE A COMPANY CALLED BLACKBOARD INC., HAS A PROGRAM CALLED BLACKBOARD’S LEARN AND IS IN USE IN MANY HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND SOME K-12 SCHOOLS. BLACKBOARD’S DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT SAYS, “ IT’S AN ONLINE EDUCATION PLATFORM WHOSE PRIMARY PURPOSE IS TO MANAGE ON LINE COURSE DELIVERY FOR INSTITUTIONS .” A-HA, BUT THE PROBLEM IS THE SCHOOLS WHO SUPPORT BLACKBOARD LEARN’S PROGRAMS ARE LIMITED TO EITHER USING A COMPUTER OR AN IPHONE, RITTER IS QUOTED AS SAYING “AS TO OTHER SMART PHONES , LIKE THE BLACKBERRY, BLACKBOARD HAS NO PLANS TO SUPPORT THEM . THE “MARKET IS PRETTY MUCH SCATTERED” WITH OTHER SMART PHONES, HE ADDS. AS A STUDENT WILL WE BE FORCED TO BUY CERTAIN BRAND NAMETECHNOLOGY DEPENDING ON THE SCHOOLS LEARNING PROGRAM?

12. SUMMERY San Francisco Examiner – Schwarzenegger seeks online revolution in schools . BY: JULLIET WILLIAMS GULF TIMES Newspaper – The end of textbooks ? By Helen Pidd/London iPhones invade college campuses, but will they replace the student ID I found the above three articles of interest to me because basically they follow along the path of the technology articles we had to read in Module Two. When I wrote my reflection paper for the assignment I had so many other issues or concerns that I found to be mentioned in the above three articles. For instance Schwarzenegger mentions “We expect the first science and math books to be digital by this fall. If we expand this to more textbooks, schools could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to hire more teachers and to reduce class sizes.” My question for Schwarzenegger would be if we were to go totally digital, could it possibly open up for the opportunity for smaller class sizes, because the students would not have to attend class on a daily basis ? I like the fact that going digital would save money, and an even better idea would be to take the money being saved and increase the teachers salary. Schwarzenegger’s proposal would also require schools to invest more money in technology to access the online material and pay for professional development classes so teachers could effectively use it. . The article from the Gulf Times quotes Graham Taylor, director of educational and academic publishing at the Publishers’ Association, in the UK says: “ In (the UK) even more than in the US, there’s a 25-year history of making learning resources available digitally. I would estimate that 20% of learning resources delivered to primary and secondary schools in the UK are already purely digital. Further down in the article I found another very important fact it reads; But the textbook isn’t about to die a sudden death- especially not in the UK, where many children still do not have access to the Internet at home. The reason I chose the third article is because it gave me some insight on the different types of accessibility available for students to learn through technology, while this article mentions the iphone as one way, there are other options as well, like the home computer, a notebook laptop, or the Blackberry. My concern with this article is for instance a company called Blackboard Inc., has a program called Blackboard’s Learn and is in use in many higher education institutions and some k-12 schools. Blackboard’s director of product management says, “ It’s an online education platform whose primary purpose is to manage on line course delivery for institutions .” While all three articles are in full support of integrating technology into the classroom, it looks like there are many unanswered questions on the implementation process. Schwarzenegger can be applauded for his efforts and the direction he would like to take California’s education system, but with change there is anxiety, and to ease the anxiety among students, Teachers and Parents lets see the rollout plan, show us how it is going to work .