Archives for November 2009

A first for EIBTM this year sees educational seminars over the three days of the show being evaluated using MeetingMetrics’ online survey and reporting tools.Those attending any of the 30+ educational sessions will be asked for their comments on speaker and topic content by logging onto. Participants are encouraged to log onto the system as soon after each educational session ends through PDAs, notebooks and PCs.

This initiative, working with MeetingMetrics, winner of last year’s EIBTM WorldWide Technology Watch, offers a unique self administered set of online tools for maximising meeting effectiveness, measuring meeting results and demonstrating value and return on investment.

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One can’t fault Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson [“Bonus for supe with a B minus?,” NWSunday, Nov. 22], the contract and job evaluation is the doing of the board.The voters who elected them are ultimately responsible.The superintendent’s job is an impossible one. She must be crazy, as she must know that an enterprise cannot be managed when the workers union is in charge.Columnist Danny Westneat was right, in part teachers aren’t in it just for the money but for the security, tenure, the right to sit on their butts and complain.The only way out of this mess is to give parents and their children choice what school to attend. People have a choice in where to worship or not where to shop, whom to love. Why not a choice of an environment that makes it possible to learn?

Jim Ewins, Seattle Lower standards, scores, expectations. What’s next?Let’s see. The achievement standards have been lowered to suit the scores of the students. Teachers can’t even teach to the test. And now we’re giving students even longer to learn how to add and what an animal is [“Finally getting it right on math and science,” Opinion, Randy Dorn guest commentary, Nov. 19].Could our standards and expectations get any lower? So far, when in doubt, we make the test fit our scores.Why don’t we just give the kids the answers in the back of the test and see if they can find them?

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Ahmedabad: Stalwarts of the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN), faculty members of planning schools, and representatives of the Institute of Town Planners will participate in a roundtable conference that will be held at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, on November 25.You may also want to see

The university is will be playing host to the 10th international congress of the Asian Planning Schools Association (ASPA) from November 24 to 26, which will be attended by national and international delegates, students, urban planners and architects from across Asia. The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and Institute of Town Planners (ITPT) are the major partners towards organising the congress.

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Yakima Valley students and their parents are invited to explore online education during an informational meet-and-greet session on Saturday.The free event runs from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Starbucks at 1208 N. 40th Ave.The session is sponsored by Insight School of Washington, a tuition-free, statewide, online public high school made possible through a partnership between Insight Schools, Inc. and the Quillayute Valley School District.

Insight provides a free laptop, printer and Internet stipend to all enrolled students. It also offers more than 120 courses taught by certified teachers in an online classroom, a dedicated iMentor for each student, and 24/7 mentoring and technical support.Students are able to complete their studies at their own speed and in their own setting.Prospective students include those looking for an alternative to traditional high school, including advanced learners, full-time wage earners, those pursuing their dreams in athletics or the arts, and those who may have struggled in a traditional school.

The Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments will host a community forum tonight to address key educational issues in the region and the state.Topics of discussion will include early childhood education, local high school graduation rates, and percentage of high school students entering postsecondary education.The forum will also feature three "success stories" of area individuals who overcame barriers to educational success through mentoring and other community support programs.

Participants will have the opportunity to participate in a public discussion on the key educational issues and share their solution alternatives with like-minded peers after reviewing findings from a recently completed community profile report on the four counties. The report titled "Facing Facts 2008" can be found on the COG's Web site,The public is invited to attend the meeting, which will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the COG, 36 W. Liberty St.

Investing in family planning and women's education may be two of the most cost effective means of curbing climate change and coping with its now inevitable effects, the United Nations Population Fund argues in a new report.Women who are educated choose to have fewer children and are better prepared to help protect their families economically in the face of climate change pressures, according to the agency's 2009 report, Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate.

Smaller families also reduce the burden on governments that are preparing to cope with the costs and the pressures that adapting to climate change will bring, the report says.The most effective solutions to climate change must "empower - not victimise or overburden - those who must adapt to a new world," notes Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the agency.She spoke with AlertNet in London on the eve of the report's launch.

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Even when Jefferson College student Nicole Garner is not sitting in a classroom, she still could be taking a course at the school's Hillsboro campus.She simply needs a computer and online access.

"I do the majority of my courses in class, but have taken some online courses," she said. "I spend time between classes doing my online work. Because the 19-year-old student lives a 35-minute drive away in Bloomsdale in Ste. Genevieve County, she said that classes on the Internet allow her to maximize her time in school. There are advantages and disadvantages to online courses,Garner said.I like being in class better. But as far as flexibility, I enjoy that more with the online courses. Especially over the summer, it's much easier than having to commute.

On line learning remains one of the most powerful and transformative mediums in U.S. education, said Martha Leight, vice president of the Center for Digital Education.It's the second year in a row that Florida has been number 1 for virtual education, according to the center's survey.The center is a division of e-Republic, Inc., a national publishing, event and research company that looks at how technology is being used in public operations such as the schools.Florida has been a leader, with its state backed Florida Virtual School up and running for more than 10 years now. On line education in the state is growing, too. I detailed operation of the state's new full time k-12 on line school in a story today.

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 The regional cooperative agency that provides state-mandated special educational services to the six school districts of northwest Colorado is in financial trouble. BOCES is in arrears some $777,000 in federal reimbursement payments to the schools in the Northwest district for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, leaving West Grand with a $139,000 budget shortfall and East Grand with a $220,000 shortfall, according to school district officials.

In mid-September, BOCES administrators came to its board of directors, made up of representatives from each of the six member districts, with the news that it had overspent its 2008-09 budget by $316,000. Staff also alerted the board that it would need to increase its 2009-10 assessment by more than $472,000 to balance its budget.BOCES claims that the reason for the shortfall was that they under-assessed the services provided to the districts.

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Though the recession has had many negative effects, it's been a boon for online education, which is becoming increasingly mainstream, schools here say.

Demand for online classes is rising, and schools are responding by adding more course's, and even full degree programs, to their online offerings.

It's not just college students who want online courses. Spokane Public Schools says demand for its online high school classes also is brisk, perhaps because high school stude.