Persistence of Women in Online Degree-Completion Programs | Müller | The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

Although online courses at postsecondary institutions promise adults access, flexibility, and convenience, many barriers to online learning remain. This article presents findings from a qualitative case study, which explored the phenomenon of undergraduate and graduate women learners’ persistence in online degree-completion programs at a college in the Northeast of the United States. Research questions asked why women learners persisted or failed to persist, and how factors supporting or hindering persistence influenced learners. Interviews with a purposeful sample of 20 participants revealed the complexity of variables affecting learners’ persistence to graduation. Findings suggested that multiple responsibilities, insufficient interaction with faculty, technology, and coursework ranked highest as barriers to women’s persistence. Strong motivation to complete degrees, engagement in the learning community, and appreciation for the convenience of an online degree-completion option facilitated persistence.

tags: online_learning gender OMDE608

Where not to use QR codes – The Globe and Mail

In its eagerness to reach out to riders, the transit authority has mounted ads that urge residents to contact it by phone, in person, online – and even by QR code, printed right there on the ad. This would be fine, if the ad had not been mounted in a subway car. Toronto’s subways are, if nothing else, good to their name: well and truly underground. And for all the other places in the city you can get the reception you’d need to look up a QR code, it’s not on the subway.

tags: qrcode

Howtoons

What happens when you take a comic book artist, an inventor, and a toy designer?  You get Howtoons.  Our mission is to provide engaging content that teaches kids how to build things, combining instructions with storytelling.  Howtoons has a foundation of science and engineering education, inspiring creativity through art and imagination.

tags: art comics how_to

Howtoons » Holy Batman Logo Equation!

Discovered by a math teacher, this equation plots out the Batman logo.

tags: mathematics learning

Selected Articles – Life Learning Magazine

The following is a small selection of the many inspirational essays that have appeared in Life Learning Magazine since it began in 2002. We are happy to share some of our content with website visitors but hope you will subscribe to our digital magazine and enjoy all of our articles…including back issues, current and upcoming editions.

tags: lifelong_learning

Flickr: Camera Finder

These graphs show the number of Flickr members who have uploaded at least one photo or video with a particular camera on a given day over the last year. The graphs are “normalized”, which is a fancy way of saying that they automatically correct for the fact that more people join Flickr each day: the graph moving up or down indicates a change in the camera’s popularity relative to all other cameras used by Flickr members. The graphs are only accurate to the extent that we can automatically detect the camera used to take the photo or shoot the video (about 2/3rds of the time). That is not usually possible with cameraphones, therefore they are under-represented.

tags: photography camera statistics flicr

Invasive Species of Concern in Maryland

The MARYLAND INVASIVE SPECIES COUNCIL (MISC) provides leadership concerning invasive species and encourages efforts that prevent the introduction of, and manage the impact of, invasive species on Maryland ecosystems.

tags: science biology maryland

Indians of the Midwest – Map 5

On and adjacent to the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, this became an important fishing site after a federal court affirmed the Ojibwa’s off-reservation fishing rights. Photo courtesy of Allison Kipta

tags: history anthropology midwest native_americans photographs

Blended Learning Toolkit

Based upon proven research and informed by practical experience, this Blended Learning Toolkit will offer guidance, examples, professional development, and other resources to help you prepare your own blended learning courses and programs.

tags: blended_learning tools

News: Freeing the LMS – Inside Higher Ed

Pearson’s new platform, called OpenClass, is only in beta phase; the company does not expect to take over the LMS market overnight. But by moving to turn the learning management platform into a free commodity — like campus e-mail has become for many institutions — Pearson is striking at the foundation of an industry that currently bills colleges for hundreds of millions per year.

tags: open_source lms

Run Android Apps On PC

Do you love free apps available on Android market but don’t have a device with Android OS to use the free apps? Want to run your favourite Android OS apps on your XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 PC? Yes, it’s now possible to run Android apps on your PC.

tags: android app computing

Technology Integration Matrix

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells.

tags: technology integration education

Information Architects – The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard

Initially it is more difficult to create a good layout with a big font size, but that difficulty will help you design a simpler, clearer site. Cramming a site with information isn’t difficult, but making it simple and easy-to-use is. At first, you’ll be shocked how big the default text is. But after a day, you won’t want to see anything smaller than 100% font-size for the main text. It looks big at first, but once you use it you quickly realize why all browser makers chose this as the default text size.

tags: art design typography

App Store – VoiceThread

Create and share dynamic conversations around documents, snapshots, diagrams and videos — basically anything there is to talk about. You can talk, type, and draw right on the screen. VoiceThread takes your conversations to the next level, capturing your presence, not just your comments. Anyone can join the discussion from their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC — anytime, anywhere. Stunningly simple and accessible, VoiceThread is already in use by architects, executives, kindergartners, professors, and engineers around the world. More than 25% of the top Universities in the U.S. use VoiceThread to connect and communicate around digital media.

tags: iphone ipod ipad app multimedia

FlipSnack | PDF to Flash page flip – flipping book software

FlipSnack is an online flipping book software that allows you to convert PDF documents into Flash page flip digital publications. It’s the ideal solution for those who wish to embed a book, magazine, catalog, newspaper, portfolio or any other kind of document into a website or blog. Once created, you can embed your flipping book collection, download them or share them on social networking websites such as Facebook. P.S. With FlipSnack you can upload several documents at once, allowing you to embed not only one, but multiple page flip publications in the same Flash widget.

tags: publishing pdf converter flash

King Henri IV of France’s severed head ‘should be reunited with body’ | History News Network

The severed head of King Henri IV of France, lost during the Revolution and formally identified last year, should be reunited with his body, the pretender to the throne of France has demanded. Louis de Bourbon said the embalmed head, identified by forensic scientists in December, should now be reinterred with his body so that one of France’s best-loved monarchs can “rest in peace”.

tags: history france

Key Influencing Factors Behind Moodle Adoption in Irish Small to Medium Sized Higher Education Colleges

This research investigated Irish Small to Medium Sized Educational Institutions (SMSEs) involved in Higher Education (HE) that adopted Moodle, the OSS (Open Source Software) course management system (CMS). As Moodle has only been adopted in the Irish HE sector in the last 5-7 years, this research crucially studied the attitudes of the SMSEs that have invested in it to uncover the influencing factors (lessons learned, rationale) concerning OSS adoption in HE from the view point of the smaller colleges. A full population of Small and Medium Sized Educational Institutions, large colleges and universities in HE operating in Ireland that utilize Moodle were included in this research. A variety of Open Source Moodle service providers (large and small) operating in Ireland were also included in this research. This research found a high degree of improved confidence in additional Open Source core system adoption and integration in SMSEs resulting from Moodle adoption. This confidence has been a direct result of the Moodle experience and the supportive community that has been found to encapsulate it. The Moodle experience in Ireland has, without doubt, challenged traditional preconceptions and fears concerning core OSS adoption. In addition, proactive SMSEs have benefited greatly in Moodle assistance from other colleges, particularly the universities. Quality external Moodle support service has been viewed very positively. This research also suggests that%

tags: moodle open_source

Educational hardware and content | Pew Internet & American Life Project

In addition to expanding access to educational opportunities through online learning, digital technology shows promise in revolutionizing other aspects of education. College texts are big business, with the higher education market estimated at more than $8 billion annually.6 But paper may be giving way to digital versions—whether consumed on a web page, a library’s “e-reserves” or through an e-reader such as a Nook or Kindle. The advent of digital textbooks has already begun; digital textbooks make up about 3% of sales, according to the National Association of College Stores.7 And in July, Amazon announced the option to rent textbooks on the Kindle for as little as 30 days. The college presidents surveyed believe that a rapid conversion to digital textbooks is just around the corner. Just under two-thirds of today’s college presidents (62%) believe that more than half of the textbooks used by students at their institution a decade from now will be entirely digital. Just 7% of presidents believe that less than a quarter of the texts their students will use in the future will be digital, and 30% estimate the share will be between 25% and 50%.

tags: plagiarism technology

The Candy Bandit Strikes Again!

Authored by college classmate, Robert Cone: “The Candy Bandit Strikes Again! is based on a real-life event that happened to the author when he was a boy. He was trick or treating on West Prospect Street in his hometown of Kewanee, Illinois with his older brothers. He had collected quite a bag full of candy, when suddenly he was jumped by an older boy. The older boy was hiding behind a tall bush and tried to snatch his candy bag. The author put up a good fight (just like the little girl in this story does) and was determined to have the trick or treat bag rip in two, when suddenly the candy bandit decided to let go of the bag. The author then went on his way as if nothing had happened and stopped to trick or treat at the very next house. Ironically, the house where the incident occurred is the very same house the author (as an adult) lived in for a short while with his mother, who has since moved to Hollis Street. The bush in question is still there, but it has been cropped to nearly half of its original size and the neighbors have since put up a fence.”

tags: reading children

Eastern Screech Owl: ML Audio 85307; Megascops asio

“Sony TCD-D10 ProII HPF on. Owl approached and increased rate of song. Also, added horse-sounding ending to downward slurred trill. Add announcement at 41’20″ – 42’36″”

tags: biology birds owls sounds

ML : About Us

The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the world’s largest natural sound and video archive of animal behavior. Its mission is to collect and preserve recordings of each species behavior and natural history and to make them available for research, education, conservation, zoos and aquaria, wildlife managers, publishers, the arts, and both public and commercial media. Since 1930, recordists of all backgrounds have contributed their recordings, which now number to several hundred thousand in total. A large percentage of the recordings can be searched and played online. The Library also provides services for consultation, custom compilations, and professionally edited versions of its assets.

tags: biology ornithology birds multimedia archives

The Owl Pages – About Owls – photos, calls, books, art, mythology and more.

“Owls have fascinated man from time immemorial – to some cultures they are symbols of wisdom, while to others they are harbingers of doom and death. Here, The Owl Pages sheds some light on these mysterious creatures.”

tags: biology birds owls

Eastern Screech Owl – Megascops asio – Information, Pictures, Sounds

“The Eastern Screech Owl was first described by Carolus Linnaeus (the Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organise plants and animals), who classified it in 1758. The word “Asio” is attributed to Pliny the Elder in his “Naturalis Historia” around 77 AD, and is Latin for ‘Horned Owl’. Eastern Screech Owls have also been called the common screech Owl, Ghost Owl, Dusk Owl, Little-eared Owl, Spirit Owl, Little Dukelet, Texas Screech-Owl, whickering Owl, little gray Owl, mottled Owl, the red Owl, the mouse Owl, the cat Owl, the shivering Owl, and the little horned Owl.”

tags: biology birds owls

NESDIS Education & Outreach

NOAA’s Satellites and Information Service manages data relating to the Earth and solar environments. The links below are resources within NESDIS and NOAA which we believe may be of interest to students, educators, and anyone interested in learning more about our Earth-Sun environment. We welcome your input to our programs and invite comments, suggestions, and partners for development of new material.

tags: science oceanography space satellites weather

PA’s Past: Digital Bookshelf

This digital collection is created by the Penn State Libraries, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania State Library in Harrisburg, the Free Library in Philadelphia, and the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh.

tags: digital library pennsylvainia

National Center for Biotechnology Information

NCBI provides a variety of educational resources, including tutorials, problem sets, online tools, FAQs and documentation.

tags: science biotechnology education

MathDL: The MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library

MathDL is an NSDL Pathway Project created and maintained by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). It is a combination and extension of the previous MathDL, a collection within NSDL, and the earlier MAA Pathway Project, Math Gateway. It combines many features of the earlier two projects.

tags: mathematics education resources

Allison’s Toolbox – Backup and Storage

tags: backup storage

Why Do Some People Learn Faster? | Wired Science | Wired.com

The physicist Niels Bohr once defined an expert as “a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” Bohr’s quip summarizes one of the essential lessons of learning, which is that people learn how to get it right by getting it wrong again and again. Education isn’t magic. Education is the wisdom wrung from failure. A new study, forthcoming in Psychological Science, and led by Jason Moser at Michigan State University, expands on this important concept. The question at the heart of the paper is simple: Why are some people so much more effective at learning from their mistakes? After all, everybody screws up. The important part is what happens next. Do we ignore the mistake, brushing it aside for the sake of our self-confidence? Or do we investigate the error, seeking to learn from the snafu?

tags: psychology learning theory

Five Funky Flickr Tools for Teachers | The Whiteboard Blog

Flickr is a fantastic site for sharing photographs with others, and as such it’s also a brilliant resource for finding and using photographs to use in a lesson. There are lots of websites that use the Flickr API to pull in photographs from Flickr and use them in quite creative ways.

tags: flickr tools

60+ educational resources for teaching yourself anything.

From its inception, the web has always had appeal as an educational resource. Recognising the potential for remote learning, in 2002, the launch of OpenCourseWare at MIT helped propel the initiative into the spotlight, with many universities following suit and providing quality educational material available through the web. No longer is there an excuse for anyone with access to the web to say that education is outside of their reach. This collection of links and applications highlights just the tip of the iceberg of educational resources that are available on the web. If you are interested in teaching yourself a new skill or learning a new topic indepth in your spare time, hopefully some of these will be of use.

tags: educational_technology resources open_courseware

English The Easy Way

Learn English like a native speaker!! Understand how to write a resume to get the job you want!!! Writing assignments can be fun, and easy!!! Understand how to use correct punctuation and the punctuation rules, so you don’t have to guess!! Improve your writing skills!! Learn & improve your English skills, it’s free and everyone can learn English!!!

[and use exclamation points!!!!!]

tags: english language learning esl

Advanced Composition for Non-Native Speakers of English

This web site is for non-native speakers of English who want to write in English for academic purposes.  The material in this site is aimed toward high intermediate or advanced English learners who have never taken a formal English writing course and whose TOEFL score is about 500 or more. 

tags: english language learning esl

Blair English 30 Minute Free Business English Exercises

A website of free online business and social English vocabulary exercises for both learners of English and native speakers who want to improve their use of business and social vocabulary.

tags: english language learning esl

Learn English Online | Open English World

Open English World provides free online lessons to help you learn English and speak English more fluently. We invite you to use our free activities to practice your conversation, vocabulary, pronunciation, business English, and idioms.

tags: english language learning esl

ESL RESOURCE CENTER

tags: english language learning esl

Dave’s ESL Cafe

tags: english language learning esl

ESL Lesson Plans, Printables, Games, Materials for Teaching English | ESL Lounge

1000 pages of interactive grammar, listening, vocabulary and reading exercises. Full English grammar guide and phrasal verbs section with definitions, examples and tests. Games, puzzles and more.

tags: english language learning

Easy English ~ free online English tests

Welcome to EasyEnglish.com! Test yourself online in English free! You’ll receive answers and marks for each test. Plus we give you easy explanations, and suggest what you need to study. “Question of the Day” gives you a new test every time, or you can choose from “Free English Test” or “Free Personalized Test” at any level. Visit Easy English every day and your English will improve much faster. English is easy at EasyEnglish.com!

tags: english language learning esl

BBC Learning English

tags: english language learning esl

The Morgan Library & Museum Online Exhibitions – Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands

This exhibition explores the evolution of courtly clothing from the “Fashion Revolution” around 1330 to the flowering of the Renaissance in France following the accession of King François I in 1515. During this period, the modern notion of changing fashion was reborn. Because few actual garments from the Middle Ages survive, we use the art of this era — illuminated manuscripts and early printed books — to reveal its evolving styles. Concentrating on France and Flanders, this show also makes the occasional foray into England, Germany, and Holland. In addition, the exhibition touches on the potential impact of political unrest and social upheaval on the history of fashion during one of the world’s more calamitous eras. The vicissitudes of the Hundred Years’ War, the occupation of Paris by the English, and the arrival of the Italian Renaissance in northern Europe, for example, influenced clothing styles. Also explored here are the ways in which artists used clothing (garments actually worn) and costume (fantastic garments not actually worn) to help contemporaneous viewers interpret a work of art. The garments depicted were often encoded clues to the wearer’s identity and moral character.

tags: history fashion

The Phyllis Diller Gag File | Albert H. Small Documents Gallery | Smithsonian NMAH

In the history of American comedy, Phyllis Diller is a unique trailblazer. Her style of humor debunked the idealization of women as wives, mothers, and homemakers. In doing so, it treated themes remarkably similar to the perspectives of the burgeoning feminist movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Similarly, she broke the gender barrier that previously existed in stand-up comedy, a field dominated by men.

tags: humor

Facebook Is Tracking Your Every Move on the Web; Here’s How to Stop It

“Over the weekend, Dave Winer wrote an article at Scripting.com explaining how Facebook keeps track of where you are on the web after logging in, without your consent. Nik Cubrilovic dug a little deeper, and discovered that Facebook can still track where you are, even if you log out. Facebook, for its part, has denied the claims. Regardless of who you believe, here’s how to protect yourself, and keep your browsing habits to yourself. “

tags: facebook privacy

John Pilger – Stealing a Nation : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Stealing A Nation reveals the extraordinary story of the secret expulsion of the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean by successive British governments, so that the principal island, Diego Garcia, could be handed to the United States as a major military base. It is from this base that American aircraft have attacked Iraq and Afghanistan.

tags: sociology geography history diego_garcia

How Exercise Can Strengthen the Brain – NYTimes.com

“For centuries, people have known that exercise remodels muscles, rendering them more durable and fatigue-resistant. In part, that process involves an increase in the number of muscle mitochondria, the tiny organelles that float around a cell’s nucleus and act as biological powerhouses, helping to create the energy that fuels almost all cellular activity. The greater the mitochondrial density in a cell, the greater its vitality. Past experiments have shown persuasively that exercise spurs the birth of new mitochondria in muscle cells and improves the vigor of the existing organelles. This upsurge in mitochondria, in turn, has been linked not only to improvements in exercise endurance but to increased longevity in animals and reduced risk for obesity, diabetes and heart disease in people. It is a very potent cellular reaction.”

tags: health exercise brain

The New Facebook: How to Take Control of Your Privacy Mashable The New Facebook: How to Take Control of Your Privacy | The top source for social and digital news

“Facebook took a huge step toward ubiquitous sharing with its new timeline and sharing features. And it rightfully creeps some people out. Not everybody wants to share their life story on their profile, see their friends’ activities in real time or have their preferences in music, movies and reading shared as they’re consuming media.”

tags: facebook privacy

150 Questions to Write or Talk About – NYTimes.com

“For almost two years now, we’ve posted a fresh Student Opinion question every weekday. Each question was originally inspired by something in that week’s New York Times, and all of them are still open to comment by anyone between the ages of 13 and 25. Teachers tell us they use them as “bell-ringers,” as inspiration for lessons, as jumping-off points for student research and journalism, or just to help students practice writing persuasively and responding to others around the world. (We don’t allow last names, and we read each and every comment ourselves before we make it public, so it’s a pretty civil, and safe, place to post.)”

tags: nytimes reflective_thinking writing