New York City Public Schooling Wins the Broad Prize

The New York City Department of Education recently won The Broad Prize for doing Urban Education right in 2007.

Here's why NYC won $500,000 in college scholarships for its students:

• Greater overall performance and improvement. In 2006, New York City outperformed other districts in New York state serving students with similar income levels in reading and math at all grade levels: elementary, middle and high school, according to The Broad Prize methodology. Between 2003 and 2006, New York City also showed greater improvement than other districts in New York state serving students with similar income levels in reading and math at all grade levels, according to The Broad Prize methodology.
  
  
• Greater subgroup performance and improvement.In 2006, each of New York City's three subgroups - low-income, African-American and Hispanic students - outperformed and showed greater improvement than their peers in similar New York state districts in reading and math at all grade levels, according to The Broad Prize methodology.
  
  
• Closing achievement gaps. New York City narrowed achievement gaps between African-American and Hispanic students and the state average for white students in elementary and high school reading and math. For example, between 2003 and 2006, the achievement gap in high school between Hispanic students in New York City and the state average for white students closed 14 percentage points. The same African-American-white achievement gap closed 13 percentage points.
  
  
• More African-American and Hispanic students achieving at high levels. New York City increased the percentage of African-American and Hispanic students at the most advanced level of proficiency in elementary school math: a 7 percentage point increase for African-Americans and a 9 percentage point increase for Hispanic students.
  

With this sort of private support for public education, we are all made better and smarter in the long run as those younger than us are able to be keener than us in the long run.

Building an Online University

We were pleased with the news today that Colorado State University is going online with its learning:

Colorado State University is launching a $12 million online university that will help students who don’t have the time or money to get a traditional on-campus four-year education.

Called CSU-Colorado, and approved by the CSU Board of Governors on Friday, the online university will serve Coloradans and out-of-state students.

CSU is facing the inevitable fact: University Learning no longer requires a campus. Your students do not need dorms. Your faculty must not live in Colorado to teach.

In a decade more students will be earning degrees online than in traditional classrooms because distance learning is convenient, cheap to create and propagate, and gets easier as technology gets better.

Online Research in Firefox

Have you discovered Zotero yet?

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.

Zotero makes online research a joy and it is easy to install and simple to use while providing you with powerful results.

Google Apps in the .EDU Domain

"The Wired Campus" is reporting Google Apps for Your Domain is finding a strong foothold in education:

Trinity College Dublin has switched to Google's e-mail application, Gmail. And universities in Egypt, Kenya, and Rwanda have also made the switch, the BBC reported yesterday. In Dublin, the news service says, "the addresses and domain name still remain the same -- but underneath the bonnet, it's a service provided by Google." Trinity College officials say they made the decision to outsource because it let them maintain a robust e-mail system at no additional cost; Google does all the work. Arizona State University made the same decision late last year to switch to Gmail, which also comes with a calendar and instant messaging, two items that are very attractive to students.

We use Google Apps for Your Domain here at Boles University to manage our email, calendar, documents, blog and our virtual lives!

We like Google Apps so much, we're writing a book about it -- Google Apps for Your Domain Administrator Guide -- for Thomson publishing.

iTunes U Compresses Technology

We are delighted with the idea of Apple's new iTunes University where students can "download and learn" using their iPods:

Today’s students use their computers to interface with the world. They go online to email, chat, and surf. They get photos, music, movies — and most of their information and ideas — on the web. Now you can tap into that digital lifestyle to keep students every bit as engaged with your courses. iTunes U lets you easily expand your curriculum, delivering audio and video you curate or create yourself to deepen the learning experience.

The promise of being able to meet our students on a new mechanical level of excellence is just the way technology should compress minds and provide deeper meaning to life.

Creating an Online Learning Portal

If you were creating an Online Learning Portal, how would you address the following issues?

1. How would you interact with students?

2. Would you hold real time classes or "drop in" classes?

3. How much would you charge for a class and long would those classes run?

4. How would grades be determined?

5. Would you charge a fee or provide the courses for free? If you charge a fee, how much would you charge?

Blog Post Published from Google Docs!

This blog post was written in Google Docs and then "published" right here on the Boles University blog – powered by Blogger -- from Google Docs!

How can that sort of seamless interaction between powerful online document authoring program and strong blog publishing platform be exploited to create the best end user experience on all sides for online learning and education?

If You Had Your Own Online University

If you were going to offer online courses as your own self-accredited university -- what would you offer and would you charge for the classes or not?

How would you meet online to interact with your students using only Google-sponsored stuff?