A virtual university provides higher education programs through electronic media, typically the Internet. Some are bricks-and-mortar institutions that provide online learning as part of their extended university courses while others solely offer online courses. They are regarded as a form of distance education. The goal of virtual universities is to provide access to the part of the population who would not be able to attend a physical campus, for reasons such as distance - where students live too far from a physical campus to attend regular classes; and the need for flexibility – some students need the flexibility to study at home whenever it is convenient for them to do so.
Some of these organizations exist only as loosely tied combines of universities, institutes or departments that together provide a number of courses over the Internet, television or other media, that are separate and distinct from programs offered by the single institution outside of the combine. Others are individual organizations with a legal framework, yet are named "virtual" because they appear only on the Internet, without a physical location aside from their administration units. Still other virtual universities can be organized through specific or multiple physical locations, with or without actual campuses to receive program delivery through technological media that is broadcast from another location where professors give televised lectures.
Program delivery in a virtual university is administered through information communication technology such as web pages, e-mail and other networked sources. When the term “virtual” was first coined in the computational sense, it applied to things that were simulated by the computer, like virtual memory. Over time, the adjective has been applied to things that physically exist and are created or carried on by means of computers.[citation needed]
Students taking “virtual" courses are doing “real” work to get their degrees, and educators preparing and teaching those courses spend “real” time in doing so. That is, students meet a comparable level of academic learning outcomes and are evaluated through programs constructed by credible academics according to standard university-level criteria.[clarification needed] Many virtual universities are accredited in the same way as traditional universities and operate according to a similar set of academic standards.
form wikis
Friday, October 22, 2010
Communication technologies used in E-learning
Communication technologies are generally categorized as asynchronous or synchronous. Asynchronous activities use technologies such as blogs, wikis, and discussion boards. The idea here is that participants may engage in the exchange of ideas or information without the dependency of other participants involvement at the same time. Electronic mail (Email) is also asynchronous in that mail can be sent or received without having both the participants’ involvement at the same time.
Synchronous activities involve the exchange of ideas and information with one or more participants during the same period of time. A face to face discussion is an example of synchronous communications. Synchronous activities occur with all participants joining in at once, as with an online chat session or a virtual classroom or meeting.
Virtual classrooms and meetings can often use a mix of communication technologies.
In many models, the writing community and the communication channels relate with the E-learning and the M-learning communities. Both the communities provide a general overview of the basic learning models and the activities required for the participants to join the learning sessions across the virtual classroom or even across standard classrooms enabled by technology. Many activities, essential for the learners in these environments, require frequent chat sessions in the form of virtual classrooms and/or blog meetings.
Synchronous activities involve the exchange of ideas and information with one or more participants during the same period of time. A face to face discussion is an example of synchronous communications. Synchronous activities occur with all participants joining in at once, as with an online chat session or a virtual classroom or meeting.
Virtual classrooms and meetings can often use a mix of communication technologies.
In many models, the writing community and the communication channels relate with the E-learning and the M-learning communities. Both the communities provide a general overview of the basic learning models and the activities required for the participants to join the learning sessions across the virtual classroom or even across standard classrooms enabled by technology. Many activities, essential for the learners in these environments, require frequent chat sessions in the form of virtual classrooms and/or blog meetings.
Exported by wikis
Global Sustainable Development and ICT
We live in a divided world: between rich and poor, healthy and sick, literate and ignorant,
democratic and authoritarian, and between empowered and deprived. All the technologies
that we developed in the past centuries and all the policies we enacted for enhancing
human development have not wiped out these glaring disparities. The numbers are
depressing: more than 2 million people (1.5 million in Africa alone) die of tuberculosis
annually, for which medical treatment exists; about 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a
day; life expectancy in Sierra Leone is 37, a level not seen for centuries in the West, and, in
spite of its protestation of hi-tech, India remains the home for the world’s largest number of
adult illiterates. We can extract such dismal statistics in many areas of human development,
infrastructure availability, economic well-being, environment and empowerment. While
many categorizations of countries have been proffered (such as developing, emerging
economies, economies in transition, etc.), a new label—a sign of the times—is the “digital
divide,” which describes the development of countries (and groups within countries) in
terms of their capacity to harness the power of Information and Communications
Technology (ICT).
Numerous organizations, governmental and non-governmental, public and private, global
and very local are working to remove the glaring disparities in development. Some of their
efforts are already showing results. The poverty rate, for instance, based on a real income
level of $1 per day declined from 29 percent to 23 percent in about twenty years. Infant
mortality, due in large part to water-borne diseases and poor hygiene, has fallen from 4.6
million in 1980 to 1.7 million in 1999. It is unnecessary to emphasize that much more needs
to be done in all areas of sustainable development, especially in specific areas such as
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
In the following section we discuss the targets for sustainable development (SD) projected
at various Global Forums and endorsed either unanimously or by a majority of the nations.
While every country has its own set of priorities and targets, and some have appropriated
the UN promoted targets as their national ones, we shall base our discussions on the UN
promoted ones, for they provide a common template for sustainable development missions.
Most sweeping and specific are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which span
most facets of human development.
The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) also drew out some
of the targets of the Millennium Declaration. However, the scope of the Johannesburg
Declaration was more extensive and included many areas of deprivation and action points.
For instance, the 19th article states “We reaffirm our pledge to place particular focus on, and
give priority attention to, the fight against worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to
sustainable development of our people, which include chronic hunger, malnutrition, foreign
occupation, armed conflict; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural
disasters, illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement
to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and
chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.”
This summit chose to focus on five particular areas, Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and
Biodiversity, known as the WEHAB framework. The Summit also underlined the importance
of technology for development such as cost-effective desalination of seawater recycling and
renewable energy resources, diversification of energy supplies, advanced energy
technologies and even phasing out of subsidies. There was an explicit reference to
Information and Communications Technologies for development in Johannesburg. The
importance of ICT culminated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),
Phase I of which was held in Geneva in December 2003.
Exported by internet
democratic and authoritarian, and between empowered and deprived. All the technologies
that we developed in the past centuries and all the policies we enacted for enhancing
human development have not wiped out these glaring disparities. The numbers are
depressing: more than 2 million people (1.5 million in Africa alone) die of tuberculosis
annually, for which medical treatment exists; about 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a
day; life expectancy in Sierra Leone is 37, a level not seen for centuries in the West, and, in
spite of its protestation of hi-tech, India remains the home for the world’s largest number of
adult illiterates. We can extract such dismal statistics in many areas of human development,
infrastructure availability, economic well-being, environment and empowerment. While
many categorizations of countries have been proffered (such as developing, emerging
economies, economies in transition, etc.), a new label—a sign of the times—is the “digital
divide,” which describes the development of countries (and groups within countries) in
terms of their capacity to harness the power of Information and Communications
Technology (ICT).
Numerous organizations, governmental and non-governmental, public and private, global
and very local are working to remove the glaring disparities in development. Some of their
efforts are already showing results. The poverty rate, for instance, based on a real income
level of $1 per day declined from 29 percent to 23 percent in about twenty years. Infant
mortality, due in large part to water-borne diseases and poor hygiene, has fallen from 4.6
million in 1980 to 1.7 million in 1999. It is unnecessary to emphasize that much more needs
to be done in all areas of sustainable development, especially in specific areas such as
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
In the following section we discuss the targets for sustainable development (SD) projected
at various Global Forums and endorsed either unanimously or by a majority of the nations.
While every country has its own set of priorities and targets, and some have appropriated
the UN promoted targets as their national ones, we shall base our discussions on the UN
promoted ones, for they provide a common template for sustainable development missions.
Most sweeping and specific are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which span
most facets of human development.
The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) also drew out some
of the targets of the Millennium Declaration. However, the scope of the Johannesburg
Declaration was more extensive and included many areas of deprivation and action points.
For instance, the 19th article states “We reaffirm our pledge to place particular focus on, and
give priority attention to, the fight against worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to
sustainable development of our people, which include chronic hunger, malnutrition, foreign
occupation, armed conflict; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural
disasters, illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement
to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and
chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.”
This summit chose to focus on five particular areas, Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and
Biodiversity, known as the WEHAB framework. The Summit also underlined the importance
of technology for development such as cost-effective desalination of seawater recycling and
renewable energy resources, diversification of energy supplies, advanced energy
technologies and even phasing out of subsidies. There was an explicit reference to
Information and Communications Technologies for development in Johannesburg. The
importance of ICT culminated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),
Phase I of which was held in Geneva in December 2003.
Exported by internet
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Benchmarking ICT use in education
At a fundamental level, attempts to answer many of the pressing policy questions we have about the use of ICTs in educational settings around the world -- and the impact of such use -- are complicated by the fact that we still do not have reliable, globally comparable data in this area.
As hard as it may be to believe -- especially given the large investments being made in this area and the increasing strategic importance of this topic in many countries -- basic answers to many basic questions about the use of technology in schools around the world remain largely unanswered. Recent World Bank technical assistance related to ICT use in education has highlighted the fact that internationally comparable data related to ICT use in education do not exist -- and that this absence is a problem. Such questions include:
As part of this process, UIS has released a Guide to Measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education, which identifies sets of core and supplemental (extended) indicators. Other consortium partners are identifying and testing sets of standard indicators related to ICT use in education at a project level and in areas of emerging interest.
As hard as it may be to believe -- especially given the large investments being made in this area and the increasing strategic importance of this topic in many countries -- basic answers to many basic questions about the use of technology in schools around the world remain largely unanswered. Recent World Bank technical assistance related to ICT use in education has highlighted the fact that internationally comparable data related to ICT use in education do not exist -- and that this absence is a problem. Such questions include:
- How many schools are connected to the Internet (and what is the quality of that connection)?
- How many teachers have been trained to use ICTs?
- How many schools have access to sufficient reliable power?
- How many computers are being used for learning purposes in schools?
- In what subjects are computers meant to be used, and to what extent?
As part of this process, UIS has released a Guide to Measuring Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education, which identifies sets of core and supplemental (extended) indicators. Other consortium partners are identifying and testing sets of standard indicators related to ICT use in education at a project level and in areas of emerging interest.
Extract by http://web.worldbank.org/
What is Information Society?
Information Society is a term for a society in which the creation, distribution, and manipulation of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity. An Information Society may be contrasted with societies in which the economic underpinning is primarily Industrial or Agrarian. The machine tools of the Information Society are computers and telecommunications, rather than lathes or ploughs.
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