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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2006 College Board Questions Online Labs Foundation to Fund Research into Student Technology Use ECollege Puts Datamark up for Sale COLLEGE BOARD QUESTIONS ONLINE LABS The College Board has begun questioning the use of technology for teaching lab-based science courses. As technology tools have become more sophisticated, even chemistry and biology lab courses have moved entirely online, prompting some university faculty to question whether students are learning enough in those classes. The College Board is soliciting input from a wide range of interested parties on the quality of education in online science courses that bear the Advanced Placement trademark. Trevor Packer, the boardÂ’s executive director for Advanced Placement, said that some faculty are wary about giving credit to students who are entering "second-year college science courses without ever having used a Bunsen burner." Supporters of such online courses said that the College Board's investigation into them threatened to impede the further development of online education. New York Times, 20 October 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/education/20online.html FOUNDATION TO FUND RESEARCH INTO STUDENT TECHNOLOGY USE The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will donate $50 million over five years to study ways to make technology an effective part of education. Similar research efforts are under way at institutions including Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, and MIT. The research funded by the new grants will largely cover K-12 students, according to Jonathan Fanton, president of the foundation. "The idea is to learn how young people are using technologies of all kinds," he said. Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, will use $2.3 million to study digital-media literacy among schoolchildren. "Media literacy right now is treated as an added-on subject," he said, noting that it needs to be incorporated into the foundation of education. The goal of his research is to provide teachers with new and better ways of using technology in their teaching. Chronicle of Higher Education, 19 October 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/10/2006101901t.htm ECOLLEGE PUTS DATAMARK UP FOR SALE Online learning company eCollege said it is interested in selling Datamark, an enrollment marketing company that it bought in 2003. Based on a typically commercial model of generating and converting leads, Datamark offers clients recruitment and enrollment services. Most of its customers have been for-profit institutions. Nonprofit higher education has traditionally avoided marketing campaigns with such overt similarities to commerce. Trace Urdan, analyst at Signal Hill Capital Group, said she believes eCollege thought that Datamark would be able to persuade nonprofit institutions to use its model but that this shift proved more difficult than expected. For its part, eCollege said that a significant cut in marketing spending by one of Datamark's largest clients, coupled with a general slowing of growth in new business, led to the company's disappointing results. Oakleigh Thorne, chairman and CEO of eCollege, said he believes that Datamark can still have a positive impact in the long term but that the company's growth was "slower than we anticipated." Inside Higher Ed, 20 October 2006 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/20/datamark ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. To access resources including articles, books, conference sessions, contracts, effective practices, plans, policies, position descriptions, and blog content, go to http://www.educause.edu/resources ***************************************************** CONFERENCES For information on all EDUCAUSE learning and networking opportunities, see http://www.educause.edu/31 ***************************************************** COPYRIGHT Edupage copyright (c) 2006, EDUCAUSE
