Nearly everyone who has tried to describe an image of the educated person, from Plato to the present, includes at least two requirements: first, educated people must be widely knowledgeable and, second, they must know something in depth. The authors would like to advocate a somewhat novel approach to "learning in depth" (LiD) that seems…

This article describes Open University Malaysia's efforts at enhancing the blended learning approach for undergraduate distance learners with the successful implementation of the Mobile Learning via SMS initiative. The pilot project was implemented in the May 2009 semester, and this coming January 2011 semester will be in its sixth consecutive…

In recent years, schools have been forced by rising costs and shrinking budgets to stretch their resources further than ever before in order to meet the educational needs of today's students. Energy costs continue to rise, placing unprecedented stress on limited funds. In fact, K-12 schools in the United States spend more than $8 billion every…

Pressures in terms of the availability of quality, real-life clinical experiences for students have resulted in increased interest in the use of simulation in a variety of healthcare disciplines. "Te wahi whanau: The birth place" is a Virtual Birth Centre (VBC) that was created in "Second Life" in 2009 as part of the Second…

A key task of RCE North East, located in the North East of England, will be to tackle problems of inequality in education and to meet local and global challenges by promoting an expansive program of education for sustainable development. The article describes how the Regional Centre of Expertise in education for sustainable development (RCE) is…

Few computing devices have sparked the burning gizmo lust ignited by the iPad. Apple's latest entry into the tablet PC market didn't generate much heat when it was first unveiled in January, but by April 3, the day of the official release, feverish customers were mobbing Apple stores. The company claims to have sold 300,000 iPads by midnight on…

This policy brief outlines how national education accounts (NEAs) are created, and why they are a vast improvement over current financial tracking systems in the education sector. Examples from the health sector illustrate the benefits of national accounts for improving public services, and their ubiquity highlights the poor state of affairs of…

As we search for a new paradigm in post-apartheid South Africa, the knowledge base and worldview of the KhoeSan first Indigenous peoples is largely missing. The South African government has established various mechanisms as agents for social change. Institutions of higher learning have implemented transformation programs. KhoeSan peoples, however,…

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has contracted with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to examine ways to implement the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) into the school meals programs. In the meantime, USDA has requested that state agencies begin proactively implementing the applicable recommendations for the 2005 DGAs…

Federal education officials last week pledged that the economic-stimulus program's $650 million innovation fund will reserve the largest grants for schools, districts, and nonprofit organizations that want to finance programs with proven track records and are ready to grow. In the U.S. Department of Education's first substantial preview of the…

In this article we illustrate how the piloting process has influenced two widely different studies within the educational sciences. These studies differ in design but have as a common denominator that they used piloting methods in their preparatory process. They are also similar in the intention of the main researchers of conducting research with…

Less than half of the students in the United States graduate from high school and are ready to take college-level math courses. Many years and varieties of remedial math programs have failed to dramatically improve outcomes, especially at scale. The question we face is whether technology in general, and open educational resources in particular,…

One-fourth of all ninth graders in the United States will not graduate from high school within four years, despite the fact that the 21st Century workplace requires more advanced knowledge and skills than ever before. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive strategy to keep teens in school and ensure that they graduate prepared for the future,…

When delivered on a mobile device, interpretive tours of a locale afford powerful learning experiences. As mobile devices become more powerful, content for these devices that is individualized and location-specific has become more common. In light of this trend, Oregon State University Extension developed a GPS-enabled iPhone tree tour…

The rapid growth in delivery of online courses in business programs has resulted in concern among faculty that the educational experience in online courses will be less rich and that the courses will too closely mirror independent study experiences. The authors undertook a pilot project regarding the use of Clinical Teaching Assistants in large…