Education Reform May Provide Better Incentives For Those With Education Degrees

Students in education degree programs might enter professions that, in the long run, are the most important to a successful economy. That's at least how President Barack Obama, interviewed by Matt Lauer for the Today Show in September, described teachers. Students who are working toward education degrees might also enter a field that's very different by the time they graduate.
The difference has to do with education reform. Last year, the federal government announced a $4 billion "Race to the Top" program designed to award $4 billion in grants to states that encourage education reform. Much of the news with regard to education these days has to do with enhanced college and university readiness and improved science and math education. Students in education degree programs might learn that America's K-12 students lag behind other countries in these subject areas particularly.
The American Federation of Teachers is on board with education reform. Math and science, many say, can enhance innovation, help the economy and help the country retain its role as a world leader. But where Obama in the Today Show interview announced plans to recruit thousands of science and math teachers over the coming two years, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in an opinion piece on AOL News suggested that training and retaining teachers, as they do in Finland, might benefit the education system.
BBC World News America earlier this year reported on how representatives from throughout the world visited Finland to determine what makes the country's schools so successful. Finland's schools rank- highly on a worldwide scale, even though students there spend some of the least amount of time in class, according to the BBC article. The article explained about when students start school there and when they move to different schools and teachers. Among other things, the BBC World News article mentioned immigration and additional teachers who fill highly respected roles.
If you're pursuing an education degree, you might be keeping up with American teacher salaries. The National Education Association has proposed offering starting salaries of $40,000 per year across the board for teachers and $28,000 for school support personnel. The American Federation of Teachers has proposed what's known as "differentiated" pay, where teachers would start with adequate, locally negotiated base salaries and be paid more in instances where they take on added responsibilities. Obama mentioned to Lauer the possibility of creating a career ladder for teachers as a means of professionalizing the industry.
According to the National Education Association website, about 20 percent of new teachers change professions by the time they complete their first year in public schools and nearly half of public school teachers change professions within five years. American school systems as a result lose about $7 billion each year, Weingarten wrote. According to him, school districts should work with teachers to reform them and, through a relatively new model for evaluating their work, to help them develop professionally.
Whether or not you're working toward an education degree, it's likely that you've heard the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child." Weingarten and Obama agree that educating children is partly the responsibility of others as well. In Finland, the BBC World News America article noted, parents read at home with their children and communicate regularly with teachers.

7 Effective Ways to Read and Understand African Political News

Whether you are an African expatriate hoping to stay in touch with what is going on in your home country, a potential tourist hoping to do research on the best place to visit, a political student striving to understand the development in Africa, or simply well-wisher dedicated to unload of few bucks to chip in the aid for Africa, translating the information you read into valuable knowledge is an important task
Like any other continent, Africa offers a set of complex realities that can offer conflicting outcome for the party interested; moreover, accessing the information you need is not always evident between the information you look for, and the information you find.
Below is a short description of criteria to consider when reading or researching news on Africa. While the list is not exclusive, and can certainly be extended, I believe this initial guidepost may help. Feel free to add or consider additional helpful points.
1. Consider the source of the information
Africa is a very complex place, that combines many world and realities, the gap between the rich and the poor creates in many places two different societies whose world rarely collide. For that reason, news sources are often tailored to one group or the other.
Understanding the source of the information will help you assess the legitimacy of the information you have. For example, is it a local or foreign news source? Foreign sources often have greater access to political circles because the government is more concerned about the way it is portrayed to the outside world; however, foreign sources rarely give you the real pulse of the nation. If the source is local, consider the accreditation that is reflected by interviews or first hand accounts. In Africa, Official news is often given unofficially, while official news is a front. That means that those sources that have close access to the government are more likely to give credible news, compare to unaccredited sources to whom is given generic news. (More on it further down)
2. Try to capture the perspective of the information
In Africa, the freedom of the press is not a sacred duty, and as mentioned above, free and transparent news are not evident. As a result, news often reflects the perspective of the source. The information you will get is based on the perception of the source. In the West, Africa is widely primarily viewed as a continent ravaged by war and diseases, where impoverished people and government are struggling very hard to survive, and thus their lives and activities are geared toward Help and how the global community can help them. As a result, most African news coming from the West will treat topics such as aid, sanction, peace and war, and oil discovery. Human rights, rigged election and corruption are other subjects often treated; in other words, Western media tend to chronicle Africa's efforts to "join" or emulate them.
When it comes to local media and news sources, the dilemma is different. Elite and well positioned news sources depicts the political life of the country, meaning that their news are mostly geared toward accounts of big political activities, such as Presidential travels and visits, opposition complaints, foreign investment, dignitaries visits, Diaspora news and international events in which the government participate. In short, those news sources attempts to present information from the perception of Africa to the rest of the world.
Finally, local media perception is often directed at the local population, therefore offers information on issue that matters to locals; energy and gas issues, employment, government promises kept or not, education, political freedom, cultural and social safeguard, etc...
3. Acknowledge the Biases
In the U.S, it is often assumed that CNN is Pro-democrats, and Fox News is a Republican arm, regardless if true or not, that perception is very present in Africa as well; not in form of Republican or democrats of course, but they still play a short role.
From the day of colonization, Western Nations had strategic interests in Africa, and Political propaganda has insured that many Westerners view some African countries internal policies as beneficial or threatening to their way of life.
If your African news information is from a Western source, always consider the position of your country with the African country you are researching. Popular opinion is critical and very few Western media will say nice things about the Zimbabwe government for example. Western media will offer news based on the national interest of their home country. You will rarely read negative report about the Egyptian Government that has good relations with Washington, although it is not a beacon of Democracy, yet Zimbabwe, which has been a torn in their side, is demonized. This is not an attempt to justify the evil of some people, but it is worth considering that Western media will report information according to the way they wish a certain country to be viewed.
If you wish to avoid the biases of Western news outlet, you are better off searching for African news by African news outlets. There again, there is an often bias between Pro and anti government. Some news sources are government sponsored, while other are dedicated to discredit the government regardless of good deeds or not. In Africa the contrast is usually very strong, as you can read full articles of "official" news feed that praises the government unashamedly, while others are almost littered with insults. Very rarely will you find news source that are impartial, and it is usually very evident to distinguish the sources political leanings.
Given the polarity of African societies, and the actuality of International Relations, one must not look at news Biases with pure disgust, but as a component and vital actor of global politics; filling between diverse biases can actually help uncover valuable information. But in case it doesn't help, always consider independent news and...
4. Identify the agendas
If for some reasons you are unable to filter official and supposedly professional news sources, do make use of independent news sources such as NGO's and Think Tank. Because they are usually unaffiliated with any government, and their work is mainly based on empirical data and research, NGO and Think Tank do paint an educated and comprehensive picture of what is going on in Africa. Most of their works are expanded toward a wide range of subjects that reflects a non-partial view of government activities, social realities and international implications.
If you obtain your news via NGOs or Think Tanks, you are most likely to have access to strong data, depending on the Think Tank, and hard core evidence of what is going on in the country you research.
The only problem presented by NGOs and Think Tanks is that they do have an agenda. The nature of their strong work is usually motivated by the mission to influence or advice a government to act toward an issue they view as important. Because of that agenda, those organizations often accentuate an issue to the point where it overshadows others, making it look like an exaggeration.
For example if an NGO has for agenda to reduce arm trafficking in Africa, their information may offer solid leads on the pulse of a country, with credible evidence; however, their extensive research on the impact of arm trafficking may minimize other positive information, to the point of giving the impression that you can buy Ak47 at a candy store. This of course is not with the intent to deceive or dramatize, but with the objective of using the data to convince world powers to act on arms trafficking.
If you know how to extract your information from those sources, they are an excellent balance to local and international news.
5. Check the blogs
Africa sends millions of its bright Sons and Daughters abroad to study in higher education, and loses other millions professionals in search of a better living. While the damages of this brain drain are considerable, the attachment all those Africans retain for their homeland represents a glimpse of hope.
Since they cannot directly be involve in official affairs in their home countries because of the distance or political threats, many member of the African Diaspora voice their opinions in blogs or personal websites.
The advantage of reading those opinionated blogs is that it offers a personal touch and reaction to all the other news you may have read.
Many are very knowledgeable in what they are writing, and approach it in a very professional way. They are not constrained by editorial control, so are free to give their honest, educated opinion on what they read, heard or experienced in and out of Africa.
If they are not that knowledgeable on African affairs anymore, many still have families abroad who can give them first account to report on what is happening.
Because they are so many blogs related to Africa, you can not only compare information and news, but also engage the writers and have a better feel on how and where they get to say what they are saying.
For most people, this is a valuable source, because on top of general political views, they can offer a personal one, as well as giving an insight on how and where people live their everyday, not to mention, where the hotspots are.
The disadvantage of Blogs is that it is after all just personal opinions, and personal opinions can be motivated or inspired by perception, Bias, and /or agenda. It is not uncommon for exile politicians to mount an opposition from abroad, something blogs tend to make easier, so caution is advised for that reason.
6. Search for supportive news
Every news agency is in search of a scoop, and none wants to be left out of considerable information.
Whenever you stumble on interesting information for your research, after identifying the source, always make sure to search if that information is reprised by other news outlets.
When it comes to Africa, it is very common for news to be generalizing, but if you feel you came across useful information, always double check if you can locate it in other Western sources (if those where your primary sources), and then in local African sources. Check in Blogs and social sites if it is being discussed, or better create a new discussion.
The fact of the matter is that if you are looking for information on Africa, the complexity of its state does not favor taking any information at face value, but insuring that it is shared, discussed and not hostage to any perception and bias will help you have good grip on what is going on.
7. Use common sense
In Politics like in everything, things happen for a reason, from a coup d'Etat, to a social uprising, and political instability to international sanction.
Africa is not another planet we know nothing about, and it did not appear without a past or history.
In everything you read or learn about Africa, consider the context and remember history. Famine and poverty did not come suddenly; wars all have a spark plug, poor countries should not be able to buy weapons they do not manufacture.
The context and the historical reality that today links nearly all countries on Earth presents the fertile ground on how you will receive the news you receive, they way you receive it.
Knowledge is a light to which is drawn a bug called interest, and common sense should help you navigate the waves of misinformation toward the land of comprehension of the subject you research.
As mentioned, this is a list that can be extended and perfected, but for all who have at one point or another, read African news or wanted to understand what is going in Africa, I hope that little list will be helpful the next time it happens.
Over-reliance on popular media is like over relying in anything, it cripples one's ability, and dilutes the quality of the need sought.
Stay thirsty for knowledge; you might very well quench your thirst yourself.

Regis Zoula is an independent writer and author. I speak fluently and write French and English, and will translate text from either language to the other. I hold a Bachelor in International business. I am also knowledgeable in Political Science, and Business consulting. I am currently working on my first novel.

FOREX Education - Want to Win? Don't Pay Attention To The News!

The rise of the internet has seen more news and FOREX education than ever before become available to traders and it's available instantly, but it won't help you make money.
In fact if you try and trade by utilizing news stories you will lose and a simple fact will explain why:
Fact:
Consider this:
50 years ago around 90% of traders lost all their money and this figure remains the same today 90%.
This is despite the huge range of new tools and breaking online news that is available to help traders - the ratio still remains the same.
The reason for this is an important part of your FOREX education:
Markets move to the following equation
Market fundamentals + Investor Perception = Price movement.
We all see the news but it is the way all the investors interpret it that is important.
The market is a discounting mechanism and all the news instantly is reflected in the fundamentals.
If you see experts talking on the TV or writing stories, then this information is discounted - The arguments may sound convincing, but that is what the media does sell stories.
The experts who put out stories are not traders and their more often than not dead wrong.
If it was easy to trade off news stories, a lot more traders would make money and the fact is they don't.
By listening to the news and acting upon it you will lose.
Let's go back to the equation:
Market fundamentals + Investor perception = Price movement
As the market is instantly discounting news we can simply assume all fundamentals and news is instantly reflected in price action.
All you need to do is follow price action and focus on investor perception of the fundamentals.
This makes a technical approach ignoring the news the best way to trade the markets.
As investor psychology is constant, repetitive chart patterns can be spotted and acted upon.
If you try and use the news you will simply lose.
Consider the fact that markets collapse when the fundamentals are most bullish and rally when they are most bearish and you will see that trying to act of the news is a waste of time.
How many times do you see a market ignore the news and go the other way?
It happens all the time.
Will Rogers famously said:
"I only believe what I read in the papers"
He was joking, but many FOREX traders actually do believe what they read and think they can trade off it and lose.
The market is a discounting mechanism and trying to trade off news stories will most likely see you fail.
So if you want to make money trading FOREX keep in mind this important bit of FOREX Education
Understand the past, think in the present and look to the future.
You can do this by simply following technical analysis and see future trend changes people listening to the news will never see.

GRAB 2 X FREE TRADER PDF'S AND MUCH MORE!

Media Versus Educational Institutions

Many things have been said about media, its relation with education and the institutions of education, as well as co-action between them. But the point which has been rarely and scarcely stressed upon, and requires to be emphasized with the force and vigour it deserves, is that the media by itself is the most powerful medium of education at large. When I talk about media, I mean it to be inclusive of both the print-media and electronic media. There is an umbilical relation between the media and educational institutions, as both are deeply correlated, collateral as well as complementary to each other.
Education on Air
So far as the print-media (news papers/magazines/periodicals/journals) is concerned, it has, somehow, been playing its role in educating the people positively to some extent, but unfortunately, the electronic media (radio, television etc.,) is not delivering the goods in this respect. Being a medium of infotainment, it is, in fact, supposed to be a means of not merely educating the masses on a much wider scale, but also a tool of promoting and developing the national ethos, culture, moral values, ethics and social manners on the nation-wide scale.
Media is the most powerful instrument of not only spreading, inculcating and ingraining the values and traditions among our new generation, but also strengthening them in the mindset of the old one. It is the government' responsibility to use electronic media for the above-mentioned purposes and it has the powers, necessary resources and machinery to do so, but, alas, it has, until now, failed to take any concrete step in the direction. Government is therefore well-advised to press its machinery to use the centrally-administered media as a tool to provide education on air.
Media's role compared with formal Institutions of Educations
It is an irrefutable fact that the media can prove an effective and useful tool in providing education to the masses. In this respect, media's role starts exactly from where the role being played by the formal institutions such as schools, colleges and universities comes to an end. The media has not merely an obligation to inform the people what has happened, and what is happening in the surroundings, in the society, across the country and around the world, but it has also a bounden duty to enlighten the masses what actually must have been there and, in deed, what now must be there under the sky.
Art, Culture and Literature
The media has another function to perform and that is to take care of social manners and ethical values among the people, to preserve and promote them besides developing indigenous art, culture and literature.
A few words about literature: whatever is written is simply defined as literature. However, whatever is written with an accuracy of the language and punctuation of the grammar is, by definition, termed to be the "classic literature," whereas whatever is printed, published, broadcast and telecast by the print-electronic media is nothing but the "literature in haste." And this exactly is the domain of media.
Reverse Gear
Now the question arises what is the media doing now-a-days? Hasn't it put the vehicle on the reverse gear and isn't driving it in quite opposite direction? Is the media playing its role, doing its functions in any respect honestly and sincerely? Is it delivering the goods in letters and in spirit? The answer is, alas, a horrible "No."
It is extremely deplorable, disappointing and sorry state affairs to see that in the name of art and culture, the Western art and culture are being promoted and boosted, and on the contrary, the indigenous arts and cultures, are, unfortunately, being weakened and relegated day by day, throwing the young generation straightaway into the "lap of the Western Culture" on a wholesale scale.
Failure of the Educational System
The role being played by our formal educational establishments is even worse. Our system of education is still based on some elements of the British policy- getting rid of which the sooner, is the better because they are, on the one hand, laying negative and harmful impact on the emerging talents of our promising students and on the other, extirpating the very roots of Indian culture. Despite having gained geo-political freedom, we are yet to be able to get ourselves released from the yoke of mental- intellectual bondage of our Anglo-American masters in certain spheres of life, especially in economy, science and technology. In the name of imparting education, our students are virtually made "the book-addicts", rather turned into the "book-worms." Instead of pushing ahead and encouraging them to pursue and develop their instinctively creative talents and skills, the students are, unfortunately, being encouraged to strictly go by the books from the beginning to the end, throughout their lives. Main emphasis is on theory and not on practice.
Consequently, now the nation India can boast of producing the best "imitators" in almost every sphere of life but is not in a position to proudly claim to have produced any original thinkers and scientists except Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, S.Chandrashekher, Hargobind Khurana, Amartya Sen, Venkatramana Ramakrshnan and a few other exceptions in recent history. Even a handful of those born with inner creative talents and high skills, are compelled to go abroad due to the lack of necessary facilities, proper incentives, lucrative compensations and encouragement in the country. In the field of science and technology, we are still dependent on the highly developed Western nations to a large extent, and India's glory has been lost somewhere in the dustbin of history.
Total Overhauling needed
Unless the whole structure of the polity, which has been reduced to an abominably, abhorrently stinking rot, is overhauled and restructured, policies putting the educational system on a sound footing, and guiding the media towards its real functions, are framed afresh and implemented vigorously and vehemently, as well as suitable amendments are incorporated in the relevant portions of the Constitution in order to enact and enforce necessary laws for the purposes, the situation will not improve and India will not emerge as a totally free and independent nation in every field of life, in the truest sense of the term. In respect of media, it is more essential and imperative, especially in view of the growing greed to earn as much money as possible, even if it is at the expense of the barest minimum requisites of the common people. That the greed has overshadowed the super values and lofty human sentiments of love, affection, compassion, sympathy, honesty, sincerity and above all -- the spirit of sacrifice -- has been brought to the fore by the greedy, selfish and self-serving T.V. journalists/photographers, who, while reporting, always tend to prefer capturing images of even the bleeding and dying persons attacked by miscreants or injured in road accidents, to going to their rescue. An instance pointing out to the bitter truth was reported from Chennai, where a police officer attacked while on his motorbike by unidentified assailants, bled to death because of delayed medical attention on January 8, 2010. A convoy of ministers passed by, stopped, looked at the sub-inspector of Tamil Nadu police, R. Vetrivel lay profusely bleeding on the road, and simply passed off. None of them felt it necessary to take any action. On the other hand, a T.V. cameraman was so keen to capture the images that he, too, did not consider it necessary to take trouble of going to his aid.
The images were flashed by several TV news channels including 9 O'CLOCK NEWS. Although, the channels' aim was to wag a finger at the ministers, who impotently stood around doing nothing, the same charge could be leveled on the cameraman, who was busy filming the scene, instead of rushing the man to the hospital. However, we can put the same question to ourselves; how many times do we stop when we witness a road accident? Is it fair on our part to be quick to shake our heads at the ministers, when many of us might not have stopped for any Vetrivel either? What does such an occasion demand from a journalist, who happens to be a human being? Should he shoot the event and pass off or physically intervene in it?
Arguments or Lame Excuses?
Argument goes like this that journalists' job is just to report what happens, as clearly as possible. The journalist is like a doctor in the emergency room, strictly in accordance with one analogy- one that is iconic given the images of dying Vetrivel. One sees a lot of suffering, but it is more important to put one's feeling aside and just work on the story. Many journalists, the world over-feel, think and act in the same fashion - especially those covering wars and unprecedented disasters. A journalist should never forget that he is a human being first and a professional last. Apart from reason and intellect, super human sentiments of love, mercy, sympathy, mutual consideration and cooperation, going to the rescue of helpless and extending a helping hand to the needy in distress, are the attributes that distinguish human beings from animals, and human nature demands that these qualities should never, in any case, be dominated by greed to earn money at the cost of lives, and the selfish urge to go ahead in the race of sweeping into the net all sorts of comfort and luxury of mundane life for the sake of the self and kith and kin, pushing behind, and sometimes, treading over others in the race.
Ruthless Machines
The tremendous greed for money has virtually turned the professionals into the "ruthless machines," and journalists are no exception. By preferring to capture footages, the T.V. photographer, in fact, proved his mercilessness. It is, of course, the economic conditions that determine how images are produced and broadcast for the viewers.
We are so accustomed to having our television journalists dramatize the news, and act like drama-mongers that they have lost our trust. Almost every televised event seems like infotainment, a soap opera, or trick for ratings. In this context, it is very difficult not to see almost every thing the news media does with an intensely suspicious eye. The panel discussions over regulation on television have been time and again raised as a way to control the runaway speed of television news, but this doesn't seem to address the more intricate problem.

Syed Ahmedullah is a professional Journalist with an experience spread over about 40 years in Urdu and English Journalism. The subjects other than media he enjoys, include public health care and other social problems.

Your Stress-Management Education Course in an Article

Education is different things to different individuals. While the whole world is focused on traditional education, I believe that the best education is self-study, and independent study, if one really wants to get a true grip on life. Yes, I promote and agree that everyone needs a high school and a college education, but it is my true belief also that these traditional educations must be supplemented with life education, with experience, and with on-the-job training wherever possible. If you are interested in advancing in any particular field and interested in having the best life you can have for yourself, then you will live and grow with the idea that your education is never finished. Yes, you hear correctly. For you, the successful individual, your education is never finished.
And it is always growing according to your outside environment and your inside attitude, personality, dreams, wishes, hopes and goals. And that all put together is your wholesome education. You will, without a doubt learn your most valuable lessons, not in a classroom, but in life, outdoors with people, while you are surrounded with the real world. That is and should be some of your most prized possessions when it comes to having a real education.
So, what is your extra education? What is necessary beyond those four walls and many buildings of high schools and colleges? The rest of your education consists of going to Broadway plays, of meeting new people in your own cities and in the rest of the USA or the world as you travel throughout your life. Some of your extra education will be in observing people and seeing how they live and knowing that the way you live is only one way and that there are millions of other ways to live a life and most of them are successful. The rest of your education consists of listening to great music, seeing great art, talking with great individuals. The rest of your education consists of reading not books but entire libraries of books, one book at a time, one day at a time.
And I think one of the most vital parts of your education is knowing that the news of the day will only serve to depress you. So to force your education to go in a most positive direction and to add joy and clarity to your life, to be your most successful person listen to the news (if you need to do that) only in the midday part of your day, not in the morning and not in the evening. Why ? The reason to refrain from news-bites early in the morning is because you do not want to bring all the bad news with you as you begin your day, and the reason to refrain from the news in the evening is because you do not want ot bring the bad news to sleep with you at the end of the day. Cover your world with good, positive blessings and thoughts as you begin your day and fill your pre-sleep hours with great positive, soothing thoughts and you will be your best you.
You should check out NYI for photography if you are interested in that particular field.
Now that is truly a grand education. Article updated on July 20,2008

Linda Perry is a writer who speaks from her heart. So many times, the topics that she writes about might be controversial but the one thing that she guarantees is that when she states a fact, it is a fact. Have confidence in knowing that as you browse her articles, you will be delighted, informed, and sometimes even shocked and stunned,but at the least you will pause for reflection and then possibly take some action.

Why Online Education is Over-Promoted?

The glorious era of old print media dominance is over, and the era of cyberspace has taken over. The proliferation of Information Technology has given rise to the newest bloodless revolution in mankind in the field of knowledge and information dissemination, the Internet. The Internet is a network that provides quick and effortless access to the largest global information database available, the World Wide Web. When tapped correctly, the internet has the potential to become one of the most valuable and stimulating educational tools available to the multitudes, and its recognized merits as such are one too few. I therefore do not agree with the statement that the Internet is overrated or its merits, chief of which are the unparalled efficacy of its research and news capabilities, are celebrated without reason.

Information of practically everything in existence can be found and retrieved on the internet at the touch of a button, providing for knowledge to literally be at our fingertips. There is a wealth of valuable research information available online which most internet users have free access to, allowing the net to act as a cheap and easy to use information source for the masses. While the library once opened the doors to knowledge and information, its necessity now has been eliminated almost in its entirety by the advent of fast speed Internet transmission of information, paving the way for academic institutions such as universities, governmental bodies and established organizations like Time Magazine and the Gates Foundation to create web portals and store and share information online. High-powered search engines like Google now have the capacity to search millions of pages of text in such websites in a fraction of a second, thereby speeding up the often grueling research process students and researchers edure greatly. The recent introduction of online print and other visual media libraries is in fact a testament to the pulling power and attractiveness of using the internet, and it has further reduced the need for physical travel to traditional libraries, all the while needlessly worrying about the availability of crucial books or the opening hours, especially when racing to finish up research work.

Net conferencing or web video conferencing is one way the Internet can be used for two or more-way dialogues between university professors and students who reside on the other side of the world for information exchange through question and answer sessions, effectively disregarding the constraint of physical location that would otherwise inpede education. The Internet thus imparts knowledge indirectly by acting as a portal where intellectual minds can convene and debate on issues pertaining to their respective fields. Such information transfer has undergone technological advances to the extent that virtual schools have been set up on the web offering students online degree courses, and an increasing number of well-established universities are jumping on the bandwagon, replacing distance learning by mail with internet education. The University of London is a prime example of a university that offers the option of pursuing online Bachelors and Masters Degree courses to international students from the comfort of their own homes.

Online education is also a concept that is currently used by many schools in Singapore, where a week or two of formal classroom education is replaced by online education, called e-learning, and the importance of students utilizing the internet for online education purposes and becoming net-savvy is stressed by the schools as well as the Education Ministry. Due to the successive mass implementation of this project, Singapore is the first country in the South-East Asian region to have plugged all its junior colleges and tertiary institutions to the internet. Online education is also used by non-governmental, private, tuition centers where a student communicates with his tutors and takes lessons online, a convenient way for busy students to reduce transport time to centers, yet still enroll for tuition lessons.

The internet also doubles as a source of news articles and websites that gives minute by minute updates on current affairs in the local/global arena. This causes people wired to the internet to receive immediate updates about the latest happenings hot off the press and hence, always be 'in the know' instead of waiting for the next days newspaper or the television/radio news updates that are only aired at fixed timings. It is thus no wonder that online news sites such as CNN and BBC are slowly siphoning off subscribers from the old news medium of print journalism. According to the United States Audit Bureau of Circulation, there was a 2.6% drop in the circulation of nearly 800 newspapers over a six-month period last year. 1.2 million Subscribers at that time abandoned their papers. The decline in this circulation has prompted old news media empires to turn to the Internet to set up news websites with paid subscriptions for fear of losing their existing readers. The Straits Times in Singapore is an example of a newspaper that has created a website that can only be accessed through paid online subscriptions, but promises to provide live updates real-time, an effort that can be seen as moving on together with the advance in technology as well as cashing in on the Internet phenomenon. The availability of up-to-date news articles on global issues also encourages the education on political affairs among the populace by providing them an insight into governmental actions and events.

Though the virtues of the Internet as mentioned above are aplenty, every great invention has its drawbacks, and hence, some of its merits have an unfortunate probability of turning against themselves when not properly utilized. Top on the list of drawbacks is the dissemination of poor and inaccurate information, a terrible danger to the foolhardy. When books were the norm, information that was researched on was found by looking at bibliographies and indexes and cross-referencing these to the matter in hand. Although we might never have been certain if the information presented in the books was correct, we would be able to rely on author's reputations, book reviews or recommendations from teachers and friends. Now however, the problem that has surfaced with the Internet is that almost everyone capable of typing is able to publish something somewhere on the web, and as such we are facing the growing predicament of information overload - How can we be certain what we are reading is correct?

Wikipedia.com is a microcosm of this phenomenon of unverified information overload that has penetrated the internet community. Wikipedia.com contains the largest collection of "encyclopedia" articles in the world, which are also, however, written completely by volunteers. Anyone can edit the articles and any individual who has even a remote interest in a topic can write a new one. It now boasts more than a staggering 810 000 articles in English, as well as hundreds of thousands more in dozens of other languages. Readers are subjected to millions of times more information than any of them have the capacity to read in their lifetimes, a large proportion of which may not be fully factual or unbiased since the moderators themselves are not regulated and might not be certified experts on the various issues.

Books, on the other hand, are trusted far better to be accurate but at the time of printing only, offer a more concise information base to look up queries, and are needed for in-depth analysis of the subject which the Internet might not give. Even though online books are sold and available online, they may not be reliable as a technological malfunction could corrupt or delete it and the information may be lost. Material available on the Internet is also nowhere near as thorough and as well-organized as a good reference library. There are also further limits of technology as a teaching tool in education. Students often face difficulties in looking at information from the Internet with a critical eye. We tend not to be skeptical and instead take every piece of information at face value. Though there is a wealth of valuable research information available, it is often difficult and time-consuming to find information on lesser known or lesser publicized topics since research engines are by protocol programmed to sieve out information on topics which have a high representation in the web.

Online Education, Metatextuality: A Survival of the Fittest

The online education content community should be taking notes from the book publishing industry. It's an adapt-or-perish world in which those who embrace technology such as tablet computers and apps are able to thrive, while those who stick to the same old packaging are doomed to die off.
Metatextuality is key here. If your content has it, you are entering the world of the average internet-user: a world that's dynamic and constantly in dialogue with other sources.
The death of textbooks
With more and more students getting their degrees online, education technology is wildly expanding. Not only online education students are finding textbooks irrelevant, but those who attend brick-and-mortar schools are increasingly opting out of buying the course textbooks.
In many subjects, textbooks are going the way of the dinosaurs. While textbooks like language, philosophy, and other humanities remain necessary, many other course textbooks such as biology and math are becoming obsolete as students use Google to find the answers they're looking for.
All the information is out there, and students no longer depend on textbooks to find it in a consolidated format.
The transformation of one publishing house
In a recent Reuters article, Mark Egan profiles the innovative New York publisher Nicholas Callaway, who saw wild success with the publishing of the children's app book "Miss Spider's Tea Party" on Apple's iOS platform. His company began publishing regular paper books in the 1980's but now concentrates its energy exclusively on iOS app versions.
With an openness to more dynamic story-telling methods, Callaway's company transformed from a traditional publishing house to a technologically innovative one.
From stories to learning Content: the transformation of your learning system
Just as you can tell a story in a number of ways, you can teach in a number of ways, in an endless number of formats and media. The way we interact with stories, news, educational content, and all kinds of information online offers a range of possibilities for online education systems.
I also loved the concept of another successful publishing company described in Egan's article is DMC Worldwide, whose most recent venture is Copia Interactive: social e-reading.
"We think there is space around the book for community to grow," said Seth Kaufman, Copia's vice president of marketing and merchandising.
Copia Interactive, still in beta, allows users to not only buy books, but also inteact with one another. They can annotate books, publishing their comments and reactions.
When Kaufman explains Copia to publishers, he likes to tell them, "There are many friends I have who would never buy a Sarah Palin book, but if Jon Stewart annotated Sarah Palin's book, they might buy that book."
As online education content developers, how might we tap into the potential of metatextuality?
How to make your online learning content metatextual
If it's online, information has the potential to be interactive and metatextual. Meaning, it can refer to information outside the text, like linking pages in a blog. It can create and be part of a vast network of information-there's no limit to its scope.
Education, with or without professors and textbook companies who stubbornly stick to traditional methods, is moving in that direction.
In order to adapt and thrive, online education platforms must join the publishing industry and offer an interactive and metatextual learning experience to their learners. Platforms like Coggno offer a simple way to tap into the interactive potential of online learning for those both beginner and expert learning content developers.