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Providence Equity to Buy Blackboard for $1.64 Billion in Education Deal

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:36:10 -0700

Bloomberg - By Douglas MacMillan - Jul. 01 (News) - Providence Equity Partners Inc. agreed to buy Blackboard Inc. (BBBB), a maker of online educational software, for $1.64 billion. Providence will pay $45 a share in cash for Washington- based Blackboard, the companies said in a statement today. The price represents a 21 percent premium over Blackboard’s closing price on April 18, the day before the company said it would evaluate strategic alternatives, the companies said.

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More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Trip Gabriel - Apr. 09 (News Report) - Jack London was the subject in Daterrius Hamilton’s online English 3 course. In a high school classroom packed with computers, he read a brief biography of London with single-paragraph excerpts from the author’s works. But the curriculum did not require him, as it had generations of English students, to wade through a tattered copy of “Call of the Wild” or “To Build a Fire.”

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U-Md. researcher links kids' computer use with test scores, behavior

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Donna St. George - Sep. 15 (News Report) - In what researchers describe as one of the first long-term looks at the effects of media use during childhood, a study released Wednesday linked hours at the computer with achievement test scores and behavior and found little sign of harm for children ages 6 to 12 as they increased their screen time over a six-year period.

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Online Education Offers Access and Affordability

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

U.S. News & World Report - By Kim Clark - Apr. 02 (Special Report) - The timing couldn't be better. Just as millions of working-age Americans are realizing they need extra education and skill-sharpening to thrive in a recession, a flowering of competition promises to dramatically drive down prices and raise the quality of online college courses.

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India to launch credit crunch £7 laptop, world's cheapest computer

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Randeep Ramesh - Feb. 03 (News Report) - The credit crunch computer is set to arrive tomorrow in India when officials unveil the 500 rupee (£7.25) laptop. In an attempt to bridge the "digital divide" in the country between rich and poor, the government will show off the prototype, low-cost laptop as the centrepiece of an ambitious e-learning programme to link 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the country.

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Distance learning up close

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Ollie Wright - Feb. 03 (Special Report) - Now that crazy levels of personal debt are starting to scare the nation, the economic facts of life tell us that some people will be thinking twice about signing up for university or college. After all, it means you’ll have to fund at least three years of tuition fees, rent, bus fares, gas bills, happy hours and dubious takeaway food.

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Want to Get a Degree Online? Get Ready to Work Just as Hard.

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Candice Choi - Feb. 01 (Special Report) - One way to get an edge in this job market is to earn an advanced degree. Just don't assume that doing it online will be easy. Online master's programs are often cheaper and more convenient than traditional ones, but they also present challenges. "You're home alone and have to motivate yourself. It's not the same as sitting in a classroom, where you have a social support group," said Michael Lambert, executive director of the Distance Education and Training Council, an accrediting agency based in the District. Online education is nevertheless becoming more widespread. In 2007, more than 3.9 million students took at least one online course, a 12 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Sloan Consortium, an online-education advocacy group.

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Broward teachers learn a lesson from an 11-year-old

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - By Kathleen McGrory - Jan. 27 (News Report) - Adora teaches class through the Web practically every day. She is enrolled in an online public school so she can spend her mornings instructing others. She delivers her online lessons from a professional-quality studio her parents built in the basement of their home. Adora commands between $250 and $300 per 50-minute lesson, her mother, Joyce Svitak, said. But she often gives discounts or offers free lessons for schools that can't afford to pay her fee. Adora first began working with the Broward school district two months ago. School officials asked her to speak to students at Fort Lauderdale's Sunland Park Elementary, one of the district's chronically failing schools. ''It started out as an experiment with Sunland Park Elementary, just to see if she could motivate the students in reading or writing,'' said Joy Veasy, who heads the district's distance learning programs. ''It was so successful that I brought her back on again to give a workshop for our elementary school teachers,'' Veasy said.

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The University of Europe: accessible to all

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Mandy Garner - Jan. 20 (Special Report) - Universities in Europe are looking to embrace a new form of learning, called open content, which could blow away the division between university students and the rest of the population. In the UK, the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) and the Higher Education Academy are launching a £5.7m pilot scheme to investigate the impact of open content and to look at issues of how to contextualise existing online material so anyone can make sense of it. Several European academics are already experimenting and the European Commission has expressed interest.

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Library use jumps in Seattle area; economy likely reason

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Mary Ann Gwinn - Jan. 15 (Special Report) - A library card has become a hot property in the Seattle region — area public libraries are experiencing a surge in circulation. While busy libraries in one of the nation's most literate cities are nothing new, some librarians credit (or blame) the recession for a dramatic upswing in business. The Seattle area's two library systems, the King County Library System (KCLS) and Seattle Public Library (SPL), each loaned more than a million more items in 2008 than in 2007.

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A new frontier of online learning in Minnesota

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Minneapolis Star Tribune - By Jenna Ross - Jan. 02 (News Report) - On a trip around the state, Gov. Tim Pawlenty laid out a new goal: By 2015, students in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system would earn 25 percent of their credits online.

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