Online Learning Communities
Even before the inception of the World Wide Web, EDC had been building online communities and studying the characteristics of effective online communication and facilitation. Today, the Web and related technologies offer great potential for bringing practitioners together for online learning. However, we have found through our research and experience that the online environment must be carefully structured and tended in order to foster productive dialogue and learning. EDC believes that online learning communities should create a sustained experience rather than a one-time event; engage practitioners as active learners rather than passive recipients; and offer relevant, job-related content.
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TOUR EDC'S ONLINE
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Online Professional Development |
EDC’s Center for Online Professional Education created the Online Technologies for Teachers Web site to highlight the benefits of online technologies. These technologies can help organizations provide a convenient format for educators to participate in collaborative discussions, mentoring relationships, and community building. In addition, these cost-effective tools bridge time and distance and can be used to enhance face-to-face teacher education.
Visit the Online Technologies for Teachers Web site. 
EdTech Leaders Online is a program designed for K-12 school districts, teacher training institutions, state departments of education, and other organizations that provide professional development for teachers. The project includes graduate-level online courses to prepare online professional development specialists, as well as a series of online workshops and ongoing forums for project participants.
Read a Feature article about EdTech Leaders Online.
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Guides on Participating in Online Learning |
EDC's Gender, Diversities, and Technology Institute created two research-based guides that offer guidance on running and participating in online courses. Equity in On-line Professional Development provides guidelines for effective and equitable course design, facilitation, and interactions; Making the Most of On-line Learning offers clear step-by-step guidance for anyone considering an online course.
Download a copy of Equity in On-line Professional Development (PDF file, Adobe Acrobat required).
Download a copy of Making the Most of On-line Learning (PDF file, Adobe Acrobat required).
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The Effectiveness of Online Courses |
EDC’s America Connects Consortium (ACC) supports the use of information technology to improve achievement in education and enrich community life. In an article written for their Web site, ACC explores the promises and pitfalls of online learning.
Read a feature article about online learning from the ACC Web site. |
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Engaging Students in Science |
EDC’s Center for Science Education has developed an online course, High School Students Thinking Like Scientists, that guides teachers to ask questions and manage classroom discussions that are engaging for students and scientific in substance. The course takes place over seven weeks and gives teachers the opportunity to use their current classes as laboratories to test and report back on new techniques.
Read an article from Mosaic, An EDC Report Series about the course. |
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Global Forum |
The Global Knowledge for Development (GKD) Online Forum, hosted by the DOT COM Alliance and moderated by EDC, is a unique virtual learning community that brings together NGOs, government agencies, international development organizations, commercial firms, and technology specialists from every region of the world. Together, they explore and exchange experience and innovative practices using information and communication technology (ICT) for development. GKD uses email, complemented by Web-based archives, as the easiest and most cost- effective way for thousands of people from more than 120 countries to share knowledge, resources, and successful strategies for sustainable ways to use ICT to achieve development goals.
Read an article about the GKD Online Forum from the DOT COM Alliance Web site. |
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