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The Los Angeles Times recently ran a story on the adoption of technology in California’s higher education institutions. Gaming and simulation technologies are being explored to provide “more individualized instruction” that cater to both emotional and learning needs of students. Carol Twigg at the National Center for Academic Transformation is looking at online education. Writes the times:

Twigg’s outlook is based partly on her center’s four-year effort with 30 colleges to redesign high-enrollment courses. The 30 projects involved such things as deemphasizing lectures and relying more on online tutorials and discussion forums, along with using computerized grading to give students speedier assessments of what they were learning well and what they were getting wrong.

The result: Student learning rose in 25 of the 30 projects. And in the other five cases, performance remained roughly even with the level in traditionally taught classes. At the same time, the cost of providing instruction was reduced an average 37%.

I’m not quite sure how student learning is measured, but if this research is accurate, the trend of rising college costs may be reversible…

Leadership, Efficacy, and a Culture of Trust: Key Findings from Learning from Leadership Research

Kyla Wahlstrom, University of Minnesota

Kyla Wahlstrom, Ph.D., will present findings from Learning from District Efforts to Strengthen Education Leadership, a five-year research study funded by the Wallace Foundation designed to produce empirical evidence establishing the connection between leader performance and changes in student learning. One of the largest studies on educational leadership undertaken, with research gathered from 45 school districts in nine states, the discussion of the study’s findings will demonstrate not only how superintendents and principals can most effectively drive gains in student learning, but how and why their practices result in instructional improvement in some contexts and not in others.

Dr. Wahlstrom is the director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) in the College of Education and Human Development and also is a lecturer in the department of Educational Policy and Administration.

When

September 29, 2006 from 8:15 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

• Morning session: 8:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Speaker presentation
• Afternoon session: 1:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Practical application and dialogue that draws upon information from the morning session into school leadership.

Where

Continuing Education and Conference Center, University of Minnesota, St. Paul Campus, 1890 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, Minn.
Directions

Registration

Registration form [PDF].

Registration deadline is September 22, 2006.

Fees

ULA member school district participants (Minneapolis, Saint Paul, North Saint Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, Mounds View & Spring Lake Park) pay no registration fee. Non-ULA member school districts pay $90 per person for the half-day session or $150 for the full-day session.

Lunch and/or continental breakfast is included.

CEUs

Pre-approved continuing professional education clock hours for administrators are available. Please contact John Moravec at moravec@umn.edu or 612-625-3517 for more information.

612-625-5060, ula@umn.edu

Call for papers

Global Leapfrog Education

Volume 2, Number 1 – March 2006

(Submissions are due November 30, 2006)

Global Leapfrog Education (GLE), a new, open access journal, is devoted to exploring how, through education and human capital development, communities can transcend current problems and challenges by empowering themselves with the tools to invent their own futures. GLE publishes articles spanning a wide range of interests related to leapfrog education (viz. change, technologies, knowledge production and innovation, global youth leadership, and futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education).

GLE offers its authors:

• Timely peer review and publication
• Free online publication
• Web-based platform for comments and discussion
• Online manuscript submission and tracking
• International editorial review board

Scholars of all fields are invited to submit articles and reviews on topics in the following areas:

• Accelerating change and related technologies
• Knowledge production and innovation
• Global youth development and leadership
• Futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education

Articles considered for publication are normally between 8 and 25 pages in length. Detailed information regarding author guidelines and the submission process are available online at: http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal/index.php/gle/information/authors

Journal Web page: http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal

Editorial contacts:

• Arthur Harkins, University of Minnesota, harki001@umn.edu
• John Moravec, University of Minnesota, moravec@umn.edu