Economy’s Effects on Education December 12, 2008 IRA Internal Staff Document Schools, administrators, and teachers are already feeling the effects of this economic downturn, and will for years to come. Schools this year will not suffer the effects as much as subsequent years as budgets for this year have been set. But, the ups and downs in fuel prices and the subsequent rise of prices across the board for food, transportation, and materials has spurred schools systems to initiate hiring freezes, lay off personnel, and delay textbook spending. At the same time, schools have to deal with the effects of economic stress on families as parents lose jobs and homes ― and children become more mobile. Below is a compilation of recent statistics and information from various sources on the effects of the current economy. The bright side may be that all entities will be taking a closer look at what is effective and what is not and targeting funds and efforts accordingly. Hopefully this difficult time will be ripe for creative problem solving on many fronts.
q USA Today August, 2008, Could Bumpy Economy Lead to Slumping Education? (AP):
o Higher prices for lunch, fuel, field trips o Four day school weeks: Nationwide, at least 14 other districts are switching to four-day weeks, and dozens more are considering it, according to a recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators (more from this survey below). About 100 districts made the switch years ago, in many cases because of the 1970s oil crisis. o Nearly half of the schools in the school administrators' survey said they are curtailing field trips. o Montgomery County, Md., is cutting funds for its award-winning math team. The district will still pay the coach's stipend, but parents will have to step in. o Schools are also cutting teachers and other employees, in most cases eliminating positions that are vacant. In Montgomery County and elsewhere, they are holding off on ordering new textbooks. o South Carolina expects to spend nearly $11 million meant for new buses on fuel instead — in a state where the average school bus is 12 years old and some are 22. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-08-18-schools-statistics_N.htm
q Job stats- November 2008: number of people continuing to receive government aid reached a 26-year high and large companies announced more job cuts.
o The Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 509,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 530,000 for the previous week. That was significantly below analysts' estimates of 537,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. o The number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits last week (Nov. 24, 2008) reached 4.09 million, the highest level since December 1982, when the economy was emerging from a recession. More workers continuing to claim benefits is an indication that unemployed workers are having a harder time finding new jobs. The four-week average of initial claims, which smooths out fluctuations, increased to 524,500, also the highest level since December 1982, the [Labor] department said. o Initial claims last month (November 2008) reached a 16-year high of 543,000. A year ago, initial claims stood at 340,000. o AT&T Inc. is cutting 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its work force, because of the economic downturn. The Dallas-based telecommunications company said the job cuts will take place December and throughout 2009. o DuPont said it will cut 2,500 jobs, mostly serving the U.S. and European automotive and construction markets, due to lower demand from the steep global decline in homebuilding, auto sales and consumer spending. The Wilmington, Del.-based chemicals maker also will trim 4,000 contractors by the end of 2008, with additional reductions expected in 2009. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1864237,00.html
q Weak Economy May Increase Poverty-Chicago-based Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty released report 10/17/08 on www.heartlandalliance.org; http://www.heartlandalliance.org/whoweare/news/clips/weak-economy-may-increase-poverty.html
o 20% of people enter poverty when the head of the household loses a job. q Parents stressed by financial crisis can increase children’s stresshttp://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/2008-financial-crisis-affects-parenting-stress-599652.htmlq Basic Facts About Low-Income Children (National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University, October 20080 o There are over 73 million children in the United States. § 39% – 28.8 million – live in low-income families § 18% – 13.2 million – live in poor families. o After a decade of decline, the proportion of children living in low-income families is rising again, a trend that began in 2000. o Parents’ Employment- 55% of children in low-income families – 15.7 million – have at least one parent who works full-time, year-round; 26% of children in low-income families – 7.6 million – have at least one parent who works; part-time or full-time, part year; 19% of children in low-income families – 5.5 million – do not have an employed parent. o Parents’ Education- 25% of children in low-income families – 7.3 million – live with parents who have less than a high school education; 36% of children in low-income families – 10.4 million – live with parents who have only a high school diploma.; 39% of children in low-income families – 11.1 million – live with parents who have some college or more. o Family Structure- 54% of children in low-income families – 15.5 million – live with a single parent; 46% of children in low-income families – 13.3 million – live with married parents. http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_845.pdf q Public Housing and Public Schools: How Do Students Living in NYC Public Housing Fare in School? Institute for Education and Social Policy and Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy; Working Paper, November 2008 o Key Findings: § Public school students living in NYCHA housing are concentrated in a handful of schools: 25% of all NYCHA students attend just 4% of the City's public elementary schools. § NYCHA students attend schools in which their peers are more likely to be poor and more likely to be racial and ethnic minorities. The students in the average schools NYCHA students attend perform worse on standardized tests. § Even controlling for differences in race, gender, nativity status, and school characteristics, we find that 5th grade students living in public housing perform worse on standardized tests than those living elsewhere. § At the high school level, the gap persists but is a little less pronounced- 53% of NYCHA students taking the Math Regents pass the exam, compared to 60% of other students. Similarly, about 70% of NYCHA students taking the English Regents pass, while slightly over 75% of other students pass. § Neighborhoods matter: NYCHA students living in high-poverty neighborhoods score lower on standardized tests than NYCHA students living in lower poverty neighborhoods. q Recent surveys and reports paint a troubling picture of the response by many Americans to the nation's economic woes:o 22% of U.S. consumers have put off physician visits and 11% have delayed refilling prescriptions or taken smaller doses than prescribed, a National Association of Insurance Commissioners survey found.o In a CIGNA survey, 35% of respondents said they avoided regular physician visits and 17% took medications less often or not at all. 10% said they can't afford to eat properly or eat less healthful foods.o The Rockefeller Foundation and Time magazine reported that 10% of respondents did not take a child to the doctor due to economic pressures. Further, DMAA member organizations report that, as the economy weakens, some payers--including some state Medicaid programs--are pulling back from plans to institute population-based programs for the chronically ill, such as wellness and disease management initiatives. http://www.dmaa.org/news_releases/2008/pressrelease_102008.aspq “Research shows that stress on young children resulting from moving between homes multiple times can reduce high school graduation rates by as much as 13%,” said Sara Watson, director of the Partnership for America’s Economic Success and senior officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “The current housing crisis is affecting growing numbers of children and families, and society will be paying for those impacts for years to come.” q Brookings Institute: First Focus- Impact of the Mortgage Crisis on Children and Their Education (4/08) o Over the next two years, almost 2 million children will lose their homes. This estimate does not include children whose parents default on conventional loans o As of April 1, 2008 Cleveland, Ohio server more than 2100 homeless students, a 30% increase from last year. o NAEP found that students with two or more school changes in the previous year are half as likely to be proficient in reading as their stable peers; mobile 3rd graders are twice as likely to perform below grade level in math o US government study found that 3rd graders who have changed schools frequently are 2½ times more likely to repeat a grade. o GAO study finds that frequent movers are 77% more likely to have four or more behavior problems o Another study tracked 4500 student in California and Oregon and found that attending several different elementary schools increased by 20% the likelihood of violent behavior in high school. o Center for Housing Policy study found that stable housing correlates with better nutrition and healthier body weight. q US Department of Agriculture report Household Food Security in the US (11/08) o 50% more US children went hungry in 2007 than in 2006 o Families with the highest rates of food insecurity were headed by single mothers (30.2%), black households (22.2%), Hispanic households (20.1%), and households with incomes below the official poverty line (37.7) http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR66/ q Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report: Recession Could Cause Large Increases in Poverty and Push Millions into Deep Poverty (11/08) http://www.cbpp.org/11-24-08pov.htm o Goldman Sachs projects that the unemployment rate will rise to 9% by the fourth quarter of 2009 (the firm has increased its forecast for the unemployment rate a couple of times in the last month). If this holds true and the increase in poverty relative to the increase in unemployment is within the range of the last three recessions, the number of poor Americans will rise by 7.5-10.3 million, the number of poor children will rise by 2.6-3.3 million, and the number of children in deep poverty will climb by 1.5-2.0 million. o Already there are signs that the recession is hitting low-income Americans hard. Between September 2006 and October 2008, the unemployment rate for workers age 25 and over who lack a high school diploma — a heavily low-income group — increased from 6.3% to 10.3%. Yet low-income workers who lose their jobs are less likely to qualify for unemployment benefits than higher-income workers, due to eligibility rules in place in many states that deny benefits to individuals who worked part time or did not earn enough over a "base period" that often excludes workers' most recent employment. o Food stamp caseloads have increased dramatically in recent months, rising by 2.6 million people or 9.6% between August 2007 and August 2008, the latest month for which data are available. In 25 states, at least one in every five children is receiving food stamps. Because monthly food stamp caseload data are available long before the official Census poverty data for the prior calendar year, rising food stamp caseloads are the best early warning sign of growing poverty. o Furthermore, the nation’s basic case assistance safety net for very poor people who are jobless is much weaker and less well equipped to meet the challenges that a serious economic downturn poses than it was in previous major recessions. The biggest changes in that safety net have resulted from changes in public assistance policies at both federal and state levels. As a result of changes in such policies, basic cash assistance reaches many fewer poor families with children than in the recessions of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Today, only about 40% of families eligible for cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program actually receive it. That is about half the percentage of families eligible for TANF’s predecessor (the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program) that received its benefits during the recessions of earlier decades. q Poverty affects children's brains, as in stroke, study finds o The study adds to a growing body of evidence that poverty afflicts children's brains through malnutrition, stress, illiteracy, and toxic environments. o Research shows that the neural systems of poor children develop differently from those of middle-class children, affecting language development and "executive function," or the ability to plan, remember details, and pay attention in school. o For the new study, researchers used an electroencephalograph to measure brain function of 26 children while they watched images flashing on a computer. The children pressed a button when a tilted triangle appeared. "It is a similar pattern to what's seen in patients with strokes that have led to lesions in their prefrontal cortex," which controls higher-order thinking and problem solving, says lead researcher Mark Kishiyama, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley. "It suggests that in these kids, prefrontal function is reduced or disrupted in some way." o Research also suggests that these effects are reversible through intensive intervention such as focused lessons and games that encourage children to think out loud or use executive function. Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-07-childrens-brains_N.htm Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast "Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit." December 12, 2008 q 17% Swell in College Financial Aid Submissions Hints at Economy’s Effect on Families o Submissions of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) are up 17% this year, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Education. o Never before has the Education Department been bombarded with so many FAFSA submissions, totaling 9 million for the 2008–09 school year — 1.3 million more than last year, even though only 300,000 new students are expected to enter the higher education system this fall.http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/17-swell-in-college-financial-aid-submissions-hints-at-economys-effect-on-families-563029.html q Realities for President-elect Obama: o The financial crisis has emptied federal coffers through reduced tax revenues, bailouts, and anti-recessionary programs. This year's budget deficit, an estimated $438 billion, leaves little for tax rebates, tax credits for college, healthcare subsidies, and food aid to the poor, among other campaign proposals. o President-elect Obama's $18 billion education plan, which features incentives for universal pre-kindergarten, links teacher pay to student test scores, and would provide a tax credit of up to $4,000 to defray college costs for students who perform 100 hours of community service a year, will probably run aground against the more urgent issues of the economy, wars in two countries, and the crisis in health care. q November 2008 report of the American Association of School Administrators: o 83% of respondents who characterized their district as inadequately funded reported the level of funding impacts their ability to close achievement gaps, as compared to only 15% of respondents describing their district as adequately funded. Apparently, in the minds of superintendents, money does make a difference in accelerating learning among our most needy students. o Similarly, large percentages of districts reporting inadequate financial support suggest it impacts their capacity to maintain a focus on student learning (87%), maintain a focus on instructional improvements (83%), address the learning needs of all students (83%), and meet or exceed state and federal performance assessments (81%). As in the preceding finding, districts with adequate funding reported limited impact in these areas. o Among those reporting their district as inadequately funded: § 91% reported mortgage foreclosures have increased. § 72% reported homelessness has increased. § Almost 95% reported unemployment has grown. § Almost 96% reported an increase in the number of students without health insurance. § 78% reported increased participation in the free/reduced meal program, as opposed to 69% among schools with adequate funding and 61% of schools with surplus funding. This finding is another indicator of the stressors facing American families and the schools. Universally, student participation in the free/reduced meal program, which is based on poverty-level income, is increasing dramatically. § In addition to having an impact on students, cost-saving measures reported by school superintendents have a direct impact on the community. If schools curtail their spending through measures such as reducing payroll, conserving energy use, reducing fuel consumption, deferring maintenance and delaying purchases, the local community is the first to share the effects of that downturn. For many small communities, the schools are a major employer and a regular and reliable source of revenue. o Policy threats and implications: § State and national accountability efforts are interrupted by the economic downturn. The effort to increase student achievement and reduce the achievement gap between subgroups is clearly facing a threat. § A new round of costly school finance litigation could occur during economic downturns as the quality, equity and adequacy of educational services are called into question. § Particularly in fiscally dependent school districts (that depend on a city or county government for financial support), competing municipal and city entities vie for shrinking revenues and produce interagency competition that can further disrupt the provision of public financing for schools. § The loss of a qualified workforce can have a critical impact on school district operations. The fact that almost half of respondents (48%) have already reduced staff‐level hiring represents not only the loss of valued personnel but also the loss of the significant investment made in their development. Likewise, the fiscal and non-fiscal impact to the immediate community is often overlooked. Most school personnel live in the immediate community and use their resources to support local businesses. § As budget reductions occur in schools, there is an inclination to label all costs not directly associated with instruction as being non-essential to the quality of schooling. When cuts occur in areas such as deferred maintenance, student health and safety, and extracurricular activities, schools are materially diminished. § One of the engines to economic recovery is schooling. A strong system of schools fuels the workforce development and economic diversity essential to a recovering economy. Reducing investment in schools when capacity is needed to sustain recovery only prolongs the economic downturn. § Disruption of schools by an economic downturn serves to further disable families facing the same economic challenges. Families in distress rely on schools to add stability to their plight at home, whether they are dealing with loss of work, foreclosures or escalating prices. Schools offer the haven needed to help families return some normalcy to their children’s lives. § This survey found that superintendents faced with inadequate funding have turned to their senior staff, school boards and local leaders for assistance in shaping solutions. Superintendents are acting thoughtfully and assertively to address the serious challenges facing their districts. http://www.aasa.org/files/PDFs/Publications/AASAEconomicImpactSurvey2008.pdf q Economy's Effect On Education In Nebraska (9/30/08) o “Why I'm not worried is that we still have the law No Child Left Behind. And to do that, if the government were to withdraw dollars from public education they would have to relinquish some of the rules and regulations associated with No Child Left Behind and I don't see that happening," said Dr. Steve Joel, superintendent of Grand Island Public Schools. o If federal education funding would be cut, Joel says kids with the biggest needs would suffer first. Programs like special education, title reading and math, and English as a second language would be the first to be cut back. o But administrators are optimistic that won't happen. Meanwhile, State Senator Gregg Adams said one of the biggest challenges the state legislature faces this session and beyond is making the funding formula for education predictable, equal, and financially sustainable. http://www.kolnkgin.com/home/headlines/29979639.html q Gates Foundation and others pinched by market turmoil o Non-profit groups rely on steady funding to carry out their work, but with an uncertain economy and a volatile stock market, funders are having an increasingly difficult time meeting their commitments. o Gates Foundation will spend less than previously planned http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/statement-financial-crisis-081121.aspx o Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University, predicted that at least 100,000 nonprofits nationwide would be forced to shut their doors by the economic crisis over the next two years and called on foundations to do more to create a safety net for social service groups. o Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, one of the nation's largest private foundations notes: “The value of our endowment has declined significantly. … Nevertheless, we plan to make good on all of our existing commitments. Our grants budget for next year will be down a little bit, but we feel that we'll be able to keep the reductions manageable. We have a range for our payout, and we'll probably be paying out closer to the high end of that range. We have also been working over the last couple of weeks on reducing our administrative costs in a way that does not impact the strategic nature of our grantmaking.…This is a moment when individuals and foundations need to be very focused and intentional in what they do. If ever there were a time when strategy and clarity about goals was important, this is the time. http://foundationcenter.org//pnd/newsmakers/nwsmkr.jhtml?id=234800001 q Ed Week Reports States Struggling: Even states that previously were not expecting budget shortfalls are beginning to see lower-than-projected tax revenues and adjusting their current budgets accordingly: o States are struggling—and sometimes failing—to hold the line on education budget cuts and day-to-day disruption in the face of budget deficits, flagging tax revenues, and credit jitters that threaten their cash flow. o The situation varies around the country. In deficit-strapped California, for example, officials last week had some success in selling billions of dollars in short-term notes needed to keep the state from running out of money for schools and other state services. o But Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, ordered state agencies to cut more than $1 billion to close a $1.4 billion deficit, including $3 million from kindergarten expansion and $1 million from Head Start preschool programs. o Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, said the state may have to weigh reductions in local school aid provided under a formula that gives extra money to areas where the cost of education is high. o And in Hawaii, the state board of education on Oct. 9 approved more than $46 million in cuts from its $2.1 billion K-12 budget on the way toward meeting Gov. Linda Lingle’s instruction that each state agency trim spending by up to 20%. o “This situation is as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” William T. Pound, the executive director of the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures, said in an Oct. 13, 2008 press release. “States have been confronted with bad economic circumstances in the past, but not so many and all at once.” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/10/22/09fiscal_ep.h28.html?qs=economy+downturn
q Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report: State Budget Troubles Worsen (11/08) http://www.cbpp.org/9-8-08sfp.htm o In the first half of 2008, most states experienced flat or declining revenues relative to the previous year. The most recent indications are that revenues are continuing to weaken significantly. o At least 17 states have implemented or are considering cuts that will affect low-income children’s or families’ eligibility for health insurance or reduce their access to health care services. Programs for the elderly and disabled are also being cut. At least 15 states are cutting medical, rehabilitative, home care, or other services needed by low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, or significantly increasing the cost of these services. o At least 16 states are cutting or proposing to cut K-12 and early education; several of them are also reducing access to child care and early education, and at least 21 states have implemented or proposed cuts to public colleges and universities. o At least 10 states have proposed or implemented reductions to their state workforce. Workforce reductions often result in reduced access to services residents need. They also add to states’ woes by contracting the state economy.
q As Economy Slumps, Teachers' Jobs in the Cross Hairs (Ed Week, 9/08)
o The biggest item in Manatee County, Fla.’s 2008-09 district budget is salaries. The system has laid off over 100 teachers and reduced the number of paid in-service days.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/03/02hiring_ep.h28.html?qs=economy+downturn
q Costs of textbooks and electronic/Internet solutions o From October 2008 “Education Business Blog” – an analysis for the publishing industry: Education Spending and the Economic Crisis § districts may be tough sell for printed materials § federal education technology spending may go up. http://www.educationbusinessblog.com/2008/10/education_spending_and_the_eco_1.html o November 28, 2008, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Cost of Textbooks Is Driving Electronic Solutions http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i14/14a02901.htm § Efforts like the e-textbook program of the Ohio Library and Information Network (Ohio-LINK) demonstrate that student performance with e-textbooks is no different than that with print editions. § South Korea is working toward having course materials at all levels of education be fully digital within the next five years. § The IMS Global Learning Consortium Inc., which develops standards for technology and includes many institutions and companies as members, spawned an international group to develop standards that will help academic institutions, professors, students, and content providers find and exchange digital course materials. § The transition to such materials provides an opportunity for new conversations on campuses and new ways to enhance student learning at lower cost. o The e-Volving Textbook, American School Board Journal, (July 2008) § Texas leads the charge in electronic instructional content: “In our Texas Education code, the definition is about as broad as you can get,” says Anita Givens, senior director of instructional materials and education technology for the Texas Education Agency. “It can be print, electronic, or a combination of both. Anything that’s delivered to provide instruction to students.” By marrying digital content with funding, Texas also has provided school districts with a telecommunications infrastructure and long-range plans to give every student access to a tech device. The state also has relaxed, though not transformed, its stance on electronic updates. § Presence of tech devices in schools would rise sharply as prices drop over the next five years, with PC and Mac laptops growing by 27% and 25%, respectively; tablet computers by 78%; and student appliances by 104%. Electronically delivered content can mean everything from a PDF file to full-scale multimedia interactive software. In the education publishing industry, the movement is moving more toward the latter. § Standing in the way: Tom Greaves, chairman of the San Diego-based Greaves Group, consultants who help companies market to the K-12 sector says, “It’s an expensive process to do this and to do it right.” And it’s not just school districts that are bearing the cost for hardware and software, technical assistance, training, and maintenance. Traditional print textbook publishers are racing just as fast to keep up with new technology. Pearson Scott Foresman, for instance, spent a reported $50 million to build a social studies curriculum specifically for California elementary students that included video, audio, interactive, and assessment capabilities. “The print world hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years, but the electronic world is changing every day,” Greaves says. Publishers are challenged by rapidly changing platforms and a plethora of devices, with some schools preferring Macs or hand helds, while others operate on Windows XP or Vista operating systems. Even the language used to write electronic textbooks has changed in the last few years from HTML to XML….(This American School Board Journal article is available from IRA’s Kathy Baughman.) o January 2008, Inside Higher Ed - E-Text Books for Real This Time: Over the past year, a consortium of major textbook publishers and several competing ventures have been getting ready for a new push in what is becoming a small but steadily growing fraction of the overall market for college students. “Those efforts are starting to crack the surface of digital content being a serious growing enterprise in higher education,” said Evan Schnittman, vice president of business development and rights for Oxford University Press’s academic and U.S. divisions. McGraw-Hill Education, for example, offers almost 95% of its textbooks as e-books, and the publisher has seen a steady growth in interest over the past several years, albeit from a small base. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/03/ebooksPalo Alto, CA, o October 15, 2007 - The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Benetech's Bookshare.org project $32 million over five years to significantly expand the availability of accessible electronic books and the software for reading those books. Bookshare.org is the world's largest accessible library of scanned books and periodicals. Working with state and local education agencies, schools, teachers and students, Bookshare.org will give all K-12, postsecondary and graduate students in the United States with qualifying print disabilities access to this library without charge. The funding for this project was authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and was awarded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education. According to OSEP, the purpose of the award is to provide free educational materials, including textbooks, in accessible media for use by students with visual impairments and other print disabilities in elementary and secondary schools and in postsecondary and graduate schools. http://www.bookshare.org/web/BookshareExpands.html o Amazon may enter college textbook market with new Kindle (Information Week, August 2008) § The student textbook market will soon welcome revamped Amazon Kindle, according to McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman. After a meeting with Amazon executives, McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Amazon sees a big opportunity in marketing the Kindle to college kids, and it's working on updated version of the e-reader to accommodate this. "There are several new, improved versions of the Kindle in the works," Bueneman wrote. § Representatives from Amazon remain tight-lipped about any updates to the Kindle. "I wouldn't jump to any conclusions -- we have not made any announcements on future devices and we do not disclose Kindle unit sales. Anything you've read about our future plans should be considered rumor and speculation," wrote Drew Herdener, senior PR manager, Amazon, in an e-mail to InformationWeek. http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210200629 o Learnodes.com Internet site is dedicated to helping teachers use the Internet for teaching. (note from M. Bell: There is a “reading” category that could use more input if IRA is interested in checking it out.) http://www.learnodes.com/about/ § GoldenSwamp.com and its sister website Learnodes.com are dedicated to describing and advocating open, emergent, cognitive materials online. The posts are written by Judy Breck and are completely open for quoting and copying. GoldenSwamp.com is descriptive, with discussions of ideas and progress. § Learnodes.com showcases nodes of learning content that include OERs — the open educational resources of universities and other teaching institutions. |
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Impact of Economic Downturn on US Education |