Resources

Globalising Education is a systematic and thoroughly researched study of how technologies have altered the delivery and reception of education. Mason examines how global education is actually delivered in practice, case studies which investigate current developments and applications in the USA, Europe, the UK and Australia, and conclusions drawn from the issues covered. She studies the huge impact of the World Wide Web on current educational practice, exploring the implications for students, teachers and the larger institutional framework, and provides an important overview of the current technology and the technologies to come. (From the Publisher)

With the concept of a global village now a reality, institutions of higher learning must broaden their thinking beyond American social, cultural, and economic borders. Reforming the Higher Education Curriculum is a collection of papers that explores how a college or university can plan and implement a systemwide program for internationalizing the curriculum throughout the entire university. The contributors argue that a thorough overhaul of the higher education curriculum is necessary to turn out graduates with true international skills and perspectives. Among the strategies recommended are courses and programs that involve study abroad, intensive study of foreign languages, and opportunities to cultivate intellectual, professional, and personal associations with people from other cultures. (From the Publisher)

The postmodern condition, in which instrumentalism finally usurps all other considerations, has produced a kind of intellectual paralysis in the world of education. The authors of this book show how such postmodernist thinkers as Derrida, Foucault, and Lyotard illuminate puzzling aspects of education, arguing that educational theory is currently at an impasse. They argue that we need these new and disturbing ideas in order to "think again" fruitfully and creatively about education. (From the Publisher)

The American college and university today must assess what difference scholarship makes to teaching and what teaching means to scholarship. Reaffirming Higher Education asks who teaches, what, to whom, and why. The authors maintain that what matters in higher learning is learning, while denying that scholarship detracts from teaching. The authors outline reform and renewal for both the institutional and personal dimensions of higher learning that would encompass the ideal of the academic ethic. (From the Publisher)

"This book is an exciting and highly useful addition to the literature on higher education and teaching. It provides concrete information and suggestions for the improvement of teaching, student learning, and the whole educational process" - from the foreword by Lee R. Kershner, former Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, California State University System (CSU), and Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, co-chair, Advisory Board. CSU Institute for Teaching and Learning. Providing college students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities that will prepare them for today's complex world demands a major transformation in college classrooms - from passive to active learning, from traditional textbooks to hands-on use of technology, from restrictive ways of thinking to diverse multicultural perspectives. This book combines a range of promising instructional strategies with helpful guidelines for assessing the effectiveness of instruction. It will help faculty and administrators equip students with the creative, critical, technological, and problem-solving skills - as well as a coherent sense of multicultural awareness - necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing society. (From the Publisher)

Most six-year-olds can't wait to go to school on that first day in September. It's a sign of coming of age. They get to go to school like the big kids. For an alarmingly large number of these children, however, boredom, anxiety, and fear of learning quickly set in. This happens because societies build schools that achieve much less than they promise, are frustrating for students, and generally fail to help children become adults who can think for themselves. The development of flexible, inquiring minds has rarely been the primary consideration in the design of educational systems. Making students into proper members of society has usually been of much greater concern than developing students who are creative thinkers. Today's schools are organized around yesterday's ideas, needs, and resources. The purpose of this volume is to raise consciousness about the changes needed in the educational system. It is concerned with what is wrong with the educational system and how to improve it. It presents a pragmatic view of what education could be through the use of computer technology — technology permitting us to pursue the radical notion that children must be allowed to guide their own education because interested learners learn more. Children can and will become voracious learners if they are in charge of their own education. This does not mean letting them play video games all day, but it does mean allowing them to pursue the intellectual goals that interest them, rather than being force-fed knowledge according to someone else's schedule. The school system must face the responsibility of creating learning environments that are so much fun that children cannot wait to get up in the morning and go to school. This volume describes the progress being made at The Institute for the Learning Sciences using computers to provide motivating environments for learning — environments that enable students to explore new worlds, and learn things by doing them. This technology will allow society to support what is one of the most important parts of a good educational system: the cultivation of individual initiative in students. This text documents the authors' work from the cognitive psychology which underlies it on through to guided tours of a number of the software learning environments they've developed. (From the Publisher)