GEnie Livewire e-zine/LW9408MM.ZIP/EDUC.TXT

Text File | 1994-07-25 | 8.9 KB | 225 lines

Can you believe it's time to go back to school
already? Whether it seems like just yesterday that
your students -- or even you -- got out of school,
or aeons ago, GEnie provides cutting-edge
educational tools to help further the learning in
your family, from the youngest to the oldest.

Getting Involved

GEnie has two great, primary services where you'll
find the latest information on all aspects of
education. One is CALC -- the Computer Assisted
Learning Center -- which we'll get to in a moment,
and the other is the Education RoundTable,
familiarly known as the ERT.

ERT members get very involved in the educational
process. "Our homeschooling community continues to
flourish and we are tapping .gov to keep on top of
what the Internet has to offer those who school
children within the home," says Bobbi Pournelle,
ERT's manager. "It seems that we were highly
instrumental in guiding the House of Representative
in re-writing HR6 which attempted to define a
school unit (LEA as they are labeled)."

In addition, she said, "Our student exchanges with
Japan and Austria continue. The teachers post in
blocks so that adults and kids alike can dialog
with students in quite different settings.

"And we are going heavily into connecting the ERT
with the Internet. Everyone is investing in a new
'board' and we are ready to surf!"

Getting Started

Like most RoundTables, the ERT is divided into a
Bulletin Board, a Software Library, and a Real-Time
Conference area. At press time the Bulletin Board
included active categories dealing with Preschool
and Kindergarten Education; Primary Education;
Secondary Education; College and University
Education; Special Education; Middle Schools; Home
and Private Schooling Support; Home and Private
Schooling Curriculum; Student's
Education/Communication Category.

Also addressed are LOUNGE - Teachers, students,
parents; Topical Discussion of Educational
Subjects; Educational Computing and Technology;
Special Education and Alternative Teaching Styles;
Machine Specific Educational Technology; The
Educational System--What's New? What changes are
needed?; Books PLUS Audio/Video Library; and
Professional Conferences, Training and Development.

Topics for Discussion

You never know who you'll run into on Bulletin
Board messages on GEnie. From experts to students,
everybody chimes in. There are Categories dealing
with age-related segments of education, and others
dealing with topic-related concerns, such as Home
and Private Schooling Support; Topical Discussion
of Educational Subjects; and The Educational System
-- What's New? What changes are needed?

For instance, the Topical Discussion Category
includes such items as Validity of American History
Sources; Writing & Critical Thinking; Educational
Jargon; Clinton's education proposals; whole
language approach to teaching; Individualizing
Learning; AfroCentric Software Use; Teaching
Shakespeare; Creativity, Dreams & Personality
Traits; Teacher Unemployment Benefits Survey;
Governmental Policy - Education Impact; Brain
Compatible Learning; and Writing Portfolios and
Assessment.

Just a few of the topics discussed in The
Educational System Category are Federal efforts to
improve education; Drug education -- facts or
myths?; Student rights & discipline problems;
Moonlighting Teachers; Our Schools and $$$; Is
"Teaching" a Failure?; How would you fix the school
system?; and School/Business Partnerships.

As you can see, topics address the concerns of
teachers, administrators, students AND parents. And
there are lots more where those came from!

The Soft(ware) Side of Learning

The ERT Software Library is filled with useful text
and program files. Among them are File 1169
ARKHSLAW.ZIP which contains the text of Arkansas
statutes relating to compulsory attendance and home
education requirements. File 1170 GAK111V1.ZIP is
GAKUSEI, an elementary Japanese grammar tutorial
for IBM-compatibles. File 1234 MATHLAB.ZIP is a
mathematics graphing utility with los of bells and
whistles. Students will find MathLab a useful tool
while working textbook problems in algebra, trig,
matrices, complex numbers, pre-calculus, and
beginning calculus.

For the younger set, such programs as File 1262
MSPIG11A.ZIP fill an educational need. Ms. Piggy
Bank 1.1 is describes as "an effective and
entertaining way for children ages 6 to 10 to learn
about money." It includes six different money
activities: Money Names and Values, Catch the
Falling Coin, Total the Money, Select Money to
match the displayed total, Money Equivalents, and a
board game for 1 or 2 players.

For Real-Time Conferencing, join discussions with
the home schoolers on the third Monday and the
first Tuesday of each month at 9:30 PM Eastern
Time. During Thursday Nights LIVE!, ERT members
discuss educational topics affecting students from
grade school through college.

School's in Session Online

CALC, GEnie's Computer Assisted Learning Center,
provides college-level education online. It makes
use of the familiar RoundTable structure, but
applies it in a unique way. Just type the keyword
CALC or M175 from any GEnie page prompt to see what
I mean.

"CALC has been carefully structured to make optimal
use of the tools available on GEnie which are
already common to most members," said Margaret
Morabito, who heads up CALC. "Items such as
Software Libraries, Real-Time Conference rooms, and
electronic Bulletin Boards have all been
transformed into highly effective teaching tools.
These tools provide greater individualized
attention for students than in many schools
off-line.

"All of CALC's instructional services are provided
by an experienced staff of educators and
professionals from across the nation. Many teach
and work in their local schools during the day, and
teach and tutor in CALC in evenings and on
weekends. You will find help with both off-line and
online studies, whether you're inside our online
classrooms, face-to-face with a CALC teacher, or
within the closely monitored class Bulletin
Boards."

CALCulating the Benefits

Most students study for their own satisfaction,
although CALC can provide instruction that you can
use, in a way, to obtain college credit. The CALC
Academy Student Manual says, "Courses within CALC
may be used to prepare for standardized testing for
college credit. CALC does NOT award college credit;
we provide instruction. College credit examinations
are taken off-line at your local testing site,
usually a college in your area. If you are
interested in earning college credit in this
manner, you should contact your local college to
get a list of courses that they accept within their
standardized testing program."

The Traditional and Self-Study courses use private
real-time classrooms (the same as Real-Time
Conferences in other RoundTables) where students
and teachers can meet for instruction and for Q&A
sessions each week. An exact record of each
classroom session is kept so that if a registered
student has to miss a class, he can get an account
of the material covered. CALC's Self-Study courses
provide instruction through materials which you can
download and study off-line. Optional RTC classes
are provided with Self-Study courses. Independent
Study courses use the Bulletin Board and Library
for instruction without any live classroom
sessions. Students in the Independent Study courses
may meet with instructors during scheduled office
hours.

Each course has its own private Bulletin Board
Category which holds instructional notes from the
teacher as well as answers to students' questions.
The Bulletin Board is an integral component of the
CALC Online Center and provides around-the-clock
communication and support between student and
teacher outside of the live classroom sessions.

CALC's Course Catalog is on page 175, Menu Item 6,
where you'll find a list of each course offered
during the upcoming term, along with a description
of the course, teacher, meeting times, and cost.
Course offerings change each term as the school
rotates through the curriculum.

To register for CALC, you need to apply for a
non-refundable family membership on the Main Menu,
Item 7. Once you have become a member of CALC, you
may then register to take any of CALC's courses
throughout the year.

GEnie offers other educational resources as well,
including Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia on Page
365. Type GROLIERS to move there online the next
time the student in your house is researching a
project. And don't forget about the wonderful
research opportunities available in the Dialog
Database Center on GEnie, too, which sports the
easiest-to-use interface on the Information
Highway. Type DIALOG or M1242 to move directly
there.

Just think! No more traveling miles to a classroom
where you have to sit for the same hours each week.
Your computer -- and GEnie -- can now be your
primary education tools!