[nfbmi-talk] Education for Everyone

[joe harcz Comcast]

Dear "Fred,

You are right on on this issue. Moreover you were right on on similar 
issues. However, the rules were long since set foward on these and related 
issues under things like the auxilliary and services  rrequirements of 
Section 504 of the Rehab Act more than now thirty threyears ago and Titlle 
II of the ADA more than twenty years ago.

I do not dispell your notions here but only reference they are already 
existent law.\\
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Wurtzel" <f.wurtzel at comcast.net>
To: "'NFB of Michigan List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>; "'Larry Posont'" 
<president.nfb.mi at gmail.com>; <pilarskij at charter.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 8:15 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Education for Everyone


> Hi,
>
>
>
> Here is a good article.  I'm not sure about the degree to which this 
> author
> depends on technology, but the idea is right on.  The MCB college policy
> team needs to read this.
>
>
>
> Warmest Regards,
>
>
>
> Fred
>
>
>
> The Big Think: The Radical Notion of Making Education Free
>
> GOOD Education
>
> >
>
> Peter Hopkins
>
> on April 15, 2010 at 1:00 pm PDT
>
> Howard Gardner, educator
>
> and psychologist is fond of saying, "If you think education is expensive,
> try estimating
>
> the cost of ignorance." It's become all too relevant in today's struggle
> against
>
> a worldwide recession, intensifying global competition, and the
> ever-mounting cost
>
> of higher education.
>
> As
>
> Gardner explains in a Big Think interview
>
> , the restriction of formal education to the elite made economic, if not
> ethical,
>
> sense until about a century ago, when economic pressures did not require 
> the
> broader
>
> population to be educated beyond basic literacy. Today, however, with
> massive transformations
>
> in the nature of labor and communications, our world has grown far too
> complex, and
>
> the cognitive tools we need to thrive in our daily lives too protean and
> abstract
>
> to justify limiting education to only one segment of the population.
>
> Yet traditional models of education, wherein teachers and students gather
> within
>
> the confines of a school for a set number of years, have been slow to
> evolve. Access
>
> to higher education remains glaringly expensive, and institutions are
> struggling
>
> to develop a form of pedagogy that is dynamic, flexible, and 
> individualized
> enough
>
> to prepare students for the staggering demands of life in this new 
> economy.
>
> At a time like this, when reform is frozen in political impasse, the 
> latent
> educational
>
> possibilities of new media must be taken seriously. Historically used as a
> means
>
> of entertainment, media in the 21st century needs to fulfill its role as a
> vehicle
>
> for a world-class and worldwide education.
>
> Operating in a realm shaped by the ideals of free and open, new media is
> uniquely
>
> suited to democratizing education and distributing resources more broadly
> than, say,
>
> a traditional academic venue. The absurd inconsistency of, for example,
> being able
>
> to access almost any song or TV show for free online, yet having to pay,
> register,
>
> and compete for high-quality information and knowledge-based training, can
> already
>
> be corrected through existing technology.
>
> And yet, the emergence of "smart media" companies gives us perhaps the
> greatest learning
>
> tool to appear in centuries. The ability to combine an array of 
> mediums-from
> video
>
> to graphics to text-and render information in innovative and compelling
> ways, means
>
> that we can do more to keep students engaged than ever before.
>
> Just as importantly, we can tailor this engagement to suit each student's
> particular
>
> educational preferences and abilities-consider, for instance, analytical
> tracking
>
> services that detect how individuals interact with the information being
> presented
>
> to them. These tools are able to gauge and predict, with unprecedented
> precision,
>
> the manner in which a viewer engages with the content on their screen,
> defining which
>
> methods of presenting information resonate most compellingly for each
> viewer, and
>
> the approaches that do not.
>
> These technologies-currently used almost exclusively by online marketers 
> to
> earn
>
> digital advertising networks, such as Google, billions in revenue-have the
> potential
>
> to dramatically impact our understanding of, and expectations for, student
> engagement.
>
> And in this way, make way for a form of media that appreciates and evolves
> with the
>
> individual needs of students in the digital age.
>
> Finally, making education free, engaging, and of the highest possible
> quality is
>
> the driving vision behind Big Think. As eloquently expressed by a recent
> contributor,
>
> Princeton scholar Cornel
>
> West (see above): "No school has a monopoly on truth."
>
> We are lucky to live in a time when revolutionary changes to education are
> possible.
>
> The only question is whether we can embrace new media with enough
> enthusiasm, intelligence
>
> and creativity so that it might achieve its true potential.
>
> Peter Hopkins is the co-founder and President of Big Think, an online
> multimedia
>
> portal committed to developing the growing conversation about where we are
> and where
>
> we are headed.
>
> Read More from GOOD Education
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfbmi-talk mailing list
> nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbmi-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nfbmi-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbmi-talk_nfbnet.org/joeharcz%40comcast.net