WizIQ Blog

Communities and the Power of Crowdsourcing : ET Conference 2 on WiZiQ.com

The second edition of ETCon will be conducted on WiZiQ.com : August 27, 2009 at 1:00 PM GMT.

ETCon is the Educational Technology Conference conducted by E-Teachers Academy. The E-Teachers Conference is a monthly meeting of leaders in the education 2.0 industry hosted by Kirsten Winkler, Founder of the E-Teachers Academy. The ETCon is a free event and everyone who is interested in Education 2.0 is welcome to join the audience and ask questions to the panel members.

The time of the conference in your local time is as below:

• San Francisco - PDT : 6 AM
• New York - EDT : 9 AM
• GMT Time : 1 PM
• London - BST : 2 PM
• Paris - CEST : 3 PM
• CapeTown - SAST : 3 PM
• Dubai - GST : 5 PM
• New Delhi - IST : 6:30 PM
• Singapore - SGT : 9 PM
• Tokyo - JST : 10 PM
• Sydney - EST : 11 PM

You can register for the Conference @Conference Page on WiZiQ.com.

You can also Tweet about the Conference.

Online Education Beats the Classroom - SRI International Study for Department of Education, United States

“On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” This is the conclusion of a SRI International Study for Department of Education, United States.

The study itself reviewed 99 studies over a 12 year period from 1996 to 2008. The studies and reports analyzed were majorly from work done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military. Some of it was also, based on work done at K12 level. According to a NYTimes article: The analysis found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.

Although, some questions have been raised on the sweeping conclusion [for instance: people have asked whether you can compare the results from different testing environments or not - it was not like the study compared students of same background preparing for TOEFL in face-to-face/ virtual classroom environments], it does indicate that online learning and teaching would see a major adoption especially at college and professional levels.

WiZiQ, with its open and flexible tools for both teachers and students is perfectly positioned to be amongst the leading technology tools, helping the spread and adoption of online learning and teaching.