Volume 12, Issue 1 - February 2008

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Right to Education

John R. Bourne, The Sloan Consortium
Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
Claudine SchWeber, University of Maryland University College

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the 60 years since the Declaration, changes have swept higher education. The emergence of online education promises that growth in its quality, scale and breadth could insure that education becomes a right. Sloan-C...

BRICs and Clicks

Mary Bold, Ph.D., CFLE, Associate Professor, Texas Woman’s University (Family Studies at)
Lillian Chenoweth, Ph. D., Professor, Texas Woman’s University (Family Studies at)
Nirisha K.Garimella, M. Sc., M. S., Texas Woman’s University (Family Studies at)

Projections for the global economy frequently center on the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. As futurists and economists alike define and re-define both formal and informal coalitions (for example, by broadening the R in BRIC to include all Eastern European economies or instead re-directing the discussion to G-8...

Microfranchising Microlearning Centers: A Sustainable Model for Expanding the Right to Education in Developing Countries?

Tiffany Zenith Ivins, Director of International Programs, Center for Open Sustainable Learning

While availability of information and access to it enables education in developing countries, information alone does not secure transmission of knowledge—especially to remote learners in low-tech, infrastructure-poor communities. For this reason, 21st century distance education tools require innovative mechanisms for accessing the hardest-to-reach learners. This paper explores an ethnographic case...

Determined to Learn: Accessing Education Despite Life-Threatening Disasters

Claudine SchWeber, Ph.D, Professor, Graduate School of Management & Technology, University of Maryland University

The ‘right to education’ proclaimed by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires access to learning as well as the support systems. Since access can be interrupted by various circumstances, the possibility of providing continuity despite external dangers by using online distance education, offers an intriguing and valuable option....

Bringing the Real World of Science to Children: A Partnership of the American Museum of Natural History and the City University

Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, Hunter College and Graduate Center
Robert V. Steiner, Project Director, Seminars on Science, National Center for Science Literacy, Education and Technology

Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually...

Open Educational Resources for Blended Learning in High Schools: Overcoming Impediments in Developing Countries

Richard C. Larson, LINC, Learning International Networks Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M. Elizabeth Murray, LINC, Learning International Networks Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

With today’s computer and telecommunications technologies, every young person can have a quality education regardless of his or her place of birth. This is the dream that Open Educational Resources (OERs), when viewed as a right rather than a privilege, are directed to realize. For developing countries, we propose a...

Access to Education with Online Learning and Open Educational Resources: Can They Close the Gap?

Dr. Christine Geith, Assistant Provost and Executive Director , MSUglobal
Karen Vignare, Director

One of the key concepts in the right to education is access: access to the means to fully develop as human beings as well as access to the means to gain skills, knowledge and credentials. This is an important perspective through which to examine the solutions to access enabled by...

An Online Learning Model to Facilitate Learners’ Rights to Education

Lin Lin, Assistant Professor of Learning Technologies

This paper connects an online learning model to the rights to education that the online educational environments can provide. The model emerges from a study of ninety-two online learners and is composed of three kinds of inquiries, namely, independent inquiry, collaborative inquiry, and formative inquiry towards expert knowledge. Online learners...