If you are looking for international scholarship resources, the two sites may help:
scholarshipnet (http://www.scholarshipnet.info)
scholarships-links (http://www.scholarships-links.com)
Source: http://www.tonybates.ca/resources/recommended-graduate-programs-in-e-learning/
All these programs can be taken fully online. Some of them allow you to take and pay for individual courses, building up to either a certificate or a full masters degree.
University of British Columbia, Canada: Masters in Educational Technology, www.met.ubc.ca
University of Edinburgh, UK: M.Sc. in e-learning www.education.ed.ac.uk/e-learning/
University of Hull, UK: M.Ed in E-learning www.hull.ac.uk
University of Colorado at Denver: Masters in e-Learning design and implementation
Pepperdine University: Masters in Educational Technology Online. This program is 85% online, the rest requiring attendance at the Malibu campus, California.
University of Maryland University College/Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg Masters in Distance Education This award-winning program has a technology specialization.
Athabasca University, Canada: Master in Distance Education. This fully distance program has been re-designed in recent years, and now contains a very strong technology component, with excellent faculty
Open University, UK MA in Online and Distance Education Covers the theory and practice of online and distance education; open to students from countries all over the world.
Concordia University Chicago MA in Educational Technology. This is a blended learning program, combining online learning with periodic classroom instruction. Note that this is a completely different university from Concordia University, Montreal
University of Washington Certificate in e-Learning Design and Development, available fully online from a prestigious state university in the USA.
Most of these programs require a bachelors’ degree (not necessarily in education) from a ‘recognised’ university, and a high standard of English (high school graduation, or a TEOFL score of 500+).
Kapil Bhatia has compiled a list of 25 additional graduate programmes in e-learning, education technology and ICT in education from top universities in UK, US and Australia. Most of the programmes in the list are also offered in distance learning/purely online/blended form.
Doctoral programs
The University of Lancaster, UK, offers a new structured, part-time Doctoral Programme in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning leading to a PhD. This innovative program combines a limited number of face-to-face residential meetings with considerable ‘online’ learning and is available to anyone in the world wishing to develop their e-learning research and practice.
The University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is offering a Doctor of Education (EdD) in educational technology, a thesis-based degree intended to prepare scholars for careers in research, teaching, and leadership. The program includes web-based and face-to-face courses.
You could also try: Online PhD Degree programs for even more programs.
For courses in Spanish:
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain Máster internacional de e-learning
This program is currently accredited in Spain. However, UOC is also offering a European Certificate for Course Design and Teaching in E-learning in English, in collaboration with the Institute of Education, University of London and the University of Florence, Italy, worth 20 European credits. The program is based on the Master’s Degree in E-learning, and the aim is for the certificate to be integrated with the masters degree to become a European Master’s Degree recognized throughout Europe.
Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico Maestría en Tecnologías para el Aprendizaje
This program is nationally accredited in Mexico, and is now well established..
Universidad Tecnológia Metropolitana de Santiago (UTEM), Chile Magíster en Educación a Distancia
This has a strong technology component, international faculty, and students from several South American countries
Doing a Ph.D. in e-learning
I am often asked about what institutions offer a Ph.D. in e-learning entirely by distance. None! Indeed, the idea of a doing a Ph.D. in e-learning by distance is based on a number of misconceptions. For instance, there are very few Ph.D. programs anywhere specifically in e-learning, and hardly any universities offer Ph.D.s at a distance (the Open University of Catalonia does, on the Information Society, and Athabasca University starts its D.Ed. in Distance Education in August 2008 – with 12 students. University of Lancaster, UK, and University of Calgary offer online programs, but still require a limited number of face-to-face meetings). But don’t give up. There are ways.
Your best bet is to try a good local university with a Faculty of Education or something similar. The trick is to find a local supervisor willing to accept your proposed area of research. Try to find someone in the local Faculty of Education with an interest in e-learning and try to negotiate a research topic of mutual interest. This is really the hardest and most important part. Getting the right supervisor is absolutely essential. However, there are many more potential students than faculty interested in e-learning.
Your admission to a program will depend on your prior qualifications – usually at least a masters degree in education or a related area – and your particular area of interest as defined by your intended research topic. In other words, try to find a suitable local supervisor and topic BEFORE formally applying for admission. Depending on the university, you may not need additional courses if you already have a suitable masters degree, although you may be required by your supervisor to do some specific graduate courses, such as research methods or educational theory, if these are important to your topic and you have not studied them before.
If you find a willing and sympathetic local faculty member with an interest in e-learning but worried they don’t have the right expertise to supervise your particular interest, suggest a committee with an external supervisor (anywhere in the world) who really has the expertise and who may be willing to share the supervision with your local supervisor. Again, though, your chances of getting an external supervisor is much higher if that person already knows you or is aware of your work. Again, good e-learning professors are already likely to have a full supervision load, so it is not easy. (Whether good or not, my load is currently full!)
This means that even before applying for a Ph.D., you need to do some homework. Identify a topic with some degree of flexibility, have in mind an internal and an external supervisor, and show that you have done the necessary courses such as research methods, educational theory, etc., that will prepare you for a Ph.D. (or are willing to do them first).
Nearly all universities require ‘residency’, i.e. a physical presence on campus, for a Ph.D., but in reality the need for you to be there can be strictly limited. Most of your study can be done in your own locality. However, you will need to meet (in person or by phone) with at least your supervisor on a reasonably regular basis, and you should try to make meetings where other research students are discussing their work, or push for an online discussion forum for research students within the program.
Lastly, be sure you know why you want to do a Ph.D. There are only three good reasons:
If you cannot give a strong ‘yes’ to at least one of those reasons, don’t do it. A Ph.D. is an expensive, time-consuming, and very frustrating waste of your time, otherwise.
See also:
I am planning to pursue a course(masters degree) in education technology and I started finding courses in this area. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a resource where I could find all good courses in ICT / Edtech except Tony Bates blog which outlines some very high quality online course in this area.
This is a work in progress so I will try to add more universities with time. If you know about a good ICT /edtech/ elearning masters course , please leave a comment.
Key Assumptions/ Findings
1. Online programmes are as good(and intensive) as classroom programmes. As one of the professors said,” The medium is the message”. But, see whether it works in your country or not. For example, its very difficult to persuade decision making people/potential recruiters in my country to consider an online degree at par with classroom programme. These courses require as much effort and work as traditional on campus programme but they are flexible enough and you can stretch upto 3-5 years to fit in your work life balance. I have listed some online programmes.
2. Most full time programmes are available in part time/ distance learning mode. If you like courses of full time programme and don’t have time, don’t forget to explore its part time opportunities through email or the course website.
3. I was more inclined to find courses running in prestigious universities based on their ranking in various country specific or international rankings(Times ranking). I later realised this is wrong assumption as some ICT courses running in some very well known university are not as good as very high quality ICT courses running in some small unknown universities(to the international students). For UK, I considered RAE 2008 score in “education” but I will not take decision solely based on RAE with discussions and discrepancy reported of the RAE process by British Media.
4. I personally looked at the history of the programme, when it started, how many students already passed out (most programmes had facebook groups). It gives me an idea of maturity of course. And, surprisingly, old programmes are more contextual and cutting edge while new courses had modules that I couldn’t find much value for today’s educators.
5. I focussed my research on courses running in UK, US and Australia. But I also looked at courses running in Asia. I couldnt do my research for elearning courses running in Europe. There must be some fantastic ICT in education courses running in europe with english as language of instruction.
6. Some good masters courses in US don’t require GRE score.
7. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t require a bachelor degree in education for doing masters in education technology ( except few universities).
List Of Courses(in no particular order)
1. College : Institute of Education, University Of london
Country : UK
Course Name : MA (ICT) in Education
Mode : Full Time/ Distance Learning
URL : http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=882&882_1=813&var1=5&var2=ICT
Personal Notes :Very Reputed college. The ICT course runs in their dedicated research centre LKL, some great people working there.
2. College :Teacher’s College, Columbia
Country : US
Course Name : They have range of courses running under CCTE inluding MA in Instructional Technologoy and media.
Mode : Full Time/ Distance Learning
URL : http://www.tc.columbia.edu/academic/mst/CCTE/index.asp?Id=CCTE+Home&Info=CCTE+Home
Personal Notes :Its a prestigious college for educational studies but expensive and in New York.
dcinc66(through twitter) told me that he is enrolled in an online MA (computing in education) program running at Teacher’s College.
http://online.tc.columbia.edu/oice/index.php
3. College : University Of Oxford
country : UK
Course Name : MSc Education (e-Learning)
URL : http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/courses/masters/eLearnmast/index.php
Personal Notes : Its Oxford.
4. College : University Of HongKong
country : Hong Kong
Course Name : Masters of Science in Information Technology in Education ( MSc (ITE) )
URL : http://web.edu.hku.hk/programme/mite/
Personal Notes : Very Good courses. They have various strands to help you opt for whole range of elective courses based on your profession. One of my favorite course.
5. College : University of Bristol
Country : UK
Course Name : MSc in Education, Technology and Society
URL : http://www.bristol.ac.uk/prospectus/postgraduate/2009/prog_details/SSLF/374
Personal Notes : Good school of Education. But, looking at the content, I felt the course is designed as a step towards higher research degree. Its all my assumption.
6. College : University Of Birmingham
Country : UK
Course Name : IT in Education MEd/MA/Diploma/Postgraduate Certificate
URL : http://www.postgraduate.bham.ac.uk/prog2009/cpd/education/it-education.shtml
7. College : Univerisity of Manchester
Country : UK
Course Name : Digital Technologies, Communication and Education MA
URL : http://www.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/taughtdegrees/courses/bysubject/course/?code=06954
Personal Notes : I found the program interesting. A high credit module on educational video production. Takes you to the history and talks about social and economic aspect of technology in education.
8. College : University of Edinburgh
Country : UK
Course Name : MSc in E-learning
URL : http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/e-learning/
Personal Notes : Very innovative online course. reputed university. But expensive if compared to similar courses in US.
9. College : Kings College, London
Country : UK
Course Name : ICT Education MA
URL : http://www.kcl.ac.uk/gsp09/programme/282
Personal Notes : Very reputed college. But, if I have funds to study in London, I will give preference to Institute of Education (see number 1 in this list).
10. College : Boise State
Country : US
Course Name : Masters of Education Technology / MS in Education Technology
URL : http://edtech.boisestate.edu/
Personal Notes : I would put this in top 3 courses in edtech in the world. Amazing course module. A Big staff of well known people in edtech research. Very affordable course. and Purely online. You dont need GRE.
11. College : San Diego State University
Country : US
Course Name : MA and range of short term courses
URL : http://edtec.sdsu.edu/
Personal Notes : You can’t go wrong if you opt for this course. People in industry know about this course. Again some very good course modules. Both oncampus and online.
12. College : University of Michigan
Country : US
Course Name : Technology in Education – Global programme
URL : http://globalprogram.umflint.edu/
Personal Notes : 13 months online program with 3 weeks of geneva residencies – opportunity to work with a long list of partners associated with United Nations and NGOs . Truly a Global programme. Very reputed university. Course also focusses on programming with ruby on rails, javascript, AJAX etc.(I am not sure whether its good or bad). But very impressive portfolio and work. And very expensive.
13. College : University of Sydney
Country : Australia
Course Name : Master of Learning Science and Technology
URL : http://www.edsw.usyd.edu.au/future_students/postgraduate/MLST/
Personal Notes : This prestigious university has a dedicated research centre (COCO). Course is blended with some sessions happening face to face in sydney. Course offered in two strands – Professional and Research – Based on what you want to pursue after the course.
14. College : University of Melbourne
Country : Australia
Course Name :Master of Information Technology in Education
URL : https://app.portal.unimelb.edu.au/CSCApplication/view/2009/327-BW
Personal Notes : Please see if you are eligible for the course as they have some tight expectations.
15. College : University of Western Australia
Country : Australia
Course Name : Master of Educational Management
URL : http://www.education.uwa.edu.au/courses/postgraduate/medman
Personal Notes : Not Exactly an edtech programme. But a popular programme in the region. And you can pick some interesting courses in educational technology from a long list of courses offered.
16. College : Monash University
Country : Australia
Course Name : Master of Education (ICT in education)
URL : http://www.education.monash.edu.au/courses/coursemaps/2500-icte.html
Personal Notes : As this is a MEd course , please check if you are eligible for it if you dont have bachelor degree in education.
17. college : University of British Columbia
Country : Canada
URL : http://met.ubc.ca/
Personal Notes : Again a very reputed university with an online course that attracts students from various countries.
18. College : University of Nottingham
Country : UK
URL : http://pgstudy.nottingham.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/ict-in-education-ma/facilities_785.aspx
Personal Notes : The university is running a dedicated Learning Sciences Research Institute which focuses on research areas in learning and technology.
19. College : Hull University
Country : UK
URL : http://www.hull.ac.uk/CES/courses/post-graduate/taught/medelearning/index.html
20. College : National Institute Of Education , Singapore
Country : Singapore
Course : MEd ( Learning Sciences and Technology)
URL : http://www.nie.edu.sg/nieweb/programmes/loading.do?id=Graduate&cid=10682369&ppid=11763731
Personal Notes : One of the excellent centres for educational studies in Asia. But, prefer students with prior teaching qualification and experience.
21. College : University Of Napier
Country : UK
Course : MSc – Elearning Design and Development
URL : http://www.courses.napier.ac.uk/W56703.htm?Nav=2
22. College : Dakota State University
Country : US
Course : Master of Science in Educational Technology
URL : http://www.dsu.edu/mset/mset-program-delivery.aspx
23. College : College Of Education , Purdue University
Country : US
Course : MS in Educational Technology
URL : http://www.edci.purdue.edu/et/ms.html
Notes : Good university. with good college of education. Requires GRE.
24. College : University of Bolton
Country : UK
Course : Masters in learning with technology
URL : http://inquirylearning.wordpress.com/concats/
Personal Notes : This university is running an amazing research centre in educational cybernetics and this program is a purely online offering.
25. College : University of Leeds
Country : UK
Course : MA ICT and Education
URL : http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/prospective/programme.php?programme=13
P.S. I have been trying to solve daily “real” issues which educators face while integrating technology in their curriculum. Click one of the icons on the right sidebar to join the growing community of educators reading this blog by RSS or by email…
I am planning to pursue a course(masters degree) in education technology and I started finding courses in this area. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a resource where I could find all good courses in ICT / Edtech except Tony Bates blog which outlines some very high quality online course in this area.
This is a work in progress so I will try to add more universities with time. If you know about a good ICT /edtech/ elearning masters course , please leave a comment.
Key Assumptions/ Findings
1. Online programmes are as good(and intensive) as classroom programmes. As one of the professors said,” The medium is the message”. But, see whether it works in your country or not. For example, its very difficult to persuade decision making people/potential recruiters in my country to consider an online degree at par with classroom programme. These courses require as much effort and work as traditional on campus programme but they are flexible enough and you can stretch upto 3-5 years to fit in your work life balance. I have listed some online programmes.
2. Most full time programmes are available in part time/ distance learning mode. If you like courses of full time programme and don’t have time, don’t forget to explore its part time opportunities through email or the course website.
3. I was more inclined to find courses running in prestigious universities based on their ranking in various country specific or international rankings(Times ranking). I later realised this is wrong assumption as some ICT courses running in some very well known university are not as good as very high quality ICT courses running in some small unknown universities(to the international students). For UK, I considered RAE 2008 score in “education” but I will not take decision solely based on RAE with discussions and discrepancy reported of the RAE process by British Media.
4. I personally looked at the history of the programme, when it started, how many students already passed out (most programmes had facebook groups). It gives me an idea of maturity of course. And, surprisingly, old programmes are more contextual and cutting edge while new courses had modules that I couldn’t find much value for today’s educators.
5. I focussed my research on courses running in UK, US and Australia. But I also looked at courses running in Asia. I couldnt do my research for elearning courses running in Europe. There must be some fantastic ICT in education courses running in europe with english as language of instruction.
6. Some good masters courses in US don’t require GRE score.
7. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t require a bachelor degree in education for doing masters in education technology ( except few universities).
List Of Courses(in no particular order)
1. College : Institute of Education, University Of london
Country : UK
Course Name : MA (ICT) in Education
Mode : Full Time/ Distance Learning
URL : http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=882&882_1=813&var1=5&var2=ICT
Personal Notes :Very Reputed college. The ICT course runs in their dedicated research centre LKL, some great people working there.
2. College :Teacher’s College, Columbia
Country : US
Course Name : They have range of courses running under CCTE inluding MA in Instructional Technologoy and media.
Mode : Full Time/ Distance Learning
URL : http://www.tc.columbia.edu/academic/mst/CCTE/index.asp?Id=CCTE+Home&Info=CCTE+Home
Personal Notes :Its a prestigious college for educational studies but expensive and in New York.
dcinc66(through twitter) told me that he is enrolled in an online MA (computing in education) program running at Teacher’s College.
http://online.tc.columbia.edu/oice/index.php
3. College : University Of Oxford
country : UK
Course Name : MSc Education (e-Learning)
URL : http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/courses/masters/eLearnmast/index.php
Personal Notes : Its Oxford.
4. College : University Of HongKong
country : Hong Kong
Course Name : Masters of Science in Information Technology in Education ( MSc (ITE) )
URL : http://web.edu.hku.hk/programme/mite/
Personal Notes : Very Good courses. They have various strands to help you opt for whole range of elective courses based on your profession. One of my favorite course.
5. College : University of Bristol
Country : UK
Course Name : MSc in Education, Technology and Society
URL : http://www.bristol.ac.uk/prospectus/postgraduate/2009/prog_details/SSLF/374
Personal Notes : Good school of Education. But, looking at the content, I felt the course is designed as a step towards higher research degree. Its all my assumption.
6. College : University Of Birmingham
Country : UK
Course Name : IT in Education MEd/MA/Diploma/Postgraduate Certificate
URL : http://www.postgraduate.bham.ac.uk/prog2009/cpd/education/it-education.shtml
7. College : Univerisity of Manchester
Country : UK
Course Name : Digital Technologies, Communication and Education MA
URL : http://www.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/taughtdegrees/courses/bysubject/course/?code=06954
Personal Notes : I found the program interesting. A high credit module on educational video production. Takes you to the history and talks about social and economic aspect of technology in education.
8. College : University of Edinburgh
Country : UK
Course Name : MSc in E-learning
URL : http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/e-learning/
Personal Notes : Very innovative online course. reputed university. But expensive if compared to similar courses in US.
9. College : Kings College, London
Country : UK
Course Name : ICT Education MA
URL : http://www.kcl.ac.uk/gsp09/programme/282
Personal Notes : Very reputed college. But, if I have funds to study in London, I will give preference to Institute of Education (see number 1 in this list).
10. College : Boise State
Country : US
Course Name : Masters of Education Technology / MS in Education Technology
URL : http://edtech.boisestate.edu/
Personal Notes : I would put this in top 3 courses in edtech in the world. Amazing course module. A Big staff of well known people in edtech research. Very affordable course. and Purely online. You dont need GRE.
11. College : San Diego State University
Country : US
Course Name : MA and range of short term courses
URL : http://edtec.sdsu.edu/
Personal Notes : You can’t go wrong if you opt for this course. People in industry know about this course. Again some very good course modules. Both oncampus and online.
12. College : University of Michigan
Country : US
Course Name : Technology in Education – Global programme
URL : http://globalprogram.umflint.edu/
Personal Notes : 13 months online program with 3 weeks of geneva residencies – opportunity to work with a long list of partners associated with United Nations and NGOs . Truly a Global programme. Very reputed university. Course also focusses on programming with ruby on rails, javascript, AJAX etc.(I am not sure whether its good or bad). But very impressive portfolio and work. And very expensive.
13. College : University of Sydney
Country : Australia
Course Name : Master of Learning Science and Technology
URL : http://www.edsw.usyd.edu.au/future_students/postgraduate/MLST/
Personal Notes : This prestigious university has a dedicated research centre (COCO). Course is blended with some sessions happening face to face in sydney. Course offered in two strands – Professional and Research – Based on what you want to pursue after the course.
14. College : University of Melbourne
Country : Australia
Course Name :Master of Information Technology in Education
URL : https://app.portal.unimelb.edu.au/CSCApplication/view/2009/327-BW
Personal Notes : Please see if you are eligible for the course as they have some tight expectations.
15. College : University of Western Australia
Country : Australia
Course Name : Master of Educational Management
URL : http://www.education.uwa.edu.au/courses/postgraduate/medman
Personal Notes : Not Exactly an edtech programme. But a popular programme in the region. And you can pick some interesting courses in educational technology from a long list of courses offered.
16. College : Monash University
Country : Australia
Course Name : Master of Education (ICT in education)
URL : http://www.education.monash.edu.au/courses/coursemaps/2500-icte.html
Personal Notes : As this is a MEd course , please check if you are eligible for it if you dont have bachelor degree in education.
17. college : University of British Columbia
Country : Canada
URL : http://met.ubc.ca/
Personal Notes : Again a very reputed university with an online course that attracts students from various countries.
18. College : University of Nottingham
Country : UK
URL : http://pgstudy.nottingham.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/ict-in-education-ma/facilities_785.aspx
Personal Notes : The university is running a dedicated Learning Sciences Research Institute which focuses on research areas in learning and technology.
19. College : Hull University
Country : UK
URL : http://www.hull.ac.uk/CES/courses/post-graduate/taught/medelearning/index.html
20. College : National Institute Of Education , Singapore
Country : Singapore
Course : MEd ( Learning Sciences and Technology)
URL : http://www.nie.edu.sg/nieweb/programmes/loading.do?id=Graduate&cid=10682369&ppid=11763731
Personal Notes : One of the excellent centres for educational studies in Asia. But, prefer students with prior teaching qualification and experience.
21. College : University Of Napier
Country : UK
Course : MSc – Elearning Design and Development
URL : http://www.courses.napier.ac.uk/W56703.htm?Nav=2
22. College : Dakota State University
Country : US
Course : Master of Science in Educational Technology
URL : http://www.dsu.edu/mset/mset-program-delivery.aspx
23. College : College Of Education , Purdue University
Country : US
Course : MS in Educational Technology
URL : http://www.edci.purdue.edu/et/ms.html
Notes : Good university. with good college of education. Requires GRE.
24. College : University of Bolton
Country : UK
Course : Masters in learning with technology
URL : http://inquirylearning.wordpress.com/concats/
Personal Notes : This university is running an amazing research centre in educational cybernetics and this program is a purely online offering.
25. College : University of Leeds
Country : UK
Course : MA ICT and Education
URL : http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/prospective/programme.php?programme=13
P.S. I have been trying to solve daily “real” issues which educators face while integrating technology in their curriculum. Click one of the icons on the right sidebar to join the growing community of educators reading this blog by RSS or by email…
I’ve been looking forward to attend this event since the topic is closely related to my module this term. I want to see if the VIP speakers can bring us any good ideas on the links or connections between Web 2.0 and education.
Here is the intro about the event forwarded from DANA Centre website:
How will the likes of MySpace, Wikipedia and Skype change the way we live, have fun and do business? Is it really a whole new edition of the World Wide Web or just marketing hype? Talk about the future with experts.
Speakers:
George Hadjigeorgiou, general manager, communications and community projects, Yahoo Europe
Aleks Krotoski, technology columnist, The Guardian; researcher, University of Surrey
Tim Malbon, creative director, Interesource
Alison Wheeler, CEO of Wikimedia UK, Wikimedia Foundation
Facilatator:
Gareth Mitchell, BBC World service ‘Digital Planet’ presenter
As part of the event why not try out some Web 2.0 websites:
See you there:)
Dear friends,
This is our message board for the mini course ‘Learn Chinese’.
Just drop your questions or comments any time you want.
Learn Chinese – link you and me!
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/6gmP4nk0EOE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Web 2.0
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/nsa5ZTRJQ5w" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
I’d like to share with you an article I read today from reuters.com titled ‘Kids socialize in a virtual world as avatars‘. It introduced four SNS sites for Kids, “Stardoll, Doppelganger, Club Penguin and Gaia Online”. These SNS sites are quite similar to Second Life where users live in a virtual world as different roles. The reasons why the sites are popular are these are the places for them to ‘be yourself’ and without ‘having pages where they feel forced to look sexy or cool or write some outrageous stuff in order to stand out.’
In my opinion, these sites are set up for sole purpose of entertainment instead of education. Or we can say, they are bulit up opposite to school settings.
Generally ‘tandem learning’ refers to ‘tandem language learning’. I found the definition of ‘tandem learning’ on wikipedia.
“Tandem language learning is a method of language learning based on mutual language exchange between tandem partners (ideally each learner is a native speaker in the language the proponent wants to learn). Many language schools in the world, organised as TANDEM International, as well as many universities, are working with this method.”
I also found the site about eTandem through searching: http://www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/etandem/etdef-en.html
It’s really a good idea to learn a foreign language and it’s free.
