Stephen Downes

Mashable makes the case for the virtual classroom. It's nothing we haven't seen in these pages, and it's still stuck in old-world thinking about online learning ('classroom'?) but it's still remarkable to see such a plug in a mainstream online publication. We get a plug for 2tor, the argument that "students who studied in online learning environments performed modestly better than peers who were receiving face-to-face instruction," a plug for University of the People, a video from Bill Gates, a plug for the Khan Academy, and a nod to blended learning and Berkeley webcasts.