Cybereducation is Revolutionizing Teaching and Learning in Schools All Around the World, Says New Book

June 5, 2001

LARCHMONT, N.Y. — Cybereducation — the use of the worldwide web, the internet, virtual reality, and multimedia to facilitate teaching and learning — is revolutionizing academic institutions around the globe, including leading universities, schools in developing nations, high school science labs, and K-12 home schools. This trend is examined in an original and provocative new book, Cybereducation: The Future of Long-Distance Learning, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com).

Edited by Larry R. Vandervert, Ph.D., of American Nonlinear Systems; Larisa V. Shavinina, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto; and Richard A. Cornell, Ed.D., of the University of Central Florida, the book explores the explosive worldwide growth of cybereducation.

Practical applications of long-distance learning are changing just as fast as technology today, says Vandervert. “Cybereducation offers a broad, bold perspective on the nature of cyberspace and where cybereducation is headed,” he said. “It tracks and explains exciting new advances in the field for educators, administrators, web designers, systems developers, training specialists, neuroscientists, media executives, and anyone interested in cybereducation’s vast potential for enhancing teaching, learning, and human productivity.”

These advances include a three-year program originated by the World Bank called World Links for Development (WorLD), which has established computer labs for 13,000 teachers and 230,000 students in more than 600 secondary schools in 20 developing countries. WorLD provides internet connectivity and technology training, linking schools in African, Latin American, and Middle Eastern nations in order to improve education, enhance cultural understanding, and develop skills needed to enter the 21st century job market.

The Educational Technology Expertise Center of the Open University of the Netherlands has designed a cybereducation experiment called The Virtual Learning Company to close the gap between learning and working. This internet-based networked learning environment, modeled on the functional structures of real companies, gives students responsibility for running businesses that deliver knowledge-based products and services to actual external customers.

The Smart Engineering Project of the Instructional Software Development Center at the University of Missouri-Rolla has developed a framework for web-based learning systems design and assessment that begins with a clear delineation of the intended audience, usage context, and learning goals. It incorporates seven basic components: directionality, usability consistency, interactivity, multimodality, adaptability, and accountability.

Changing technology is forcing higher educational institutions to reconsider how they do business. The University of Central Florida in Orlando, a predominantly commuter campus, researched demographic trends as well as student and faculty reactions to online experiences in developing and expanding a distributed learning initiative to solve problems of limited classroom space. Six complete online degree programs are now offered via fully online and web-enhanced courses.

New hybrid cyberschool models are using different approaches to integrating computer technology in the classroom. Cybereducation profiles working programs at two Washington state public schools: Edmonds Cyber-school, a resource center for 456 home-schooled K-12 students; and Kamiak Cyberschool, a technology-driven satellite program emphasizing interactive learning for 43 juniors and seniors at a small, overcrowded high school.

The Maryland Virtual High School of Science & Mathematics, a statewide project originally funded by a National Science Foundation grant, has created an online science lab shared by 30 schools that implements computer modeling activities in the classroom for teachers and students.

About Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals and books in new and promising areas of science and biomedical research, including the journals Cyberpsychology and Behavior and Biotech Software & Internet Report and the book Biophysical Neural Networks: Foundations of Integrative Neuroscience. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 60 journals, books, and newsletters is available at www.liebertpub.com.


Contact Information

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Paula Masi

914/834-3100 ext. 615

pmasi@liebertpub.com