Greetings mathfuturists --
I haven't posted in awhile yet remain an avid
lurker.
End of April, I was in St. Louis MO for the US
Distance Learning Association meetup (USDLA).
I was sent by my company, a distance learning
provider based in Sebastopol (CA) but serving
a global clientele of so far mostly adult learners.
Our venue for the conference: Union Station,
once a major mid-western hub in the era of
Passenger Train Travel (we're doing Air now),
a new destination hotel with many attractions
including a Hard Rock Cafe and train museums.
I enjoyed my stay a lot and recommend the
venue to other groups. Nearby City Museum
is not to be missed.[1]
We were a mixed bag, an interesting mix of
strange bedfellows. Our diversity was discussed
in the closing keynote [2].
Some of us represent proud and long-accredited
diploma-granting institutions, now extending
their services to a larger off-campus audience.
The new kids on the block are unaccredited
certificate givers, sometimes referred to as
"start-ups" but as with "charter school" that
may give the wrong idea, of something less
established i.e. more likely to go away. Let
me explain.
Michigan (MI) by public law has decreed that
every high-schooler shall have access to at
least one distance learning opportunity, for
which said student may visit an entirely different
facility, known as a Nexus Academy.
From there, a specially wired facility, supervised
by adults, provided with workout equipment
and a cafeteria (more like a skyscraper would
have), the students connect teachers like me,
remotely, to earn math credits or whatever.
So what if we're a private business, a dot com?
It's the State of Michigan which decides what
to accredit and our Python track is college level,
you can check it out on-line.