Ackerman coursework makes the grade: NCU Learner has coursework published in peer-reviewed journal

Prescott, Arizona–November 29, 2006 — Northcentral University (www.ncu.edu), a leader in online higher education, is pleased to acknowledge an achievement by one of its doctoral Learners, Gary L. Ackerman.

Mr. Ackerman, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education at Northcentral University (NCU), completed a course project that was accepted and published in the Journal of the New England League of Middle Schools, a peer-reviewed publication. The article, Technology Tools for Turning Points, appears in the Journals Fall 2006 edition.

Ackerman resides in Vermont, where he teaches technology at West Rutland School, a K-12 school for which he is also technology coordinator. A Learner at NCU since December 2004, Ackerman is pursuing a doctor of philosophy in Education with a specialization in Education Technology Management. He submitted his course project from Telecommunications Applications for Education (LTM5009) to the Journal, where it was reviewed and accepted for publication.

Technology Tools for Turning Points focuses on the use of Blogging and Podcasts in middle schools. More specifically, Ackerman explores the use of podcasts to enhance curriculum, and the use of web logs (blogs) to build a sense of communityinvolving parents and the larger community as well as students and educators.

Ackerman sees such network-based, asynchronous communication and education tools as useful not only to students but also to educators. He envisions both informal information and discussion exchanges and more formal workshop applications. The article also goes into some detail about the types of software necessarymost of which is, if not already in place, cheaply or even freely available. (The requisite hardware, he notes, is already in the inventory of most schools.) More importantly perhaps, Ackerman addresses the level of ongoing system support educators would need to exploit these technologies.

Ackermans conclusion is that technology provides inexpensive tools to support the dynamic and lively learning that characterizes middle schools. Integrating these tools into school operations, however, may pose some challenges and will require the collaboration of both education leaders and educational technologists.

Mr. Ackermans article can be read in its entirety on the New England League of Middle Schools website (www.nelms.org), where the Fall 2006 edition of the Journal is presented at http://www.nelms.org/pdfs/2006/journal/journal_fall_2006.pdf