Luis Figueroa lives down the street from UC Merced, the newest campus in the University of California system. So it’s not surprising that the 21 years old studies from the comfort of his own home. But he’s not enrolled at Merced: from his living-room computer, Figueroa is earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration at Columbia College in Missouri, some 2,000 miles away. At $630 per course—about $1,800 per semester—his online degree will cost far less than even in-state tuition at UC. Not only that, Figueroa is able to continue working full time in a management-training job with AT&T in Merced, a job he feels lucky to have in the current economic climate. “Once I realized I had time constraints, I knew the traditional classroom wouldn’t work,” he says. “Courses online are open 24 hours a day, and I’m able to go there any time I want.”That convenience is one of the main reasons nearly 4 million American students took at least one online course in the 2007-2008 school year, according to a study by the Sloan Foundation. The same study found that online enrollment is growing at a rate more than 10 times that of the higher-education population at large—12.9 percent vs.1.2 percent for traditional in seat students. Nowhere is the growth faster than among younger students like Figueroa who are opting for online learning, even when the traditional classroom is—in his case—right outside the front door. “This is a generation that lives online,” says Vicky Phillips, founder and CEO of Geteducated.com, a service that ranks online learning institutions. “Everything is instant, accelerated, and accessible, and they expect their education to be that way too. For them there is no clear line between the virtual world and the actual world.”Once targeted at older, working adults, distance learning has moved into the education mainstream at stunning speed over the past couple of years, as technology allows ever-richer, more -interactive learning experience online—and as college costs continue to rise and classrooms are packed to capacity. For traditional brick-and-mortar institutions, that has meant a scramble to enter a lucrative market that used to be the exclusive territory of for-profit institutions such as the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University. Established brand-name educators—including Stanford, Cornell, Penn State, and MIT, which has placed its entire curriculum online through its Open Courseware program—now offer extensive online learning options and are competing with the for-profits for students. “The stigma is gone,” says Phillips. “Online learning has reached mass cultural acceptance. It’s no longer the ugly stepsister of the higher-education world.”Online offerings these days can sometimes even surpass the classroom experience. Aaron Walsh, a professor at Boston College and a former videogame designer, has pioneered Immersive Education, a method of teaching through virtual worlds. Meeting in Second Life instead of a physical classroom, says Walsh, allows for some feats that gravity renders impossible, like having art-history students fly to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or biology majors to take a Magic School bus-like trip through the human body. Using videos, podcasts, live chats, Webcams, and wikis, educators increasingly see online learning as a way to engage the videogame generation with pedagogy that feels more like entertainment than drudgery. Students in the new homeland-security master’s degree program at the University of Connecticut this fall, for example, will have coursework that resembles Grand Theft Auto: dwelling in a cyber-city called San Luis Rey plagued with suicide bombers, biochemical attacks, and other disasters. At Arizona State, students in an Introduction to Parenting class raise a “virtual child”. They have to post the progress of their online charge through all the phases of childhood. “The classes are so much more interactive, and I can log on when I’m most ready to learn,” says Jaquelyn Holleran, a junior majoring in family and human development at ASU. “I like that s
The Experimental Psychology Society tries to improve scientific communications among experimental psychologists and those working in ______ fields.
Making the public library her second home, Justine is more than a casual bookworm; she is a (an) _____ young lady.
I am sure that Smith will ______ what I have said.
Every baby born a decade from now will have its genetic code mapped at birth, a genome sequencing company has predicted.A complete DNA read-out for every newborn will be technically feasible and affordable in less than five years, promising a revolution in healthcare, says the chief executive of Illumina.This will open a new approach to medicine, by which conditions such as diabetes and heart disease can be predicted and drugs prescribed more safely and effectively.The development, however, will raise difficult questions about privacy and access to individuals’ genetic records. Many people may be reluctant to have their genome read, for fear that the results could be used against them by an employer or insurance company.The prospect of genome screening for all has emerged because of the plummeting cost of the relevant technology.The Human Genome Project, which published its first rough sequence of mankind’s genetic code in 2001, cost an estimated $4 billion. By the time the scientists James Watson and Craig Venter had their genomes mapped two years ago, the cost had fallen to about $1 m.Last month, Illumina announced a deal with a British company that is developing a new approach to sequencing that could bring costs down further. In an interview with The Times, Dr. Flatley said a genome sequence should be available for less than $1,000 in three to four years.“The limitations are sociological; when and where people think it can be applied, the concerns people have about misinformation and the background ethics questions.”“I think those are actually going to be the limits that push it out to a ten-year timeframe,” he added.By examining which genetic variants a person has inherited, it is possible to identify raised risks of developing an array of conditions, including cardiovascular disease and many cancers. Those at high risk can then be screened more regularly, or given drugs or dietary advice to lower their chances of becoming ill.Personal genome sequencing, however, will raise legitimate concerns about privacy, “Bad things can be done with the genome. It could predict something about someone—and you could potentially hand information to their employer or their insurance company,” said Dr. Flatley, “Legislation has to be passed.”Complete genetic privacy, however, was unlikely to be possible, he added.“People have to recognize that this horse is out of the barn, and that your genome probably can’t be protected, because everywhere you go you leave your genome behind.”As the benefits become clearer, however, he believes that most people will want their genomes read and interpreted. The apparent benefits would soon eclipse the hazards.26. A complete DNA read-out is possible in the near future because ______.27. When will genome screening be actually applied to public, according to Dr. Flatley?28. The underlined word “conditions” in the text most probably means ______.29. What might be the “bad thing” associated with personal genome sequencing?30. What does Dr. Flatley think about genome screening?
The question of whether war is inevitable is one which has concerned many of the world’s great writers. Before considering this question, （1） will be useful to introduce some （2） concepts. Conflict, （3） as opposition among social entities directed against one another, is （4） from competition, （5） means opposition among social units （6） seeking to obtain something which is （7） inadequate supply. Competitors may not know about one another, which those who （8） in a conflict do. Conflict and competition are both （9） of opposition. The meaning of opposition has been stated as a process by which social units function in the disservice of one another. Opposition is （10） contrasted to cooperation, a （11） by which social units function in the service of one another. These （12） are necessary because it is important to emphasize that competition between individuals or groups is inevitable in a world of limited （13） , but conflict is not. Conflict, nevertheless, is very （14） to occur and is probably an essential and desirable element of human societies.Many authors have based their arguments that war cannot be avoided on the idea （15） in the struggle for existence among groups of animals, only those which are best adapted remain （16） . In general, however, this struggle （17） is competition, not conflict. Those who fail in this competition （18） starve to death or are killed by other types of animals. This struggle for existence is not （19） human war, but is （20） the competition of individuals for jobs, markets, and materials. The most important quality of this struggle is the competition for the necessities of life that are not enough to satisfy all.