Transforming the Internet from
a Library to a University

You can't just read an engineering textbook and expect to go out and build a bridge. And if you've never studied French, the odds are that having a French dictionary won't help much when you ask for directions in Paris. If access to information were all it took to be educated, we wouldn't need universities, just libraries.
 
As the Internet becomes more and more a vast library without walls, it is also becoming a potentially powerful tool for learning. At the Open Learning Initiative (OLI), which Carnegie Mellon University researchers launched in 2002 with a grant from the Hewlett Foundation, the quest is on to transform the Internet from library to sprawling university by understanding how people learn on computers.

The project assembles teams of specialists in learning and in the way human beings and computers interact, as well as software designers and university faculty members with expertise in specific fields of study. Together they create courses in a variety of subjects that are available free of charge to anyone who wants to take them. They can be explored at www.cmu.edu/oli/.

To date, the results of the research have been promising. In one study, students actually mastered material in less time than is typical in a traditional classroom with a teacher.

Read more about the Open Learning Initiative... 

The Foundation Welcomes
New Employees

The Foundation welcomes new employees Kim Jorstad and Camilla Simon.

Read more about the Foundation's new employees...

"Foundations" - A Q&A
with Marc Vogl

“Foundations” is an occasional series of informal question-and-answer sessions with employees and others affiliated with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to give them an opportunity to explain their work. 

Marc Vogl is an officer with the Foundation’s Performing Arts Program. Before joining the Foundation, he co-founded the San Francisco sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster and the Hi/Lo Film Festival.

Read more Foundations with Marc Vogl...

Featured Web Site:
Radio Bilingüe

You might call Radio Bilingüe a Latino National Public Radio for California’s Central Valley. Growing from a single non-profit station in Fresno in 1976, it today comprises a network of six stations that serve agricultural communities across California and reaches throughout the nation with scores of affiliates. Radio Bilingüe’s mission is to provide critical information to Latino listeners and other underserved communities.

Read more about Radio Bilingue...