This week, from November 9th – November 13th, marks the official National Distance Learning Week here in the United States.

National Distance Learning Week (NDLW) is officially sponsored by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), a valuable hub of distance learning resources that I encourage you to explore.

During this week many online universities across the country will be making a special effort to showcase their distance learning and online degree programs for prospective students.  If you’ve been contemplating distance learning or have been stuck on the fence about it but want to learn more, now may be your best time to contact some prospective schools to see exactly what they have to offer.

The USDLA will also be holding a series of eleven webinars from now through Friday.  The range of topics covered is truly far beyond what I would have expected.  For example, in just a half-hour from now (11 am ET) there will be a webinar on distance learning for home-schoolers from pre-K – 12th grade.

Most of the material looks to be targeted toward educators, faculty, and policy makers, but there are a few interesting topics.  The highlights I am seeing will both be on Friday the 13th (ahh!)

Event: Mobile learning
Date: 11/13/2009
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (ET)

Description:

This webinar will explore the new undiscovered learning environment and how it is changing the way the world learns and interacts in a global multi-billion dollar education and training market. Specific areas of interest may focus on mobile learning, simulation, social networking, blended learning and Web 2.0 technologies.
Sponsored & Hosted by: Elluminate, Inc. (http://www.elluminate.com)

and

Event: International: Culture, Language and Collaborative Learning Globally
Date: 11/13/2009
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (ET)

Description:

This webinar will explore a broad range of issues related to collaborative learning globally. Specific areas of interest may focus on what various countries are doing in regards to distance/open learning, distribution, culture, language and providing overall accesses to learning globally.
Sponsored & Hosted by: Elluminate, Inc. (http://www.elluminate.com)

If you’d like to see the full schedule of webinars or sign up for one you can do so here.   Have a great National Distance Learning Week everyone!