Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a futuristic kind of classroom that could morph into just the right kind of environment needed to teach different subjects? What if your classroom could become a language lab when you needed to teach foreign languages? And then a biology lab for learning about the wonders of the natural world? And then (without having to clean up, of course) you could press a button or flip a switch to unveil a spotless physics lab, ready to explore the physical laws governing our fascinating universe?

This kind of scenario seems like science fiction, but it isn't really. SANAKO's association with the Romanian learning content provider SIVECO can help make this dream a reality. In announcing the collaboration, SANAKO mentioned the power of combining the use of its advanced classroom management solutions with interactive multimedia content from SIVECO.

Now, back to our classroom. This is no ordinary PC classroom. Teacher and student positions (workstations, laptops or mobile devices for students) have SANAKO Study 500 and/or SANAKO Study 1200 software installed. This means that the room can be used as a language lab. Now, introduce SIVECO interactive digital content for Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and your classroom can potentially be used, not only for supervised teacher-led language training, but also as a science lab that allows students to reinforce theory by conducting experiments themselves.

When launched to student stations at the appropriate point in the lesson, SIVECO content lets each student hold the scalpel to dissect a frog (no blood and gor involved),  manoeuvre a pipette to experiment with different liquids (with no danger of explosions), or to pull on a weight to observe the principles of a pulley at work (no accidents waiting to happen).

All this can be done without changing rooms and without investment in separate specialist labs and related equipment. Most importantly, and what perhaps is difficult to define in dollars, is the empowerment benefit each student gets from participating in the experiment, noting the outcomes, and repeating as needed. And with the teacher using Study software to monitor and mentor students, the benefits are multiplied.

Are higher fuel prices pushing more people to do their learning online? There's been a lot of talk globally about how rising prices - particularly fuel prices - are affecting every aspect of our everyday lives.

Now one educator, Ray Schroeder of the University of Illnois, has launched an entire blog space to consider how fuel prices are affecting education. As Director of Technology-Enhanced Learning at the university, he feels that high prices are causing people to look for cheaper learning alternatives - and that most often means online programs.

Find out more about that discussion by visiting his blog at: http://fuelingonline.blogspot.com/ and tell us how you see things developing in your area.