Techno-News Blog

July 18, 2013

Lessons from the first millionaire online teacher

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BY SARAH LACY, PanoDaily

PandoDaily reports that the “first millionaire online teacher,” Scott Allen, has earned over $1.8 million from teaching computer programming at Pluralsight.com over the past five years. Others aren’t far behind, though. Online course marketplace, Udemy, recently shared its list of top ten earners on its platform, led by Victor Bastos, who’s made over $450K teaching web development since November 2011.

http://pandodaily.com/2013/07/08/lessons-from-the-first-millionaire-online-teacher/

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July 17, 2013

7 Ways To Create E-Portfolios

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by Debra Donston-Miller, Information Week

E-portfolios are “dynamic, developmental spaces representing your professional ‘self’ on the Web,” says a Penn State website that offers help and services to students, alumni and faculty looking to build an e-portfolio. “They are becoming standard practice for academics, students, and professionals and typically include examples of skills and achievements, as well as a reflective blog element.” E-portfolios can be developed in a variety of ways, from simple (and free) blogging platforms, to modules in learning management systems, to dedicated software programs and services. Many colleges and universities offer their own e-portfolio services to students, be they proprietary or licensed through an outside provider.

http://www.informationweek.com/education/online-learning/7-ways-to-create-e-portfolios/240157957

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Introducing Versal: A New Way for Anyone to Create Interactive Online Learning Courses

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by the Wall Street Journal

Versal launches the first beta version of  its open course publishing platform, empowering instructors everywhere to create engaging online learning experiences

— Versal is a single place to create online courses and share expertise with anyone.

— Interactive, customizable learning exercises called “gadgets” bring courses to life – no coding required.

— An SDK will be available later this summer for third-party JavaScript developers to contribute to the Versal gadget library.

— The Versal Foundation offers grants to create forever-free courses that help change lives.

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130709-907918.html

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Coursera Hits 4 Million Students — And Triples Its Funding

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by George Anders, Forbes

Coursera founders Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng don’t think small. Their Mountain View, Calif., online-education company is less than two years old, yet it already has attracted more than 4 million student signups. Now Coursera has raised $43 million in fresh venture capital, tripling its cash available for growth. Coursera’s instructors include globally known professors from at least 73 universities worldwide, ranging from Brown to the University of Tokyo.  The U.S. accounts for less than half of Coursera’s overall student enrollment; other prominent countries include Brazil,India, China, Canada, Britain, Russia and Germany.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2013/07/10/coursera-hits-4-million-students-and-triples-its-funding/

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July 16, 2013

Chicago Public Library 3D printers, laser cutters, and milling machines are now open to the public.

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by Jacqui Cheng, ars technica

If you’ve ever had a hankering to try out a 3D printer, a laser cutter, or a milling machine without dropping thousands of your own hard-earned dollars, the Harold Washington Library in Chicago is the place to be.  The  Harold Washington has become the first major urban library to open a pop-up “maker lab,” allowing members of the general public the opportunity to experiment with the cutting-edge technologies. And while there are still a few wrinkles to iron out before the public can use all the machines, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system is already looking forward to where this project will go next. “There’s more buzz about this on social media than anything we’ve ever done,” CPL’s First Deputy Commissioner Andrea Sáenz told Ars.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/3d-printing-for-all-inside-chicago-librarys-new-pop-up-maker-lab/

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White space Internet may finally spread through US

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by Jon Brodkin, ars technica

White space networks haven’t spread in quite the way some of its visionaries envisioned a few years ago, but the method of providing wireless Internet access over unused TV spectrum is slowly gaining a foothold. Companies like Microsoft and Google are using white spaces to bring the Web to underserved parts of the world, and a couple of commercial networks have been launched in the US. Now, white spaces may be about to gain traction in colleges and libraries. West Virginia University announced today that it is going to “use vacant broadcast TV channels to provide the campus and nearby areas with wireless broadband Internet services.” The initial rollout will provide free public Wi-Fi—yes, it really exists!—on a public transit tram system. West Virginia is setting its network up in conjunction with AIR.U, a consortium of colleges and universities aiming to deploy white space networks on campuses and surrounding areas.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/white-space-internet-may-finally-spread-through-us/

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Google patches critical Android threat as working exploit is unleashed

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by Dan Goodin, arstechnica

A security researcher has published working exploit code that allows attackers to surreptitiously turn legitimate apps running on Google’s Android mobile operating system into malicious trojans. Around the same time, Google said it released a patch that helps protect users from abuse. As previously reported, the weakness involves the way legitimate Android applications are cryptographically signed to ensure they haven’t been modified by parties other than the trusted developer. Researchers at security startup Bluebox provided high-level details of the vulnerability last week, but omitted technical details most people would need to reproduce the attack. That didn’t stop members of CyanogenMod, an alternative Android firmware version, from piecing together the available details into this bug report that identifies the conditions necessary for exploiting the vulnerability. It also incorporates a fix from Google into the CyanogenMod code.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/07/google-patches-critical-android-threat-as-working-exploit-is-unleashed/

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July 15, 2013

Teaching the law with technology: College of Law now offers online class, course sharing with Ohio State

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BY TOM SNEE, Iowa Now

The College of Law is venturing into new forms of electronic legal education for the first time this year, with two professors teaching classes that expand the college’s educational reach and experiments that include joint distance education with Ohio State University. Professor Marcella David is teaching the class “The Legal Profession” online this summer to University of Iowa law students. Then this fall, professor Herb Hovenkamp will open his antitrust law class to students at the Moritz College of Law at OSU, which will participate remotely in a pilot project that may expand to other law schools in the Big Ten. In return, UI law students will participate remotely in an election law class offered at OSU in spring 2014.

http://now.uiowa.edu/2013/07/teaching-law-technology

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MOOCs: Born of technology, a perfect fit for IT learning

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By Dean Tsouvalas, Computerworld

In some circles, MOOCs are seen as highly disruptive for higher education. While the battle over massive open online courses may rage in some disciplines for years to come, there’s one area where the transition will be tranquil: information technology education. MOOCs, of course, are usually college-level courses that are offered by an established university. They are free and available online, and their shared goal is to open up learning to as many people as possible. Information services and technology rest at the heart of the MOOC experience. And not only are MOOCs the result of advances in information-sharing technology, they are also ideally suited to the teaching of IT skills — and to the acumen and temperament of most IT students. As a result, computer and information science courses and their students are leading the charge in this transformation of higher education. With computer and science professors among the most interested in moving their courses to a new platform, and with students who are already tech-savvy, the IT-MOOC connection makes perfect sense.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240646/MOOCs_Born_of_technology_a_perfect_fit_for_IT_learning

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Versal Aims to Make Teaching as Easy as Blogging

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By Harry McCracken, Technologizer

In certain respects, Versal reminds me a little bit of Curious. Both aim to help anybody teach anything to everybody who’d like to learn it. But while Curious emphasizes video lessons above all else, Versal allows its teachers to create courses and classes that meld words, images and video with interactive web gadgets. The text, pictures and videos let teachers do the teaching; the gadgets let students teach themselves by doing. Versal provides a web-based editor that lets users piece everything together in a straightforward manner reminiscent of a blogging platform such as WordPress, then hosts completed courses on its own servers. Among the gadgets debuting in Versal’s first courses are one that lets 3D modelers manipulate a skeleton; another allows color-theory students to tap on paintings to see which colors they use; and a third (shown above) provides a simulation of how epidemics spread. They all worked well on both my PC and iPad, and hint at how all sorts of gadgets could enhance all sorts of lessons.

http://techland.time.com/2013/07/09/versal-aims-to-make-teaching-as-easy-as-blogging/

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July 14, 2013

Build Your Own Internet with Mobile Mesh Networking

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By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

After an earthquake crippled Haiti in 2010, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands and destroying the country’s communication networks, Paul Gardner-Stephen found himself thinking about all the cell phones that had instantly become useless. With cell towers out of commission across the country, they would be unable to operate. “If the software on the phones was right,” he says, “they would keep working for at least localized communication, handset to handset.” Gardner-Stephen, a research fellow at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, now leads a project that enables Android phones to do just that. Serval, as the project is called, offers an app that allows nearby phones to link up using their Wi-Fi connections, as long as they have been modified to disable the usual security restrictions. Voice calls, text messages, file transfers, and more can take place between devices with the Serval app installed. Devices don’t need to be in range of one another to communicate, as long as there are other devices running the app in between; data can hop between any phones with Serval installed.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516571/build-your-own-internet-with-mobile-mesh-networking/

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3 Reasons To Try Google Chromebooks In The Classroom

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by Maggie Summers, Edudemic

Google’s Samsung Chromebook is still relatively new to the tech scene, but it’s made quite a splash since its launch in October 2012. Aptly billed “a laptop for everyone,” its $249 price tag and straightforward interface makes it a device worth considering for both students and teachers. Between the wild news that Malaysia is adopting 10 million and the new Google Play Store for Education, there’s a few reasons try Google Chromebooks in the classroom.

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/07/3-reasons-to-try-google-chromebooks-in-the-classroom/

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Only 8% of CIOs Are Women; Shockingly That’s an Improvement

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by Anna Frazetto, Huffington Post

When it comes to women in U.S. CIO roles, the number has remained relatively unchanged. Eight percent of CIOs in the U.S. are women, a slight improvement from seven percent last year, according to the latest CIO survey from Harvey Nash. While this figure isn’t too surprising, as women make up a relatively small percentage of the C-suite, (only 10 percent of CFOs and 4 percent of CEOs in the Fortune 500 are women) what is surprising is that so few women make up the talent pool in IT for many companies. According to the report, 75% of U.S. CIOs polled stated that there are a lack of qualified female candidates for IT leadership rolls. In addition, 40% believed that the current percentage of CIOs being women (8%) is satisfactory.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cassie-slane/women-cio_b_3561842.html

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July 13, 2013

Textbooks vs. tablets: Schools begin exploring transformation in learning tools

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by Kris Hilgedick, News-Tribune

Humans have relied on books for learning ever since some enterprising Mesopotamian pressed a reed into a lump of wet clay. But in April 2010 — a mere 39 months ago — Apple Inc. introduced the iPad tablet. Ever since, educators have been learning how to used the devices to enrich classroom learning. Will the iPad, and devices similar to it, someday replace the book in America’s classrooms?

It’s possible.

http://www.newstribune.com/news/2013/jul/07/textbooks-vs-tablets-schools-begin-exploring-trans/

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A University’s Offer of Credit for a MOOC Gets No Takers

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By Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Ed

It was big news last fall when Colorado State University-Global Campus became the first college in the United States to grant credit to students who passed a MOOC, or massive open online course. For students, it meant a chance to get college credit on the cheap: $89, the cost of the required proctored exam, compared with the $1,050 that Colorado State charges for a comparable three-credit course. That is a big discount. Yet almost a year after Global Campus made the announcement, officials are still waiting for their first credit bargain-hunters. Not one student has taken the university up on its offer.

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Universitys-Offer-of-Credit/140131/

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Fighting Distraction in Online Courses

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by Courtney Buell, edcetera

Online courses are here to stay, but they present real challenges for today’s learners. In a traditional classroom, distraction is a significant problem, but it’s difficult to sit through an entire lecture without absorbing at least part of the lesson. Online, it’s easy for a student to sit down with the intention of completing a course module or assignment and realize two hours (and ten YouTube videos) later that they didn’t get anything done. Students raised in the fast-paced, multi-tasking, distraction-prone digital age have more access to learning than ever before — but when education is conducted online, next to entertainment and 24-hour updates, students often have a hard time focusing long enough to really learn.

http://edcetera.rafter.com/fighting-distraction-in-online-courses/

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July 12, 2013

What MOOCs and webinars can teach us about digital engagement

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by Jasper Visser, Museum of the Future

The biggest eye-opener for me is that although online communication is often one to one (one organisation talking to one individual in the audience), in many of my webinars the ‘one’ on the receiving end actually was a group of participants sharing the same laptop. I’ve heard of MOOC study groups where people watch the videos together. People online are not necessarily  (physically) alone. When thinking about digital engagement this means the people at the receiving end will talk, discuss and exchange ideas outside of the scope of the digital environment and maybe only report some key words back. This provides huge opportunities for facilitators in webinars and other online processes.

http://themuseumofthefuture.com/2013/07/04/what-moocs-and-webinars-can-teach-us-about-digital-engagement

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Benefits of Online, Face-to-Face Teacher Professional Development Similar, Study Finds

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by Computing Education Blog

These are really exciting results. Done well, on-line professional development is as effective as face-to-face professional development as published in ACM Transactions on Computing Education. These results are promising for our CSLearning4U project. In particular, the benefit that Barry Fishman saw is what we were most hoping for, based on our studies with Klara Benda — it’s all about fitting into the teachers’ lives. Of course, the devil is in how the teacher training is designed and executed. ”There are no shortcuts in professional development,” Fishman stressed. In the study, teachers who received the online professional development weren’t just plopped in front of YouTube. Instead, the group took a series of self-paced “short courses” via computer. They also interacted online with facilitators who helped them through the units and answered their questions.

http://computinged.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/benefits-of-online-face-to-face-professional-development-similar-study-finds/

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Kaplan bets on 10 online learning startups

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by Judith Messina, Crain’s New York Business

WhipSmart Learning offers an online array of engaging, kid-relevant daily news stories geared to different reading levels. It’s one of the first 10 companies in the new Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, itself one of a flurry of new, startup hatcheries targeting education. For-profit education company Kaplan announced the accelerator in February and a week ago named its first class. The 10 companies include five New York-based startups. Tech Stars, which runs accelerators in eight cities, provides some of the money—$20,000 for a 6% equity stake—while Kaplan furnishes the mentors, an optional $100,000 in convertible debt and space for three months at 395 Hudson St. For Kaplan, which already runs its own internal hackathons, the accelerator is an opportunity to capitalize on disruption in the education market. “It’s a great learning experience for us,” said Bernardo Rodriguez, chief digital officer at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. “Secondly, we will build good relationships with the startups and, if after three months, we want to invest or partner with them, we will be close to them.” Until last year, there were only a handful of EdTech accelerators, a tacit acknowledgement of the difficulty of bringing change to public school bureaucracies and to a higher education establishment constrained by tradition and tenure.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130703/TECHNOLOGY/130709962

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July 11, 2013

Five great jobs you can get with an online degree

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By Devon Haynie, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

An online master’s degree in IT can boost earnings as a computer systems analyst. For adults juggling jobs and family commitments, earning a degree can seem like a Herculean task. But it doesn’t have to be. By joining the millions of Americans pursuing online education, it’s possible to prepare for the next great job opportunity from the comfort of your couch. “Online learning can do two things: It can lead to advancement in an existing profession, or it can lead to a completely new profession,” says Leah K. Matthews, executive director of the Accrediting Commission of the nonprofit Distance Education and Training Council. “It spans almost every field now.” The following five jobs were pulled from U.S. News & World Report’s 100 Best Jobs of 2013 rankings. They earned high marks for employment opportunity, salary, work-life balance and job security, among other factors.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/top-5-jobs-online-degree-article-1.1371724?localLinksEnabled=false

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A Battery and a “Bionic” Ear: a Hint of 3-D Printing’s Promise

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By Mike Orcutt, Technology Review

Laboratory advances hint at how additive manufacturing technology could change the way some electronic devices are made. 3-D printers can cheaply fabricate custom-designed objects, but until now they have been limited by the types of materials they can use. Today’s 3-D printers can generally only build things out of one type of material—usually a plastic or, in certain expensive industrial versions of the machines, a metal. They can’t build objects with electronic, optical, or any kind of functions that require the integration of multiple materials. But recent advances in the research lab—including a 3-D printed battery and a bionic ear—suggest that this might soon change. Last month, researchers unveiled what they say is the world’s first 3-D printed battery, made from two different electrode “inks.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516561/a-battery-and-a-bionic-ear-a-hint-of-3-d-printings-promise/

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