Techno-News Blog

by Katie Lepi, Edudemic

While online learning is nothing new, traditional education is being disrupted by online education. With so many colleges and universities now say that online courses are a critical part of their long-term strategy, it is clear that this trend is affecting the mainstream population higher education students. New technology is fueling online education adoption and enabling it to be very effective.  Check out the handy infographic at the URL below to learn more about some of the current statistics and trends in online learning.

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/07/a-visual-guide-to-online-learning/

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

New tricks will enable a life-logging app called Saga to figure out not only where you are, but what you’re doing. Having mobile devices closely monitoring our behavior could make them more useful, and open up new business opportunities. Many of us already record the places we go and things we do by using our smartphone to diligently snap photos and videos, and to update social media accounts. A company called ARO is building technology that automatically collects a more comprehensive, automatic record of your life. ARO is behind an app called Saga that automatically records every place that a person goes. Now ARO’s engineers are testing ways to use the barometer, cameras, and microphones in a device, along with a phone’s location sensors, to figure out where someone is and what they are up to. That approach should debut in the Saga app in late summer or early fall.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516566/using-a-smartphones-eyes-and-ears-to-log-your-every-move/

By Ry Rivard, Inside Higher Ed
Some students taking free classes from Coursera may never know the right answers. A University of Michigan professor teaching one of the company’s massive open online courses, or MOOCs, told students this week he could not provide them with correct answers to questions they get wrong because doing so would reduce efficiency.  The professor’s decision is prompting additional questions by critics of MOOCs about their ability to provide quality teaching.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/05/one-mooc-professor-wont-let-students-know-right-answers

by Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOM

High school kids across the country are getting the chance to make potentially thousands of new Facebook friends. That’s because massive open online courses (MOOCs), which have historically targeted college-age students and lifelong learners, are making their way to the pre-college crowd. This week, News Corp.’s education arm Amplify announced a high school MOOC for AP Computer Science. The course, which kicks off in August, is intended to give students two semesters of academic instruction in preparation for the College Board’s exam. The online program, taught by an experienced high school teacher, is free to students. And an added option, called MOOC Local, which provides schools with students in the CS MOOC additional resources, will cost $200 per student but is free to schools for the first year.

http://gigaom.com/2013/06/28/news-corp-s-amplify-is-latest-with-a-mooc-for-the-high-school-crowd/

By Kevin Bullis, Technology Review

Reducing solar panel costs isn’t enough. Installation now accounts for well over half the cost of solar power. Researchers at the U.S. government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory have built flexible solar cells using a thin and pliable kind of glass from Corning, the company that makes the glass that covers iPhone screens. The new solar cells could make rooftop solar power far cheaper. Based on tests by Corning, which makes a product called Gorilla glass for iPhone screens and which announced the flexible material, called Willow glass, last year, shingles made from such solar cells could last for decades on a roof—even weathering hail greater than three centimeters in diameter. Conventional solar panels are heavy, bulky, and breakable, which makes them expensive to transport and install.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516471/flexible-glass-could-make-tablets-lighter-and-solar-power-cheaper/

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic
Whether you’re using technology a lot or just dipping your proverbial toes in the digital water, this quick set of tips is perfect for you.For starters, you should know that effective connected educators always “start with the why” and don’t immediately adopt and deploy technology as soon as possible. They try to figure out “why” that particular piece of tech should have a lofty place in the classroom and where it would help. Effective educators who use technology also think ahead. They think two steps ahead, actually. That means they figure out what the connected classroom will look like 1, 2, even 5 years from now. Then they respond. They understand that it may be all about Apple iPads right now, but that doesn’t mean that’s the best option for their classroom. For example, what if iPads fall out of favor and instead a free tablet or no tablet at all is the answer. It’s all about thinking ahead.
http://www.edudemic.com/2013/07/the-7-habits-of-effective-connected-educators/

by Dawn Casey-Rowe, Edudemic

Time for some math. You either love it or hate it, but it makes the world go round. For me, math was always a struggle. I wanted to love it, but the numbers swirling in my head never seemed to straighten themselves out for the test. But maybe that’s just it–”the test.” When math is separated into columns and rows, some students struggle. This is why this week’s Learnist feature is all about math. It’s designed to showcase some of the useful web resources for math teachers as well as students.
http://www.edudemic.com/2013/07/10-web-resources-for-math-teachers/

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

There are some very popular tools and apps out there. We showcase a boatload of them here on Edudemic. But there’s been a growing trend of figuring out how to actually integrate all these together and how to effectively use the best web tools to enhance learning in the classroom. One of the most powerful visualizations to date has been the fabulous Padagogical Wheel (with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘e’) that shows how to integrate iPads into just about everything like SAMR and beyond. Now there’s a new visual guide that you should check out. It’s a pyramid that I spotted on Pinterest here. It shows you exactly where each of the best web tools and apps fit into Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. The pyramid lists off the icons of the most well-known tools that you are probably already using. Then it organizes them into the six levels of the taxonomy.

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/07/best-web-tools-blooms-digital-taxonomy/

by Heather Ashbach, University of California

“There are a lot of reasons a student may struggle in certain subjects, including teacher readiness, textbook inadequacies and reliance on standardized testing,” says Jean-Claude Falmagne, UC Irvine research professor of cognitive sciences as well as founder and chairman of the privately held ALEKS Corp. “ALEKS addresses each of these concerns. It’s a competent teaching assistant using content written by university faculty and Ph.D.s. Instead of being a standardized, one-size-fits-all test, it assesses precisely each student’s current knowledge state – finding out exactly what they know and, more importantly, what they’re ready to learn.” The program is an integral part of UC Irvine’s classroom and online algebra and precalculus courses. Online versions have reached more than 1,000 students through Summer Session and are currently available as MOOCs on Coursera. They receive American Council on Education credit and are being considered for adoption by other universities.

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/29714

by Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Cengage Learning Inc., one of the nation’s largest publishers of textbooks and other educational content, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, seeking relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code for what it said was about $5.8-billion in outstanding debt. The move will not only reduce that debt but allow Cengage to restructure to support its “long-term business strategy of transitioning from traditional print models to digital educational and research materials,” the company said in a written statement.

http://chronicle.com/article/Publishers-Bankruptcy-Filing/140103/

By Will Knight, Technology Review

Wireless vehicle networks could make driving safer and more efficient, but the cost of deployment will be significant. The phrase “vehicle-to-vehicle communications” might currently mean little more than a few choice words hurled through an open car window. In a few years, however, it could be synonymous with technology that makes driving safer, less polluting, and certainly less antagonistic. This week, officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, DC, will see the technology in action, in a demonstration organized by experts from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute and various communications equipment and car manufacturers. The demos will showcase a way for vehicles to exchange information—including their position, direction, and speed—with other similarly equipped vehicles as well as with roadside equipment such as traffic lights and tollbooths.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/515966/the-internet-of-cars-is-approaching-a-crossroads/

By Rachel Metz, Technology Review

An SRI project aims to build a powerful predictive assistant for office workers. In a small, dark, room off a long hallway within a sprawling complex of buildings in Silicon Valley, an array of massive flat-panel displays and video cameras track Grit Denker’s every move. Denker, a senior computer scientist at the nonprofit R&D institute SRI, is showing off Bright, an intelligent assistant that could someday know what information you need before you even ask.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/515671/siris-creators-demonstrate-an-assistant-that-takes-the-initiative/

by Jonathan Stempel, GMA News

Google Inc notched a legal victory in its bid to create the world’s largest digital books library, winning the reversal of a court order that had allowed authors challenging the project to sue as a group. A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said Circuit Judge Denny Chin prematurely certified a class of authors without first deciding if the “fair use” defense under U.S. copyright law allowed Google to display snippets of books. The three-judge panel also signaled it may prove improper to allow a class action on behalf of potentially hundreds of thousands of writers arguing that the Google Books Library Project improperly copied their works without permission. “Putting aside the merits of Google’s claim that plaintiffs are not representative of the certified class — an argument which, in our view, may carry some force — we believe that the resolution of Google’s fair use defense in the first instance will necessarily inform and perhaps moot our analysis of many class certification issues,” the panel said.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/315545/scitech/technology/authors-lose-class-lawsuit-vs-google-books

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education

The YouTube generation takes to video like fish do to water. And today’s schools are tapping into that stream because it doesn’t appear to be drying up anytime soon. Students in Richland School District Two in Colombia, S.C., shoot video with their smartphones whenever they can, said Donna Teuber, technology integration coordinator. They seem to like everything about the process, from writing scripts to shooting to editing. And of course, they share their personal videos on YouTube.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Why-Video-Creation-Will-Stay-Popular-in-Education.html

By David Raths, Campus Technology

Digital badge initiatives at colleges and universities across the country are challenging assumptions about learning and assessment. Digital badges are getting a serious look on many university campuses because they may allow students to demonstrate a greater variety of skills. “A diploma says as much about the institution you attended as it does about you,” notes Bill Wisser, instructional designer in the Graduate School of Education (HGSE) at Harvard University (MA). “A portfolio gets more granular, and badges can show individual records of accomplishment.” But badges are only as valuable as the metadata behind them, and that is why the Mozilla Open Badges infrastructure is important, he asserts. “The badge image itself means nothing,” Wisser says. “But with Mozilla there is something behind it that links back to the issuer, the criteria it was issued under, and evidence verifying the credential.”

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/06/20/how-badges-really-work-in-higher-education.aspx

by Jim Farmer, e-literate

Are online education and MOOC the same? Is any difference important? MOOC – Massive Open Online Course. As currently interpreted, massive meaning hundreds of thousands of student taking the course, open meaning free for the student, and online referring to the way the course is offered over the Internet. Joshua Kim, writing in Inside Higher Education, believes there is more to online education than MOOCs. Online education includes all of the online courses colleges and universities have been offering for several decades using many different instructional technologies. Kim differentiated between the two when he commented on John Tamny’s Forbes article “Online Education Will Be the Next ‘Bubble’ To Pop, Not Traditional University Learning”. Kim labeled Tamny’s work “Confused Reporting.” When Tamny is saying that online education is the next bubble he is of course not talking about the sort of online education that any of us working in the field of designing, teaching, or supporting online courses would recognize. Tamny is talking about MOOCs. Kim labels this misuse as conflation.

http://mfeldstein.com/moocs-and-online-education-a-real-difference/

By Rachel Metz, Technology Review

Wearable devices mark the next frontier in personal computing. While Google toils to perfect the head-worn mobile computer known as Google Glass, a startup located literally down the street from its Silicon Valley campus is hard at work on a similar system that it believes will let users touch and move virtual objects instead of just viewing them. Software being developed by Atheer Labs could lead to computerized glasses and other wearable devices that let you conduct video conference calls with people as though they were actually in the room with you, navigate a map by moving your head, or play 3-D games that feel truly interactive.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516451/why-google-glass-is-just-the-beginning/

By Michael B. Horn And Meg Evans, Journal Sentinel Online

The past several decades have seen technology transform industry after industry. Nearly every sector in America has used new technologies to innovate in ways nearly unimaginable a generation before the change. One sector, however, has remained nearly the same as it was a century ago. The factory-model education system no longer works. We learn at different paces, have different aptitudes and enter classes with different experiences and background knowledge. Each of us needs a different, customized learning approach to maximize his or her potential. Milwaukee and urban school districts across the nation must embrace innovation to break out of this monolithic education system. Schools must use technology to personalize their learning environments to address the needs of individual students.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/a-factory-model-for-schools-no-longer-works-b9943187z1-213602131.html

by TIM DODD, Financial Review

The push into online education by ­Australian universities is building steam, with Monash and La Trobe recently announcing ambitious plans. Monash University has joined the worldwide rush to offer massive open online courses, or MOOCs, partnering with FutureLearn, a ­British company owned by Open University, to offer free education online. And La Trobe University will build on its success with free courses on Apple’s iTunes U by launching a fee-paying unit titled The Ancient Roman World. The unit will attract academic credit and make this first-year course, offered on campus, available to ­students anywhere in the world.

http://www.afr.com/p/national/where_ancient_rome_meets_the_online_AMUK8Ts4E3TkhetIKdu4qJ

by Udacity

The best part of Udacity — the magic ingredient that makes us truly Udacious — is our student community. We are beyond excited to connect with our students around the world on Saturday, July 20th for our Second Annual Udacity Global Meetup Day. Our Global Meetup Day will be a time for Udacians to advance their job readiness for careers in tech, and a time to celebrate our rockin’ community.  On Monday, July 15th, at 12pm PDT, we will check the Meetup.com RSVPs (don’t forget to RSVP and let all your friends know about it!) and get in touch with the Meetup organizers for the ten largest international Global Meetup events.

http://blog.udacity.com/2013/06/connecting-internationally-on-udacity.html

by Coursera

Editor’s note: Muhammad and Khadija Niazi are twins living in Pakistan. They are turning 13 this year and have each completed over 6 courses already. They, along with their mom, will be guest blogging to share their perspective on MOOCs for young students and families in the coming months. We’re excited to have them share their thoughts with the community!

HELLO FROM PAKISTAN, COURSERA COMMUNITY!

We are fraternal twins (Muhammad, the brother and Khadija, the sister) who are turning 13 years old, and have just been promoted to the 8th grade. We live in Pakistan with our family. As twins, we both share mostly the same interests. One similarity is that we both love MOOCs, and that love for MOOCs brought us to Coursera. We both love physics, astronomy, history and other science-related subjects.

http://blog.coursera.org/post/54132976778/8th-grade-twins-take-astrobiology-and-einstein-courses