Techno-News Blog

By CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN and MICHAEL B. HORN, NY Times

Like steam, online education is a disruptive innovation — one that introduces more convenient and affordable products or services that over time transform sectors. Yet many bricks-and-mortar colleges are making the same mistake as the once-dominant tall ships: they offer online courses but are not changing the existing model.  Still, the theory predicts that, be it steam or online education, existing consumers will ultimately adopt the disruption, and a host of struggling colleges and universities — the bottom 25 percent of every tier, we predict — will disappear or merge in the next 10 to 15 years. Already traditional universities are showing the strains of a broken business model, reflecting demand and pricing pressures previously unheard-of in higher education. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/education/edlife/online-education-as-an-agent-of-transformation.html

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Keyboard shortcuts are an easy way to save yourself some time and typing if you spend a lot of time click-clacking away at your keyboard like I do. The most common ones are somewhat universal (to many applications, at least). Control + P to print, Control + C to copy, Control + V to paste. Saves a ton of time, especially if you’re editing documents (or blog posts). Did you know that social media platforms all have their own shortcuts to speed up your social media experience? The handy infographic below takes a look at keyboard shortcuts for Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Google +. So the next time you need to quickly favorite a tweet, retweet it, and reply to it, you’ll know that F R and T are your friends. Less mousing, clicking, drop down menus – bypassing the whole interface can speed up your whole user experience.

http://www.edudemic.com/social-media-shortcuts/

By Dan Kemp, Edudemic

Often teachers want to share the ebooks their students have made with a wider audience, not least parents! It’s such a rewarding experience for the students and the teacher to see a book they’ve created being published and shared beyond the classroom. As the developers of Book Creator for iPad, a tool that’s often used in schools to create ebooks, we wanted to share a tutorial for teachers on how to publish a book to the iBookstore.
http://www.edudemic.com/class-e-book-itunes/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Yesterday, we talked a bit about digital natives and digital immigrants. I mentioned at the beginning of that post that I got into thinking about this after reading an article that discussed which countries have the most digital natives. The article was pretty interesting, and drew on information from the recent UN International Telecommunications Union (UTI) study that looked at the proportion of young people in each country that grew up with the internet. At first, I figured that the results of this study would be pretty obvious. First world countries with large populations and higher birth rates would be at the top of the list. After all, lots of kids + money for technology = more kids using technology, right? I was really interested when the results were not quite what I thought.

http://www.edudemic.com/world-young-people-use-technology/

By Beth Teitell, Boston Globe

Before Adam Van Arsdale began taping his anthropology course to show online, he was used to standing in front of perhaps 20 Wellesley College undergrads. Now when he talks about Australopithecus, he has to worry whether the 19,000 people who registered for his Massive Open Online Course — enough to fill TD Garden — think he should have shaved that morning, and what they will tweet. “It opens you up to a lot of complaining,” the assistant professor said, recalling the support one student enjoyed after he griped on Facebook about the way Van Arsdale phrased a question on natural selection. “Fifty people ‘liked’ that negative posting.” Massive open online courses — known as MOOCs — have been around for years, but recently they have taken off. Mostly free, on topics as wide-ranging as “The History of the World from the 1300s’’ to “Warhol’’ to “Diabetes,’’ the online courses are giving the common person access to elite professors.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2013/11/01/online-education-movement-grows-hollywood-style-concerns-wardrobe-social-media-buzz-are-coming-academia/AhvoFcAt30ovKS3MB7w9yL/story.html

by Sue Wolf, Edwardsville Intelligencer

Transportation, childcare, and work schedules are some of the problems that adult students must juggle while they are attempting to improve their lives by going back to school.  Clearly it is not an easy task to fit classes into hectic schedules, but those learners who are motivated to do so make time to attend. An article in the April/May edition of ON CAMPUS, the national publication of AFT higher education faculty and professional staff, addresses distance education and whether or not it boosts completion rates.   The students are online college students, primarily in Illinois, who are returning to finish degree programs that they left years ago. Professor Emeritus Ray Schroeder, taught the students in his Internet in American Life class during the spring semester. There are opportunities for adults to go back to the classroom during the day or in the evening. They can also take advantage of learning from home with the online choices at area colleges and universities. Motivated learners can make their dreams come true.

http://www.theintelligencer.com/local_news/article_b9505466-3c01-11e3-a7ab-0019bb2963f4.html

By DOUGLAS BELKIN, WSJ

In the past three weeks, Georgia Tech received nearly twice as many applications for a new low-cost online master’s program as its comparable residential program receives in a year. The degree—which uses Massive Open Online Course technology—is the first of its kind, and its popularity suggests a growing demand for online learning. The Georgia Tech program is the first master’s degree from a top-ranked university based on the technology that drives MOOCs. The only difference is it is not “open,” or free, as a MOOC is traditionally defined. Students have applied from 50 states and 80 foreign countries, according to the school. To graduate, they will never have to step foot on campus and will pay about $6,600, compared with about $44,000 for residential students.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304470504579166112833252206

by Glenn Drexhage, University of British Columbia

A pioneering offering from the Faculty of Education and UBC Library is enabling UBC students, staff and faculty to develop their digital literacy know-how. The two units have introduced the University’s first LOOC, or local open online course, as part of UBC’s Master of Educational Technology (MET) program. As the name suggests, a LOOC is a localized form of a MOOC – or massive open online course. MOOCs have been a big topic in online education recently. UBC’s first MOOC – which it launched in January 2013 with Stanford University – attracted more than 130,000 registrants. of massive learning to UBC’s large, global and thoroughly excellent existing community,” explains David Vogt, Graduate Advisor for the MET program. He adds that the project could be expanded to all B.C. post-secondary campuses in the future.

http://news.ubc.ca/2013/10/30/loocing-into-the-future-of-digital-learning/

By AMNA H. HASHMI and CYNTHIA W. SHIH, the Harvard Crimson

Although HarvardX’s proponents claim that virtual education has the potential to transform the traditional lecture format, the process of bringing HarvardX to the brick-and-mortar classroom is still in its very early stages. This semester, the third since Harvard and MIT announced the launch of edX, many students are questioning whether these new models of instruction are enhancing—or detracting from—the learning process. This year’s version of “Science and Cooking” is being taught as a “flipped classroom”: a teaching style in which online materials deliver instruction that would have otherwise been covered during class time. Several other Gen Eds—Culture and Belief 22: “Concepts of the Hero in Classical Greek Civilization,” History of Science 121: “The Einstein Revolution,” and Societies of the World 12: “China”—are also experimenting with the flipped classroom format for the first time.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/10/31/harvard-classroom-virtual-learning/

by Christina Farr, Venture Beat

Coursera is experimenting with ways to boost student engagement and completion rates. The business development team is forging relationships with employers, who might be willing to offer a bonus or promotion to workers who complete certain courses — that’s the reward aspect. Yin Lu, the head of growth and international strategy, is taking a slightly different approach.  Lu introduced the Coursera “Learning Hubs” program, which adds a social layer to online learning. People who sign up for courses in a number of cities will be offered physical spaces to access the Internet while learning alongside their peers.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/31/coursera-learning-hubs-bring-a-social-layer-to-online-education/

by George Leef, Forbes

Technological change has made online coursework very competitive with the traditional means of teaching. Will it lead to dramatic change in college, or have only a minor impact? Consider the analogy to music. From the dawn of time until the early 20th century, when people wanted to hear music, they either had to play it themselves or go to a performance where someone else played. All music was live. Then the technology for recording and reproducing music developed. Primitive at first, the technology rapidly improved (remember that old commercial, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?”) and today humans spend far more time listening to recorded music than to live performances. Live music hasn’t disappeared and performances can be more exciting or moving than even the greatest recordings, but recordings give us fantastic variety, high quality, and complete freedom of choice at low cost.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeleef/2013/10/29/will-online-education-render-traditional-college-obsolete/

By Katie Hetrick, Press & Guide

Blended learning is a broad term used to cover any mix of online and in class learning, said Troy Patterson, Dearborn’s coordinator of media and informational technology. “This becomes a different way of doing something,” Patterson said. Blended learning provides advantages in how students can get and process information, but also presents challenges because it requires more time for teachers to set up initially and hardware both at school and in a student’s home. “I understand it’s extra work for the teachers, but hopefully it will pay benefits in the end,” said Trustee Aimee Schoelles. She likes visiting teacher blogs to keep track of what homework her children need to do.

http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2013/10/30/news/doc5270f024644bc885702974.txt?viewmode=fullstory

by Diarmuid Mallon, ZD Net

Technology seems to be living up to its reputation as ‘the great leveller.’ Not only because it connects people to one another and gives us better access to information and education, but also because there is such a demand for it. Everywhere. Take Battushig Myanganbayar of Ulan Bator, Mongolia, who achieved a perfect score in M.I.T.’s first Massive Open Online Course, Circuits and Electronics in June 2012, when he was 15. The New York Times did a story on Myanganbayar in September of this year.  People will learn, even teach themselves, if they have access to information and tools. Technology may not be the panacea for worldwide literacy and education, but it is certainly improving access, bringing it to people and places that haven’t had it before.

http://www.zdnet.com/uk/is-technology-the-great-educational-leveller-7000022554/

BY: Amy Murin, Keeping Pace

On behalf of our 14 sponsors, the Evergreen Education Group is pleased to release Keeping Pace with K-12 Online and Blended Learning: A Guide to Policy and Practice (2013).  This 10th edition of the report includes enrollment numbers, informative graphics, program planning timelines, thoughts on MOOCs in K-12, and a look at where we were a decade ago – and where we think we are headed. All attendees at the iNACOL Blended and Online Learning Symposium received a print copy in their registration bags, and the report is now available on our website for download. In addition to the full report, the website has many more resources, including many of the graphics found in the report, updated profiles of activity in every state, and our blog. All content is licensed through Creative Commons and available for free because of generous support from our many sponsors, who represent many different corners of the K-12 online and blended world, including public agencies, private companies, and nonprofit organizations, all of whom are united in their commitments to the expansion of high-quality educational options for students.

http://kpk12.com/blog/2013/10/keeping-pace-2013-is-released/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Recently,  the Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson conducted a survey of nearly 8,000 faculty members in higher education to find out more about how faculty are using social media. While we often post infographics showing trends or results from specific studies here at Edudemic, I found the results of this survey particularly interesting – perhaps because they were so different from what I expected. While it seems that most faculty have adopted some social media use in their personal life, fewer have done so professionally. And their feelings about using social media professionally (in and out of the classroom) seem to be pretty mixed. Keep reading to learn more at the URL below.

http://www.edudemic.com/social-media-in-education/

by Manuel C. F. Pontes and Nancy M. H. Pontes, OJDLA

This research investigates the relationship between students’ field of study and their preference for distance education. For this research, data were used from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study: Undergraduate, which uses a complex survey design to collect data from a nationally representative sample of undergraduate postsecondary students in the US. Results show that a student’s field of study is significantly related to enrollment in distance education classes, enrollment in a distance education program, and satisfaction with distance education. Full-time employment, presence of dependents, and a mobility-limiting disability are also significantly associated with distance education preference. Enrollment trends show significant growth in distance education enrollment over 2000 to 2008 among students in all fields of study.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter164/pontes_pontes164.html

by BBC

Google-owned phone firm Motorola has announced a new project to let users customise their smartphone components. Project Ara allows users to buy a basic phone structure and add modules such as keyboard, battery or other sensors. Motorola has partnered with Dutch designer Dave Hakkens, who has created Phonebloks, a modular phone idea, on the project. Experts were unsure on how big a shake-up for the mobile phone industry the customisable handsets would represent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24726071

By David Talbot, Technology Review

Affectiva’s software tracks the movement of muscles in the lips, eyebrows, and other parts of the face to determine a person’s emotional state. Last year more than 1,000 people in four countries sat down and watched 115 television ads, such as one featuring anthropomorphized M&M candies boogying in a bar. All the while, webcams pointed at their faces and streamed images of their expressions to a server in Waltham, Massachusetts. In Waltham, an algorithm developed by a startup company called Affectiva performed what is known as facial coding: it tracked the panelists’ raised eyebrows, furrowed brows, smirks, half-smirks, frowns, and smiles.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519656/startup-gets-computers-to-read-faces-seeks-purpose-beyond-ads/

By MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT, Lancaster Online

Kathy Allison stays fit with group fitness classes. But sometimes she wants to take a class that doesn’t quite fit her schedule. Now she has another option. Local gyms and fitness centers are offering virtual or on-demand classes to help members stay fit on their own schedules — sometimes even in their own living rooms. Earlier this month, Allison’s gym, Universal Athletic Club, 2323 Oregon Pike, added a variety of virtual classes, delivered to the gym’s group fitness studios by a company called “Fitness on Demand 247.”

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/910346_The-classes-are-virtual–but-the-fitness-is-real.html

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Self-driving cars could have many benefits, such as significantly reducing the incidence of road accidents and fatalities. Data gathered from Google’s self-driving Prius and Lexus cars shows that they are safer and smoother when steering themselves than when a human takes the wheel, according to the leader of Google’s autonomous-car project. Chris Urmson made those claims at a robotics conference in Santa Clara, California. He presented results from two studies of data from the hundreds of thousands of miles Google’s vehicles have logged on public roads in California and Nevada. One of those analyses showed that when a human was behind the wheel, Google’s cars accelerated and braked significantly more sharply than they did when piloting themselves. Another showed that the cars’ software was much better at maintaining a safe distance from the vehicle ahead than the human drivers were.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/520746/data-shows-googles-robot-cars-are-smoother-safer-drivers-than-you-or-i/

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

I give up. Despite my best efforts, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a losing battle to get people to stop conflating MOOCs with online learning. We need to change the language. We need to rebrand. My nomination is that starting today, and once and for all, never say the word MOOC again. The thing formerly known as a MOOC will now be called a CaS. CaS: Course at Scale. Why CaS? Because a Course at Scale is a much more accurate description for what goes on in one of these course than calling it a MOOC. In fact, 3 out of the 4 words in MOOC are misleading.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/rebranding-mooc-cas