Techno-News Blog

by eLearning Infographics

Technology has provided educators with abundant resources that prevent online students from feeling detached and disengaged. Statistics reveal an increasing popularity of online video. Videos bring value to online courses by increasing interactivity, fostering engagement, and contributing real-world content. Video not only consolidates visual and auditory stimuli into a single package, but also helps ‘bridge the gap between schools’ artificial environment and the outside world, bringing reality into the classroom. The Effective Use of Video in Online Courses Infographic shows a variety of methods and effective practices for using videos in an online course and provide helpful strategies and tips that align with quality matters standards to ensure the effectiveness of video and other multimedia in students’ learning.

http://elearninginfographics.com/the-effective-use-of-video-in-online-courses-infographic/

By Ali Hangan, OP Ed News

2013 has been a banner year for technology from: Amazon’s cyber Monday drone debut on 60 minutes to IBM’s Watson on Jeopardy to the ubiquitous twitter-sphere there is a new cultural mojo of rapid, technological change entering into the American mainstream. In the age of constant technological change, knowing the general principles of robotics systems, innovative technologies and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) will become a fundamental part of every student’s educational experience. Here are three free online resources that can help students acquire these basic principles and skills on their own time.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-Should-My-Child-Learn-by-Ali-Hangan-Education-Laws_Higher-Education_Online-Education_Technology-140102-634.html?show=votes

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

We seem to understand how to judge quality in higher ed. We appear to know exactly why costs are high (or not high), why faculty have too much (or too little) power, and why too many (or too few) PhDs remain underemployed. We know what makes a great course (online, residential, or blended), and how we should (or should not) measure learning. We know exactly what our institutions should do differently, if only everyone would figure out that we have this knowledge and follow our directions. My hypothesis is that our confidence in our own opinions rests on an underlying set of assumptions. These assumptions are mostly implicit and unexamined. These assumptions are so ingrained and pervasive that we don’t even recognize them as such.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/7-edtech-assumptions

by Misty Bailey, Education News

Nationwide, millions of students are choosing internet-based classes to further their education, allowing them to take advantage of technology and finish their college degree faster, easier, and often for less money. However, as more students are demanding online classes, and degrees that they can obtain without being on campus, some of Florida’s private colleges have said no.

http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/not-all-private-universities-jumping-into-online-courses/

by John Yemma, Christian Science Monitor

The rise of Massive Open Online Courses is presenting higher education with a powerful challenge. Access to great teachers will help millions. But will MOOCs cause a massive institutional shakeout as well, asks John Yemma of The Christian Science Monitor? A balance needs to be struck between the franchising of high-quality education and the more intimate, locally grown experience that occurs when teachers and students reason together in a classroom. It seems inevitable that the MOOC monoculture will spread. But let’s make sure we preserve the woodlot. Amazing, unthought-of ideas could be growing in it.

http://the-scan.com/2014/01/02/are-moocs-making-education-a-monoculture/

By Gabriel Kahn, Slate

Five years ago, Southern New Hampshire University was a 2,000-student private school struggling against declining enrollment, poor name recognition, and teetering finances. Today, it’s the Amazon.com of higher education. The school’s burgeoning online division has 180 different programs with an enrollment of 34,000. Students are referred to as “customers.” It undercuts competitors on tuition. And it deploys data analytics for everything from anticipating future demand to figuring out which students are most likely to stumble.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/01/southern_new_hampshire_university_how_paul_leblanc_s_tiny_school_has_become.html

by eLearning Infographics

As online technologies have exploded into mainstream education and corporate training, the need for professionals who are highly qualified in designing, developing, implementing, and assessing instruction has increased. However, the roles and responsibilities of educational technologists have become as varied as the employers who hire them and the tools they use. In order to shed some light on the matter, 161 EdTech professionals were surveyed in order to define the role(s) they play in K-12, higher education, corporate, and government work environments. The survey results are presented in The Educational Technologist Infographic.

http://elearninginfographics.com/the-educational-technologist-infographic/

By Michelle FlorCruz, IB Times

Schools in China are struggling to adjust to the increasing amounts of toxic air blanketing cities across the rapidly industrializing country. While children in other parts of the world enjoy snow days, China’s severe levels of air pollution bring bad air days, when local governments cancel classes to keep children indoors. Now a Beijing school has resorted to a temporary solution to avoid missing days because of pollution — offering classes online. According to the Shanghaiist news blog, a school in the capital has begun using online tools to teach classes to students who stay home on particularly smoggy days.

http://www.ibtimes.com/beijing-school-takes-classes-online-when-air-pollution-keeps-kids-indoors-photos-1522936

by Effy

A lot of beginner programmers find it tough to get the right resources to learn coding. The internet is a veritable gold mine of information, but it is tough to figure out if a particular source is trustworthy or not. One way is to join forums, but as a beginner, you often find yourself in a playing field that can be very intimidating. But, there is no scarcity of resources and that is why we compiled this list of 20 places where you can learn coding.

http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=125518

by MindShift

“The educational paradigm of our parents’ generation, which emphasized the transmission of knowledge, is quickly being overtaken by a very different paradigm. This new concept of educational success focuses on the nurturing of key skills and competencies such as the ability to seek, to curate and to synthesize information; to create and innovate; to work in diverse cross-cultural teams; as well as to appreciate global issues within the local context.” These comments came shortly after South Korea’s ex-minister for education Byong Man Ahn cast doubt on the usefulness of a high PISA ranking, despite Korean students ranking first in reading and maths, and third in science, in the 2009 PISA survey.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/12/whats-our-vision-for-the-future-of-learning/

by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZD New

Here are the 10 areas that the IEEE Computer Society believe are going to be big in 2015. Some will bring profits through savings and opening up new markets, while others will bring challenges that need to be faced. All of them should be on the radar of the Online Learning Tech Team at all universities.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/where-your-tech-focus-should-be-in-2015/?tag=nl.e539&s_cid=e539&ttag=e539&ftag=TRE17cfd61

by eLearning Infographics

From the very basic “problem cylinder”, “KHUT”, “SAKI” to the plethora of new platforms, this inforgraphic tracks the incredible journey of Leaning Management Systems since it began in 1906, when University of Wisconsin was established as the first distance learning institution. This infographic has a number of “holes” – notably Blackboard and other leading LMS, but it does give a sense of the chain of development of platforms for distance learning.

http://elearninginfographics.com/the-history-of-learning-management-systems-infographic/

by Anthony Wing Kosner, Forbes

“The largest class on campus this fall at Stanford was a graduate level machine-learning course covering both statistical and biological approaches, taught by the computer scientist Andrew Ng. More than 760 students enrolled.” And several previous versions of the course are available online for free. The most recent is from Coursera (which Ng cofounded with Daphne Koller last year) but the 2008 course is on iTune U, YouTube and Stanford’s Engineering Everywhere. For robots to act autonomously and intelligently and for other forms of technology to function unobtrusively in the world, this kind of machine learning is essential. It is no wonder that Stanford students can’t get enough of it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/12/29/why-is-machine-learning-cs-229-the-most-popular-course-at-stanford/

By Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

When you first step into a classroom, poised and ready to launch into a new discussion or lesson, you probably feel a sense of excitement. You’re about to embark on a journey with your class and every student is along for the ride. The problem, however, is that many students are not on the same page. Some are more prepared than others. Some are light years ahead, in fact. Then there are many students who have no prior knowledge and it’ll take a little extra time to get up to speed. This chart from the always wonderful Mia MacMeekin lays out the 27 ways to test the prior knowledge of students. This is a useful chart for any classroom teacher or student who wants to quickly test and think about a particular topic that is about to be discussed. Follow these couple dozen tips and you’ll get the entire classroom on the same page.

http://www.edudemic.com/a-students-prior-knowledge/

by Sramana Mitra, One Million by One Million Blog

It is that time of the year when we tend to pause and reflect. What have we achieved this year? What are the highlights of culture, business, technology, and trends that we have observed around us? For me, the most exciting and positive movement at present is in the domain of technology impacting education. And it is an impact that is coming from many different directions. Let’s explore them in further detail.

http://www.sramanamitra.com/2013/12/26/the-future-of-education-10-trends-to-watch/

by Valley News

Many people joke about the forgetfulness that comes with age, but the laughing stops when absent-mindedness is diagnosed as dementia. According to Dementia Care Central, an online resource for dementia caregivers, the site estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s. That may be a shocking number, but keep in mind that Alzheimer’s disease is only one form of dementia. Finding ways to avoid memory issues as you age is important to everyone, but especially vital to those who have a family member who has been diagnosed with dementia. The good news is that researchers are continually discovering methods and techniques that improve, delay or even prevent dementia from occurring. One interesting line of attack against the debilitating disease is continuing your education. You may have been relieved when you finally graduated and moved on to the real world, but remaining a lifelong student will decrease your chances of battling devastating memory issues.

http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/75375/

by Melissa, TDG

The course, called “Creative, Serious and Playful Science of Android Apps” is taught by Lawrence Angrave of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The course is divided into two tracks. First is the Android Developer Track, which is required for all students. This section began last December 2, and will end on January 26. Interested participants, however, may still join the class, as the course is still ongoing. Students who complete and pass this part of the course will receive a Statement of Accomplishment. Those who sign up for the Signature Track will get a Verified Certificate. The second section is the Computer Science and Programming Track. This is scheduled to run from January 27 until February 16. An optional part, this will introduce students to more complex computer science and programming concepts. An Illinois badge, plus a Statement of Accomplishment or Verified Certificate will also be given once students pass this section.

http://thedroidguy.com/2013/12/android-app-making-course/

By Laura Iancu, Edudemic

At the end of each course, every educator tries to harvest the efforts allotted through good results. Student achievements give purpose to all the hard work and every hour spent to find new activities. But sometimes it is not enough. To be able to properly comprehend the bad and the good, to develop your teaching skills and manage to provide a better learning environment, it is necessary to request feedback from your students. Choosing the best tools to gather this kind of information can be difficult.

http://www.edudemic.com/3-creative-tools-encourage-student-feedback-improve-teaching-skills/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Damage is one of the biggest concerns from teachers and adminstrators when planning to deploy iPads in the classroom. We often talk about the importance of teaching your students how to handle their class devices carefully, having a clear and reasonable acceptable use policy, and the best super tough iPad cases to protect the investment. That said, it turns out that kids and teenagers don’t break as many devices as adults to. The handy infographic below takes a look at some statistics surrounding broken devices. It was created by a company that fixes devices and wants to encourage you to repair them rather than replace, but it is pretty interesting all the same! Keep reading to learn more.

http://www.edudemic.com/putting-expensive-technology-classrooms-recipe-disaster/

by James Kendrick, ZD Net

The iPad is still king in the tablet space when it comes to market share and Android is trying to grab more share all the time. Microsoft designed Windows 8 to run on tablets in an attempt to bring the OS into the hot tablet segment. Android tablets and the iPad are solid tablets, but Windows 8 has distinct advantages over both of the other platforms. Windows 8 is a full PC OS and that brings some important capabilities to the tablet. The 10 features in this collection that give Windows 8 an advantage over the competition are by no means the only ones. They are significant enough to break them out from the rest.

http://www.zdnet.com/10-advantages-windows-8-tablets-have-over-the-ipad-and-android-7000018732/

http://www.edudemic.com/best-free-education-tools-2013/