Techno-News Blog

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education

A big data report commissioned by U.S. President Barack Obama includes student data use as one of its six recommendations in this field. Led by presidential counselor John Podesta, a working group of senior administration officials spent 90 days studying the landscape of big data in the United States in order to inform federal decisions. Their study included conducting surveys; sending out a public request for information; co-hosting university conferences at MIT, NYU and U.C. Berkeley; and meeting with academic researchers, privacy advocates, regulators, technology industry members, advertisers and civil rights groups. In the report released on Thursday, May 1, they recommended that the federal government should make sure that data collection in schools is used for educational purposes and supports innovation to help students learn.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/White-House-Report-Big-Data.html

By Associated Press

The Smithsonian Institution is venturing further into online education with a new deal to provide content for digital courses in history, science, culture and the arts, the museum complex announced Monday. Smithsonian officials unveiled an agreement with the Chantilly, Virginia-based education group The Great Courses for a new series of multimedia lectures. The 10-year deal begins with 12 courses scheduled for release this fall. The courses will be primarily targeted at college-educated lifelong learners, but The Great Courses also serves college students, homeschooled students and a growing audience through Netflix and other entertainment sites. The company has recently created similar partnerships with National Geographic and the Culinary Institute of America. Unlike MOOCs, the Massive Open Online Courses offered by universities, these courses will be offered for a fee of about $89.95 for a standard 24-lecture series.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/smithsonian-makes-deal-to-offer-online-courses/2014/05/05/9ce0a78e-d429-11e3-8f7d-7786660fff7c_story.html

By Cynthia Karena, Kiama Lake (AU) Independent Times

Increasing digitisation of student records means predictive analytics is expected to transform teaching and become a key tool in learning more about students. Predictive analytics is a process in which data collected about the student – typically attendance, subjects taken, assessment – is used to understand learning patterns, identify skill gaps, predict performance and identify learning opportunities. Teachers and administrators have always analysed student data, but as more student records become digitised – for example, using a consistent online marking system school-wide – there are more opportunities for analysis. Digitised data is also quicker and easier to analyse.

http://www.kiamaindependent.com.au/story/2258418/predicting-success-and-failure-with-student-analytics/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

When I talk to people about mind mapping, I usually find myself facing one of two reactions: The person I’m speaking with either LOVES mind maps, or pretty much has no idea what they are or what they could be used for. We’ve discussed mind maps occasionally in the past, but I recently stumbled on this great graphic from Daniel Tay(who creates a bunch of different mind maps on different topics). This particular graphic addresses the benefits of mind mapping, which can serve as a good primer for anyone who is unfamiliar with the concept.

http://www.edudemic.com/benefits-of-mind-mapping/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

The first step towards applying social media into education starts with empowering teachers by giving them freedom to use social media to engage with students and giving them the freedom to come-up with innovative ways of teaching using technology. On the contrary, let’s talk about few practical ways on how many educators apply social media to flip the conventional teaching model and make classroom & home work experience meaningful to for the students.

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

By David Nagel, Campus Technology

Does Facebook have the potential to produce better students? It might seem like a silly question, but a new study out of Baylor University’s College of Arts and Sciences suggests the social network can actually improve some aspects of students’ academic performance and, in large classes, create a sense of connectedness that promotes active learning. According to the researchers, larger class sizes can stymie efforts to facilitate active learning among students, as discussion and debate are sidelined in favor of lecture. But active learning — which involves reflection and affective dimensions of learning — can promote, among other things, improved academic performance.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/05/01/can-facebook-make-better-students.aspx

By David Nagel, THE Journal

Google today revealed changes to its Apps for Education policies that include permanently disabling scanning in Gmail for its 30 million Apps for Education users and permanently disabling the ability to display ads. Prior to this move, ads in Google Apps for Education were disabled by default. Only an administrator could enable ads, and it’s unclear whether any school IT administrators had ever done so or why they would choose to do so. With the new policy, it will be impossible for them to do so.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/04/30/google-turns-off-ad-scanning-in-apps-for-education-permanently.aspx

By Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe

While schools like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford have attracted lots of attention for putting courses online, SNHU has already reached and passed two tipping points. It serves far more students over the Internet (about 35,000 this year) than it does on its campus along the Merrimack River (3,800), and generates more revenues online that it does from running a “traditional” college. Many other schools, such as Berklee College of Music, are just getting started; Berklee will offer its first online bachelor’s degrees this fall. LeBlanc uses the word “disruption” often, but he doesn’t see the demise of the traditional college experience that follows high school. That’s an immersive learning experience and rite of passage for many teens entering adulthood. But adults in the workforce who see the benefit in getting a degree — or earning an advanced degree — represent a huge opportunity.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/05/03/southern-new-hampshire-university-leading-edge-online-education/ZMnPm22ePz98Adks5Y6ogM/story.html

by Qin Dexing, China DailyWeb

Nasdaq-listed YY offers a video platform to its 600 million registered online gamers and singers. At a press conference in Beijing in February, the company said it would branch out into online education. 100.com is a separate platform dedicated to online education and held its first teaching session on April 22. “Tapping the online education sector is our company’s top priority for future development,” CEO Li Xueling said at 100.com’s launch: “Through introducing innovative products and services, the Internet will revolutionize the traditional education sector, as it has retail, finance and other sectors for years now,” YY is not alone. Investors, including China’s e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, put $100 million in February into TutorGroup, a language-learning platform popular with Chinese learning English. It’s the largest investment in China’s online education sector.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2014/05-03/112084.shtml

by Adi Gaskell, DZone

A new service aims to provide some of the things teachers add to the learning experience, for those without access to one. The platform, called Oppia, is an open source creation courtesy of Google (kind of) that lets anyone create an interactive learning experience online. The site provides a framework for anyone to create interactive learning experiences and bolt them onto their own website. The site does this whilst at the same time adding interactivity to the learning process by taking on the role of the mentor/teacher who is constantly asking questions of the learner. The AI backend will then absorb the responses to these questions and adapt future engagements accordingly.

http://www.dzone.com/articles/oppia-aims-bring-interactivity

By Devon Haynie, US News

Employees once had few options for sharpening their skills aside from finding a mentor on the job or earning a traditional degree. Today, with the world of online credentials expanding, professionals have a variety of ways they can acquire knowledge and demonstrate their skills. Aside from earning an online degree, employees can sign up for certificate programs, take massive open online courses and earn digital badges, among other options. Long ago, employees would finish their education after their college degree, but that’s not good enough anymore, says Rich Thompson, chief human resources officer at Adecco Group North America, a staffing company. “You have to continue to sharpen your skills,” he says. “The nice thing about these credentials is that they are affordable and there are so many of them. The trick is, you have to find the right ones.”

http://news.yahoo.com/online-training-boost-career-133000447.html

by Zoe Alsop, CNBC

Thanks to cloud computing software, colleges are now able to stretch the capacity of the virtual lecture hall to include thousands of students around the world. “The cloud is critical to what we do,” says Anant Agarwal, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and CEO of EdX, a nonprofit open-source platform for MOOCs founded by Harvard and MIT. When Edx launched two years ago, Agarwal expected 1,000 students to enroll in his course on circuits. 155,000 signed up. “Because of cloud computing, with a few keystrokes, we were able to scale up,” he said.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101635775

By Virtual College (UK)

The future landscape for educational delivery may still be somewhat unclear, but it is becoming increasingly evident that digital learning will have a key role to play. That is according to David Grailey, chief executive of the NCFE (Northern Council for Further Education), who believes that the provision of digital learning tools enables educators to reach a greater number of people and ensure that a higher proportion of them have opportunities to achieve and succeed. “In the fast paced modern world, people want flexible learning at a time, place and in a style that suits their needs and their lifestyle – an online learning experience can offer this, engaging learners who have otherwise lost interest,” he said.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Further-educations-future-lies-online-newsitems-801716866.aspx

by Stephanie Castellano, Training and Development

The 2014 average global e-learning salary is USD $76,530, which is down 1.5 percent from 2013. U.S. salaries remained flat, with an average of $78,932. Global e-learning salaries range drastically: In Australia, an e-learning professional could be making USD $94,000, while someone doing similar work in India might be earning USD $33,000. The pharmaceutical and biotech industries pay the highest wages, which are 26 percent higher than the average global salary. Government and education pay the lowest, up to 13 percent and 23 percent below average, respectively. Most survey respondents indicated that their job focus is instructional design. Salaries for those positions fell 7 percent below the global average

http://www.astd.org/Publications/Magazines/TD/TD-Archive/2014/05/Intelligence-How-Does-Your-E-Learning-Salary-Stack-Up

by Analyst Blog

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com Inc. has recently announced the launch of its wearable technology store, giving customers access to a broad selection of the most popular electronic gadgets — wearables. The technology store offers wearable gadgets from all technology hardware makers, including Samsung, GoPro, Jawbone and others. These include smartwatches, activity trackers, healthcare devices, wearable cameras and wearable trackers for pet animals.  Additionally, the store features an online Learning Center helping consumers to get a complete idea about all the wearables available in the store and select the right product.

http://beforeitsnews.com/financial-markets/2014/04/amazon-opens-wearable-technology-store-analyst-blog-2709448.html

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education

Cloud computing will power the largest network in the world: the Internet. That’s what Larry Peterson, chief architect of the Open Networking Lab, predicted in a keynote speech on the Internet’s future at the Internet2 Global Summit on April 9. Cloudification, as he called it, will bring scalable, elastic technology to the Internet in a network built by service blocks. “Cloudification says the services are the key thing,” Peterson said. “Devices are just implementation choices.”

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/The-Cloudification-of-the-Internet.html

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

After more than two years in the cloud, Coursera’s massive open online courses will this summer make landfall at Dominican University of California, which will host the MOOC provider’s first Learning Hub at a U.S. institution. Dominican is part of Coursera’s latest wave of hubs — physical locations scattered across the globe where MOOC students can meet in person to collaborate and, in some cases, receive in-person tutoring from course facilitators familiar with the content. The program is a product of the MOOC provider’s partnership with the U.S. Department of State and a number of educational organizations in countries such as India, Kenya and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, among others. The New York Public Library will host a second domestic hub.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/05/01/dominican-u-host-first-coursera-learning-hub-us-institution#sthash.T2AfKQKf.dpbs

by Coursera

Coursera’s mission is to help make a world-class education accessible to anyone. One challenge we face is language: While the majority of our partners teach in English, only 40% of Courserians live in English-speaking countries. With this in mind, we are excited to announce the launch of Coursera’s Global Translator Community (GTC), a program designed to greatly expand the number of courses offering high-quality subtitle translations. The GTC empowers all Coursera users to help us make education for everyone–regardless of language limitations–a reality. Now, anyone can contribute translations by signing up on our translations page. New translators will be directed to an online portal, which features active translations projects, translations resources, and ways to interact with other community members and the Coursera team.

http://blog.coursera.org/post/84088014661/introducing-courseras-new-global-translator-community

by Matthew Lynch, Huffington Post

But what if the same flexibility that is afforded to regular K-12 and college online classes was extended to tutoring too? Of course there are already many online tutoring options available but as an industry, it lacks the sophistication of the larger-scale academic offerings. As demand for this form of flexible learning rises, though, tutoring in remote ways will see a spike in popularity and availability.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/online-tutoring-should-be_b_5226326.html

By Mackenzie Hurlbert, Skilledup

Curtis Bonk, a professor of instructional systems design at Indiana University and co-author of the new book Adding some Tec-Variety (http://tec-variety.com/), says that to develop these skills, teachers should “take a class first, or at least browse one. Browse a few, because everyone is a little bit different. I recommend taking a smorgasbord approach and sampling a bit.” Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois-Springfield, is a national leader in today’s online learning discussion. He advises that, “online faculty can best teach if they can create a community of inquiry. Distant students need to be engaged and supported since they do not have ready access to the facilities of the campus.” The online environment constantly changes for students and faculty alike. New technologies, apps and software force online educators to adapt, says Schroeder, and “pedagogies and best practices constantly evolve requiring continuing professional development.”

http://www.skilledup.com/blog/moving-to-online-teaching-issues-and-resources-for-educators/

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

These campus musts may seem like no-brainers, but they’re critical for success. With so many technology options available today to help support and promote an institution’s campus culture, students and faculty, it’s not surprising that many IT and campus leaders feel overwhelmed with what they should invest in now and what they should implement later, especially with tight budgets. But from having a good social media strategy to planning for Big Data collection, there are at least 10 technology hallmarks every campus should plan for immediately, if not implement as soon as possible.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/technology-hallmarks-campus-099/