Techno-News Blog

By Gavin Moodie, RMIT

Online learning experts Martin Weller and Tony Bates are rightly annoyed that the MOOC-hypers felt no need to inform themselves on 40 years’ expertise and experience of mediated learning and 20 years of online learning because their self-declared “disruption” somehow made all previous knowledge about teaching-learning redundant. While MOOCs have usefully woken elite universities to online learning, which they mostly ignored for two decades, they are unlikely to “disrupt” universities any more than Gutenberg’s information revolution disrupted early modern universities. Rather more likely is that, as with printing, informal, open and online learning will be absorbed within existing universities to augment and improve their practices.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/826445-technology-improves-higher-learning-it-doesnt-kill-it/

by Nate Sleeter, Inside Higher Ed

Critics of online education, especially in the humanities, often stress the importance of face-to-face interaction. It is face-to-face interaction, the reasoning goes, that makes traditional in-person courses superior to their online counterparts. Without rejecting the premise, it nevertheless seems counterproductive to think of in-person courses and online courses in strictly competitive terms. If online courses are here to stay and we in the humanities are expected to teach them, these vigorous defenses of the in-person course will not make us better online instructors. In other words if we want to make online courses better, then it seems crucial to think about how we can promote “interaction” when “face-to-face” is not an option.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/meaningful-interaction-online-courses

by ELISE MUELLER, Duke

Before the start of the second run of English Composition I: Achieving Expertise, the Duke staff went on the hunt for students from the first offering of the course who would be good candidates for the volunteer position of Community Teaching Assistant (CTA). With the help of analytics from Coursera, we invited 25 students who had a high number of forum posts and a top GPA. Thirteen students volunteered to monitor the discussion forums and provide technical and content support for the 89,000 students who signed up.

http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2014/07/community-teaching-assistants-courseras-student-warriors/

By mrspepe, Edudemic

After finishing a unit about Newton’s Three Laws we decided to write a children’s book for the iTunes Store about the way that Newton’s Three Laws relate to the rides at Six Flags/Great Adventure Theme Park in Jackson, New Jersey. The students loved working on their books. Once the book was published my students were filled with pride about their work and they are constantly asking me to show them the metrics about how many copies have been downloaded and what is the geographic location of the people who downloaded them. There were so many learning opportunities that presented themselves throughout this process.

http://www.edudemic.com/technology-ownership-students/

By Katie Lepi, Edutopia

A lot of kids are using social media these days, and even if that isn’t surprising to you, it may be surprising to you just how many of them are using it and just how much. Leveraging these popular social media tools in the classroom is a no-brainer: everything from Twitter and Facebook all the way to Instagram have found their way into lesson plans across the globe. Whether you’re using all of the social media sites, some of them, or none of them at all, chances are that your students are using them. The handy infographic below takes a look at the social media use of teens and tweens

http://www.edudemic.com/teens-are-really-using-social-media/

by Suzie Boss, Edutopia

Until recently, only a small number of schools have had access to the high-powered geographical information system (GIS) software that enables detailed, layered mapping and analysis of data. Thanks to a recent $1 billion pledge from software developer Esri, free access to cloud-based mapping software is coming to 100,000 K-12 schools across the country. The donation of ArcGIS Online, the same software that governments and businesses use, has been pledged through ConnectED, a White House initiative to improve education in the STEM fields. This sets the stage for students to take learning and problem solving in new directions by developing their geospatial literacy. Being able to analyze data and present information visually are important skills, whether you are investigating global issues or trying to solve problems in your backyard. Adding GIS to the project-based learning toolkit opens all kinds of opportunities for rich inquiry.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/students-map-real-world-issues-free-geospatial-tools-suzie-boss

by BENJAMIN WINTERHALTER, the Atlantic

An expanding body of research suggests that providing students with feedback in real-time has a big impact on how much they retain. And this just so happens to be something that MOOCs—and automated grading—do exceptionally well. As Mitros put it: “We have study after study suggesting that you learn very little as a result of me talking at you for an hour. Whereas if I convey information to you for five minutes and then assess you on it, and repeat that for an hour, you learn a lot more.” For the time being, MOOCs seem unlikely to take the place of physical campuses—or even replace for-profit universities, as Lue hopes they will. In order to do that, MOOCs would have to begin offering meaningful credits—the kind someone could take to a job interview and expect to have taken seriously.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/07/how-online-courses-are-becoming-educations-new-wave/375152/

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education

Jonathan Bergmann, who came up with the idea of the flipped class in the 2006-07 school year with fellow teacher Aaron Sams, said, “That’s a good place to start, but we want teachers to go beyond that.” Now the flipped class is giving way to flipped learning, which allows teachers to leave the front of the room and go deeper into learning with strategies such as project-based learning, inquiry and games, Bergmann said. As education leaders consider bringing flipped learning into their schools, flipped learning practitioners suggest at least six steps to go through with their staff to make sure everyone is equipped to implement it.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/6-Steps-to-Preparing-Schools-for-Flipped-Learning.html

By Thor Olavsrud, IT World

Teachers are an excellent example. They’ve always been data workers — assessing students’ understanding of the material based on test scores, classroom engagement, quality of homework, etc., with the goal of improving that understanding. Knowing that individual students learn in different ways, many schools today have adopted the idea of personalized learning as their pedagogical approach: They assess each student on their learning needs, interests, aspirations and cultural backgrounds to create a personalized education program designed to maximize education outcomes.

http://www.itworld.com/it-management/428921/can-data-analytics-make-teachers-better-educators

Nancy Mann Jackson, University Business

Some colleges and universities take offering to the next level by tapping data to improve business processes and better serve students. A transcript highlighting the full student experience at Elon University—including study abroad, research and service learning participation—is offered. When an e-transcript request is made, both the traditional one and the Elon Experiences Transcript can be combined into a single PDF file. The process allows administrators to capture lots of valuable electronic data, but the majority of schools are not utilizing that information beyond sending or receiving the transcripts.

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/e-transcripts-accelerate-higher-ed

By Steven M. Baule, CIO Advisor

What does 1:1 mean? To many people outside of educational technology, a 1:1 classroom is envisioned as a place where students watch videos and work directly with their computer, tablet or iPad. They imagine a classroom without student-to-student or even student-to-teacher interactions. The vision some have is that 1:1 educational programming will stunt social and emotional growth and lead to a nerdocracy where interacting with a keyboard or touch screen will replace nearly all human interaction. Others simply see the automation of traditional classroom instruction where the device is simply an expensive spiral notebook. In reality, the best 1:1 classrooms are much more engaging.

http://www.schoolcio.com/Default.aspx?tabid=136&entryid=7929

by MICHAEL S. ROTH, e-International Relations

Much of the euphoria and hype around MOOCs has died down in the last year, and some of the fear-mongering, too. That’s a good thing. Online classes that reach an international audience won’t solve all the problems of higher education, but they are an effective tool to use for increasing awareness, stimulating research and creating widely dispersed networks of learning and action. Rather than fear them or celebrate them as “disruptive forces,” we should work at making them more effective for reaching an international group of “learners” who want to connect with important material and with one another.

http://www.e-ir.info/2014/07/26/massive-open-online-classes-and-international-learning/

by Richard Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers

FutureLearn, a subsidiary of The Open University, offers a wide range of free online courses. FutureLearn offers online courses on academic topics in history, science, literature, and political science. You will also find FutureLearn courses on topics like public speaking, developing a resume, and digital marketing. Courses range in length from two weeks to eight weeks. Some of the courses, like this public speaking course, require you to submit assignments to participate.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/07/futurelearn-offers-wide-range-of-free.html#.U9V5euNdW2o

BY ROANE STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Cantrell and faculty member Jessica Fain will live and teach from an underwater habitat for 72 days this fall. While they live in a space the size of a college dorm room submerged about 25 feet, Cantrell and Fain will host weekly shows titled “Classroom Under the Sea.” The shows, presented in partnership with the Marine Resources Development Foundation in Key Largo, Florida, will feature scientists and explorers and will cover topics such as underwater archeology and ocean exploration. In addition to the weekly programs, Cantrell will also teach his dream class online, BIOL 2600: Living and Working Under the Sea. Enrolled Roane State students can register for the class now, but only 30 spots are available.

http://oakridgetoday.com/2014/07/27/roane-state-professor-develops-online-course-will-teach-living-sea/

By Ruth Campbell ~ Southeast Missourian

Depending on whom you ask or what you read, online programs mean easier access to higher education — or the end of brick-and-mortar colleges and universities, especially in these times of limited state funding. For Southeast Missouri State University, online education falls into the former category, and it’s helped the university reach students it might not otherwise. Provost Dr. Bill Eddleman said online courses and majors have become a key component of the school’s offerings.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/2104394.html

By Gaby Arancibia, eSchool News

Deciding if you want to use a tutor, or if you’d just rather download an app to help you, is becoming more difficult these days. Technology has and will continue to amaze us with its new inventions, but when people question if professions are necessary, should we become concerned? A tutor has historically been an instructor who meets a student at their home or a library to help with assignments or a specific subject–but with apps, students often have more on-demand academic help. Learning from an app can be ideal for the new generation because it offers flexibility and little or no cost.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/07/25/apps-traditional-tutor-492/

By Pam Adams, Peoria Journal Star

Cindy Hamblin, director of Illinois Virtual School, wants enrollments to grow 20 percent in the coming school year, to about 3,600. She also wants to expand courses for middle school students. Illinois Virtual School’s main feature is almost 150 courses and 22 credit-recovery classes for high school students. Courses include core English, math and science classes; six languages, including Arabic and Latin; and electives such as meteorology, oceanography and Java programming. Like its students, the virtual school’s 62 part-time teachers live throughout the state. The school also reaches other teachers and school nurses through online professional development courses.

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140724/NEWS/140729635

by Consumer Reports

College may be the best investment for the future, but it certainly doesn’t come cheap. To help stretch your budget, we combed our computer Ratings to find some of the best laptops in terms of price and performance in the $600 to $800 range. These budget laptops, all equipped with a 14-inch or larger screen, can handily surf the Web, run productivity software, and stream Netflix while maintaining a respectable battery life. Some of them even have enough power to do a decent job with computer games. The models we’ve chosen all use the Windows 8 operating system. (There are some great Apple MacBooks in our Ratings too, but a similarly equipped model costs considerably more.)

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/07/5-laptops-for-college-students-that-won-t-break-your-budget/index.htm

By Debra Beck, Evolllution

There are myriad ways to use Twitter, both to support classroom management and increase student engagement. One example of the latter usage comes from a colleague who asks student peer groups to research topics and share discoveries on Twitter using a common course hashtag (a way to identify messages related to a specific topic in social media). Students not only share what they learn with classmates, expanding the group’s collective knowledge, but with others who read their tweets. This opens discussion and learning opportunities to not only fellow class members but to a larger global audience. Similarly, students can follow content-related hashtags or terms (e.g., #nonprofit or #governance for students in my classes) to access live discussions and news related to topics germane to the course.

http://www.evolllution.com/featured/tweeting-learn-extending-social-classroom-learning-twitter/

By Corina Cappabianca, KXNET

Heavy textbooks could soon be a learning tool of the past for North Dakota University students. The Higher Education Funding Committee discusses partnering with the University of Minnesota to access an online Open Textbook library. Students would be able to visit the website and download their course materials. They could then view the digital files, or print them out. NDUS representative Dr. Tanya Spilovoy says Open Textbooks would help students learn on the go.

http://www.kxnet.com/story/26087295/higher-education-funding-committee-discusses-open-textbook-library-for-ndus

By: Jenna Lyons, USA Today

In response to a shortage of cyber professionals in the U.S., the National Security Agency is reaching out to a younger crowd: college students. Beginning in 2012, the NSA started its National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations Program at select universities across the nation to attract students to the field. On July 14, the agency announced that five new schools would join the program, bringing the number of participating universities to 13. The new recruits include New York University, Towson University in Maryland, The United States Military Academy, University of Cincinnati and University of New Orleans. RAND Corporation released a report in June on the nation’s cyber professional shortage, citing the NSA as the largest and leading employer of cyber security professionals.

http://college.usatoday.com/2014/07/22/nsa-targets-college-students-to-fill-cyber-professionals-shortage/