Techno-News Blog

by AGbeat

Switch launched earlier this year an aggregator to help anyone to determine which coding bootcamp is right for them, as the options begin to multiply. To reduce confusion, Switch created the TripAdvisor for people considering a career change by launching transparent reviews (read: it’s much more than just search). Now, Switch has launched the first ever aggregator for online and offline learn-to-code resources, seeking to help anyone from the DIY entrepreneur looking to brush up to the career veteran looking to learn a new programming language. By adding Online Courses, they are innovating in the space by helping bridge the gap between empty course seats and potential students of all types.

https://www.switchup.org/online

http://agbeat.com/tech-news/switch-launches-1st-learn-code-course-search-online-offline-classes/

by Bob Mercer, Sioux City Journal

When they were built in Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Pierre, South Dakota’s public university centers seemed to meet a vexing need. But those centers aren’t drawing students as well as education officials hoped, while Internet courses and other distance-education classes offered by the six traditional state universities set records again in the past year. The state Board of Regents received reports Wednesday that suggested distance education is competing against the centers for enrollment. The centers concept was developed a decade ago as a mechanism to deliver courses in cities with large populations of adults. That was before Internet courses swept the nation. The university centers show the effect. Unduplicated headcounts decreased at two of the university centers from fall 2009 to fall 2013. Sioux Falls dropped from 2,275 to 1,859; Pierre slid from 133 to 81.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/university-centers-struggle-for-students-while-online-courses-grow-in/article_bdcc562d-7f7b-579f-bc9f-bf88c951aee6.html

by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

The spread of adaptive learning technology in high education, to some, is the rise of the machines — replacing professors with software and an automated, cheapened form of instruction. To Ariel Anbar it’s a tool that helps him teach in new ways. Anbar is a professor in Arizona State University’s department of chemistry and biochemistry. Four years ago he began a collaboration with Smart Sparrow, an education-technology company based in Australia and San Francisco. “I was trying to create an interactive, game-like science course for non-science majors,” said Anbar, who this year was named ASU’s first Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, an honor that comes with a $1 million research grant.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/10/emerging-adaptive-software-puts-faculty-members-charge-course-creation

by Greg Toppo, USATODAY

The place where the video game was invented more than 50 years ago now wants to teach teachers, entrepreneurs and students how to design games for the learning — and it is hoping that the end result will be a new kind of tech tool for the classroom. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology begins a free series of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, beginning with one on the design and development of educational technology. The second course, which begins Oct. 22, focuses on game design. Two upcoming courses will focus on educational games and implementing ed tech.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/10/08/mit-moocs-free-video-game-courses/16876395/

by Seattle PI

29 prominent CEOs of leading global companies, from tech to retail to financial services, join forces for the first time to help introduce 100 million students worldwide to basic computer science concepts by asking their employees to support the international Hour of Code campaign. Taking place during Computer Science Education Week, December 8-14, Hour of Code is a campaign organized by Code.org to demystify coding by teaching students of all ages that anyone can learn the basics of computer science. To galvanize support of Hour of Code beyond industry partners and to further its mission to provide every student access to computer science education, Code.org today launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo with a goal to raise $5M to support this effort, the largest nonprofit fundraising campaign in the site’s history.

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/press-releases/article/Code-org-and-Industry-Leaders-Rally-to-Champion-5809111.php

by IndieGoGo

With the Hour of Code campaign, we hope to introduce 100 million students worldwide to one hour of computer science. Beyond that, we’ll help millions continue learning – either online, or in schools where we’ll establish permanent courses and train teachers. 90% of schools still don’t teach computer science. In the 21st century. Our schools teach kids how to dissect a frog and how weather works. Today, it’s equally fundamental to learn to “dissect an app,” or how the Internet works. Every young person deserves basic knowledge of how the world works around them and how to build technology that’s changing the world.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/an-hour-of-code-for-every-student/

By Laura Devaney, eSchoolNews

Promoting access while maintaining student safety can prove challenging for educators. As classrooms change with the evolution of mobile technology, classroom management strategies must adjust to walk the line between keeping students on task and giving students freedom to use their mobile devices for learning. Focusing on four classroom management components may help educators as they strive to incorporate mobile devices into teaching and learning while meeting the challenge of minimizing device distractions.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/08/manage-mobile-classrooms-830/

By Ángel González, Seattle Times

Starbucks says 2,000 of its staffers have applied to participate in the subsidized college education program it offers employees, and 1,800 have been admitted by Arizona State University, its partner in the program. The first 1,000 or so will begin classes on Oct. 15, the company says. About two thirds of them will be juniors and seniors, and therefore eligible for full tuition reimbursement.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024715704_starbuckscollegexml.html

by Edutopia

Check out this metasite for gaming, simulation and related technologies by Edutopia. Resources include:

Games in the Classroom

Tips and Tools to Get Started

Using Games for Learning and Assessment

Engaging Students With Innovative Programs

Games for Social Good

Straightforward Gamification Strategies

Additional Resources on the Web

http://www.edutopia.org/game-based-learning-resources

by Seb Murray, Business Because

The business education market has had to adapt to meet the needs of today’s business world, according to Federico Frattini, director of the Flex EMBA program at MIP Politecnico di Milano, the Italian business school. “These factors together conspire to make it extremely difficult to attend face-to-face MBAs and executive MBAs,” he says. An obvious alternative is the EMBA, designed for more senior workers and spread out over a longer period. But these programs are also risky. “In the case of our EMBA participants, leaving their job carries a risk, given their seniority and what they have accomplished in their careers,” says Paula Robles associate director of marketing at INSEAD. The rise of flexible and distance learning, where students use online platforms to study from the comfort of their work desks or even at home on the sofa, means there is now a wealth of choice available.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/2825/an-mba-your-way-flexible-online-programs-beat-clock

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education

These issues highlight three major trends: “Inflection point,” “from technical to business” and “the new normal.” The “inflection point” issues have finally reached a place where universities need to move from talk to action. Issues in the “from technical to business” trend highlight the increasing importance of technology in university business operations. And “the new normal” issues reflect that day-to-day operations are strategic. This annual list comes out of an EDUCAUSE IT panel made up of higher education leaders who identify the top strategic priorities for their institutions.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/The-Top-10-IT-Issues-in-Higher-Ed-for-2015.html

by Inside Higher Ed

Both Arizona State University and Starbucks are reporting a rush of new applicants after the coffee giant announced it would reimburse employees who took their junior and senior years through the institution’s online arm. The university has already accepted 1,800 Starbucks employees (whom it referred to as “partners” in a press release), among whom about 1,000 have enrolled in the second fall session. The university noted the applicants, who represent every state and every retail role at Starbucks, are scattered across its 40 degree programs, although psychology, lifestyle coaching, mass communication and media studies and English ranked as the most popular. About 70 percent of the students will enroll as juniors or seniors, meaning they will be covered by Starbucks’ tuition reimbursement plan.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/10/07/arizona-state-u-accepts-1800-starbucks-employees

by Anastasia Salter, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Ello is being billed as the new alternative to Facebook, but if anything, it reminds me more of Tumblr. Currently, much of the action is in the idea of “Noise”–the equivalent of following someone on Tumblr or Twitter, without necessarily having any reciprocal relationship with them–and the variety of content there is just that. With no real-name identity association (which definitely has its benefits, ala Tumblr), it does have some potential as a space for emergent conversations and random discovery. I’ve used Tumblr for research, and I could potentially see Ello working similarly if it catches on.

<br>

Visit Ray’s ello page http://ello.co/rayschroeder

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/ello-and-academic-social-networks/58211

by the News-Journal Editorial Board

It’s another lesson in the gap between what Tallahassee mandates for education and how school districts execute them. As The News-Journal’s Annie Martin recently reported, Volusia County school officials realized last spring that about 3,000 of their more than 4,000 rising seniors had yet to complete an online course as is now required by state regulations. In Flagler County, 453 seniors — only about half of the county’s total — have completed the requirement. They’re not alone. In Osceola County, only 38 percent of seniors have completed the requirement. In Orange County, 45 percent of seniors have yet to complete at least one online course. In Seminole County, about 1,000 students still need to meet the requirement. Those numbers are way too high for a mandate that has been in place three years.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20141006/opinion/141009741

by Arizona State University

ASU Professor Ariel Anbar has put much effort into developing a series of immersive virtual field trips (iVFTs) in conjunction with ASU education technologist Geoffrey Bruce and ASU associate professor Steven Semken, and various geoscience colleagues around the world. Their efforts are supported in part by NASA and by the NSF. The project is now extending beyond geoscience, with faculty from other fields developing field trips using the same technology framework. For Anbar, each virtual field trip can “provide at least some of the gains you would get out of a real field trip,” but they are accessible to many more students, and at far less cost, than a comparable physical trip.

https://asunews.asu.edu/20141003-anbar-virtual-field-trips

by: StephenExley, TES Connect

Fewer than half (42 per cent) of the global specialists polled by the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) believe that academic knowledge will remain a fundamental part of education in 15 years’ time. A similar proportion (43 per cent) of the 600 experts surveyed believe that the most important source of knowledge will be online learning, with fewer than a third (29 per cent) expecting that the physical school building will remain the primary location for learning. Accordingly, fewer than a fifth (19 per cent) of those surveyed argue that a teacher’s most important task will be to “deliver knowledge”. Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) say the job will instead entail “guiding students along their autonomous learning paths”.

http://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/10/02/schools-and-teachers-could-be-obsolete-by-2030-experts-predict.aspx

by Rashid Dumbuya ESQ, Sierra Express Media

As I resume classes on Monday here in the UK, I am so unhappy and broken in spirit especially when I consider the fact that thousands of students in my country are presently not attending school and formal lectures because of the outbreak of the Ebola virus and its attendant consequences. The entire educational system in Sierra Leone is currently on hold for over 3 months now. But as I sat and ponder over this demagogue, something interesting dropped on my mind and I feel a deep sense of responsibility to share it to all and sundry. QUESTION- Assuming E-learning had been encouraged and prioritized in the University of Sierra Leone, would it have made some positive difference during this challenging period?

http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/?p=70886

By Jessica Falkenthal, Blog UP

Eric Ries, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, popularized the idea of a minimum viable product, also known as quick prototyping. The concept is akin to writing an outline and getting it reviewed by your audience before you do hours of research and build your argument. When you get early feedback, you are able to develop a more effective paper. We named our prototype the “MOOC survivor tool.” While developing a prototype, I learned that there were a few things this approach could offer to the field of online learning. When applied to online learning, the idea is simple: create a prototype in increments and test it with customers to validate its effectiveness with real life users. This allows you to learn about what your users need and want while investing little time in going down unnecessary paths. It is essentially a fast process to nullify or accept your hypotheses and assumptions. The process tells you from an early stage if your idea or hypothesis is useful and worth building. The formula is simple: build, test, learn and repeat.

http://blog.up.co/2014/10/01/using-quick-prototyping-develop-online-courses/

by eLearning Industry

Many universities assume that because their students are part of the Facebook and Instagram generation, that they have the skills to be automatically successful online learners. This is a dangerous assumption as the high rates of attrition in online courses and MOOCs (as high as 90 percent in some cases) attest. Education institutions also assume that because students are eager online learners that they will understand and accept the new models of instruction and ways of working online or in blended environments. This is also dangerous assumption. Many students, though they may appear to be eager online learners, will often resist new models of teaching and learning and the increased responsibility they will need to be pushed and supported to learn differently. And many university students will take online courses because of the perception that it is easier, and they will need to be pushed and supported to work harder (especially when they see that an online course often involves more work than a face-to-face course.)

http://elearningindustry.com/helping-online-learners-succeed-part-1

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

Creating a pipeline of girls who are interested in leadership roles in school is essential. Educators are uniquely positions to help girls assume leadership roles and overcome stereotypes both in and out of school, according to a new report from the National Education Association (NEA). Educator support in helping girls take on leadership roles is essential, especially in middle and high school. The report, based on 2014 NEA survey data, recommends several actions to help educators close the leadership gender gap.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/02/girls-leadership-roles-549/

By Keith Krueger, eSchool News

Superintendents lead. They are charged with preparing students to be college-, career-, and life-ready, and with enabling a 21st-century learning environment. Increasingly, this means leveraging digital technologies to create personalized learning opportunities. As leaders, superintendents play an essential role as a catalyst for using technology to transform learning. In districts where superintendents have created a clear and compelling vision for technology, positive learning changes are occurring. In districts where the superintendent has abdicated that responsibility, technology is rarely scaled in a systemic manner.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/02/cosn-empowering-superintendents-901/