Techno-News Blog

by Seb Murray, Business Because

Two leading US business professors have said that the disruptive technology used by Moocs poses a “real threat” to business schools and could replace some classroom teachers. Two leading US business professors have said that the disruptive technology used by Moocs, or massive open online courses, pose a “real threat” to business schools and could “replace a large number of classroom instructors”. The professors also envisaged a scenario in which the “fundamental architecture of the business school could crumble” in the face of wide-scale adoption of distance learning technology. In comments that echo their research earlier this year which forecast that two-thirds of MBA professors could be sacked due to the emergence of Mooc tech, Wharton School professors Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich say business schools and faculty are “clearly vulnerable”.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/2916/learning-tech-poses-real-threat-to-vulnerable-business-schools

by Barb Darrow, GigaOM

In case anyone doubted that Linux is the OS king among modern-day software programmers (or would-be programmers), here’s a tidbit: Some 300,000 people signed up for an edX course on Linux that kicked off in August, the largest turnout for any of edX’s 350 courses this year, according to edX president Anant Agarwal. “This Linux course has been one of the top two MOOCs we’ve ever had,” Agarwal said in an interview. (MOOC stands for massive online open course.) It’s been apparent for a decade that startups and older companies alike look for expertise in Linux (in particular) and open-source technologies (in general).

https://gigaom.com/2014/11/18/we-want-linux-say-300000-edx-students/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

The University of Oklahoma’s Janux learning platform makes the university’s online courses available to students all over the world for free. Courses have covered computer science, history, political science, chemistry, education and earth and energy; however, not all of them are necessarily run-of-the-mill college offerings. The most popular Janux class has turned out to be Chemistry of Beer, taught by a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. OU students earn one credit for the beer course; the number of credits given for other courses varies. For example, the same faculty member, Mark Morvant, is also teaching a General Chemistry class, which is worth five credit hours. The classes last for 16 weeks — the same length as the standard semester — and some have a set schedule, where the instructor and students interact in real time.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/11/17/u-oklahomas-janux-flips-the-mooc.aspx

by Seb Murray, Business Because

“It acts as a complement,” says Peter Methot, managing director of executive education at Rutgers Business School, which runs up to 18 “mini MBAs” on topics such as entrepreneurship and digital marketing. “The mini-MBA also serves the purpose of focusing on a specific subject matter in a condensed period of time,” he adds. Where MBA degrees are expensive, mini courses cost as little as $5,000 and have relaxed entry requirements. They are targeting middle-managers, according to Alan Middleton, executive director of the Schulich School of Business’ Executive Education Centre. “The mini-MBA tends to get people later on in their careers,” he says, who want to move into broader responsibilities or more senior roles. “They don’t really have time to go back [to business school] for a year or an 18 month program,” Alan adds.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/2914/time-starved-managers-to-to-innovative-mini-mbas-online

by Nick Echavarria, BackerJack

The mission behind Pi-Top is simple: focus on teaching people how to create and code great hardware. Initially, the open source laptop is shipped in pieces: a 13.3″ HD LCD monitor, various PCBs, keyboard, trackpad, Wi-Fi adapter, wiring, battery, and a Raspberry Pi to control it all. Instructions are included to lead users in the Pi-Top’s construction, and serve as an introductory lesson to everything the Pi-Top does. Afterwards, it functions as a laptop dedicated to teaching the skills necessary to transform a pure novice into someone who can design printed circuit boards, 3D print, and code anything they’d want using free online lessons direct from the company. In addition, the Raspberry Pi’s HAT specification allows small add-on boards to add functionality, a consideration Pi-Top was built with.

http://www.backerjack.com/pi-top-is-a-chunky-open-source-laptop-to-teach-you-about-coding/

By gearfuse, Before It’s News

Technology has become an integral part of the student experience. There’s no shortage of apps to help students organize their schedules, stay on track with homework, and pay the bills on a tight budget. Students taking online or distance courses have additional needs that can also be assisted with today’s best apps. Take a look at these options, most of which are free to download.

http://beforeitsnews.com/science-and-technology/2014/11/the-10-best-apps-for-online-students-2732414.html

by Carla Rivera, LA Times

Cal State L.A. biology students are breeding fruit flies to learn how mutations, such as white eyes or curved wings, are passed to future generations. On other campuses, subjects on treadmills are monitored for changes in blood pressure and heart rate. These are fairly common lab experiments, except for one thing: They are being conducted via computer. At colleges and universities across the country, students increasingly are using online simulations, animation and other technologies to replicate — and, some say, improve upon — the hands-on experience of a typical lab.

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-college-labs-20141115-story.html

by the University of Michigan

The impact of technology and networks on our lives, culture, and society continues to increase. The very fact that you can take this course from anywhere in the world requires a technological infrastructure that was designed, engineered, and built over the past sixty years. To function in an information-centric world, we need to understand the workings of network technology. This course will open up the Internet and show you how it was created, who created it and how it works. Along the way we will meet many of the innovators who developed the Internet and Web technologies that we use today.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/insidetheinternet

by Jamaal Abdul-Alim, Diverse Education

When it comes to making higher education more affordable in the future, the question of whether to go to school online or to a traditional campus won’t be an either-or proposition—it will be a question of how much of which. That was one of the major points made during a panel discussion on college access and affordability Thursday at a National Education Week “Thought Leader Summit” held at the National Press Club. As competency-based credentials and online courses become more common on the landscape of higher education, students will have to decide whether football, fraternities and other things to be found on traditional campuses are worth thousands of dollars more than less costly alternatives, one of the panelists suggested.

http://diverseeducation.com/article/67922/

by Best Education Infographics

Ohio University’s MBA program offers this Online MBA Education Infographic about the rise of the online MBA degree. With over 6.7 million students enrolled in online education, a Master of Business Administration is the #1 most popular online graduate degree offered by 355 accredited programs. Many people believe that online degrees don’t carry as much weight as an on-campus degrees, but 77% of academic leaders say that online learning is of equal quality or better than “Face-to-Face” learning. For part-time students, it takes about 3 years to complete an online MBA. See link below for details.

http://elearninginfographics.com/rise-online-mba-education-infographic/

By Michael Hart, Campus Technology

Two Boston University graduates have invented a technology that led to a state-of-the-art video collaboration wall that is now installed in the lobby of the university’s College of Engineering. Prysm, a company that designs and manufactures video wall systems and is led by Amit Jain (’85) and Roger Hajjar (’88), has installed the video wall system using a technology they invented, laser phosphor display (LPD). LPD uses a laser engine and a phosphor panel to create images with low-power, solid-state lasers. It differs from LED- and LCD-based technologies, according to Jain, because it offers higher image quality with canvas-wide uniformity and a smaller environmental footprint.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/11/13/new-video-collaboration-wall-unveiled-at-boston-university.aspx

by Mary Grush, Campus Technology

Open pedagogy, as defined by David Wiley, focuses primarily on the relationship between the open licensing of content and the additional options students and instructors then have to remix that content as part of the work of the course. He stresses the move away from “disposable assignments.” That is undoubtedly important and powerful. Still, a broader consideration may be useful. Looking at open pedagogy as a general philosophy of openness (and connection) in all elements of the pedagogical process, while messy, provides some interesting possibilities. Open is a purposeful path towards connection and community. Open pedagogy could be considered as a blend of strategies, technologies, and networked communities that make the process and products of education more transparent, understandable, and available to all the people involved.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/11/12/open-pedagogy-connection-community-and-transparency.aspx

By Keith Button, Education Dive

Only 17.4% of college and university faculty have taught an exclusively online course at their current school, according to a national survey taking during the 2013-2014 school year. For faculty at public four-year higher education institutions, 27.2% have taught an exclusively online course within the last two years, compared to 8.5% at private universities.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/report-826-of-higher-ed-faculty-have-not-taught-online-only-course-at-cu/332620/

by Seb Murray, Business Because

Stanford GSB became the latest leading business school to ramp up its online education offering last week, with a new program for executives that will be delivered entirely through a digital platform. Business schools have been thinking of ways to monetize their free online programs known as Moocs, or massive open online courses, and see off the threat posed by learning technology companies such as Coursera and FutureLearn. Stanford’s new LEAD Certificate program aims to recreate the school’s on-campus experience through instructional video, online exercises, group projects and live-streamed events. It will use technology developed by NovoEd, a distance learning company which also provides tech to business schools Wharton, Darden and Haas.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/2904/business-schools-bet-on-virtual-learning-for-global-growth

by David Raths, Campus Technology

Electronic portfolio projects have great potential to impact learning, assessment, and professional development. Yet expanding e-portfolios campuswide and sustaining the program isn’t easy. Here are four pitfalls to watch out for. CT spoke with Hepler and Teggin Summers, who was associate director of the e-portfolio program at Virginia Tech for six years before recently becoming director of that institution’s Innovation Space, about what it takes to roll out e-portfolios campuswide. Although their experiences are quite different — e-portfolios have taken hold in every college on Virginia Tech’s campus — both Hepler and Summers offered some observations on the key challenges of e-portfolio diffusion.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/11/12/4-common-e-portfolio-mistakes-to-avoid.aspx

by Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet

Last year, one Microsoft exec showed off a prototype of what email could look like in the future if it were to embed contextual information supplied by Bing on the back-end. A “Bingified” version of Outlook could allow users to see entity information right inside their e-mail. The same way that Microsoft Office apps currently alert users with a squiggly line to a potentially misspelled word, a Bing-enriched mail app could show users information about entities embedded in their e-mail messages — things like bands, venues, nearby restaurants and more. It sounds like Microsoft is continuing its efforts on this front. Last week, at a private press event, Microsoft showed off a coming Windows phone app called “Revolve,” according to Fast Company. That app “melds aspects of a calendar and contact manager, and presents you with information about people you’re going to meet with that it’s collected from multiple sources.”

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-pushes-ahead-with-its-quest-to-make-apps-more-intelligent-7000035605/

by James G. Mazoue, EDUCAUSE Review

Four trends – MOOC-based degrees, competency-based education, the formalization of learning, and regulatory reform – are shifting educational practice away from core tenets of traditional education, indicating not a transient phenomenon but rather a fundamental change to the status quo.  It is ironic that at a time when higher education is seemingly more interconnected than ever, deep divisions exist over how best to carry out the core mission. The recent rancor over MOOCs reveals just how sharply divided the disagreement is between those who wish to preserve educational orthodoxy’s traditions and those who seek to abandon legacy practices in favor of more progressive alternatives. What MOOCs and other emergent trends might signify is a developing schism within education between traditionalists and progressives.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/beyond-mooc-model-changing-educational-paradigms

by Kyle Potter, Associated Press

The early arrival of wintry weather in the Midwest this week gave Grewing an opening to test out a virtual class day at St. Cloud Cathedral high school in central Minnesota, having students whip out laptops or iPads and work from home. After a successful test run, Grewing declared Tuesday that students’ cherished snow days are a thing of the past — at least at Cathedral. “This is what we will be doing every single snow day going forward,” she said. “I’ll be honest. There has been some grumbling.” Private schools like Cathedral — and, increasingly, some public school districts — across the nation are starting to use the flexibility technology provides to work around weather, meeting school mandates without make-up days.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/goodbye-snow-days-students-study-home-26844708

BY KYLE VANHEMERT, Wired

At WIRED by Design, Sarah Stein Greenberg, executive director of Stanford Design School, shared a handful of concepts for redesigning college, culled from a year long workshop. Specifically, they look at how to keep the on-campus experience relevant in an age where online learning is becoming increasingly common. One of the provocations, called Open Loop University, wonders what could happen if you gave students six years of college to use whenever they wanted throughout their adult life. This sort of speculative thinking is meant to address growing concerns about the traditional four-year undergraduate track—basically that today’s system makes way for a bunch of well-trained sheep. “This is a generation of students who are incredibly highly structured, but they’re going to be entering an increasingly ambiguous world,” Stein Greenberg says. “We need to be training our students not just to expect that they will be society’s leaders, but also to be our most creative, daring, and resilient problem solvers.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/11/radical-ideas-reinventing-college-stanfords-design-school/

by Kim McGuire, Star Tribune

With vivid memories of the Polar Vortex and its frigid wrath, administrators at Cathedral High School in St. Cloud decided earlier this year that students would work from home online the next time bad weather forced a snow day. To make sure students and teachers were prepared, a “practice” snow day was slated for Nov. 21. But Mother Nature had other plans, dumping nearly a foot of snow on the St. Cloud area on Monday and forcing ­Cathedral officials to do a real-life trial before their test run. “It was sort of ready or not,” Cathedral High School Principal Lynn Grewing said. “But we were ready, and we got everything posted online pretty early.”

http://www.startribune.com/local/282227521.html