Techno-News Blog

by Training Zone

So what’s in store for the coming year then? Some of the ‘trends’ you will find popping up also feature from previous years, so technically they may not be a new trend, but we’ve kept them on our list as some of them have been slow to adopt and still hold a solid presence and form the topic of many a conservation by the water cooler. [ed note: here’s one we will be sure to see more often]

9. Learning as a lifestyle

The L&D sector as a whole is shifting from thinking about organising individual learning events to creating learning campaigns. In 2015, organisations will be looking for new ways to connect with their learners through social, informal and creative methods that transform learning into a lifestyle rather than a compartmentalised activity.

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/blogs-post/learning-evolving-10-key-e-learning-trends-2015/188096

by Rebecca Merrett, CIO

Digital disruption is driving education outside the boundaries of the classroom and into a host of new online opportunities. Interacting with new technologies is also a core focus across several Australian schools. To do this, book repository libraries are being transformed by several institutions into makerspaces, allowing students to tinker and experiment with technologies and learn in a non-structured environment. One of the first schools in Australia to transform its library is St Columba Anglican School in NSW. Its director of e-learning, Matt Richards, says his year 9 IT students are developing first-person shooter games for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, while year 3 students are designing electronic controllers for games.

http://www.cio.com.au/article/562330/how-digital-technology-ushering-new-age-learning/

by Indiana University

The Indiana University School of Education’s Sean Duncan is a co-principal investigator on a new grant from the National Science Foundation to examine informal online spaces where youth may learn science. The goal of the project is to better understand and utilize affinity spaces, which are online environments where youth can develop deep interest and engagement in specific topics and interact with others who share common interests. Duncan is deeply involved in researching learning games and affinity spaces in particular. He directs the Playful Culture Lab at IU, a research group within the Center for Research on Learning and Technology, focusing especially on learning through informal online settings. He’s received a previous grant for studying use of digital badges for credentialing learning through affinity spaces. Duncan also researches how online spaces shape the way teachers, parents and children discuss media.

http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iu/2014/12/informal-science-learning-grant.shtml

By David Weldon, Campus Technology

Campus information technology departments are looking for candidates with skill sets in mobile, big data and more — but will the best talent be lost to the corporate sector? With cloud computing, mobile technology and big data analytics on the rise, a lot of change is coming to campus IT departments. And along with all that change comes the need for many colleges and universities to ramp up their IT hiring in 2015. That is both good news and bad news. It’s great for job seekers, of course, when organizations increase head count. But for higher education institutions — not known for their top IT salaries — competition with the corporate sector should be tough.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/12/11/hiring-outlook-in-higher-education-it.aspx

By Pooja Sankar, eCampus News

Last week, during Computer Science Education Week, as educators and administrators discussed ways to attract more students—women and minorities especially—to study computer science, we were reminded that it’s not enough to simply encourage under-represented groups to take their first STEM classes. Educators must recognize that they play a major role in keeping these students engaged and supported throughout their academic careers. Traditional class structures can perpetuate feelings of isolation. Attracting women and minorities to computer science is one thing; keeping them there and easing their path to graduation (and beyond) is a separate thing altogether.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/diversity-computer-science-229/

By David Brooks, eCampus News

Turning a college course into an online course requires more than video-recording the lecture.  Creating a college course may not be easy but at least it’s understood; people have been doing it since Socrates lectured in ancient Greece. Creating an online college course is another matter. There’s no Socratic judgement on the relative benefits of asynchronous videos, real-time discussion boards or e-books in the cloud. Those judgments are being created right now, by experience. “We’re trying not to just do old things with new technology,” said Fran Keefe, who as instructional designer for Rivier University works with professors and adjuncts to move existing “face-to-face” courses online, or create new courses entirely online. “I encourage faculty members not to lecture just because that’s what they’ve always done, then videotape it, put it online and make students watch it–but to consider new ways of presenting material.”

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/unique-online-course-191/

by Edudemic

Edudemic published a list of the most essential and popular educational tools used in modern classrooms across the globe. While many of 2013′s contenders retain top spots for 2014, there are a few new and noteworthy tools that made it onto this year’s list, and some of last year’s mentions have shifted in the rankings. We highly recommend taking a look at these “battle-tested” teaching tools; some of them may be a perfect fit for your modern classroom.

http://www.edudemic.com/10-popular-teaching-tools-2014/

By Nichole Dobo, Hechinger Report

An experiment in higher education uses computers to give every student a virtual front-row seat in the classroom. Classes at Minerva Schools at KGI, a four-year undergraduate program, are conducted entirely through a software program created specifically for the school. During class, there is real-time interaction through the computer between professor and students. They can see each other through the screen. Each class has fewer than 20 students. Professors do not lecture. The virtual experience is recorded each day so it can be reviewed for purposes such as assessment of students and faculty performance. The first 28 students started their freshman year this fall in San Francisco, Calif. They are not required to attend class from any particular physical location, but they live together in buildings leased by the school.

http://hechingerreport.org/content/college-ditched-lecture-halls-sports-clubs_18359/

by Thomas De Praetere, eLearning Industry

My clients oten ask me what online learning means and what can be considered true online learning. Here is an attempt to define online learning the empirical way, proposing a table of possible online learning activities. The advantage of the behaviorist definition is that it focuses on activities and feedback, hence suggesting a method for e-learning design. Truth is seldom simple but only simple ideas are usable. Let’s consider e-learning from the author’s perspective. Publishing slides, PDF e-books, encyclopaedia articles does not mean I produce e-learning, as the criteria for e-learning does not lie in the resources I publish but in the activities I organize for the learners around these resources. E-learning starts when I switch from “I published my course online” to “my course takes place online”.

http://elearningindustry.com/online-learning-activities

by Lauren Landry, BostonInno

Completion rates are the bane of massive open online courses. No matter how often critics are told focusing on them is “too simplistic,” naysayers harp on the average four percent rates anyway, rarely considering learners’ intentions. A new study, published in Educause, by Harvard University researcher Justin Reich suggests a new method of calculating course completion.

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/12/09/mooc-course-completion-rates-harvard-study-on-online-learning/

by James Goldgeier, Huffington Post

In recent months, news has emerged from universities around the country indicating that a significant level of skepticism remains about online education. When we first examined the possibility of working with an external provider to deliver graduate education three years ago at the School of International Service at American University, we shared the same instincts, alongside many of our faculty colleagues. After all, how could online education be as beneficial to students as being in the same room and on the same campus with one another and with their professors? Remarkably, we have found that it can be as beneficial, and that it has certain unique advantages. But this level of success requires a tremendous investment of resources, creativity and ambition to ensure that we meet our commitment as faculty and administrators to those students whose professional or family responsibilities or location do not allow them to enroll on campus.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-james-goldgeier/online-education-with-gre_b_6288764.html

by Ashley Bateman, Heartland

Global demand for online learning is growing. In 2000, 45,000 K-12 students reportedly took online courses. Less than a decade later, the number had grown to more than three million. Projecting from the increase in online course usage in 2000 to 2009 in the K-12 sector, by 2019 50 percent of K-12 students could be taking online courses. Six years ago the book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, by Clayton M. Christensen, changed the nation’s education landscape, introducing bold predictions about innovative technology driving individualized education.

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2014/12/10/use-blended-learning-and-individualized-education-increases

by Open Colleges

The future is now. With Google Glass, teachers and students alike can display information in a smartphone-like hands-free format, while interacting with the Internet via natural language voice commands. With limitless possibilities at its fingertips, the education community can build closer working relationships with students, and allow children to get more involved with their learning experience. Here we take a look at how Google Glass might be used in education.

http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/google-glasses-education#.VIXfLjHF9hU

by Brian Wheeler, Charlottesville Tomorrow

In 2012, Michael Lenox was among the first UVa professors to start teaching what are known as a Massive Open Online Course on the Coursera platform. “We can think about online education as both simultaneously a substitute and a complement to existing educational structures and efforts,” Lenox said. Lenox, who teaches at UVa’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, said consumers will be scrutinizing the value of a residential four-year university experience. “I would argue that residential-based education at a university setting is superior and will continue to be superior for a lot of reasons we can imagine to online education,” said Lenox, “but there’s also a potential for a very large price differential.” “At some price differential, people will substitute to online education and online degrees over residential-based degrees,” Lenox said.

http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/19654-impacts-of-technology-on-teaching-and-learning/

by IAN WALKER, the Sunday Telegraph

Books will be a distant memory, social skills will trump academic knowledge, teachers will be guides rather than lecturers and set hours at school will be a thing of the past. This is the vision of what schools will be like in 2030 as seen by experts from across the world. If the predictions from the World Innovation Summit for Education’s global survey are right, then a student’s interpersonal skills will be their most valued asset, with 75 per cent of respondents ranking it number one compared to 42 per cent for academic knowledge. Books will be few and far between with nearly half of respondents saying online content will be king.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/future-schools-books-to-be-replaced-by-online-learning-by-2030-global-survey-predicts/story-fni0cx12-1227145707499

by Christopher Pappas, eLearning Industry

In this article, I’ll highlight 5 psychology principles that you should use before you develop your next eLearning courses. Knowing how learners acquire information and why they need such information, is the key to becoming a successful eLearning professional. Using psychology principles in eLearning courses, offers eLearning professionals the chance to take full advantage of learning behaviors when creating their next eLearning deliverable.

http://elearningindustry.com/5-psychology-principles-elearning-professionals-know

by McCombs School, UT

McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, one of the top ten undergraduate business programs in the nation according to U.S. News and World Report, today opened virtual doors to the Texas Business Foundations Program (BFP) Online providing working professionals everywhere with greater access to a world-class business education. This online educational experience delivers comprehensive business essentials, an accelerated pace of courses, and an immersive and interactive curriculum. The program fills the business fundamentals gap between having a non-business degree and advanced programs like an MBA. Starting today professionals may enroll in three-credit courses for $600 each or pre-purchase all six courses for a 10 percent discount. Students will earn the Texas BFP Online Certificate from the McCombs School of Business upon completion of all six courses.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwgeeks/article/The-University-of-Texas-at-Austin-Introduces-Online-Business-Courses-for-Professionals-Worldwide-20141203

By Frank DeFrank, The Macomb Daily

Macomb County elementary school students will join 100 million or so of their closest friends next week when they participate in a worldwide event designed to pique their interest in computer science. The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science designed to “de mystify” code and demonstrate that anybody can learn the basics. The event will be held Dec. 8-14 in conjunction with Computer Science Education Week. Organized by Code.org., a non-profit organization dedicated to making computer science more available in schools, the program affords opportunities for students to get involved simply by logging on to a website, accessing tutorials and setting up an Hour of Code event.

http://www.macombdaily.com/social-affairs/20141203/local-students-to-participate-in-international-hour-of-code-online-learning-event

By Jennifer Johnson, eSchool News

Computer coding teaches students problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, math and collaboration, they said. Lewis and Clark students were only on their second session of coding, but have so far enthusiastically embraced the activity, said Tiffany Mannausau, district curriculum tech partner. “Technology isn’t going away,” she said. “Think about how much thinking is going on right now and the math, and tie it into the writing. You can see right now, not one kid is not engaged.”

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/12/04/coding-classes-skills-873/

by the Open University

The annual Innovating Pedagogy report explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. Produced by the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University, the report identifies ten educational terms, theories and practices that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice in the near future.  Featured in 2014’s annual report:

Massive open social learning

Learning design informed by analytics

Flipped classrooms

Bring your own devices

Learning to learn

Dynamic assessment

Event-based learning

Learning through storytelling

Threshold concepts

Bricolage

While MOOCs and other theories covered in this year’s report are not necessarily new, we aim to examine how they can gather momentum and have a greater influence on education. For each of the ten practices featured within the report, we have identified the potential impact they could have, as well as the predicted timescale for each.

http://www.openuniversity.edu/news/news/2014-innovating-pedagogy-report