Techno-News Blog

by: SIRI ANDERSON, SEAN BEAVERSON and TONI SCHWARTZ, Star Tribune

We have evidence from various projects around the Twin Cities that low-income and racially diverse students achieve improved results when given the same (increased) digital access commonly afforded white and/or economically privileged students. This is especially true when teachers individualize instruction so that students have access to learning at the appropriate level and when parents are actively involved. Pinker does acknowledge that exceptional teachers may inspire improved outcomes from the new teaching strategies made possible when every child has access to online resources both in and out of school.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/291774391.html

by Suren Ramasubbu, Huffington Post

Blended learning, which once referred to use of computer and web-based training in class, has now evolved into a mammoth education program that merges traditional classroom-based instruction with technology enhancements such as electronic whiteboards, Internet devices, multimedia assistance, digital textbooks and online lesson plans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suren-ramasubbu/the-evolution-of-blended-learning_b_6666284.html

by THORIN KLOSOWSKI, LifeHacker

Littlebits make designing little electronics super easy, but that doesn’t mean everyone can make anything instantly. If you’d like a little more guidance, Littlebits and P2Pu teamed up for the Invent Anything online course, and you can sign up for it right now for free. The course features several track options, including the basics, the internet of things, science, art and design, hardware, and music. Beyond that, you’ll also get to chat with a few special guests, including Eric Rosenbaum from Makey Makey, Ariel Waldman from Spacehack, and Dr. Mitch Resnick from MIT.

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/02/the-invent-anything-course-gets-you-started-with-hardware-hacking/

by Michael Cowling, the Conversation

Education has always embraced technology. From the humble overhead projector, to the TV with VCR that was pushed into the classroom on a trolley, to the computer labs full of Commodore 64s, new technology in the consumer space has always found its way into the classroom. What’s changing, though, is the availability of that technology. As a middle-class student growing up on the North Shore of Sydney in the 1980s, I remember clearly how computer time worked. The classroom I sat in every day had no computers, but once a week we would all queue up and march down to the computer room to spend an hour using them.

https://theconversation.com/the-pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword-but-the-computer-is-mightier-than-both-37211

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

The rapid rate of growth of online learning enrollment is slowing down to only three times the overall growth of higher education. At the same time, student preferences and demands for online courses and degrees are changing. And this is all due to increasing online learning options provided by colleges and universities. Those are the big takeaways from two distinctive reports released by higher education industry powerhouses, utilizing the vast amount of data available from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) as a foundation for further analysis. According to “Grade Level: Tracking Online Education in the United States,” a report released the Babson Survey Research Group, the Online Learning Consortium, Pearson and Tyton Partners—that surveyed more than 2,800 colleges and universities and IPEDS data for 4,891 responses—though online education enrollment growth continues, it’s at the “slowest rate ever.”

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/online-demands-students-447/

by John A. Byrne, Fortune

After a pair of highly successful pilot runs, Harvard Business School is now opening its online program in business basics to students worldwide. The school is also inviting admitted MBA students to enroll in the program as a pre-MBA boot camp experience, particularly for non-traditional admits or those who need more basic quantitative work before showing up on campus. All told, slightly more than 1,100 students have now taken the primer on the fundamentals of business called CORe (Credential of Readiness) program. In the first beta starting last June, the trio of courses—Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting—were open to only undergraduate students attending colleges in Massachusetts and alumni.

http://fortune.com/2015/02/10/harvard-business-school-expects-3000-online-students-this-summer/

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professors-know-about-high-tech-teaching-methods-but-few-use-them/55777

Professors Know About High-Tech Teaching Methods, but Few Use ThemInnovation is sweeping the world of higher education, but not all faculty members are embracing it in their classrooms.  A new survey from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has found that 40 percent of the professors surveyed use or are interested in using innovative techniques and technologies. But of that 40 percent, only half—or 20 percent of the overall survey sample—have actually used them.

The project, dubbed Memex, has been in the works for a year and is being developed by 17 different contractor teams who are working with the military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Google and Bing, with search results influenced by popularity and ranking, are only able to capture approximately five percent of the internet. The goal of Memex is to build a better map of more internet content.

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/darpa-memex-dark-web/

by Michael B. Horn, Huffington Post

More modular, approachable experiences on Khan Academy provide further opportunities, and the promise of exciting announcements from other players loom on the horizon. Adaptive-learning company Knewton, for example, is preparing a free customer-facing portal that would help students learn from the best resource for them at any given time. Higher touch online courses from places like Udemy also provide an accessible education for anyone to learn just about anything. More offerings in the future will allow students to connect synchronously to experts around the world to build social capital and supplement their learning. These experiences will also invite curiosity in the immediate environment around them to prompt students to explore and learn through internships, projects, co-learning experiences, and more. Already co-learning spaces are popping up across the world–led by players like General Assembly and Dev Bootcamp. It’s a brave new world, and the opportunity to piece together each student’s unique lifelong education is already rich.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gendiy/unprecedented-opportuniti_b_6632494.html

by Irvin Weathersby, Jr, Edutopia

In today’s classroom, it’s important to embrace diversity and technology. Teaching Black History Month this February with rich activities will help you accomplish these goals. You can teach Black History as American History and World History simultaneously. This will enable you to cross multiple disciplines and meet Common Core standards. Here are some suggestions to help you engage all of your learners with differentiated instruction. Most importantly, these suggestions are all technology-based so that you can keep pace with the demands of the 21st-century student.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/edtech-tools-black-history-month-irvin-weathersby

By Keith Button, Education Dive

A survey of 250 college students taking online courses found that they miss the personal interactions they enjoy with professors during in-person classes. The study was conducted at Kent State University, which has 16,000 students — 40% of the total enrollment — taking 1,200 classes online. The survey also included 60 professors. One conclusion from the survey: Professors should make sure that they communicate more with students in online classes and reach out proactively, instead of just uploading assignments.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/study-online-students-want-more-interaction-with-instructors/361952/

by Rose Velazquez, LSU Reveille

With the dread of impending budget cuts looming for Louisiana higher education, online learning could help keep the University afloat, said LSU Online Interim Director and Instructional Design Consultant Amanda Major. With 378 students from all over the country enrolled in various online degree programs, Major said LSU Online will continue to be a source of revenue for the University. While a portion of the revenue generated by LSU Online goes back into the program, it also goes toward funding several University positions. “We’re hoping that because we’re generating revenue for the University … we can counteract [the budget cuts] to help the University continue to operate and function,” Major said.

http://www.lsureveille.com/daily/online-learning-generates-university-revenue/article_eaf126ca-b0af-11e4-a6ef-0f21484737c7.html

By Keith Button, Education Dive

Carnegie Mellon University is partnering with Uber to create a new advanced technology center. The center, near Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh, will look to develop driverless vehicle technology, Campus Technology reports. By funding Uber Technologies Center, Uber is setting itself against an investor, Google, which has been a pioneer in driverless vehicle research.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/carnegie-mellon-and-uber-partner-on-self-driving-car-research/362588/

By Keith Button, Education Dive

Coding schools — programs that teach short courses aimed at professionals in programming and developing online and mobile applications — are growing more popular because of their stripped-down approach to teaching high-demand skills that appeal to employers. Regardless, given the popularity of these programs and the competition they present to traditional continuing education, here are nine of the most popular coding schools higher ed should be aware of.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/9-coding-schools-higher-ed-should-keep-an-eye-on/361796/

BY COLIN WOOD, Center for Digital Education

A new survey shows that while not all higher education faculty like distance learning, it has become entrenched and is part of education throughout the nation. Distance education is almost done with its growing pains. Growth in the sector is slowing and nearing a plateau, having established itself as a regular part of education throughout the nation. Distance education students increased 3.7 percent year-over-year, which is the lowest rate of increase in 13 years, according to a 2014 report titled Grade Level: Tracking Online Education in the United States, released Feb. 5. Babson Survey Research Group Co-Director Jeff Seaman says “I think we’re almost there, it’s no longer experimental.” Perhaps one of the most telling numbers for the future of distance education is that 74 percent of academic leaders said they think distance education is comparable or superior to face-to-face learning.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/higher-ed/Distance-Education-Is-Here-to-Stay.html

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

NMC and EDUCUASE release the 2015 Horizon Report, outlining 18 trends in higher-ed technology over the next 1 to 5 years. “Makerspaces” will gain traction long before adaptive learning; and improving digital literacy is a breeze compared to determining how to reward educators for teaching. These are just two of the findings released as part of the New Media Consortium’s (NMC) 2015 Higher Education Horizon Report, jointly conducted with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. The Report charts the five-year horizon for the impact of emerging technology in learning around the world.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/horizon-report-trends-215/

By Kristen Hicks, Edudemic

Students create a truly outstanding amount of work over the course of a year. Back when everything was done on paper, most of that work was either thrown in the trash, stuffed in a drawer somewhere, or stuck in a box in the garage. How many essays, stories, you labor over during your years as a student that you’ll never see again? Now that so much of what students create in school (and in life) is in the digital realm, teachers have an opportunity to help students value their work more and for longer. Digital portfolios allow students to collect the work they’re most proud of and see their progress over time in a tangible way.

http://www.edudemic.com/tools-for-digital-portfolios/

by James Keating, Tomorrow’s Professor

Rigor is what counts. Rigor is important in the traditional classroom and is equally significant online. Rigor is that which leads a student to the understanding, knowledge, applications, skills, and competencies that are required for academic success, regardless of whether the student is sitting in a classroom or before a computer screen. There is nothing wrong with online learning when it is done well. And of course, the same can be said about the physical classroom. If professors, students, administrators, or anyone wonder at the rigor of online education, it’s because its advocates have not made the case for how it is useful and successful. They have not elevated well designed and taught courses as models for all to see. Those exemplars should guide our perception of online learning and also how we work to develop and improve it over time.

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/enewsletter.php?msgno=1385

BY CLAIRE BYUN, the Sun News

School districts nationwide are sharpening their own PDL programs, and Ambrose said Horry County was among the first in the state to jump into digital learning. She said student reading skills scores have improved. “Talk to the students, talk to the teachers,” Ambrose said. “The students are engaged, we see a huge difference now.” Horry County schools rely on the Lexile Framework – a national measure to match reading skills to appropriate texts – to help determine student growth and performance. After using PDL programs for a semester, student’s Lexile scores in grades 6-12 improved nearly twice as much as the district anticipated, Ambrose said.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2015/02/07/4774631/school-officials-digital-learning.html

by CHRIS BERDIK, Hechinger Report

The digital badge buzz got started when U. S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called them “a game-changing strategy” that could trigger “a quantum leap forward in education reform.” Badges? Yes, like the Boy and Girl Scouts — but online. A quantum leap forward? I know. But here’s the argument: In today’s world, learning can and should extend beyond school walls — in after-school programs, volunteering, clubs and online — and badges can make all of it count.

http://hechingerreport.org/what-can-we-learn-from-the-badging-movement/

By: Stuart M. Butler, Brookings Institution

Two years ago the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching announced that it was going to “rethink” the credit hour as the benchmark for learning in higher education and other levels of schooling. So it was disappointing last week when Carnegie’s long-awaited report on its rethink finally came out. The Foundation agreed with most of the criticisms of the credit hour, calling it “a crude proxy” for learning. Other problems recognized in the report are that tying federal aid to credit hours undertaken is an inefficient way to link financial support with student progress. Moreover, with the growth of online learning, which allows students to learn at their own pace, seat time is not a meaningful measure of progress.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2015/02/06-need-bettermeasure-of-college-learning-butler