Techno-News Blog

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

To help innovators at Purdue University convert their technology ideas into commercial endeavors, the university is running a mentoring program where faculty help other faculty. Deliberate Innovation for Faculty (DIFF) is a team of faculty members who have already had success in moving an invention into commercialization. The seven DIFF mentors come from all over the institution — the college of technology; the school of management; the schools of biomedical engineering, chemical engineering and mechanical engineering; the college of engineering; and the Homeland Security Institute. Help may include guiding research proposals or collaborations from the beginning of new projects, providing early stage discovery or startup direction and proposing funding sources, market research and business planning.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/06/purdue-faculty-help-each-other-learn-steps-of-tech-transfer.aspx

by Anant Agarwal, Fortune

While the primary mission of our colleges and universities should remain focused on education, rather than skills training, many influencers in both higher education and the private sector have acknowledged the skills gap and are experimenting with new approaches—sometimes teaming up on initiatives to augment the college experience. Business leaders and educators alike are turning to new technologies, and skills-based assessment practices, to find and train the workforce needed today. The skills gap is a real threat to productivity in the U.S. The education world and the professional world can address this issue by finding ways to work together with the help of online education, opening up more avenues to learners and employees alike based on skill and ability.

http://fortune.com/2015/07/20/how-online-education-could-narrow-the-global-skills-gap/

By Jim Anderson – Illinois Radio Network

The University of Illinois is heavily invested in offering courses online, but the president doesn’t want the on-campus environment to suffer. But President Timothy L. Killeen says the college campus should not be seen as an anachronism. “Learning in group settings, learning through access to experts who are providing tutorial information, explanatory information, looking at case studies, the discourse that takes place on a campus, just the vibrant atmosphere of a campus, including things such as athletics and clubs and events and so forth, makes for a rounded citizen,” he said. But he’s all-in on distance education, saying it’s good for real people with real lives, including members of the military. However, he says it’s important that the U. of I. maintain the same standards for quality online that it keeps on campus. Killeen insists there is not competition between on-campus and online education, at least within the University of Illinois, which has been offering online courses since 1997.

http://www.riverbender.com/news/details/online-classes-on-the-rise-182755.cfm

by Barbara Kurshan, Forbes

By 2003, 81% of colleges had at least one online class, and from 2002 to 2008 there was a 187% increase of students taking online classes. In 2010, 83% of CEOs and small business owners considered an online degree to be as credible as one earned traditionally, and today, 96% of traditional universities offer online courses. In 2013, President Obama pledged over $500 million for the creation of online course materials as part of his commitment through ConnectED. We contend that the real issue — and the one that largely goes unaddressed — is that the majority of people who teach online are given virtually no assistance in learning how to teach online. Professional development for these instructors is limited to lunch ‘n’ learns, basic learning platform support, and other technology-related resources, but generally fails to expose instructors to the best techniques for online instruction.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/barbarakurshan/2015/07/20/carts-before-horses-growth-in-online-learning-for-students-but-who-will-teach-their-instructors/

by Tim Chen, South China Morning Post

Amid increasing cyber attacks on both political and commercial targets by groups linked to China, the barriers to entering this potentially lucrative black market industry are close to non-existent as hackers share tips and best practices online. On the Chinese internet, websites and forums dedicated to teaching hacking proliferate. Techniques on offer can be used by both criminal “black hat” hackers and “white hat” cybersecurity researchers. On HDHacker, a forum which claims more than 465,000 members, one training programme for “black hat” hackers promises tutors with six years of experience who will guide students through a curriculum that includes “dozens of security and remote control methods” and “site penetration and analysis of source code” for a one off fee of 650 yuan (US$105).

http://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/1840925/chinese-forums-offer-hacking-courses-around-us100-cyber-attacks

by Cassie Lipp, News Record

In response to the University of Cincinnati’s emphasis on online and technology-based learning, the university will open its Center for Engagement in eLearning in the beginning of fall semester. The center’s design, technology and creative teams will allow faculty members to innovate learning. “We’ve got people who are professionals in graphic and video design and professionals in supporting faculty with technology,” said Pat Reid, director of the center’s design team. “So we can provide a lot more services and help the faculty with a more professional look to their courses.” Reid said the center’s main goal, however, is to help professors find more effective methods to engage students. “The pedagogy side of technology is more important than the technology they actually use,” Reid said.

http://www.newsrecord.org/news/new-center-to-stress-active-learning-technology-in-course-design/article_a5259944-2d66-11e5-a2c7-eb0238a0d4bb.html

by Victor Wang, South China Morning Post

E-learning has taken off since HKU launched its first online course last year, with benefits for on-campus education too. A year after launching its first online course, the University of Hong Kong is not only rapidly expanding its virtual programmes, but also reaping unexpected results for its on-campus teaching in the process. HKUx, a subdivision of the international non-profit MOOC (massive open online course) provider Edx, opened registration for its first course in April 2014, following an invitation from Edx co-founders Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in 2013. HKUx has launched three more MOOCs in the past three months. During the time between the first MOOC, an introductory public health course titled Epidemics, and the latter three, there has been a dramatic shift in the university’s approach to the online platform. Professors have realised the applicability of online teaching for their on-campus classes.

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1840903/how-moocs-helped-university-hong-kong-apply-e-learning-tools

By Chad Hunter, Times Record

Fort Smith schools are the first to connect to Arkansas’ improved high-speed Internet system designed to offer speeds 40 times faster than the current statewide average. The $65 million initiative for improved broadband service in Arkansas schools kicked off at a small ceremony held Wednesday afternoon at the Fort Smith School District’s Rogers Center. “This is a big day for Arkansas,” Arkansas Department of Information Systems Director Mark Myers said. “That equipment is expensive and that connection is expensive, but it’s what the students of Arkansas deserve.”

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/20/arkansas-internet-695/

By David Raths, THE Journal

What happens when a school throws out the textbooks and tells teachers that they are going to become authors themselves by creating curriculum in real time as the semester progresses? That’s what the String Theory School, a charter school in Philadelphia and one of only 37 Apple Distinguished schools in the country, is discovering. Why not eliminate those bulky backpacks full of books and instead send teachers straight to iTunes U to find, customize or create their own lessons aligned to standards as they go? “The teachers themselves could expertly design it, align it with standards and have it be personalized for the students,” said DiPaulo, speaking at an ISTE conference presentation in Philadelphia in late June.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/07/14/can-teachers-author-their-own-textbooks-on-the-fly.aspx

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

Google has selected Carnegie Mellon University to lead a multi-university project to create new technology for the Internet of Things (IoT). The Internet of Things involves adding sensors and network connectivity to everyday objects so people and other devices can interact with them. Google funded the Open Web of Things expedition “to encourage universities to explore various aspects of system design that could help enable the Internet of Things,” said Maggie Johnson, director of university relations for Google, in a prepared statement. Google will provide Carnegie Mellon with $500,000 to launch the expedition. As part of the project, researchers from Carnegie Mellon will collaborate with colleagues at Cornell, Stanford, University of Illinois, and Google to create GIoTTO, a new platform to support IoT applications.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/13/carnegie-mellon-to-lead-internet-of-things-expedition.aspx

By Toni Fuhrman, Campus Technology

At the University of Central Florida, instructional designers offer faculty ongoing mobile technology training courses. “It’s all about planning, and thinking creatively,” said Luke Bennett, instructional designer at the University of Central Florida’s Center for Distributed Learning. Bennett and his team support about 2,000 faculty members by conducting research and developing online and training courses. Their current training course is called “Mobile Essentials.” Mobile devices can expand learning beyond the classroom walls, Bennett explained. “This can happen both outside the classroom and in a traditional classroom space. The mobile device is the medium connecting the classroom experience to the real world of the student. The content learned in the classroom is connected to the outside world.”

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/14/training-faculty-for-mobile-learning.aspx

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

Purdue University is reducing textbook costs with a digital publishing platform that can deliver interactive content to any device. Kyle Bowen, director of education technology at Penn State University and chief technology officer of Skyepack, led the team that developed the platform in his previous role as director of informatics at Purdue. According to Bowen, one of the main drivers of the project was the desire to reduce textbook costs for students. But the team was also driven by the idea that e-textbooks could be more than just a digital manifestation of a traditional textbook, and that technology could deliver instructional material that was non-linear and incorporated media beyond just static text and images — video, embedded course discussions, student feedback, question-and-answer functions and other interactive features.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/15/developing-a-10-digital-textbook.aspx

by Roz Bahrami, IT Business Canada

Engaged workers matter because they are the loyal ones who will go the extra mile, offer the innovative idea, and work with passion when needed to meet deadlines and keep a company going. Actively disengaged employees can harm a company, acting out their disgruntlement and unhappiness. Companies despair when they think that the price of engagement may be too high an investment for them to offer during tough and competitive times. But it doesn’t have to be. One highly effective way you can change the morale and engagement in your workplace is to offer training as part of your employee development activities. Even with a very small budget, you can offer online courses that send the message you believe and value to your employees as you want to tie your employees to you for the future.

http://www.itbusiness.ca/blog/how-online-training-increases-employee-engagement/56882

By Toronto Star

Foreign graduates from Niagara College who have taken many of their courses online are faced with having to leave Canada early because they’ve been deemed ineligible for post-graduate work permits. With online courses becoming an increasingly mainstream part of higher education, their exclusion from the three-year work permit program for new graduates — meant to retain the talents of the best students coming to Canada — raises questions about how well immigration policy is adapting to evolving technologies. The students in the school’s general arts and sciences program had high hopes of earning Canadian work experience after their study visas expired, given that the school is listed on Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s “designated learning institutions list” for the work permit program. “Immigration is not keeping pace with the changes of education,” said Toronto immigration lawyer Ravi Jain, who is representing more than 50 of the affected students.

http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/1429501/foreign-students-denied-work-permits-because-they-took-online-classes/

by Jamil Ezzo, the Peninsula

Being born into the age of information and communications technology (ICT) does not certify today’s youth to be experts in digital technology. Today’s generation admittedly have exceptional proficiency in the use of computers and laptops along with mobile and social media technologies, possessing a good level of digital literacy. Nevertheless, they still need to be formally educated to use technology to advance society further; otherwise, they will become ‘digital orphans’ who lack the qualifications or experiences to get meaningful employment. Surveys suggest that the majority of young people do not possess the skills and abilities required by today’s job markets. It has become a challenge for companies to recruit somebody who is digitally literate and can make the most of the internet and what digital technology has to offer rather than just a digital native who has led an active virtual life but lacks the skills to use the medium to deal with the needs of the work environment.

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/life-style/techfile/347876/internet-and-technology-are-digital-natives-really-equipped

by Devon Haynie, US News

“Online College Students,” a July report by Aslanian Market Research and the Learning House, surveyed about​ 1,500 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled, recently enrolled or about to be enrolled in online programs in spring 2015. Among the most surprising findings in the report, authors say, is the shifting age of online students. While distance education students are often assumed to be older, the report found the popularity of online undergraduate programs is growing among those under 25. Thirty-four percent of undergraduate online students were under the age of 25 this spring,​ up from 25 percent in 2012, according to the report.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/07/17/younger-students-increasingly-drawn-to-online-learning-study-finds

By Todd Hitchcock and Mary Beth Lakin, eCampus News

Seventy-five percent of today’s students (mostly adult learners) are juggling some combination of family commitment, job, and education, while commuting to campus, according to Complete College America. Credit for Prior Learning has emerged as an effective pathway to help more learners today, with busy lifestyles, to achieve their higher education goals. Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) is a term educators use to describe learning that a student acquires outside of a traditional academic environment. This learning may have been attained through work experience, professional development courses, military training or experience, independent study, noncredit courses, volunteer or community service, travel, non-college courses, or seminars, many of which are offered online, such as MOOCs. For too many people today, time is the barrier to college completion.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/credit-prior-policy-728/

By Andrew Barbour, eCampus News

The University of North Carolina has developed a customizable dashboard to identify problems in how the state trains teachers for its public school system. Faced with an alarming decline in both the number and quality of teachers in the North Carolina public school system, the University of North Carolina has developed a data-driven dashboard to provide immediate visibility into what’s working—and what’s not—in the state’s teacher-preparation programs. Developed in partnership with SAS, the North Carolina-based software giant, the dashboard was a key recommendation of the UNC Board of Governors Subcommittee on Teacher and School Leader Quality.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/dashboard-quality-teachers-981/

by eCampus News

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) recently awarded the STEMPREP Project at Southern Methodist University a $3.78 million grant to support its goal of increasing the number of minorities in STEM fields. The grant follows a $2.6 million grant in 2014. According to a report just released from the Executive Office of the President, 21 percent of Hispanic men and 28 percent of black men have a college degree by their late twenties compared to nearly half of white men. The 2013 U.S. Census Bureau reports that African Americans make up 11 percent of the U.S. workforce but only 6 percent of STEM workers. Hispanics make up 15 percent of the U.S. workforce, but just 7 percent of the STEM workforce.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/dod-universitys-stem-577/

By Peter West, eSchool News

Many millions of dollars have been wasted over the years by the well-intentioned, but ad hoc, introduction of technology into education. Eager tech savvy teachers or administrators may jump in feet first, but a significant portion of their colleagues are left struggling along or resisting the change. The results of well-planned, long-term implementations, however, can produce momentum. When even reluctant adopters are given support, training, and time, positive changes can occur. Teachers are similar to other groups in society. They follow the “Diffusion of innovation” graph as proposed by Everett Rogers.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/14/embrace-change-792/

by eSchool News

At this year’s ISTE conference Lexia Learning polled more than 200 educators in an informal survey, which suggests teachers are not using collected data to pinpoint skill deficiencies in a timely manner. According to the survey, only 35 percent of respondents felt that teachers at their schools had a high or very high level of comfort connecting data to instruction. The survey also found that fewer than half (48 percent) of respondents felt that their current screener assessments provide clear categorizations of which students were on track and which needed more attention.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/16/teachers-data-142/