Techno-News Blog

By Sarah Pan, Hyde Park Herald

This week, the University of Chicago (U. of C.) is releasing a free online law course. Anyone can go online and take Randal C. Picker’s seven-week course, self-paced and with no definite start and end date. Learn more about the important relationship between law and technology with the course: “Internet Giants: the Law and Economics of Media Platforms.” Topics include antitrust, copyright and network industries. Although there are no dates for the actual course, Picker and his staff offer a private community for U. of C. alumni; they can be in a separate session of the class, with discussions on the material and exclusive information.

http://hpherald.com/2015/07/15/u-of-c-offers-free-online-courses/

by Fred O’Connor, PCAdvisor

Google and seven other ISPs have joined a new U.S. government pilot program to connect 275,000 low-income households to the Internet for free or at reduced rates. U.S. President Barack Obama will discuss the initiative, called ConnectHome, Wednesday in Durant, Oklahoma. Durant serves as the capital of the Choctaw Tribal Nation, one of the communities taking part in the program. In Durant, like in many parts of rural Oklahoma, the library is a town’s only location with a high-speed Web connection, the state’s director of libraries said in a statement. ConnectHome will prioritize households with children and connect approximately 200,000 students to the Internet.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/internet/google-isps-offering-free-broadband-to-low-income-families-3619801/

BY LORI FALCE, Centre Daily

“At Penn State, and especially with the World Campus, the military population is growing,” said Drew Tatusko, assistant director of faculty development for World Campus, the university’s online arm. The World Campus’s enrollment has the highest concentration of military students across all of Penn State’s locations, with 17.2 percent of the student body being service members. From deployment to training to sudden and unexpected relocation, there are often extenuating circumstances that require adjustments or allowances from instructors. Joan Smeltzer, a Penn State York math instructor, has seen the impact firsthand with her students. She had one who was being deployed, and while she was encouraging and trying to be helpful, he was also insistent that he expected no special treatment.

http://www.centredaily.com/2015/07/14/4835275/penn-state-offers-class-on-teaching.html

by Melanie Pinola, Lifehacker

Google has partnered with NASA, National Geographic, Khan Academy and other major organizations to teach kids science over the summer. It’s called Camp Google and the first week takes kids underwater. Virtually, that is. Kids sign on at camp.withgoogle.com to watch videos, participate in activities, and earn badges. After this week’s Ocean Week, they’ll explore space, nature, and music to do things like create space food, grow crystals, and turn a smartphone into a booming stereo. It’s tough entertaining and educating kids when they’re home all day in the summer, so thank you Google.

http://lifehacker.com/keep-kids-learning-this-summer-with-googles-free-online-1717750067

BY Jeremy Goldman, INC

If you’re unhappy at work, don’t complain to your coder friends. Chances are they won’t be able to relate. The stereotype of web developers is that they don’t get up from their workstations except to grab another Red Bull. However, a new survey from education site SkilledUP (and conducted by market research firm ProvokeInsights) indicates that most developers are happier than you are, largely due to a high degree of freedom and rewarding salaries. Among the survey’s findings: Of the 303 developers surveyed, 88% indicated that they were completely satisfied with their career. Another 11% indicated they were somewhat satisfied. Perhaps surprisingly, only 1% of developers surveyed were not at all satisfied. Out of different specialties, the happiest developers on average worked in mobile/responsive programming.

http://www.inc.com/jeremy-goldman/surprise-this-career-is-one-of-the-happiest-around.html

Cutting tenure protections is appealing to some college and university chiefs because it gives them more control over cutting programs when academic demands shift. Supporters of such protections say tenure is about protecting academic freedom and attracting high-quality faculty. Walker has said the changes to tenure are needed to give the state university system more flexibility and financial leverage. Specifically, the changes allow the University of Wisconsin system Board of Regents — 16 of whose 18 members are appointed by the governor — to set tenure policies instead of having tenure protections spelled out in state law.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/scott-walker-college-professor-tenure-120009.html

by Sybil Pressprich, the State Journal

Credentials are as important as ever in applying for a job, but nowadays there are more kinds to choose from. Along with job experience and traditional education, today’s job-seekers have alternative methods of showing that they’ve mastered a skill. For example, they can earn a digital badge, enroll in a massive open online course or complete a certificate program. Do employers take these new-style credentials seriously? It may depend on how you present them in your application materials and interview. Given the right approach, they can help convince an employer that you’re the right person for the job. Here’s how three types of alternative credentials can be useful to a job-seeker:

http://host.madison.com/business/career-corner-making-use-of-alternative-credentials/article_e3237020-ca26-5026-bdd8-12d2ab4b51cd.html

by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

“The outcomes of a college experience are more than a degree,” said Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The Lumina Foundation has kicked in $1.27 million for NASPA to partner with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) to explore how to collect, document and distribute information about student learning and “competencies,” including what is gleaned outside of the traditional academic classroom.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/07/13/project-create-models-broader-form-student-transcript

By Paige Allen and Emily O’Donnell, SUN CHRONICLE

It turns out special education isn’t just for special education students. And, it seems there’s an app for almost everything and everyone. When Kim Janssen talks about how Attleboro schools use technology to teach students with disabilities, for example, she refers to something called “universal design.” Janssen, the assistive technology coordinator for Attleboro schools, said universal design is a concept that recognizes the wide range of human ability, taking into account physical, perceptual and cognitive disabilities, as well as body types. She said designers use it to create products and methods that are beneficial for everyone.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/attleboro/technology-helps-level-playing-field-for-special-ed-students/article_c1670737-cf2b-5a02-8855-c5e42ee8cc66.html

by Association of MBA’s

I think MOOCs allow universities to take their great content and project it onto a larger audience than they ever did before.  Twitter Perhaps not surprisingly, this allows universities to reach a much larger, much more diverse audience than has ever been possible. I think this knowledge is so radical in everyday society and most people on the planet will never have access to an on campus walk-in class. I kicked off a Coursera founders’ conference by telling the story of one of the students, a baker in Bangladesh. She took Coursera courses — including a microeconomics class from the University of Pennsylvania and model thinking from the University of Michigan — and learned how to run a business. I showed her statements of accomplishments using her verified certificates on the big screen at the Coursera founders’ conference. Here was a woman who could never attend classes in her city, but today she credits part of her success to Coursera courses.

http://community.mbaworld.com/blog/news/b/weblog/archive/2015/07/09/coursera-s-andrew-ng-how-moocs-are-taking-local-knowledge-global

by Dan Butin, Huffington Post

This is exciting in many ways. For we actually know a lot about how teaching and learning works and, in an ideal world, can begin talking about how to move from the “flipped classroom” model of education to a “flipped university” model. But the scary part is that technological advancements keep coming and budget pressures never cease. There is thus no simple way to press the “pause” button and resolve the deep and difficult questions of how do we do it right. This is why I believe we are in the midst of the next education revolution. Change is coming whether we like it or not and the only real question in front of us is what we are going to do about it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-w-butin/the-next-education-revolu_b_7770952.html

by Cathryn Domrose, Nurse.com

Enrollment in degree programs has been increasing at all levels as nurses and employers develop higher expectations of advanced education for the profession, according to healthcare researchers. Online learning is increasingly becoming the method of choice for many. About 7.1 million students took at least one online course in 2013, reflecting an annual growth rate of 6.1%, according to the Babson Survey Research Group. To create an atmosphere of academic collegiality and community, students and instructors use a variety of tools to duplicate interactions they would normally have in person. Class discussions on case studies or situational problems are often held on message boards, with students contributing their portions whenever they sign on. They might write group papers or contribute to group projects on “wikis,” Web pages that allow collective contributions and edits. Real-time class meetings and discussions are held on Web conferencing sites. Instructors post videos of guest lectures and interviews and record student presentations for the entire class to see.

https://news.nurse.com/2015/07/10/cyber-education-more-pros-than-cons/

by Davey Alba, Wired

Research outfit Gartner tracked a 9.5 percent decline in shipments in the second quarter of this year compared to the same time a year ago, posting a tally of 68.4 million units. Meanwhile, researchers at IDC, which doesn’t count tablets in its report, calculated an 11.8 percent drop year-over-year to 66.1 million PCs shipped. To put that number into context, Apple said in its most recent earnings report that it had sold 61 million iPhones during the same quarter—and that’s just one smartphone from one (massively popular) company. Manufacturers saw declines across the board, both in the U.S. and abroad. Lenovo held on to the title of top PC seller in the world with a 20.3 percent share of the market, according to IDC, followed by US manufacturers HP (18.5 percent) and Dell (14.5 percent).

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/death-pc-not-greatly-exaggerated/

by Nicole Gorman, Education World

Though blended learning is a key buzzword in the current world of education, experts are torn on its benefits as a learning model. Yesterday, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) released a report detailing the evolution and the success of blended learning from 2008-2015 and predicted its future in education. The paper, titled Blended Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015, seeks to define blended learning, its models, and successful case studies using it over the years.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/future-blended-learning-be-continuum-personalized-learning-report-says-2021893402

by ChiWei Ranck, Udacity

Our mission at Udacity is to help you succeed in your career and ultimately transform your life. Even as we’ve evolved from providing free content to now providing both free and paid learning options, our core values remain the same. We work with industry leaders like Google to provide you with the skills that today’s employers are seeking. We help you prepare for a new job or a new career and we rejoice in your accomplishments. One way we can further help you reach your goals is to reduce the cost of a Nanodegree. We’re excited to announce a new feature of the Nanodegree program that will give you half of your tuition back when you graduate within 12 months of enrollment.

http://blog.udacity.com/2015/07/get-half-your-tuition-back-when-you-graduate.html

by Kia Kokalitcheva, Fortune

In early April, professional social network LinkedIn shelled out $1.5 billion to acquire Lynda.com, one of the largest and oldest online learning marketplaces, with the goal of becoming the professional enrichment destination of choice. But Pluralsight, a Farmington, Utah-based online learning company that provides education in technical topics, is not worried. Instead, the company announced on Thursday that it has recently acquired, at undisclosed terms, San Francisco startup HackHands to bolster its own service. HackHands is a startup whose on-demand service lets people connect to subject matter experts specializing in web and software development via a video-chat, screen-sharing, and so on.

http://fortune.com/2015/07/09/education-company-pluralsight-acquires-hackhands/

by Meg Bernhard, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The idea is to make life more convenient, and to provide useful data about the campus, said Anind K. Dey, the project’s lead investigator and an associate professor at the university’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. And it won’t stop at Carnegie Mellon’s borders. Eventually, the experiment is to expand into the city of Pittsburgh, in hospitals, at bus stops, on bridges. Mr. Dey envisions that the campus could be wired with temperature sensors, cameras, microphones, humidity sensors, vibration sensors, and more in order to provide people with information about the physical world around them. Students could determine whether their professors were in their offices, or see what friends were available for lunch.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/new-model-of-smart-campus-carnegie-mellon-to-embed-sensors-across-landscape/57079

by US Dept of Education

This study measured the impact of using hybrid forms of interactive online learning in seven undergraduate courses across seven universities in the University System of Maryland. Interactive online learning can involve video lectures, opportunities for discussion and interaction with instructors and peers, and online assignments and exams. Hybrid forms of such courses combine online learning components with traditional face-to-face instruction. Of the 1,598 students enrolled in large introductory biology, statistics, precalculus, computer science, and communications courses, 778 were enrolled in sections that used the hybrid delivery format, and 820 were enrolled in the sections that used a traditional delivery format. The hybrid delivery format entailed one of two types of technology platforms: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) supported by Coursera or materials from the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) developed by Carnegie Mellon University. Five of the hybrid courses had reduced face-to-face class time, and two courses used the online materials as supplements.

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/SingleStudyReview.aspx?sid=20121

by Peter Daisyme, Entrepreneur

You have to continually expand your knowledge to succeed as an entrepreneur. Thankfully, educational institutions and technology are making continuing your education more convenient through online course. While there are thousands of informative and inspiring online courses you can take, here are classes you definitely need to enroll in if you want to be an entrepreneur.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248055

By Ron Bethke, eCampus News

Better use of educational video identified as paramount to improving the learning experience for students moving forward. The key to enhancing learning outcomes in higher education moving forward will stem from the optimal use of video, says a new whitepaper. The report, titled “Perfecting Blended Learning: Why Video Is The Missing Ingredient In Blended Learning” was released by Knowledgemotion to coincide with London’s Technology week and the EdTech Europe 2015 event. It includes extensive research and testimonials from educators and industry partners on how video can best (and should) be used both inside and outside of classrooms.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/video-blended-learning-476/