Techno-News Blog

by Mitch LeClair, USA TODAY

More than one-third of Americans have earned a postsecondary degree. Few obtain one as a teenager. But this spring, hundreds — if not thousands — of U.S. students received associate degrees before high school commencements. Young adults with two diplomas are outliers in programs allowing high school students to earn college credits, which operate under various names and formats. They are growing in number at about 7% per year, according to the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, or NACEP.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/07/more-students-getting-college-degrees-in-high-school/29846455/

By Kacy Zurkus, CIO

Parents have plenty of things to worry about when they send their kids off to college: money, physical safety, their happiness, empty-nest syndrome, their future. Do they now have to worry about identity theft and data security, too? In a word, yes. Colleges and universities have been the target of phishing scams for years. And while they continue to get better at dealing with information security threats, the ways our institutions of higher learning defend themselves against cybercriminals are as myriad as the forms of cyberattacks they face.

http://www.cio.com/article/2945418/security-and-privacy/how-higher-education-deals-with-security-threats.html

By Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The average amount that college students spend on course materials appears to be declining. But not necessarily because textbooks are cheaper. A growing number of students, surveys show, simply skip buying required course materials. A survey of undergraduates on 23 campuses by the National Association of College Stores, expected to be released on Thursday, found that students spent an average of $563 on course materials during the 2014-15 academic year, compared with $638 the year before. The decrease is due in part to the rise of textbook-rental programs, which cost less, association officials note. But more students than in the past avoid acquiring course materials altogether, unless they see that the professor is making heavy use of the materials.

http://chronicle.com/article/For-Students-Textbooks-Become/231455/

by Edsurge

A white paper from Extension Engine outlines four revenue models, based on a survey of 136 US colleges and universities. The most popular revenue source, used in 71 percent of the schools in the survey, comes from offering for-credit online courses that students pay for. Fifty-eight percent of schools compete for grants to support research on new online pedagogy and course delivery, but the report says “expenditures on these efforts are typically high and go largely unrecouped.” The less popular—but more “novel”—strategies, according to the report, involve the use of MOOCs as a recruiting tool for pre-matriculated students, and as a new way to maintain an active alumni community (and generate more donations).

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-07-07-four-ways-universities-make-money-from-online-courses

by Kaila White, The Republic

A new free, public online class from Arizona State University can up your skills in skepticism, “BS detection,” fact-checking your friends and not embarrassing yourself by sharing fake information on social media. “Media LIT: Overcoming Information Overload” is ASU’s first public, free online course. More than 3,000 people from 126 countries have enrolled in the massive open online course, or MOOC, which posted the first lesson Monday.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2015/07/07/asu-online-class-free-mooc-journalism/29816569/

by Mark S. Valenti, EDUCAUSE Review

Concurrent with the development of the active learning space came a change in student demographics as the Millennial Generation arrived on campus. Often referred to as digital natives, millennials grew up with the Internet and hundreds of television channels; as a result, their expectations are completely different from those of previous generations of students. Millennials have influenced, and will continue to influence, higher education in a number of ways. As students, digital natives have forced higher education leaders to communicate and educate in new ways that meet millennials’ needs. For many decades, institutions offered education in a space of their choosing, on a schedule of their choosing, and in a style of their choosing. Millennials no longer accepted that model, demanding that education be offered in a space of their choosing, on a schedule of their choosing, and in a style of their choosing. Those spaces, schedules, and styles are often radically different from the offerings of traditional higher education.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/beyond-active-learning-transformation-learning-space

by D. Frank Smith, Educational Technology

While some universities are wondering how to integrate online coursework into their classes, Adelaide University is actively phasing out lectures. The growth of online classes has been seen across nearly every higher education institution across the country. In a keynote session at EDUCAUSE in October 2014, Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen said online learning would fundamentally change the role of universities in the near future. Despite the changes on the horizon, the structure of most college courses has remained the same: stand-and-deliver instruction, also known as lectures, can be found at nearly every university in the country. But the University of Adelaide’s vice-chancellor Warren Bebbington told The Financial Review that “lecturers are obsolete.”

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2015/07/universitys-success-flipped-learning-began-phasing-out-lectures

by Thomas Claburn, Information Week

Whether you’re preparing for a new career or experimenting with magic powers, it’s worth knowing how to program. The best way to learn to program is through trial and error by working on projects that interest you. There’s no substitute for solving problems mostly on your own, and for seeking out help only when necessary. The DIY approach makes concepts real and memorable because you’ve implemented them, rather than reading material that may be forgotten. What follows are a few of what, in my opinion, are the best educational options out there to reach a moderate level of skill as a programmer. Feel free to tell us about others you’d recommend in the comments section below

http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/software-as-a-service/10-great-websites-for-learning-programming/d/d-id/1321154

By Joshua Bolkan, Campus Technology

A new survey of students enrolled in massive open online courses (MOOCs) suggests that the courses are supplementing traditional higher education forms and “democratizing learning.” Researchers from Duke University studied “13 free, open-access digital courses offered by Duke using the Coursera platform,” according to a news release, and found that the courses “are popular among youngsters, retirees and other non-traditional student populations.” The team analyzed pre-course surveys administered to all students who signed up for a fall 2014 MOOC offered by Duke, looking specifically at responses from 9,000 people younger than 18, older than 65 and those who reported that they had no access to higher education.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/06/survey-moocs-supplement-traditional-higher-ed.aspx

By John K. Waters, Campus Technology

A growing number of colleges and universities have been experimenting with emerging virtual reality technologies, such as the Oculus Rift, and the virtual campus tour is emerging as a potential use case. But for the Information Technology Department at Oral Roberts University, the promise of the virtual tour pales in comparison with the potential of real-time, streaming, mobile telepresence tech. “Virtual reality presents too much of a learning curve,” said Michael Mathews, chief information officer at ORU. “The telepresence robot, on the other hand, is essentially just standard Web conferencing, but through an iPad mounted on a Segway. People just naturally get it. Students pick it up in minutes, and faculty don’t have to go to special training sessions or feel embarrassed about their level of expertise, because the students are the ones controlling it.”

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/01/telepresence-robots-attend-campus-tours-and-more-at-oral-roberts-u.aspx

by Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz

UC Santa Cruz faculty venturing into the brave new world of online education are finding that a well-designed online course can be more accessible, and may even provide a better educational experience for students, than some traditionally taught courses. This is especially true for courses that large numbers of students are required to take for their majors, such as calculus. The online calculus courses taught by UC Santa Cruz math faculty Frank Bäuerle and Anthony Tromba (“Calculus for Science, Engineering, and Mathematics,” Math 19A & 19B) are now available to all UC students through the UC Online cross-campus enrollment system.

http://news.ucsc.edu/2015/07/online-courses.html

By Larry Dignan, ZD Net

MIT said it has begun using artificial intelligence and big data techniques to better predict which students will drop out from open online courses. The news, which was detailed at a conference on artificial intelligence in education last week, is notable for a few reasons. First, online education is promising, but recent surveys have indicated that there are cultural issues at universities hampering online enrollment. The other issue is that some students simply aren’t disciplined enough for online learning. MIT’s techniques touch on that latter point a bit.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/mit-uses-artificial-intelligence-to-predict-online-learning-drop-outs/

by Journalist’s Resource

A 2015 report from a research consortium at Harvard University and MIT provides new data on the MOOC project that the two universities jointly launched in 2012. One of the largest surveys of MOOCs to date, it builds on a series of reports released in 2014 that focused on the joint project’s first year of operation. The new report, “HarvardX and MITx: Two Years of Open Online Courses,” includes data collected between July 2012 and September 2014. Researchers used newly available data and surveys to better understand who the participants are and how they take advantage of the free online courses offered by the two institutions. The findings are based on 68 courses across HarvardX and MITx, 1.7 million participants and 10 million hours of participation.

http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/massive-open-online-courses-moocs-harvardx-mitx

by mattwriter, Say Campus Life

Online learning holds the future of higher education. Many university and college students find themselves with other obligations which include family and job commitments beyond that of getting a degree. It is therefore critical for them to take online classes and study on their own. The demand for online learning is also escalating due to many state institutions being unable to accommodate all the students that want to take classes in campus. Online learning programs offer many advantages which include….

http://www.saycampuslife.com/2015/07/01/top-5-benefits-of-online-learning-programs/

by James Poulos, the Week

A wellspring of fresh faith has surged up around so-called SPOCs. Small and Private, not Massive and Open, SPOCs are boasting better completion rates and better vibes than their highly scalable predecessors. Garlock posits a developing consensus: “[B]y using technology to combine the centuries-old lessons of campus education with the best promises of massive learning, SPOCs may be the most relevant and promisingly disruptive experiments the MOOC boom has yet produced.” So long as the SPOC model is restricted to accredited universities, however, its impact is likely to be limited in at least one important way. Even if, as Garlock suggests, it “enables deep engagement through intense Socratic discussions” in a way that far surpasses what MOOCs can achieve, it’s still beholden to the formal and informal rules of academic officialdom — where shifting, often shadowy moral and bureaucratic strictures have made the pursuit of wisdom in the classroom prohibitively difficult and risky.

http://theweek.com/articles/563541/are-small-private-online-courses-future-higher-education-america

By David Raths, THE Journal

In a June 29 special session at the annual ISTE Conference in Philadelphia, the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) released the 6th annual NMC Horizon Report K-12 Edition, describing emerging technologies that are likely to have the most impact on teaching and learning. The key themes that emerged involve students moving from passive recipients of information to active participants and collaborators who need new types of support and opportunities. Previous Horizon reports zeroed in on technologies to watch, but this year NMC chose to pull back and focus on trends in teaching and learning and how technological developments could impact them. The panel that worked on the report was composed of 56 education and technology experts from 22 countries on six continents.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/06/29/nmc-horizon-report-tech-solutions-must-support-shift-to-deeper-learning-approaches.aspx

by Beth Holland, Edutopia

Too often, conversations about digital portfolios center on the tools: how to save, share, and publish student work. Mastering the technical component of digital portfolios is critical, and students do need an opportunity to showcase their work to a broader audience. However, when we let the process of curate > reflect > publish serve as the sole focal point, digital portfolios become summative in nature and are viewed as an add-on at the end of a unit, project, or activity. For digital portfolios to be truly valuable to both teachers and students, they need to provide insight into not only what students created, but also how and why. If the ultimate goal is to develop students as learners, then they need an opportunity for making connections to content as well as the overarching learning objectives.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-portfolios-art-of-reflection-beth-holland

by Vickie Davis, Edutopia

The 3D printing industry is expected to exceed $21 billion by 2020. Classrooms are joining in. Kelly Hines’ fifth-grade classroom is redesigning a prosthetic hand. Can’t buy a drone? Soon, you may be able to print one. You can print robots, math manipulatives, and even parts for a 3D printer. (In fact, Bryan Byer’s science classroom in Michigan built their own 3D printer.) What will happen when we can 3D print things from door stoppers to wind turbines to (wait for it) wedding dresses? This past year, my students and I began our journey after I saw the FabLab at Kentucky Country Day School last summer.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/year-one-with-3d-printer-vicki-davis

By Aiden Wolfe, Edudemic

Not too long ago, tablets and smartphones were largely viewed as educational scourges — mere distractions responsible for dulling minds and derailing productivity. Now, instead of being shunned completely, these devices are embraced as invaluable tools for meeting the complex, often hard to define needs of digital natives. Undoubtedly, wearable technology is destined to follow suit. The 2015 Horizon Report agrees, predicting the widespread use of wearables throughout the entire spectrum of modern education. Still, considering our senses are already overloaded with 1s and 0s, reluctance to embrace yet another digital medium is understandable. However, as this piece will explain, the potential benefits are simply too tremendous to ignore.

http://www.edudemic.com/wearable-tech-mean-classroom/

by NC-SARA

As of June 29, 2015, twenty-seven states have now joined the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA) initiative, a key moment for SARA and higher education. In the past month, we have had the pleasure of welcoming Iowa, approved by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) to join the Midwestern State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (M-SARA) on June 1. Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma soon followed with approval by Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) to join the Southern State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (S-SARA) on June 29. These states join 23 others (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming and West Virginia) as members of SARA. SARA is a nationwide initiative of states that will make distance education courses more accessible to students across state lines and make it easier for states to regulate and institutions to participate in interstate distance education. The effort is funded by a $3 million grant from Lumina Foundation, $200,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and fees paid by institutions.

http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d33f013c3412cbcac1e8ae453&id=623dfbe015&e=7e8a4b699b