Techno-News Blog

By Christina Veiga, Miami Herald

Researchers are learning that not all access to technology is equal. In fact, a growing body of evidence suggests that more technology may contribute to opportunity gaps between the rich and the poor. For example, a 2014 University of Connecticut study found that lower-income students were worse at locating and evaluating online information than their higher-income peers. “The digital divide still exists. It just exists differently than it ever has before,” said Susan Neuman, a professor of early literacy at New York University who has studied the issue. The findings have dramatic impacts on schools as technology becomes ubiquitous in classrooms.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/31/technology-opportunity-893/

by eCampus News

Libraries cheer passage of strong open access legislation in U.S. Senate. Public access to federally-funded research took one move forward with the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ vote to support the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act of 2015 (FASTR). The legislation would accelerate scientific discovery and fuel innovation by making articles reporting on publicly-funded scientific research freely accessible online for anyone to read and build upon.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/access-to-research-543/

by Joseph Lee, tes

Pupils can perform at more than seven years above their expected academic level by using the internet, a pioneering study has concluded. Professor Sugata Mitra found that eight- and nine-year-olds who were allowed to do online research before answering GCSE questions remembered what they had learned three months later when tested under exam conditions. Now the Newcastle University academic is giving undergraduate-level exams to 14-year-olds, and has told TES that these students are also achieving results far beyond their chronological age.

https://www.tes.co.uk/news/school-news/breaking-news/internet-learning-boosts-performance-seven-years-sugata-mitra-study

by Bloomberg

Emily Chang and Khan Academy’s Sal Khan discuss whether or not online education will ever replace traditional classrooms, and why he thinks paying for that MIT or Harvard degrees may be “a little bit suspect.” They speak on this week’s edition of Studio 1.0.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-07-30/online-learning-won-t-replace-traditional-education-khan

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Google provides a quick and easy way to search for images, taking just tenths of a second to return millions of results. A person could spend less than a minute thinking of an image, searching for it, and then copying it into a presentation or a video project. But someone photographed that image, and just like scholarly text should be properly cited, so too should digital content be fairly sourced. Copyright issues get less attention than they should among colleges and universities, which are becoming increasingly saturated with video in academics and beyond. Hundreds of individuals on any given campus produce video, often adding graphics, still photos, audio soundtracks, and stock video clips to round out their own footage. In many cases, they follow all the rules, but too often, they do not. Raul Burriel, an information technology consultant at Oregon State University, calls it a question of education.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/with-increased-video-use-comes-greater-copyright-concerns-for-higher-ed/403037/

by Sarah Gilbert, ATD

Mobile learning is rapidly making its way into organizations across the globe. For many instructional designers and developers, learning about new technology, platforms, and ways of building content can be daunting. We are expanding our skills to include understanding HTML5, responsive design, and device affordances, just to name a few. In the world of native apps versus mobile web, an exciting solution is sometimes overlooked: interactive e-books.

https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/Learning-Technologies-Blog/2015/07/3-Reasons-to-Use-Interactive-E-Books-for-Mobile-Learning

By Mary Grush with Phil Ice and Melissa Layne, Campus Technology

At the American Public University System, the success of a project to update the Internet Learning Journal — a peer-reviewed scholarly journal focused on research and advancements in online learning — with rich media and interactive elements has inspired a new initiative: APUS is building out state-of-the-art course applications to accompany the traditional LMS-based courses that serve more than 100,000 APUS students. CT asked Phil Ice, VP of Research and Development and Melissa Layne, Director of Research Methodology and Executive Editor of ILJ about the initiative.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/28/moving-course-apps-from-traditional-to-media-rich-interactive-designs.aspx

By Sean Coughlan, BBC

It’s easy to take online learning for granted, whether it’s finding how to do something on YouTube or following a free online course from a university. But Cheril Demasuhid is working as a maid in Hong Kong so that she can send back money to her family in the Philippines. In her spare hours, she goes on to the internet to study subjects such as IT and business.  A course from the Commonwealth Education Trust, on the Coursera online learning platform, is being used in the Dadaab refugee camp, near the border of Kenya and Somalia. It is aimed at providing teacher training lessons for students without any formal teacher education. But the idea of online courses providing a way out isn’t only about geography or poverty. It’s also about people wanting a second chance.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33478931

by Riley Katz, the Daily Reveille

The online program started in March of 2013 with three different programs available to students, but since its inception, the program has tripled in size to nine programs, said Amanda Major, interim director of LSU Online.  “LSU wanted to stay competitive in online programs, so we have progressed lightning quickly in the past two years to keep in competition with other universities across the country,” Major said. Looking to the future, Major said LSU Online is hoping to expand programs for in-demand and niche degrees in the future, like the new Master of Arts in education with specialization in educational technology program, slated to start next year on March 7, 2016.

http://www.lsureveille.com/daily/number-of-lsu-online-programs-triples-since-inception/article_46ee9e7a-34b9-11e5-a760-9f075d696711.html

by Michael Moyes and Pat Raymond, Evolllution

Massive Open Online Courses can be a highly successful mechanism to bring students into credit-bearing offerings, but institutions must be strategic about their programming and marketing. When Massive Open Online Courses burst onto the scene in 2012, there was a great deal of excitement around the capacity for these offerings to transform the higher education space. While they have been successful in creating access to higher education for underserved populations, many administrators saw an opportunity to both deliver high-quality programming to students they may never have reached and to encourage these students to also enroll in online credit-bearing programs offered by the institution. While some institutions have not seen the return they were hoping for from these courses, others, like Berklee Online—the continuing education division of Berklee College of Music, which offers a range of for-credit and non-credit online music education options—have enjoyed great success.

http://evolllution.com/attracting-students/enrollment_strategies/free-degree-moocs-open-door-future-online-students/

By Kristin Majcher, Technology Review

Anyone with Internet access and a computer can learn how to write a few lines of code these days. Free tutorials and information from sites like Codecademy, which has been used by more than 25 million people, offer widespread access to instruction. They might even be able to break down barriers for groups traditionally underrepresented in technology, including women, blacks, and Hispanics. This open-access model does seem to help—Codecademy says 34 percent of its users are women, for example, nearly double the percentage of female graduates from university computer science programs in the United States.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539111/hacking-diversity/

By David Talbot, Technology Review

China knows a thing or two about distance learning. For two decades, the country’s education ministry has used the television airwaves to broadcast agricultural lessons to more than 100 million rural students—making it the largest such program in the world. And in the early 2000s, the charitable Li Ka Shing Foundation installed satellite dishes and computers to broadcast lectures to 10,000 rural schools. Now this top-down model of online learning is being joined by a surge in new commercial and university offerings. And it’s no longer just about reaching rural provinces. In China a rapidly rising middle class—part of a population that now totals 1.4 billion—is creating a demand for education far outpacing what traditional teachers and schools can supply. In response, Chinese startups are identifying market niches and developing entirely new products, while universities are emulating online platforms first developed in the United States.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539136/chinas-startup-boom-in-online-learning/

By George Anders, Technology Review

Of all the U.S. universities offering free online courses to the world, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is among the most active. Its professors have filled Coursera’s distance-learning platform with 30 courses, in subjects ranging from astronomy to dog emotions. Since 2013, the university has assigned one administrator exclusively to digital and online education initiatives. There’s even a collection of sunny haikus about online education on Duke’s website. “A few years ago, the question was ‘Should we be teaching online or shouldn’t we?’ says Duke provost Sally Kornbluth, a geneticist by training. “That conversation has passed. Now it’s a conversation about what kinds of innovative things we can do.” In a discussion with MIT Technology Review contributing editor George Anders, Kornbluth explained why Duke is bullish about online education—and what new opportunities lie ahead.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539151/the-believer-dukes-sally-kornbluth/

by Timna Jacks, Syndney Morning Herald

Oscar Cooke-Abbott is halfway through an undergraduate course in Physics at elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Oh, and he’s 16. He is one of an estimated 2000 school students in Australia studying courses at the world’s top universities for free, through an online platform called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). Oscar and his friends believe the platform is “the future of the classroom”. And the Australian tertiary sector appears to agree. Universities are now exploring options to give students like Oscar credit for their hard work. Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington is lobbying Australia’s state-based school assessment authorities to accredit the university’s Astrophysics MOOC, taught by Nobel Laureate and Vice Chancellor-to-be Brian Schmidt.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/universities-explore-credit-options-for-online-learning-courses-20150725-gikbg5.html

By Corinne Kennedy, McClatchy

A new program to connect low-income households in public housing with internet access and internet-capable devices announced July 15 will aim particularly at children and include training to help program participants maximize their use of the new devices and technology. ConnectHome will link 270,000 households, and 200,000 children, with broadband access in 28 communities including the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma. “It’s not just making the internet more accessible,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro told reporters as the White House unveiled the program. “It’s making it more meaningful for students and parents by providing digital literacy training.”

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/23/internet-communities-942/

By Andrew Barbour, eSchool News

Texas A&M at Galveston hopes a new personal assistant app will help students manage their time more effectively, engage more fully with the campus community—and stay in school. Many freshmen find the freedom—and responsibilities—of college overwhelming. Loosed from tightly scheduled lives overseen by hovering parents, they lack the ability to manage their own time and can struggle as a result. Nationwide, about a third of college freshmen drop out every year. Texas A&M at Galveston is hoping that a new mobile app will help address the problem by serving as a personal smart assistant for its students.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/mobile-personal-assistants-299/

By Meg Lloyd, Campus Technology

Penn State’s One Button Studio has changed the meaning of “video literacy,” giving students and instructors the tools to create professional-looking videos without technical assistance. One Button Studio is just that simple: You walk into the studio and plug in your thumb drive, which triggers the lights to come on and all the equipment to start up, ready for recording. Get your mind on your presentation and your toes on the mark. Hit the big silver button when you want to begin … and again when you want to end. Thoughtfully designed studio presets assure a high-quality recording and the most bang for the buck from single-camera-angle recording. While there’s nothing new about recording studios, the One Button Studio has broken new ground with its foolproof simplicity and rock-solid dependability. Now any student, professor or staff member can successfully produce videos with absolutely no technical assistance.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/23/making-an-impact-with-self-service-video-recording.aspx

by Diana Clement, NZ Herald

‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn,” wrote Alvin Toffler. His predictions are coming true as the very nature of work is changing before our eyes. Technology is disrupting a wide range of professions and the workforce is likely to look very different by the time most workers today hang up their briefcases for the last time. We could even find ourselves sending our avatars or holograms to the office instead of ourselves, says AUT professor Tim Bentley, who heads up AUT University’s New Zealand Work Research Institute.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11486428

by Michael Horn, Forbes

In education, online learning is the first disruptive innovation since the advent of the printing press. Combined with competency-based learning—in which students progress upon true mastery of their learning, not because of an arbitrary time-based measure— there is a big opportunity to transform our higher education system into a more affordable, student-centered one that is able to serve many more students. True to form, we are seeing a variety of potentially disruptive organizations powered by online learning emerge from outside traditional higher education. These upstarts are reaching those students who need more education but for reasons having to do with convenience and accessibility, simplicity, and cost, are, at that point in their lives, nonconsumers of traditional higher education. The organizations are generally simpler, more focused institutions than our traditional colleges and universities.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2015/07/23/disruptive-innovations-in-higher-ed-emerging-from-outside-mainstream/

By Nick Anderson, Washington Post

One way to find the future of higher education is to track the brainstormers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who often seem to be a step ahead of the pack. So it matters when L. Rafael Reif, the MIT president, says that an idea for digital innovation is “on the table.” Reif, in a recent visit with The Washington Post, said the institute is pondering whether to launch new online education programs that would generate revenue. “All this is on the table,” he said, “and we’re exploring it.” Such programs, Reif said, could help subsidize the operation of the campus in Cambridge. “Yes, of course,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it.” Reif, a fervent believer in residential education as well as online innovation, said he is continually looking to generate revenue that can “support the mother ship.” Exactly what form these online programs would take remains to be seen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/07/23/mit-looks-to-stay-in-vanguard-of-digital-education/

by RASHID HASSAN, Arab News

The National Center for e-Learning and Distance Education has come up with a comprehensive e-learning program to prepare Saudi female graduates as faculty members and institutional administrators for the development of online education in the Kingdom. The center announced the program on Monday in partnership with the Open Education Consortium, the network for open education committed to advancing its impact on global education. According to the plan, the core of the yearlong program is to build on principles of online learning in the US to prepare female faculty and university leaders with skills in online and blending learning, which is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through delivery of content and instruction via digital and online media with some element of student control over time, place, path and pace.

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/780236