Techno-News Blog

By Gina Piero, eSchool News

One of the biggest advantages it provides is preparing our educators for Common Core instruction through professional development, training, and information sessions. They are given the strategies they need to utilize the online portal’s resources, such as lesson plans, student activity pages, and teaching tools. It also allows us to take a blended learning approach to our Common Core math instruction. Blended learning at the elementary level is different than the traditional definition. In the elementary classroom, we typically think of incorporating multiple instructional strategies, instead of the “sit and get” instructional model of long ago. In our classrooms, educator-direct instruction is minimal and there is much more student exploration and interaction, as well as some type of technology incorporated in most lessons. It’s an approach that seems to be working.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/10/16/blended-math-core-301/

by eCampus News

An NSF study will examine how computer science shortages can best be addressed. How do students and teachers learn math and computer science, and how can we ease the coming shortage of computer science teachers? Worcester Polytechnic Institute will partner with Brown University and Bootstrap to examine those questions. A team of computing education experts will study how students—and teachers—learn mathematics and computer science, and how those ways of learning can influence each other.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/teach-computer-science-742/

by Fred Wasser, KNPR

Bob Murphy is the director of evaluation research at the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. He also wrote a book about online learning and the research on its effectiveness. “In general, the quality of the effectiveness research was pretty poor,” he said, “However, what we did find was that in general online learning, folks in online learning courses, did as well or better than adults and students in traditional courses.”

http://knpr.org/knpr/2015-10/online-learning-how-effective-it

by Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle

The University of Texas system became the largest public university system to offer free college-quality courses for open enrollment online, designed for high school students to get a head start on college. In October, UT wrapped up five massive open online courses (MOOCs), collectively with nearly 100,000 enrollees, which system officials said they hope will help buck the trend of soaring tuition and ballooning student debt that’s moved a university education out of reach of many Americans in recent decades. The average price for a degree in Texas has more than doubled since 2003, when state lawmakers voted to deregulate tuition, mirroring a national trend. During that time, real wages have dropped in the U.S. when adjusted for inflation.

http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/UT-System-debuts-free-online-classes-plans-more-6572184.php

by Post-Bulletin

Lots of workers – 29 percent according to a recent survey by Spherion Staffing – are worried that they don’t have the skills to get ahead. There’s ample evidence, though, that many workers, including those who’ve already racked up college and post-graduate degrees, are taking courses to keep their skills marketable. “Across the board, from entry level jobs on up, there’s increasing demand for skills,” explains Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. “Even a Ph.D.,” he notes, may need a course to “keep ahead of new processes.”

http://www.postbulletin.com/jobs/online-courses-offer-career-advancement/article_4ca90d6e-6916-11e5-8583-8b757cafc36a.html

by Kallen Diggs, Huffington Post

Many people have debated whether a college education is necessary to be a success. The education industry is changing and also reforming the beliefs that many once had about college. On average, millennials are taking six years to get their bachelor’s degree instead of four years. What does that mean for MBA students? Many people believe that an MBA can be a good requisite for entrepreneurs. However, most of us know that many people have become amazing entrepreneurs without an MBA degree. So, the question remains: Should millennial entrepreneurs pursue an MBA?Recently, the University of Illinois made their MBA courses available for free through the online education platform, Coursera. It can be a great opportunity for people to earn some credentials, which may be helpful as entrepreneurs. Students who are interested in getting the actual MBA degree need to apply for admission and pay about $20,000 in tuition. Paying $20,000 is quite a deal when you consider the average cost of an MBA.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kallen-diggs/should-millennial-entrepr_b_8234666.html

by SCOTT McCAFFREY, Inside NOVA

Efforts to provide support services to high-schoolers taking a summer economics and personal-finance course online appear to have paid dividends, with the 2015 effort seeing a 97-percent completion rate among Arlington participants. Students are required to pass such a course to graduate, and for the past three summers, Arlington Public Schools has offered it online. This past summer, 149 students signed up. It is “a very rigorous course,” said School Board member Abby Raphael, who should know: One of her daughters took the online summer course two years ago.

http://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/online-summer-economics-course-sees-completion-rate/article_d19f51ce-727e-11e5-88fd-537bdf9afca9.html

By Knight Center

Hundreds of judges and other jurists (prosecutors, attorney, lawyers, etc) from Latin American and Caribbean countries have already signed up for a six-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in Spanish on the “International Legal Framework on Freedom of Expression, Access to Information and the Safety of Journalists.” The course that starts on October 26 is offered by UNESCO and the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in partnership with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin.

https://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-16360-judges-can-take-online-course-freedom-expression-offered-unesco-and-knight-center

by Beth Porter, TechCrunch

People often express worry that the relative anonymity of online learning environments and the disconnected nature of being in a MOOC (massive online open course) leads to more opportunities for academic dishonesty and outright cheating. However, emerging and improving technologies may prove to offer more — not less — protection from would-be cheaters. All online learning environments collect data — copious amounts — about their learners, and software is especially good at revealing patterns that may signal that cheating is happening. Knowing that you might get caught can be a powerful deterrent. Likewise, several new technologies seek to prevent cheating from the outset. These include virtual proctoring, identity verification and problem randomization — all of which we explore in this article.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/15/how-software-helps-keep-online-learners-honest/

By Abby Armbruster, Daily Journal

Within the past two years, four school districts in Johnson County have invested millions of dollars in laptops or iPads for their students. The goal: Options. School administrators said having the Internet at their students’ fingertips provides them with the tools they need to succeed in the future, either through learning how to create an application from scratch, figuring out how to repair parts of a computer or allowing them to take classes that were never offered in the past. Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson, Edinburgh, Center Grove and Franklin schools all supply electronic devices to at least some of their students. Greenwood and Clark-Pleasant schools have not decided to go all-in on providing each high school student with their own device, but continue to consider the idea.

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/local_story/Schools-debate-about-whether-d_1445046063

by Kathleen J. Sullivan, Stanford

The university has created a new course evaluation form that faculty members can customize by identifying the learning goals of the course and adding questions of their own. The deadline for faculty to customize course evaluations for autumn quarter is Nov. 13. The new course evaluations represent a significant change for Stanford because the questions – both standard and customized – are designed to elicit responses about the success of the course in promoting student learning. Previous course evaluation forms focused almost exclusively on the performance of the instructor.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/october/new-course-evaluations-101615.html

By Lila Romero, US News

Online students can enjoy enhanced classroom discussions and acquire digital communication skills. Some people believe that online education provides a sub-par learning experience. But I think that’s hardly the case. As an online student earning a master’s degree in communication from Purdue University, I have come to know that some of my most memorable and enriching learning experiences happen within the virtual classroom. In my mind, there are three unique academic advantages of an online program.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/2015/10/16/3-academic-advantages-of-online-programs

by Jeff Swiatek, Indianapolis Star

Eli Lilly University? That’s pushing it. But the drug maker’s inner academic side might be coming out. Eli Lilly and Co. said Tuesday it has developed a college-level course that will be offered at participating colleges. The online course, not surprisingly, deals with drug discovery and development. Lilly said it developed the graduate-level course with experts at 10 academic institutions. Lilly footed the bill, which it didn’t disclose, and the academic experts donated their time, said Lilly spokesman Mark Taylor. Lilly will unveil the e-learning course, called “Making Medicines: The Process of Drug Development,” at an American Osteopathic Association conference in Florida this weekend and launch the course in 2016. It will be offered as an elective at participating colleges.

http://www.indystar.com/story/money/2015/10/13/eli-lilly-starts-online-course-drug-development/73879342/

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Clint Schmidt, COO of Bloc, questions partnerships between coding bootcamps and accredited institutions as a “dangerous backdoor to access federal student loans.” In an article for LinkedIn, Bloc argues that funding opportunity would give bootcamps a chance to go after easy money, focusing less on student outcomes, like some for-profit colleges have been accused of doing. He suggests one accountability measure — asking a board of experienced developers to review portfolios of bootcamp graduates and ensure they actually got the job-ready skills they meant to pay for.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/bootcamp-coo-questions-why-peer-programs-are-chasing-accreditation/407233/

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

As massive open online course providers specialize in disciplines and delivery modes, universities are looking for new opportunities to experiment. The trend appears to be benefiting edX. Many colleges have “double-dipped” by joining both Coursera and edX, two major MOOC providers, since MOOCs went mainstream in 2012. For example, the California Institute of Technology, Rice University and the University of Toronto all partnered with Coursera in July 2012 and then joined edX in 2013. Similarly, Peking University in Beijing first partnered with edX in May 2013, then with Coursera three months later. But among colleges and universities in the U.S., movement from one MOOC platform to the next is a one-way street. According to an Inside Higher Ed analysis, at least 10 of the institutions that first partnered with Coursera have since joined edX. Not a single edX institution has gone the other way.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/13/colleges-explain-why-they-double-dipped-moocs

By Emma Brown, The Washington Post

Can 4-year-olds learn what they need to know for kindergarten by sitting in front of a computer for 15 minutes a day? Utah is betting they can. This year, more than 6,600 children across the state are learning by logging onto laptops at home in a taxpayer-funded online preschool program that’s unlike any other. This is preschool without circle time on the carpet, free play with friends and real, live teachers. In online preschool, children navigate through a series of lessons, games and songs with the help of a computer mouse and two animated raccoons named Rusty and Rosy. The Obama administration last year awarded an $11.5 million grant to expand the online program into rural communities to study how well it prepares children for kindergarten. Schools in South Carolina are testing it out, and Idaho lawmakers are considering a pilot program. It’s a sign of the growing interest among educators in using technology to customize learning, even for the youngest children.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/utah-tries-offering-preschool-online/article_63cdb669-4d80-59b1-bd34-091997be008b.html

by mUmbrella

NewsmartThe Wall Street Journal has launched a subscription-based online tutorial service to help people speak better business English. The service, called Newsmart, takes articles and videos from the Journal, and users must complete comprehension, grammar and vocabulary exercises about these stories. The service is gamified, with a leadership board function encouraging competition between users. The service costs $7.50 a month for a subscription online or as an app for Android or iOS phones. Newsmart is available to individuals or companies, which can sign up for Newsmart Pro, an advanced version with data analytics that monitor performance against international English certifications such as TOEIC and TOEFL.

http://www.mumbrella.asia/2015/10/wall-street-journal-enters-e-learning-space-with-business-english-tutorials-for-subscribers/

by Amy Ahearn, EdSurge

Trying to retrofit MOOCs designed for individual learning to facilitate collaboration is tougher than it might seem. As any good teacher will tell you, activities for groups have to be designed differently than assignments for individuals. If you try to give a group of fourth graders a single worksheet to complete, not much meaningful learning will occur. We think the same principle applies to online course design. Here are seven tips we’d give to instructional designers looking to build community around online courses:

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-10-11-seven-tips-for-creating-community-in-online-courses

by JOSEPHINE WOLFF, the Atlantic

Universities are struggling to find balance between academic openness and the need for computer security across their networks. The Internet was built on university campuses. It was built by academics for academics, and without any notion of the new kinds of commerce, crime, and espionage it would enable. As the Internet spread beyond purely academic circles and became a valuable tool for corporations and governments, as well as a target for criminals and terrorists, a vast—and growing—security industry sprang up to develop new controls and defenses that would protect us against threats. But the academic world, from which the Internet originally came, has not wholeheartedly embraced this growing market of new security tools and tactics.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/can-campus-networks-ever-be-secure/409813/

by Anne Niccoli, EDUCAUSE Review

What effect do digital devices have on our digital brains? To uncover the influence on learning of using digital tablets for reading, the Coast Guard Leadership Development Center conducted an experiment to ascertain differences in recall and comprehension between tablet and paper readers. As of 2014, 63 percent of colleges reported using e-textbooks, while 27 percent planned to in the near future.1 But what drives these digital book policies and practices in higher education — technology or research?

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/9/paper-or-tablet-reading-recall-and-comprehension