Techno-News Blog

January 31, 2016

Google is offering a free online class on deep learning

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By PAVITHRA MOHAN, Fast Company

Techies who have some background in machine learning may want to tune into Google’s new course on deep learning. Available through Udacity—home to a host of open online courses—the class is expected to run about three months, assuming people put in about six hours of work per week. The course will also introduce participants to TensorFlow, the open-source deep learning platform Google unveiled back in November. Deep learning, a division of machine learning through which machines detect and classify patterns in data, is the driving force behind Google Photos’ search engine and the company’s speech recognition technology.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3055814/fast-feed/google-is-offering-a-free-online-class-about-deep-learning

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Who needs a computer science degree these days?

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by Paul Rubins, CIO

Two candidates apply for a software development position: One has a degree in computer science from a prestigious school. The other is self-taught with several years’ experience under his belt. Who one gets the job? Of course, there’s no definitive answer to this question, but it’s one that CIO’s are increasingly going to have to think about. That’s because more and more software developers – and very skilled and competent ones at that – are entering the job market without any degree-level training.

http://www.cio.com/article/3025349/careers-staffing/who-needs-a-computer-science-degree-these-days.html

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Inspiring the Next Gen of Tech Workers

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By John K. Waters, THE Journal

It has been called “America’s persistent problem”: not enough skilled workers to fill millions of job openings. The high-tech sector in particular has complained for years about the country’s shallow pool of tech talent. Some leading companies in that sector have partnered with online education providers in hope of deepening that pool in the relatively near term. Google, AT&T, Facebook, and Twitter, for example, have worked with Udacity to create targeted online certification programs, a few of which provide training for specific jobs currently available. Some high-tech companies are also acting with an eye toward the future with programs and events aimed at K-12 students and educators.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/01/21/inspiring-the-next-gen-of-tech-workers.aspx

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January 30, 2016

MIT’s 7 Best Free Online Courses: Quantum Physics and Making Video Games

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by Jacqueline Ronson, Inverse

You don’t need to go to Cambridge to enjoy all the fun of a wildly expensive education. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a global leader on open-access education. Of course, with so many subjects to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start. We’re here to help. Here are some introductory-level courses, including video lectures, that you’ll probably want to get started on today.

https://www.inverse.com/article/10437-mit-s-7-best-free-online-courses-quantum-physics-and-making-video-games

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EdTech: Wharton Launches Big Data, Entrepreneurship Moocs With Silicon Valley’s Coursera

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by Seb Murray, Business Because

Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has announced it will offer two new online programs through Silicon Valley-based online learning start-up Coursera. The digital courses, focusing on entrepreneurship and financial modelling, are the latest in a stream of tie-ups between elite US business schools and Mooc, or massive open online course, providers. Online learning platforms have delved deeper into entrepreneurial education in recent years, as start-up founders seek the flexibility not afforded by costly, full-time, campus programs.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/3732/wharton-launches-new-moocs-with-coursera

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Collaborative classrooms mark wave of the future in higher ed

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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Student-centered models turn instructors into guides as students investigate for themselves. Student-centered, collaborative classroom design is exploding across higher education and virtually all faculty today understand the difference between labs of computers and classrooms that feature them. INTERESC has three collaborative classrooms in high demand and plans to design more as soon as there’s money to build them. The designs put students at the center of instruction, shifting the faculty role to one of tutor or guide. “This changes the whole way we teach,” Benavides said. At the School of Education, students benefit from more engaging class periods, as well as the modeling of how to be comfortable with technology as teachers. Their instructors serve as content guides, and they also help solve technical problems that are sure to crop up in the modern classrooms.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/collaborative-classrooms-mark-wave-of-the-future-in-higher-ed/412430/

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January 29, 2016

Reshma Saujani Makes the Case for Girls Who Code

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By Patrick Peterson, THE Journal

The code that makes computers run consists of long strings of seemingly random numbers and letters that tell the computer how to react to certain requests and even let the computer perform tasks that seem almost human. The geeky wizards who control this digital magic are mostly young men. But girls, led by lawyer-turned-tech-advocate Reshma Saujani, have begun to mine this source of power. “They are interested and they are good at it,” Saujani said during a keynote address to FETC 2016 last week in Orlando. Through the organization Saujani founded in 2012, Girls Who Code, more than 10,000 young women have been learning to create computer software which runs everything from smartphones to the nation’s power grid. The girls have discovered that there is no reason for them to avoid high-tech fields, which are normally chosen by boys.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/01/20/reshma-saujani-makes-the-case-for-girls-who-code.aspx

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Google Expeditions Takes Students on VR Tours of Great Barrier Reef, Buckingham Palace

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By David Nagel, THE Journal

Google has added two new virtual reality tours to its Google Expeditions Pioneer Program, a VR platform designed specifically for classroom use and available free for schools. The two new programs include tours of Buckingham Palace and the Great Barrier Reef. The GBR program was developed by David Attenborough and Alchemy VR, which provides a 360-degree tour of the reef and the marine life it supports. For the Buckingham Palace Expedition, Google has also released a YouTube 3D video that’s accessible to the public (seen below). When viewing on a mobile phone, the user can change the point of view of the video fluidly in 360 degrees simply by moving the device around. Settings also allow for stereoscopic 3D for a more immersive experience.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/01/20/google-expeditions-takes-students-on-vr-tours-of-great-barrier-reef-buckingham-palace.aspx

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Turnitin Launches Service Designed to Improve Student Writing

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By David Nagel, THE Journal

Turnitin, best known in education circles for its technology designed to detect plagiarism in students’ papers, has launched a new tool that aims to improve those students’ papers during the writing process. According to Turnitin, the technology, called Turnitin Revision Assistant, goes beyond simple grammar and spelling checks and instead provide “actionable comments” on demand, offering feedback on such aspects of their writing as “focus, use of evidence or organization, among many others,” according to the company.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/01/21/turnitin-launches-service-designed-to-improve-student-writing.aspx

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January 28, 2016

EdTech: Mooc Platforms Force B-Schools To Embrace Blended Online/Campus Learning

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by Seb Murray, Business Because

In biz ed, the New Year brings fresh obstacles for the decades’ old institutions trying to stay relevant in a hyper-connected educational landscape. Further disruption beckons for even the world’s top business schools, who face a cocktail of threats from online challengers like Lynda.com, whose whizzy tech platforms are snatching students away from traditional degree programs. The rise of online learning has b-school bosses vexed and excited in equal measure.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/3729/mooc-platforms-force-bschools-to-innovate

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Confessions of a MOOC professor: three things I learned and two things I worry about

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by John Covach, the Conversation

Roughly two-thirds of my students have been over the age of 25. When we think about college courses, we assume the students are age 18-24, since that’s the usual age at which one gets an undergraduate degree. There are a significant number of people out there, however, who are interested in continuing to learn later in life. Students who take MOOC courses tend to be older and are mostly international. Continuing education courses at colleges and universities have served that public to a certain degree, but it is clear that there is more demand among older students than many might have suspected. Given the chance to learn according to their own schedule and location, many find this option very attractive. MOOC students are mostly international and already college-educated

http://theconversation.com/confessions-of-a-mooc-professor-three-things-i-learned-and-two-things-i-worry-about-53330

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How Five EdTech Start-Ups Are Using Big Data To Boost Business Education

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by Seb Murray, Business Because

Education tech companies including Coursera, edX, Udacity and their b-school and university partners are delving deeper into big data analytics to improve teaching and student learning. Simon Nelson, CEO of online learning company FutureLearn, says: “The potential is incredible — and we are just scratching the surface.” A report to be published in January by the UK’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) envisages that big data will help identify risk of failure; give students instant feedback; and benchmark their performance against peers.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/3726/edtech-explores-big-data-to-boost-online-learning

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January 27, 2016

Ramping Up for the 2016 Mobile Explosion With Wave 1 and Wave 2

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By Toni Fuhrman, eCampus News

Lorraine Abraham, CIO and library director of Emory and Henry College (VA), is not taking any chances. “We’re replacing the entire network infrastructure,” she said, noting that E&H will be fully prepared by installing the latest WiFi technology: 802.11ac Wave 2. “When you only upgrade every eight years,” she asserted, “you have to get the latest and greatest.” E&H decided to start now by installing the technology of the future – some of which will not come into play for about a year. With a campus that’s small (1,100 students) and remote (“Our neighbors are cows”) in the beautiful Appalachian Highlands, E&H has to work harder to accommodate its students – 85 percent of whom live on campus. Sean O’Connor, assistant CIO for Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA), is also opting for Wave 2, but for different reasons. “We want to be more agile for students and faculty,”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/01/12/ramping-up-for-the-2016-mobile-explosion-with-wave-1-and-wave-2.aspx

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Tablets to See Slower-Than-Expected Resurgence

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By David Nagel, Campus Technology

Tablet sales declined substantially in 2015, but they aren’t down for good, according to one market research firm. Nevertheless, their short-term growth will be slower than previously expected. Although the outlook for tablets has turned slightly grim of late — with sales in 2015 dropping to about $55 billion compared with $68 billion in 2014 — market research firm ABI Research is still calling for a compound annual growth rate of about 3 percent through 2020.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/01/19/tablets-to-see-slow-resurgence.aspx

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Case studies highlight adaptive learning outcomes

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by eCampus News

At the University of Texas at Arlington, a four-year state university, serving approximately 35,000 students, data show strong positive correlations between average MyFinanceLab homework scores and both average Learning Catalytics and average Dynamic Study Module grades. Also, students who earned higher average Learning Catalytics and Dynamic Study Module grades earned higher average exam scores. Specifically, students who completed the most assignments scored eight percent higher on exams than students who skipped more than the average number of assignments. Learning Catalytics is an interactive, classroom-based feature of MyLab and Mastering that uses students’ smartphones, tablets, or laptops to engage them in more sophisticated tasks and thinking.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/adaptive-learning-outcomes-651/

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January 26, 2016

Can MOOCs be a successful alternative for community colleges?

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By Matt Lawson, eCampus News

While that hype has not panned out, MOOCs did find a good foothold in our nation’s community colleges, where online classes provide scheduling flexibility for nontraditional students dealing with life demands; lower-cost options for students who need more cost-effective alternatives; or a stop-gap remedial solution for students needing help to fill in holes in their educational backgrounds. That last use case has proven to be a top priority for community colleges across the nation. When I was the Director of Enterprise Services for Virginia’s Community Colleges, improving student success was a cornerstone strategic goal for the community colleges. Community colleges face unique challenges with student success: in the U.S., at least 50 percent of entrants need at least one year of developmental education in order to be prepared for entry-level college courses. MOOCs offer the possibility of allowing students to improve their basic skills and test into college‐level courses without having to pay for remedial classes.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/moocs-community-colleges-109/

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edX now offers complete programmes online, not just individual courses: CEO Anant Agarwal

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By Rica Bhattacharyya, Economic Times

MOOCs was earlier about creating individual courses in many areas and people could take them for free. Today, we have broken through in many major dimensions. One big example is today we offer complete programmes, not just individual courses, and we have also made a breakthrough with offering programme credit and certificates. For example, we launched a major data science programme with Columbia University. So, imagine, if you are student or working with a company you can complete a whole program.  You can learn anything on MOOC for free, but if you want a micro masters credential, you have to pay a fee of $200-300 for the entire programme.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/edx-now-offers-complete-programmes-online-not-just-individual-courses-ceo-anant-agarwal/articleshow/50632132.cms
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January 25, 2016

What’s Hot, What’s Not in 2016

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By Greg Thompson, THE Journal

Our expert panelists weigh in on education technology to give us their verdict on which approaches to tech-enabled learning will have a major impact, which ones are stagnating and which ones might be better forgotten entirely. The four panelists in THE Journal’s annual end-of-year survey hit full consensus on just two of 11 topics — giving the “hot” label unanimously to “blended learning” and “student data privacy concerns.” Meanwhile, e-portfolios garnered the least amount of enthusiasm, with two panelists opting for “losing steam” and two for “lukewarm.” Other topics formed a mixed bag, with the “lukewarm” rating suggesting that many technologies/techniques are holding steady, if not exactly lighting the education world on fire.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/01/14/4-trends-that-will-recharge-higher-ed-it-in-2016.aspx

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4 Trends That Will Recharge Higher Ed IT in 2016

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By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

These ideas and technologies are jolting the education segment from the outside in. Heavy adoption of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are at the top of many prediction lists. “2016 is the year these puppies will actually roll out to the general public,” declared Yahoo Finance reporter Andy Serwer. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured some four dozen exhibitors serving this segment in two separate marketplaces, “gaming and virtual reality” and “augmented reality.” The Consumer Technology Association, which runs that event, expects sales of headsets to reach 1.2 million units this year.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/01/14/4-trends-that-will-recharge-higher-ed-it-in-2016.aspx

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Online Students Do Not Learn By Video Alone, Finds Study

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By Paul Riismandel, Streaming Media

Streamed lectures, it turns out, are a poor replacement for classroom learning. To help students absorb what they hear, add interactive activities to the curriculum. Recently, five researchers from Carnegie Mellon University decided to test out what difference extra activities make on learning outcomes inside a massive open online course, or MOOC. The title of their study belies their conclusion: “Learning Is Not a Spectator Sport: Doing Is Better Than Watching for Learning From a MOOC.” They tested a 12-week introductory MOOC in psychology that featured 10- to 15-minute lecture videos as part of the instructional content along with weekly quizzes to measure progress. Looking just at the final, the average score of the students who used the OLI activities was nine points higher than the students who didn’t: 66 points vs. 57 points. Many more students completed the interactive course, too; 939 of the OLI students took the final exam, while only 215 of the students in the non-OLI version did.

http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Online-Students-Do-Not-Learn-By-Video-Alone-Finds-Study-108552.aspx

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January 24, 2016

Negotiating the Many Definitions of Hybrid, Online Classes

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By Bradley Fuster, US News

Be proactive in understanding why a school classifies a course as one or the other. As online education evolves, the ways classes are taught aren’t as straightforward as they might have previously been. In course listings, university registrars generally include a column labeled “instructional type.” Historically, this column has contained basic terms such as “traditional,” “hybrid” or “online.” While traditional instruction requires no further explanation, increasingly the lines between hybrid and online courses have become blurred. For example, at some institutions, if a class meets in person just once, it is listed as hybrid.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/2016/01/15/negotiating-the-many-definitions-of-hybrid-online-classes

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