Techno-News Blog

By Alison van Diggelen, Huffington Post

“Nothing has more potential to unlock a billion more brains to solve the world’s biggest problems,” wrote Tom Friedman in 2013. But of course, his and Thrun’s rosy predictions couldn’t happen overnight. The online learning business had some serious teething problems with high drop out rates, and dismal failure rates. But today, the future of online education is looking brighter. There are now hundreds of online education companies around the globe. In the U.S. the big three are: Coursera (a Stanford startup) which now boasts 15 million students; EdX (affiliated with MIT and Harvard) with over 5 million users; and Udacity, 4 million. Since Udacity’s high profile failure at San Jose State, the company has refocused its online courses and recently partnered with Google, AT&T and Amazon to design “nanodegrees” tailored to the needs of tech companies. Thrun is so bullish about the market value of these 4-12 month nanodegrees, which offer project based learning, that he’s offering a money-back job guarantee.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-van-diggelen/sebastian-thrun-ai-pionee_b_9423134.html

by Vanna Emia, Yibada

Learning through online channels is growing in China, with over 1,000 online education startups established since 2014, according to an article by China Daily. Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists come together in this popular field, where there is no geographical restrictions, a high degree of standardization, and maximum use of content. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) is just one of the online education startups where users can register to gain access to hundreds of online courses by different universities for free.

http://en.yibada.com/articles/108819/20160310/online-education-platforms-increasingly-popular-china.htm

by Josh Constine, TechCrunch

“This is so fast it feels like cheating” students tell Volley. The education startup’s app lets students point their phone’s camera at a textbook page or piece of homework, and instantly see resources about key facts and tricky parts, prerequisites, and links to snippets of online classes or study guides that could help. But rather than manually cobble this info together, Volley uses cutting edge machine learning and natural language processing to do it all automatically.

http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/10/volley/

by Bryan Sinclair and Glenn Gunhouse, EDUCAUSE Review

Virtual reality teeters on the edge of becoming mainstream, with software development outstripping the hardware and memory storage needed. In this article, a librarian and an art historian discuss the many ways that VR may transform learning and student experiences.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/3/the-promise-of-virtual-reality-in-higher-education

by Brian Basgen and Peter A. Testori, EDUCAUSE Review

Various instructional models for online learning focus on efficiencies of time and space, from flipped classrooms to competency-based education, MOOCs, and online learning environments that rely on reading, writing, and discussion. The model proposed here for online education focuses on social learning and student engagement, training faculty and designing online courses to make interaction the driving factor in creating a highly personalized experience for students. The model’s five-point framework highlights best practices to create a high level of student engagement, with guidance on reading and writing instruction, peer group work, discussion, experiential learning, and assessment.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/3/socially-engaged-learning

by Tim Dodd, AFR

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is launching four free courses on big data with the UK-based massive open online course (MOOC) provider FutureLearn. The four short courses, each requiring only four hours study over two weeks, are from the university’s Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers. The first course, From Data to Decisions, starting on April 4 explores case studies of using the power of big data to reach decisions, and introduces the tools to store and manage large data sets.

http://www.afr.com/technology/apps/education/mooc-watch-new-free-online-course-explains-big-data-20160310-gnfxbx

by Connie Johnson, EDUCAUSE Review

Because of the advantages of personalized learning content, Colorado Technical University began piloting courses with adaptive learning in the beginning of 2012, launching the adaptive learning platform intellipath. University-wide training of students, staff, and faculty has resulted in 800 faculty members — about 82 percent — trained on intellipath, with most of those training sessions in years two and three of the rollout. In addition to improved student success markers such as grades, engagement, and retention, CTU has won several awards for its adaptive learning platform.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/3/adaptive-learning-platforms-creating-a-path-for-success

by John O’Brien, EDUCAUSE Review

The transformation under way at the point where teaching, learning, and technology intersect is so promising and so complicated that it is no wonder those of us involved in talking and writing about these developments are looking for the perfect turn of phrase to bring it all together. It’s our nature to seek out words to attach to the issues that matter, an inclination clearly at work within the universe of activities collected under the term personalized learning. The desire to name important trends in the technology landscape is hardly new: EDUCAUSE has made important contributions to the effort, capturing the imagination of the higher ed IT community by furthering both the idea of technology as a “game-changer” and the concept of “connected learning.”

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/3/personalized-learning-people-practices-and-products

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

More teachers said that technology has changed how they approach time management (93 percent) than how they approach instructional delivery (88 percent). It has also transformed how they handle parent communication. A solid 7 in 10 reported that they now use tech to do that. On the instructional front, most teachers apply tech to classroom lecture time (84 percent) and differentiated instruction (74 percent). Those results came out of a survey of nearly 1,000 American teachers who were contacted in January and February 2016 by TES Global, a company with a teacher community and marketplace. The findings were shared during a panel at SXSWedu taking place this week in Austin, TX.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/03/09/teachers-report-oer-in-textbooks-out.aspx

By JULIA E. DEBENEDICTIS, Harvard Crimson

Connecting students around the world through high-tech monitors, the HBX Live studio has begun operating, and administrators are eager to support further development of the online service. As part of HBX—the Business School’s online learning platform—HBX Live was added to the school’s digital learning repertoire in August with the goal of replicating the typical classroom experience. HBX Live is housed in the WGBH public broadcast studio in Brighton. The space is custom designed with a high-resolution video wall that mimics the amphitheater seating style of a traditional Business School classroom. So far, school affiliates have only used the HBX Live studio for “sessions,” including test runs with alumni, according to Michael P. Soulios, the senior production engineer and operations manager for HBX.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/3/9/hbx-live-new-initiative/

by Pat Wadors, Harvard Business Review

This past year, I have spoken with a number of career centers in universities. The most common question I get from them is, “How do we best prepare our students for the ‘real world’?” That’s a great question (and one that many fine minds are trying to figure out), but for those of us running large organizations in today’s digital economy, it’s the wrong one. It’s not about learning a set of skills and then being “prepared” for life. It’s about learning to continuously learn over the course of your whole career. As AT&T CEO and Chair Randall Stephenson, recently told the New York Times, “There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop….People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning will obsolete themselves with the technology.”

https://hbr.org/2016/03/to-stay-relevant-your-company-and-employees-must-keep-learning

by Mike O’Brien, ClickZ

Virtual reality is the next big thing. Perhaps you’ve heard? Here are four of our favorite examples of branded VR content. Virtual reality (VR) was the star of the show, both in Las Vegas in January and again at Mobile World Congress two weeks ago. But while “the next big thing” often takes a while to come to fruition, VR is already here. Headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear became available to the public fairly recently, but brands have been on board for quite a while. One such brand is Lowe’s, which stands out in the VR space for the Holoroom experience that allows consumers to build their dream kitchens and then see them before committing to thousands of dollars worth of renovations.

https://www.clickz.com/2016/03/07/four-brands-with-awesome-virtual-reality-experiences

By Toni Fuhrman, Campus Technology

Way back in 2013, in a research report on the bring-your-own-everything (BYOE) era of higher education, Educause Chief Research Officer Eden Dahlstrom and co-author/CIO Stephen diFilipo cautioned: “Device proliferation is manic, and unmanaged growth could result in a ‘tragedy of the commons’ situation, where too many devices find their way to campus networks too fast and institutions find more opportunities lost than taken.” Fast-forward to today, and higher ed IT executives and faculty are still struggling with the ongoing job of catching up and keeping up with student expectations regarding mobile devices and mobile infrastructure. “Faculty is not adopting mobile as fast as students are demanding it,” commented diFilipo in a recent interview. “We’re dealing with 17- and 18-year-olds that live, breath and literally sleep with their mobile devices. This is a whole ecosystem. The mobile device is their power base. It is, in effect, their ‘car’ — a source of freedom, mobility, and identity in an age when kids are not as free to roam about as they once were.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/08/faculty-alert-you-cant-put-the-mobile-genie-back-in-the-bottle.aspx

by A. Sasha Thackaberry, Evolllution

This is the conclusion of A. Sasha Thackaberry’s two-part series providing an overview of the competency-based education (CBE) space. In the first installment, Thackaberry looked back at the recent history of CBE, outlining the major players who helped to bring CBE into the higher education commonsense. In this installment, she provides a taste of the institutions making a splash today. In the past couple of years there has been a surge of interest in CBE. Where does this new momentum come from? Calls for reform of higher education in general, combined with suspicion about the practical value of many degrees, the financial support of CBE programs by influential funding agencies, and the increased ability of technology to effectively support the model have all contributed to a growing interest in, and support of, CBE. In 2005, the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act allowed “Direct Assessment” programs. In 2013, Southern New Hampshire University became the first college approved with this option.

http://evolllution.com/programming/applied-and-experiential-learning/a-cbe-overview-a-taste-of-cbe-today/

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

A team of computer scientists and electrical engineers at the University of Washington has developed a passive Wi-Fi system that can generate 802.11b Wi-Fi signals using 10,000 times less power than present-day Wi-Fi and 1,000 times less power than Bluetooth Low Energy and ZigBee, according to a news release on UW’s site. Traditional Wi-Fi technology uses both digital and analog components. While the digital components are highly energy efficient, the analog ones are not. Passive Wi-Fi solves this problem by decoupling the digital and analog components of Wi-Fi transmissions, assigning the power-intensive analog functions to a single networked device that is plugged into a wall outlet. An array of sensors produces the information packets for transmission by reflecting and absorbing the signal with a digital switch, according to a news release from UW. The sensors are capable of communicating with any Wi-Fi enabled device.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/01/u-washington-researchers-develop-energy-efficient-wifi.aspx

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

According to initial results from recent pilot, digital game-based learning improved student engagement and self-efficacy in writing courses at 14 colleges and universities. Over the fall 2015 semester, a group of faculty piloted Toolwire’s Writing Games with more than 1,000 students, primarily in developmental and introductory composition courses. The resulting research report documents “faculty and student reactions based on over 530,000 minutes of student usage” of the technology. Participating institutions include several campuses in the Maricopa, Lone Star, and Colorado Community College systems, as well as the California State University and City University of New York systems. The study was authored by Douglas Beckwith, Toolwire’s senior fellow and a professor of practice at Arizona State University.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/03/report-game-based-learning-helps-students-develop-writing-skills.aspx

By Leila Meyer, THE Journal

Mobile apps, online platforms and other technologies are transforming world language education programs by “creating more dynamic, interactive experiences that expose students to the nuances of languages and cultures,” according to a new report from the New Media Consortium (NMC). The role of technology in innovating language education is being driven by pedagogical trends and challenges. The report, “Innovating Language Education: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief,” was commissioned by the Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center (LFTIC) at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/02/29/report-innovating-world-language-education-through-technology.aspx

By David Nagel, Campus Technology

Wearables are not just for gadget enthusiasts and early adopters anymore. They’ve gone mass-market. More than 71 million wearables were shipped in the last year, according to a new report from market research firm IDC. According to information released in IDC’s latest Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, 78.1 million wearables shipped in 2015, with more than a third — 27.4 million — shipping in the fourth quarter alone. Fourth quarter 2015’s shipments represented a 127 percent increase over shipments in the same period the previous year.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/07/wearables-see-record-growth.aspx

by Tim Dodd, Australian Financial Review

Class Central has a full list of free and low-cost online courses to boost your career, or to do for fun. Coursera’s massive open online course on happiness and fulfilment is trending among users. Coursera’s massive open online course on happiness and fulfilment is trending among users. For a comprehensive list of the new massive open online courses (MOOCs) that appear each month try www.class-central.com, a website that lists new courses and allows you to see reviews from students. Class Central says that over 550 online courses are either starting, or scheduled to start, in March 2016, not including the increasingly available self-paced courses, numbering over 900, which have no specific starting date. It allows you to search for courses by subject, and see courses which have just been announced. It also shows trending courses that are proving popular.

http://www.afr.com/technology/apps/education/mooc-watch-online-courses-for-every-purpose-listed-in-one-place-20160304-gnav4b

by Bradley Fuster, US News

Experts cite an optimum time of 10 hours per week per online class, and more than 10 hours for each online graduate course​ . For the typical full-time online student, that can add up to 40 to 50 hours per week of intensive seated screen time. Common ailments associated with extended computer use include musculoskeletal problems, repetitive stress injury, vision problems, headaches, obesity and stress disorders. In order to remain physically and mentally healthy, prospective online students should consider their work environment and actively aim to reduce any technology-induced health risks. Below are five recommendations to minimize health risks as an online student.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2016-03-04/6-ways-to-stay-happy-healthy-as-an-online-student

By Amy Ahearn, EdSurge

Despite these efforts, the challenge persists: how can we teach and assess subjects that are nuanced, nonlinear and deeply human on platforms that are increasingly adaptive and automated? Enter Slack. The online communication platform launched two years ago and now has more than 2.3 million users. It facilitates an online, supercharged version of watercooler conversation, enabling people to trade information and chat informally with colleagues. And it might just be a game changer for online education.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-03-04-could-slack-be-the-next-online-learning-platform