Techno-News Blog

BY KRYSTAL PUTMAN-GARCIA, eCampus News

If you walk on any campus today, you’d be hard-pressed to find a student that didn’t have a laptop or smart phone. In fact, 96 percent of young adults ages 18-29 use the internet – and those with a college education are more likely to use the internet than those who do not, according to a Pew Research Study. Your college can benefit from strengthening its online brand by reaching prospective students, current college attendees and alumni. The stronger the online brand, the more likely students and visitors will engage with a school. Fortunately, there are some simple ways colleges can grow their online brands that ultimately lead to offline results.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/campus-administration/technology-campus-branding/

By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

Chris Bourg, director of libraries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes the MIT report as a “moon shot” for libraries. The wide-ranging report covers digitization, open access, redesign of physical spaces and more, but it ultimately recommends libraries focus on four “pillars”: community and relationships, discovery and use, stewardship and sustainability, and research and development. Bourg said, “Providing access to credible information and the tools to assess, use, understand and exploit it is what libraries, librarians and archivists have always done. It’s more important than ever now.” MIT, with its focus on science, technology, engineering and math, is in a different position to grapple with those issues compared to universities with traditional strengths (and extensive library collections) in the humanities and social sciences, other library directors and researchers said.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/23/massachusetts-institute-technology-invites-academe-collaborate-future-libraries

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

University Business reports on the growing number of campuses using cloud-based technology to improve online services wth academic intervention and student life. A variety of systems tracking student data on attendance, learning resource utilization and student life helps campuses to more easily divert resources based upon student need or desire, with stronger integration between systems becoming easier to create and to manage. Security concerns about cloud-based technology have decreased in the last two years, as technologies and safeguards have improved to help preserve student information.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-look-to-the-cloud-for-student-intervention-services/430949/

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Ed Tech Magazine profiles the growth of virtual reality in college learning settings, which is a $150 billion industry making waves in healthcare, criminal justice and gaming industries. Some experts think that VR technology will reinvent library and research materials access, distance education and curriculum engagement in the applied sciences and liberal arts. Other implications could include cost reduction for teaching delivery, and global access to a variety of innovative courses and learning experiences.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/could-virtual-reality-set-new-standards-for-educational-access/430968/

By David Nagel, THE Journal

Microsoft and Code.org have come together to debut Minecraft Designer, a free tutorial for students aged 6 and up that uses the Minecraft environment to teach coding. Minecraft Designer is a free, hour-long, interactive online tutorial (with offline capabilities for those who want to work when they don’t have access to the Internet) that teaches basic coding in Minecraft and, perhaps more importantly, is designed to inspire interest in computer science, particularly among groups that might not traditionally pursue CS.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/11/15/microsoft-code.org-use-minecraft-to-teach-coding.aspxMicrosoft, Code.org Use Minecraft to Teach Coding

by: Ian Wylie, Financial Times

The latest law school to say it will venture a hybrid JD programme is Syracuse University College of Law. From 2018, pending approval from the American Bar Association, students will take classes online then come to campus for weeklong residential sessions. The school, which hopes the programme will help reverse its enrolment decline, is delivering the course with edtech company 2U. The school’s intake for 2016 is up 14 per cent on last year, but — in line with the national trend — still almost a fifth lower than a decade ago. The cost of tuition will be the same as the standard JD programme at Syracuse but the “opportunity cost” of attending will be “significantly lower”, says Nina Kohn, associate dean for research. “Students can continue working while completing their degree and will not have to move their families or leave their existing support systems,” she says. Syracuse will be only the second law school accredited by the ABA to offer such a hybrid JD programme; Mitchell Hamline School of Law launched the first last year. In 1998, non-ABA-accredited Concord Law School rolled out the first online JD programme, and other non-ABA accredited schools soon followed.

https://www.ft.com/content/41458ab4-9ab7-11e6-8f9b-70e3cabccfae

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Yes, it’s true that for the second year running cybersecurity has come in first on Educause’s list of the Top 10 IT issues for higher education. But this year it doesn’t dominate the results as it did last year, according to Susan Grajek, the organization’s vice president of data, research and analytics. Information security “is a huge risk area,” she said, but, according to Educause member votes, “not by quite as much.” Instead, Grajek sees growing concern for the broader area of student success, an issue that landed in third place in 2016, fourth place in 2015 and first place in 2014. While the explicit topic of student success showed up second on the 2017 list, Grajek pointed out that many if not most of the other issues link back to that theme — including data-informed decision making (No. 3 in the ranking), effective leadership (No. 4), the digital transformation of learning (No. 10) and even sustainable funding (No. 8).

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/11/10/student-success-pervades-top-it-issues-for-2017.aspx