Techno-News Blog

By Danny Palmer, ZD Net

Operation by Bitdefender, the Romanian Police,DIICOT and Europol provides decryption keys for one of the most aggressive forms of ransomware seen this year. Victims of one the newest – and most unusual – families of ransomware could now be able to recover their files without giving into the demands of criminals because decryption tools have been released for free. A GandCrab ransomware decryption tool has been released as part of the No More Ransom initiative, following a combined operation by Bitdefender, the Romanian Police, the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) and Europol.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/hit-by-ransomware-this-new-free-decryption-tool-for-gandcrab-might-help/

By Michelle R. Weise, EdSurge

Our postsecondary learning system will have to engage students differently than before. Many adults may have no interest in coming back to college. Out of the 37 million Americans with some college and no degree, many have already failed one or twice before and will be wholly uninterested in experiencing more educational trauma.We can’t just say, “Here’s a MOOC, or here’s an online degree, or a 6- to 12-week immersive bootcamp.” We have to do better. Let’s begin seeding the foundational elements of a learning ecosystem of the future—flexible enough for adults to move consistently in and out of learning and work. Enough talk about lifelong learning: Let’s build.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-02-22-michelle-weise-we-need-to-design-the-learning-ecosystem-of-the-future

by Jordan Novet, CNBC

A file that Apple updated on its website last month provides the first acknowledgment that it’s relying on Google’s public cloud for data storage for its iCloud services. The disclosure is fresh evidence that Google’s cloud has been picking up usage as it looks to catch up with Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud infrastructure business. Some media outlets reported on Google’s iCloud win in 2016, but Apple never provided confirmation.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/26/apple-confirms-it-uses-google-cloud-for-icloud.html

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Students who graduate from high school nowadays will be entering a workforce that is different from generations past. Because of this, schools must prepare these students for the digital workforce of today and tomorrow. How do school districts accomplish this? What should they be teaching students? Don’t worry; I have you covered. This article describes those digital literacy skills paramount to success in any career.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/schools-prepare-next-generation-enter-digital-workforce/

By Melissa Marcello, US News

Depending on your prior education and job field, a second bachelor’s may be less expensive than an online graduate degree.  Deciding what type of online degree or certificate is best for a potential career shift can be challenging. Online education offers a flexible and convenient learning approach for working adults, but there’s still the question of whether to pursue a second bachelor’s degree online or a more advanced online credential. Here are three cases when a second undergraduate degree may make the most sense.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2018-02-23/weigh-earning-a-second-bachelors-degree-online

by MAURA LERNER, STAR TRIBUNE

At Minnesota state colleges, students spend an average of $1,000 a year on textbooks alone. But in Brainerd, they can earn a two-year degree without paying a penny for books. Central Lakes College has joined a growing national movement to ditch pricey textbooks in favor of material that can be found online for free. This semester, it launched one of the state’s first “Z-degrees,” meaning that all the required readings—in this case, for an associate of arts degree—are available at zero cost to students.

‘Z-degree’ gives students textbooks for free

by Natalie Bruzda, Nevada Review- Journal

WGU has been educating students in online classrooms since 1998, when the internet was still in its infancy. Even more revolutionary at the time, however, was the school’s competency-based approach to learning.  But Spencer Stewart, chancellor of WGU Nevada — one of eight WGU state affiliates, with WGU Ohio coming on-line this spring — said interest in competency-based education is growing. “What’s fascinating to me is that on a national level, competency-based education is starting to get more and more traction,” Stewart said. “With the Higher Education Act being debated and discussed in Congress, a good portion of that is dedicated to new ways of teaching and learning. WGU really serves as the pioneer in this space.”

Nevada university eyes student success in online schooling

By Nicole Freeling, UC

Funded with $4 million from the state, UC Scout has recently expanded its course offerings. It now offers 65 state-of-the-art classes, including a complete catalog of all the “a-g” requirement courses that students need for UC and CSU admission, as well as 26 advanced placement classes.  New additions include an array of lab classes like oceanography and AP physics, and an arts curriculum that includes 3-D design.  Students can access the courses anywhere with an Internet connection — from the school computer lab or local library, to their smart phone, tablet or home computer.

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/free-online-courses-are-putting-college-reach

By Emily Wangen, Daily Iowan

With the expansion of distance education at Iowa’s universities, student have more opportunities for flexibility in their education. Increasing reliance on technology has resulted in the evolution of delivery mechanisms, making distance education “a fast-moving aspect of the postsecondary education sector,” according to a report from the state Board of Regents. Over the last five years, enrollment in distance-education courses at the three regent universities has increased by 31.6 percent, rising from 59,542 in 2013-14 to 78,383 in 2016-17. At the University of Iowa, the fall 2016 headcount of students enrolled in these courses was 2,859, up from 2,343 in fall 2014.

http://daily-iowan.com/2018/02/22/university-of-iowa-sees-growth-in-distance-education/

By ANNA KURITZKES and CINDY H. ZHANG, Harvard Crimson

Responding to an increased number of virtual learners, the Extension School has grown its online course catalog significantly over the past few years, according to the dean of the Division of Continuing Education. Just four years ago, the Extension School offered 200 online courses, a number that has since tripled to 600, according to Huntington D. Lambert, dean of the Division of Continuing Education. The Extension School offers a total of roughly 900 courses and is part of the Division of Continuing Education, which serves roughly 20,000 students annually. “Online education certainly is here to stay, it’s not going away,” said Harry R. Lewis ’67, a Computer Science professor. “And, it creates great opportunities.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/2/23/virtual-education-expands/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Artificial intelligence will disrupt higher education; there’s no doubt of that. Already AI has been assuming some of the more basics tasks in academia, such as grading, data analysis and seeking correlations.  So far these automatic tasks have been within a single university system, but there’s no reason to believe that AI will continue to function in the isolation of the ivory tower. AI will connect academia to other industries, performing elaborate cognitive processes that search for connections between a variety of fields. Think transformation, not disruption!  Change is never easy for anyone, but universities who choose not change may be left behind.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/will-artificial-intelligence-disrupt-higher-education/

By Joel Hruska, Extreme Tech

For 13 years, smartphones have been a massive success story. Year after year, we’ve seen companies rolling out new products at a variety of price points and market positions. From 2004 to Q3 2017, smartphone sales grew year-on-year, even through the Great Recession. Q4 2017 put at least a temporary end to that trend. Gartner reports smartphone sales fell 5.8 percent in Q4 2017 compared with Q4 2016. It’s tempting to write this off as ordinary variance, but when the market has shown no such variation in the past 51 quarters, it’s harder to hand-wave the figure. It’s especially more difficult because, in theory, we should still be seeing robust growth given that there are huge untapped markets for devices across India and China.

https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/264482-global-sales-smartphones-fallen-first-time-ever

by Rebecca Blanchette, Carnegie Com

As higher ed institutions assess their website’s accessibility, images are a big factor for both ADA compliance and SEO. When it comes to ADA compliance on your website, images are a huge factor that must be addressed to ensure accessibility. Not only that, but making your images accessible can also make them more visible in search engines. In some ways, SEO and ADA compliance for your website actually go hand-in-hand. When a screen reader hits an image on a web page, it reads aloud that image’s alt tag or text. If you’re familiar with SEO at all, think of this as the meta description for your image. If your image does not have alt text, then the screen reader will pass it by, meaning that your site is not accessible to all users.

https://www.carnegiecomm.com/blog/are-your-college-or-universitys-website-images-ada-compliant/

by Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
Though 73% of Americans believe the growth of artificial intelligence will lead to net job loss, only 23% believe their jobs will be at risk, according to a survey of 3,297 U.S. citizens by Gallup and Northeastern University. But while most Americans do not fear losing work, only 22% of survey respondents with a bachelor’s degree said their education left them “well” or “very well prepared” to use AI as it becomes more widespread in their jobs.  Americans are uncertain whether institutions can provide them with the skills needed to use AI. While 51% of employed U.S. adults believe they would need additional education to obtain a new job should they lose their current one to technology, only 18% are “extremely confident” they could obtain the necessary education.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/survey-americans-not-confident-colleges-can-prepare-them-for-ai-driven-wor/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Women in STEM jobs are more likely to experience hostile work environments, including discrimination and sexual harassment, according to a new nationally-representative Pew Research Center study. Research in the study reveals that gender “is perceived as more of an impediment than an advantage to career success.” Women in three particular groups are more likely to see workplace inequities: women who are employed in STEM settings where men outnumber women, women who work in computer jobs, and women who hold postgraduate degrees.

Do women in STEM experience hostile work environments?

BY JEFF KING, eCampus News

Consider academia’s approach to measurement: Academic transcripts can depict students’ achievements within courses and majors, but they often overlook opportunities to track and validate their growth across courses and fields, where critical interdisciplinary skills are forged. If we are to close looming gaps in our workforce, postsecondary leaders must embrace a shift that measures learning in a more holistic and granular fashion. The first step in this shift is embracing a unit of measurement that is both more precise and more comprehensive, as well as being evidence-based. Here’s how we’re already doing that at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO).

Why academic assessment is poised for a scientific revolution

by Michael Bernick, Forbes

The ominous “future of work” continues to dominate headlines this year. We are told to prepare for the technological change that is rendering many current skills and job duties obsolete. To help us prepare, an industry of workforce degrees, certifications, badges and other training is rapidly expanding. Our public education institutions–universities, community colleges, adult education schools—are developing workforce certificates, and “stackable” workforce certificates, to add to their degree programs. Over the past year, they have been joined in upskilling products by the online training giants, the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), including Udacity, Udemy, and most of all Coursera.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbernick/2018/02/21/courseras-bet-on-the-upskilling-of-american-workers/#490a92d05eb2

by Standard Digital

Our phones can easily mimic a classroom. You can watch videos, listen to podcasts, read slides and comment on lectures in real time. The following three apps combine all these experiences to deliver a real-world portable classroom that enables you to sharpen your skills on the go, giving you that ever-elusive edge in tackling business challenges.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001270570/three-apps-that-bring-the-classroom-to-your-smartphone

Dreamers Offered Access to Online Courses at Southern New Hampshire University
By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

In early March, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), in collaboration with The Shapiro Foundation and TheDream.US, announced plans to offer 1,000 DACA students full scholarships to pursue associate and bachelor’s degree programs at SNHU. Dreamers who pursue the program will have access to both SNHU’s on-campus and extensive online program offerings.

Dreamers Offered Access to Online Courses at Southern New Hampshire University

By Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher ED
Community colleges are increasingly unsure whether their online courses meet federal accessibility requirements, survey finds. Confidence in the accessibility of online courses at community colleges has fallen dramatically in the last decade, a survey from the Instructional Technology Council reveals. Training is now mandatory for three-fourths of faculty members prior to teaching online, the survey found. Lokken said this is a “significant improvement” over previous years, but he notes that a quarter of colleges still lack any training requirements for online instructors. This year, the top five faculty-related issues administrators faced challenges with were: (1) Engaging the faculty in development of online pedagogy; (2) evaluation of faculty members; (3) training; (4) workload issues and (5) compensation.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/02/21/community-colleges-question-whether-online-courses-meet

by Dom Galeon, Futurism

Cybersecurity has become one of today’s more pressing issues, and it’s likely to get worse in the future. That’s why the secretary-general of the U.N. is now calling for nations to come up with clearer rules to protect civilians from hacking.  Cyber warfare could simply end up becoming a race for a better technology. Guterres’ plea becomes all the more urgent when viewed with an eye for the future: “I am absolutely convinced that, differently from the great battles of the past, which opened with a barrage of artillery or aerial bombardment, the next war will begin with a massive cyber attack to destroy military capacity… and paralyze basic infrastructure,” the U.N. Secretary-General warned.

Cyber Warfare Is Growing. We Need Rules to Protect Ourselves.