Techno-News Blog

by Shilpa Phadnis, Times of India

AI is the new electricity and it has made significant advances to transform industries. There’s still a lot of work humans can do in the foreseeable future and we don’t seem to find enough people in some areas. We can’t find enough healthcare workers, teachers or wind turbine technicians in the US. Our educational system globally has not been historically great in reskilling for newer job roles. We need a new social contract to do that. For India, lack of an incumbent structure might be an advantage, where it can use digital education to leapfrog.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/people/andrew-ng-interview/articleshow/62995821.cms

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
A group of private and public organizations said that, for less than $20 billion, every unserved rural school, library, health provider and community college in the country that doesn’t already have high-capacity broadband could get it and share it out. In a new study, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition proposed that high-speed internet be fed to these “anchor institutions,” which could then act as “middle-mile” providers to distribute the service to surrounding users through a mix of wired and wireless technologies.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/02/20/cost-to-connect-rural-america-19-billion-or-less.aspx

by Adam Looney, Brookings

In a new Brookings paper that uses administrative data to look at “large-balance borrowers,” New York University’s Constantine Yannelis and I find that the share of students graduating with more than $50,000 in student debt has more than tripled since 2000, increasing from 5 percent of borrowers in 2000 to 17 percent of student borrowers in 2014. That group now holds the majority of outstanding student debt owed to the government—about $790 billion of the $1.4 trillion total at the end of 2017. Among these borrowers, we’re seeing a troubling trend: They’re repaying their loans more slowly, if at all. In a country where education is still the doorway to opportunity, we should be wary of changes to our student lending system that prevent low-income students from obtaining the quality education their high-income peers can more easily afford.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/02/16/more-students-are-taking-on-crippling-debt-they-cant-repay-its-time-for-higher-education-to-share-the-risks/

by Kaytie Zimmerman, Forbes

One way that millennials are finding success is by expanding their skill set via online learning. I don’t mean Youtube, though that can be a starting point to learn the basics of plenty of topics. By online learning, I mean formal learning platforms like Skillshare.  “Online learning has really taken off over the past few years,” said Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Founder and Executive Chairman of Skillshare, an online learning community. “One of the factors contributing to this growth is the changing work environment. The rapid pace of technological advancement requires workers to continually learn new skills to keep pace.” Online learning has really become a viable, convenient, and affordable way to expand skills necessary for their job or career.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaytiezimmerman/2018/02/18/3-reasons-millennials-might-choose-online-learning-over-a-traditional-degree/#1eb16974545b

by Anirban Ghosh, the Statesman

Open licences are the outcome of an effort to protect the authors’ rights in an environment where the content (particularly when digitised) can easily be copied and shared without permission. Open licences seek to ensure that copying and sharing should happen within a structured legal framework that is more flexible than the automatic all-rights-reserved status of copyright. They allow permission to be given accurately, while relaxing the restrictions of traditional copyright. They allow for more flexibility in the use, reuse and adaptation of materials for local context and learning environment, while allowing authors to have their work acknowledged. In this context, OER means teaching and learning materials for which copyright has expired or for which copyright has been explicitly withdrawn by the author. Open licence does not mean that everything is open. Quite simply it gives us the right to use and at the same time impose certain restrictions.

https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/open-educationi-1502587930.html

by CHRISTIE BLECK, Mining Journal

In the digital age, adults need to always be on guard to protect themselves and their children from online predators and cyberbullies. That was the focus of a Feb. 8 Michigan InfraGard quarterly meeting, which took place at the Learning Resource Center on the Northern Michigan University’s campus. Michigan InfraGard is a public-private partnership with the FBI dedicated to the protection of Americans, particularly infrastructures and resources.

http://www.miningjournal.net/news/front-page-news/2018/02/online-predators-cyberbullies-addressed-at-infragard-meeting/

by Penn State University

Penn State students who enroll in online courses will be eligible for the Pennsylvania State Grant Program next year after lawmakers made permanent a pilot need-based funding program that was set to expire. State lawmakers approved the pilot program for distance learners starting in 2013-14. The program expanded eligibility requirements for funding through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) to include online learners, who previously could not receive financial aid if they took more than half their credits online.

http://news.psu.edu/story/505854/2018/02/16/academics/state-grant-funding-available-penn-state-students-taking-online

By Bradley Fuster, US News

Many on-campus college students take at least one fully online class at some point during their education. That’s according to a 2018 report from the Babson Survey Research Group, which found that more than half of the more than 6 million online students in the U.S. – referring to those who enrolled in at least one online class – complete both online and traditional coursework concurrently. As the line between online and residential students increasingly blurs, additional challenges and opportunities have emerged for learners. It’s important that the traditional degree-seeking student who’s taking a mixture of online and on-campus classes be mindful of the complexities of doing so.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2018-02-16/consider-taking-online-courses-as-an-on-campus-student

by Kenneth Rogoff, Boston Globe

Universities and colleges are pivotal to the future of our societies. But, given impressive and ongoing advances in technology and artificial intelligence, it is hard to see how they can continue playing this role without reinventing themselves over the next two decades. Education innovation will disrupt academic employment, but the benefits to jobs everywhere else could be enormous. If there were more disruption within the ivory tower, economies just might become more resilient to disruption outside it.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/02/09/when-will-technology-disrupt-higher-education/RDqq0tsJufA0dG2VEiRFgI/story.html

By Sajeel Syed, TechJuice

Ivy league schools are now offering free online courses from various fields and subjects and all accessible to students from the comfort of their own home. The courses range from Computer Sciences, Arts to Engineering. These courses are constantly updated every other month and are easily accessible through Coursera. A website which connects you with all the courses on all IVY school’s websites and is also your next classroom. Sign into Coursera and pick your university and course you are interested and get a chance to study in these institutes.

https://www.techjuice.pk/ivy-league-universities-offering-free-online-courses/

By Henry Kronk, e-Learning Inside

MOOCs are beginning to really diversify in terms of form and subject matter. Chabad.org has an offering that teaches the nuances of Jewish prayer. The French political party En Marche put out a MOOC to foster political engagement at the community level. Dublin City University launched a MOOC to reconnect the descendants of the Irish Diaspora. Meanwhile, Udacity is becoming more of a for-profit vocational trainer than a MOOC provider. The number of price points are increasing at several other providers. And still, edX stays more or less true to MOOC form.

What Does ‘MOOC’ Mean Anymore? The Latest from Class Central

by Jodi Helmer, University Business

Most of the 2 million students participating in dual enrollment programs attend classes at their high schools or on higher ed campuses. Colleges in at least 35 states, however, offer students another option—online classes, according to research by the Education Commission of the States. Access is a main aim. Distance learning provides opportunities to students in areas with a lack of local colleges or high school teachers qualified to instruct college classes, notes a 2015 report by ACT, a testing company that also promotes college and career readiness. But it’s not as easy as simply moving content online.

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/higher-ed-remote-reach