Techno-News Blog

by Robert Hahn, Brookings

First, let’s make all firms in the internet space adhere to a single clear, common set of privacy principles. Right now, internet privacy is a grab bag. Many users were surprised to learn that they can actually control some of what Facebook shares, but its not intuitive, transparent or for many, easy. Think, for example, about how many times you tap the “I agree” button on your smartphone to download an app without having the slightest notion of what you’ve agreed to. Furthermore, the information that Facebook collects is different than what Google or LinkedIn collects, or what your internet service provider may ask for.

Congress must establish clear, equitable internet rules now

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

A nonprofit that tests out new models of education and credentials has launched a free digital badge toolkit. The goal: to help schools outfit students with the skills employers are seeking. Education Design Lab’s 21st century skills badge program covers eight microcredentials as well as facilitation tools. The badges are intended to be used on students’ LinkedIn accounts, resumes and e-portfolios. In return, schools that use the badges agree to adhere to the specific language in their definitions, use a “360 assessment” at the beginning of the badge-earning process and share metrics and what they’ve learned in the process.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/05/01/free-digital-badge-toolkit-helps-students-show-off-their-21st-century-skills.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

A professor of electrical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University uses Sony’s Digital Paper device for e-textbooks, lecture notes, grading and more. There is no app store where people can acquire new uses for it. The interface is dim. And the stylus has to be recharged just like the device itself. Yet, at least one instructor wouldn’t give up his Sony Digital Paper, even for the most tricked-out iPad Pro or Microsoft Surface. But then Akhan Almagambetov isn’t like most people. This assistant professor in electrical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott campus disavows PowerPoints, has been known to rip up textbooks and is highly protective of his eyes.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/04/18/why-one-professor-prefers-electronic-ink-over-fancy-tablets.aspx

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Artificial Intelligence is no longer just contained in science fiction films. It is a part of our everyday lives and in our classrooms. As we use tools like Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, we are just beginning to see the possibilities of AI in education. And, we should expect to see more. The Artificial Intelligence Market in the US Education Sector 2017-2021 report suggests that experts expect AI in education to grow by “47.50% during the period 2017-2021.” With the expected growth of AI in education, here is a glimpse into some of the roles it will play in the classroom.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/7-roles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-education/

by Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed

New print textbooks can still cost students hundreds of dollars, but the cost of etextbooks is falling fast, according to data from etextbook distribution platforms VitalSource and RedShelf — both of which work with all major publishers. Since 2016, the average price of etextbooks on VitalSource has fallen by 31 percent, from $56.36 in 2016 to $38.65 in 2018. Some areas, such as mathematics, have seen more drastic change, said VitalSource. In 2016, the average math etextbook cost $79. Now it’s $39 — a decrease of almost 50 percent. RedShelf confirmed a similar price drop. In 2015, the average etextbook cost $53.11, the company said. Now it’s $39.24.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/05/01/publishers-race-reduce-costs-digital-textbooks

By Sydney Johnson, EdSurge

Coursera has already released updates to its terms of service addressing GDPR requirements. And when asked if the company plans to review instructor data-collection practices, the spokesperson said Coursera is “working closely with university partners to mutually take measures required for GDPR compliance.” The GDPR will go into effect on May 25, and failure to comply could result in fines of 20 million euros or 4 percent of the entity’s global annual revenue, depending on what is greater. But there’s a caveat: “Each supervisor authority that enforces this will determine what [consequence] should be applied,” explains Johnson. “A lot of provisions are open to interpretation.”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-05-03-moocs-are-global-so-where-do-they-stand-with-new-european-privacy-laws

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

With the recent advancement of technology, it changes the tools children use to learn. When it comes to reading, there are many different apps and programs that can be used to keep children engaged and help them practice reading skills. Technology used as a tool for reading instruction can supplement the skills being taught, engage students more, and allows them to take charge of their own learning. To understand how technology can be helpful to children learning to read, it must be understood that there are different types of learners and various factors that affect learning. Some of these factors are the environment in which they have learned and continue to read, socio-economic family status, and whether or not there are learning disabilities involved. Technology may be of benefit to support these types of learners, especially.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/do-digital-tools-improve-reading-outcomes/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

The top technology-related priority for community colleges in the coming year is mobile device and app support, according to a new report. About a third of those institutions have a strategy in place for use of mobile devices, and more than half (51 percent) are piloting the use of devices in the classroom but lack a formal strategy for doing so. Just four in 10 schools (44 percent) provide professional development to help instructors learn how to use mobile apps for instruction, and just one in five train faculty or have policies to follow for protecting student privacy when using apps.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/05/03/community-colleges-prioritizing-mobile-device-support.aspx

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive
The Wall Street Journal profiles the growing culture of making higher education more accessible for adult learners. With 41% of students over the age of 25 and likely trying to balance school, work and family, students are receiving financial support to eliminate gaps in financial need after loans are applied to tuition costs. States like Tennessee and Indiana are using grants tied to workforce development or credential attainment to entice adults to enroll. Tennessee’s Reconnect Scholarship program pays tuition and fees for students enrolled at any public technical or community college or applied technology institution, while Indiana’s Workforce Ready grant funds enrollment in programs for construction, health sciences, manufacturing and other technical trades. Both programs require students to apply for federal financial aid as a prerequisite for receiving the state grants.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-ed-embraces-the-new-traditional-student/522765/

by Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
Data USA, a free-and-open data-visualization platform that launched in April 2016, added profiles on more than 7,300 higher education institutions, with information including tuition costs, demographics, acceptance rates, financial aid and endowments sizes, among other statistics gleaned from U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).  The platform, a collaboration between Deloitte, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Datawheel, lets users observe publicly available data in an integrated, visualized format, according to César Hidalgo, director of MIT’s Collective Learning group, who told Education Dive the resource allows users to do things like “see the data and visualize it and merge points right away.” Hidalgo said users can compare yields, how many of the students are accepted at a university decided to go there, and much more.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/free-tool-allows-institutions-to-easily-analyze-compare-ipeds-data/522688/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Schools and universities are beginning to understand that their security networks are too vulnerable to protect sensitive information. Keeping key documents and student information safe should be a priority for the administration at all universities. However, many schools are struggling to figure out the first steps they need to take in order to make themselves less vulnerable to an attack. Many universities wait until the cyber-attack happens before they implement some much-needed change. With a few well-thought-out shifts in the network, schools might be able to prevent many of these attacks from ever occurring. Consider some of these simple shifts that universities can make in order to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to a major cyber-attack.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-to-make-your-university-network-less-vulnerable/

BY MASON CARROLL, Daily Texan
With the school year coming to an end, many students are already looking to next year and next year’s textbooks prices. However, Texas law prevents students from seeing their textbook prices until a month before school begins. State House Bill 33 allows students to see class material and the price of textbooks 30 days before classes start. SB 810 was passed last legislative session and requires professors to submit open education resources course material.

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/05/02/students-want-to-know-textbook-prices-earlier-to-help-with-registration

by Chuck Leddy, MIT Open Learning

The lives of refugees aren’t just disrupted by the loss of a homeland, but also by massive challenges in accessing educational and professional opportunities. A collaboration between the MITx MicroMasters program in data, economics, and development policy (DEDP), the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and the MIT Refugee Action Hub (ReACT) seeks to address these challenges. MIT’s Department of Economics and J-PAL co-developed and launched the MITx MicroMasters Program in DEDP in 2017. The new collaboration will allow refugee learners to receive scholarships for DEDP courses, participate in skills-building workshops, and connect with top organizations and companies in the field of development economics and data analysis.

http://news.mit.edu/2018/empowering-refugees-by-providing-tools-for-social-change-0501

by Brendan Murphy, AMA Wire

What medical students know is only as good as how they apply it. Bridging the gap is key to ensuring a successful transition from medical school to residency. “One of the things that is lacking overall [in medical education] is a way to successfully help students translate their book knowledge to action and taking care of patients,” said Rachel Gordon, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “During medical school, you are either in the classroom or you’re on the wards, but sometimes you need a combination of the two.”

https://wire.ama-assn.org/education/online-simulation-scenarios-ready-med-students-residency

By David Raths, Campus Technology

With education technologies increasingly using analytics to measure and assess student learning, there is a lot of data flying around on higher education campuses. How are institutions establishing principles and polices around the responsible use of that data? So far, few have published clear definitions of learning data or guidelines for how students’ data can be used or shared. One exception is the University of California system, which has created a team to develop UC learning data privacy principles and recommended best practices for its campuses. The issues being addressed involve both student consent as well as university contractual relationships with third-party vendors.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/05/02/when-learning-analytics-violate-student-privacy.aspx

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Universities are seeking ways to innovate and keep up with the changing expectations of students and faculty, and university libraries are no different. As physical space, available funding, and student needs change, university libraries will have to adapt to meet different needs and campus roles. Despite these future changes, the purpose of university libraries remains steady: Academic libraries provide equitable access to information for students to use in their daily lives, whether their purpose is for academic success, to solve problems, or to create new knowledge.

5 roles university libraries will play in the future

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Nearly all administrators (91 percent) in a recent survey say innovation is a top strategic or academic priority, but just 40 percent say their institution has a dedicated university innovation budget, according to a new report that explores the drivers and barriers to higher-ed innovation. The State of Innovation in Higher Education: A Survey of Academic Administrators, from The Learning Counsel and the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), surveyed more than 100 U.S. academic administrators and seeks to highlight how higher-ed institutions define and employ such innovation.

4 key findings about university innovation

by Barnes & Noble College, Education Dive

The core benefits of open educational resources (OER) are decreased costs for students, as well as increased access and engagement. These benefits address some of the central challenges facing higher education. So, why isn’t that translating into more widespread adoption of OER? After thousands of conversations with faculty across the U.S., Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) has pinpointed three central concerns related to OER adoption: awareness, change and choice. The concerns are valid, but OER can provide meaningful answers and solutions for teaching and learning. To dispel some of the OER myths and questions that often arise, here are the realities, based on faculty feedback and results.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/oer-myths-realities-and-results-in-todays-classroom/522532/

by Susan M. Dynarski and Judith Scott-Clayton, Brookings

Economists George Bulman and Caroline Hoxby scoured hundreds of millions of tax returns searching for an effect of the tax credits and tuition deduction on educational outcomes.^[1] They inspected anonymized, detailed, individual-level administrative data from the IRS on the population of potential tax filers. The IRS has developed secure mechanisms that allow these data to be analyzed without compromising the privacy of taxpayers.  Bulman and Hoxby use a regression-discontinuity design to estimate the effects of the tuition tax deduction for families around the maximum income cutoff for eligibility.^[2] Again, they find no evidence that the deduction increases college enrollment. They also find no effect of the deduction on enrollment intensity, college choice, tuition paid, or student debt.⁠

The tax benefits for education don’t increase education

by VICKY SINGH RAO, Technotification

If you have a busy life schedule and no time for classes to learn how to program. All roads aren’t close yet, there are various websites on the internet which provides fully guide on how to code. These sites have a very interactive interface. Whenever you have free time, you can just log into these sites and start learning.  In addition, just like any other industry, there are always at-least handfuls of experts who are considered the best on the subject mostly; they have blogs or websites which makes them the most trusted resources in the industry. For beginners to keep up with the latest tech-news, networks as well as discuss projects, they can visits these websites and stay on top of the tech field.

Top 10 Websites for Beginner Programmers to Learn Coding

by Darrell M. West and John R. Allen, Brookings

Despite its widespread lack of familiarity, AI is a technology that is transforming every walk of life. It is a wide-ranging tool that enables people to rethink how we integrate information, analyze data, and use the resulting insights to improve decision making. Our hope through this comprehensive overview is to explain AI to an audience of policymakers, opinion leaders, and interested observers, and demonstrate how AI already is altering the world and raising important questions for society, the economy, and governance.

How artificial intelligence is transforming the world