Techno-News Blog

June 23, 2018

Trustees add five initiatives to Purdue strategic plan – Purdue

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The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (June 15) reaffirmed Purdue Moves as the university’s current strategic plan and added five initiatives to the plan to reflect several strategic updates. Building on the original Purdue Moves plan, trustees voted to add online learning, data science, life sciences and three-year degrees as priority initiatives.

https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2018/Q2/trustees-add-five-initiatives-to-purdue-strategic-plan.html

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Final Day of the International Conference on E-Learning in the Workplace Conference at Columbia University

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By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

Dr. Guralnick, a faculty member at Columbia University and the founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope Learning, reflected, “I have always viewed ICELW as a fairly unique conference, in that we bring together researchers and practitioners from such a wide variety of countries and backgrounds.”  In early June, Guralnick told eLearning Inside News that among other highlights, he anticipated that this year’s conference would feature far more discussions on the integration of virtual reality and augmented reality. This certainly proved to be true over the course of the three-day meeting. While the conference did still attract a certain number of presenters engaged in asynchronous online learning projects, discussions of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality definitely dominated this year’s meeting.

 

Final Day of the ICELW Conference at Columbia University

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MIT Algorithm Tackles Network Data Congestion

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By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
A research project at MIT has developed an algorithm in which a constantly updating network — of sensors, drones or data-sharing vehicles — minimizes how much new information is received at any moment to avoid data congestion, while still keeping the most important data “as fresh as possible.” Right now, the approach works for “simple” networks; but eventually, the team expects to tackle complex ones as well. The project is important in an era of smart cars, manufacturing and delivery. Sensors are designed to feed fresh data to a wireless network quickly and continuously, to allow the network to maintain a current status on all variables in the system, as an MIT article explained.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/06/14/mit-algorithm-tackles-network-data-congestion.aspx

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June 22, 2018

New Tech Makes Mixed Reality More Interactive

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By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

In the future, according to a group of German researchers, users of virtual reality will be able to interact with each other more easily, more naturally and in real time between real and virtual worlds. A scene from the real world could, for example, be transferred into VR, after which feedback could be reflected back into the real situation. The Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) recently presented a new “X-reality technology” that makes this possible; the demonstration is being shown during Germany’s CeBIT conference, taking place this week. Fraunhofer HHI does applied research in mobile and optical wireless communications and video signal processing and coding.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/06/14/new-tech-makes-mixed-reality-more-interactive.aspx

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Study: People Remember Information Better Through VR

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By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

University of Maryland found that people recall information better when it is presented to them in a virtual environment, as opposed to a desktop computer. The researchers asked 40 volunteers to familiarize themselves with printouts of well-known faces, such as Abraham Lincoln, the Dalai Lama, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Marilyn Monroe. Participants were then shown the faces placed in various locations within a “memory palace,” an imaginary physical location designed to promote “spatial mnemonic encoding,” or visual-based recall of an object in a specific place.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/06/14/study-people-remember-information-better-through-vr.aspx

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Despite overall setbacks, one MOOC on AI gains ground

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By James Paterson, Education Dive
Despite some setbacks, some massive open online courses are growing, with three of the 10 most popular courses provided on Coursera, a leading provider of MOOCs, produced by Deeplearning.ai, according to a report in EdSurge. Students are drawn to artificial intelligence courses led by Andrew Ng, the firm’s founder and a leading figure in AI who co-founded Coursera while at Stanford University. Ng’s machine learning course, which was Coursera’s first MOOC, has enrolled more than 1.7 million, and his new series of courses introduced last year have enrolled 250,000, which means, according to EdSurge, that he “teaches more people than anyone else on the planet.” Typically, Coursera students pay a $49 a month fee, which allows them access to courses, talks with the professor and a graduation certificate. The presenters get half the course’s revenue. Another online MOOC provider, Udacity, founded by another former Stanford professor, Sebastian Thrun, offers most of its courses without university help, and is valued at more than $1 billion.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/despite-overall-setbacks-one-mooc-on-ai-gains-ground/525812/

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June 21, 2018

10 Reasons to Become a Google Certified Trainer

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by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Google Certified Trainers are education professionals who help other teachers successfully redefine learning by integrating technology into their classrooms. To become a Google Certified Trainer, you must undergo an application process that includes completing a course, taking a skills assessment, and recording an introductory video. So is the process worth it? Let’s take a look at ten reasons to become a Google Certified Trainer.

10 Reasons to Become a Google Certified Trainer

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5 WaysDigital Connectivity is Revolutionising Education

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by Global Banking and Finance Review
Gone are the blackboards of yesteryear. Instead, many schools and higher education institutions are using a range of connected devices, both at school and at home, as part of a wireless revolution in the education sector.With the growth of automation, cyber-security and AI, the role that technology will play in the education sector is already shaping a future job market. In preparation for these new advancements, schools and students will need to adapt to a constantly changing way of digital learning. Here Performance Networks discuss 5 ways digital connectivity is revolutionising the education sector, as well as offering insight into how digital learning technology will shape schools in the future.

5 WaysDigital Connectivity is Revolutionising Education

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4 Powerful Ways to Use Games in eLearning

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by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Learning games provide greater benefits than passing the time in class or entertaining students to keep them occupied. Experienced teachers know that using games in the classroom can invigorate interest in learning, so why wouldn’t eLearning incorporate using gaming in digital courseware and learning tools? Learners who participate in instructional games have improved their performance scores by as much as 30% and increased their confidence by 20%, likely because of the motivation and engagement games produce. In short, gaming in the classroom improves overall retention by 17%. Not only are learners more engaged and better motivated to learn, but they also are more likely to remember what they’ve learned. Games have specific purposes in instruction. Incorporating games at specific instructional points in eLearning can augment the instructional program, and here are four ways to do it:

4 Powerful Ways to Use Games in eLearning

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June 20, 2018

Imagining A Blockchain University

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by Tom Vander Ark , Forbes
A couple of Oxford faculty imagine a different kind of university, one that is distributed and democratic. Joshua Broggi, Faculty of Philosophy, is the founder of Woolf Development, a platform startup that aims to leverage distributed ledger technology to remove higher education intermediaries, support decentralized governance structures and ensure the security of data. Blockchain, and other distributed ledger technologies (DLT) can address several other problems. First, a distributed ledger eliminates the risk that individuals claim a degree from an institution they did not graduate from. DLT also addresses the risk that an individual earned a credential from an institution that goes out of business. A third benefit of a DLT could be the efficiency of accumulating credits from multiple providers over time. A final benefit is cost savings from automating a number of administrative procedures and reducing overhead.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2018/06/13/woolf-building-the-first-blockchain-university/#615810d15ae5

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Can Online Programs and Digital Tools Help Students Spend Less Money? #DLNchat

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By Michael Sano, EdSurge

Even when tuition is free, attending college can be expensive. Many students need to cover the cost of housing, food and family care in addition to their educational expenses. Can online learning and digital tools help learners save money? On Tuesday, June 12 the #DLNchat community got together to dive into how improving digital learning could help institutions pass along savings to students, and how technology might also help reduce indirect costs for college attendance.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-06-14-can-online-programs-and-digital-tools-help-students-spend-less-money-dlnchat

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Pearson Releases Study on Demand-Driven Education

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By Joe Deegan & Nathan Martin, Pearson

Key points include:

1. develop and measure the specific skills that will be most in
demand, especially interpersonal skills and complex thinking;
2. utilize dynamic and work-based pedagogy to grow learners’
competencies, while also preparing educators to embrace
new forms of teaching and learning;
3. respond to the needs of the labor markets to ensure
continuous alignment;
4. create flexible and adaptive pathways to allow learners to
rapidly convert learning to earning; and
5. support changes that make the entire education landscape
function better, enabling traditional and alternative providers to
participate in creating the future of education alongside industry.

https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/global/Files/about-pearson/innovation/open-ideas/DDE_Pearson_Report_3.pdf

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June 19, 2018

How to Create Successful and sustainable Makerspaces in Low-Income and Rural Schools

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by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

What if you could offer students in low-income and rural schools a technology-based opportunity to develop the creative genius you know they have? You’d provide a makerspace where students could explore, create, invent, and learn through authentic experiences. To make a dream like this successful and sustainable, the key ingredient lies in finding ways to make it tangible.  Although the idea behind the makerspace is to promote playful exploration, developing pathways within the space can improve sustainability. Sustainability in your makerspace will lead to success, but the caveat here is to monitor the pathways to eliminate possible stereotyping and inequalities. Examples include pathways that are gender or race exclusive. Instead, the focus must remain on inclusiveness, even allowing makers to opt in and out of pathways.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-to-create-successful-and-sustainable-makerspaces-in-low-income-and-rural-schools/

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What do online students want

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By Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Ed

What do online students want? According to a new survey, they want to conduct more of their course activities on their mobile phones or tablets, and they’d like better career-planning services. Their biggest regrets? They all relate to not having done enough research about the college and what it would cost before they enrolled. The survey, produced by Learning House and Aslanian Market Research, is based on responses from 1,500 past, current, and prospective online students.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-Do-Online-Students-Want-/243653

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Free MOOCs Face the Music

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By Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed

In its quest to find a sustainable business model, online course provider edX will test charging users for access to previously free content. Observers say the move was inevitable. Massive open online courses got a little less open with edX’s recent announcement that it is introducing support fees for some of its MOOCs. Midway through an innocuous-looking blog post, Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, said the nonprofit would be “moving away from our current model of offering virtually everything for free.” On May 3, edX began testing the introduction of a “modest support fee” that will “enable edX and partners to continue to invest in our global learning platform.” Adam Medrox, edX COO and president, said in an interview that the support fee was just one option being explored to ensure the long-term sustainability of the MOOC provider.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/14/edx-introduces-support-fee-free-online-courses

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June 18, 2018

eLearning for Refugees: Three Programs Making a Difference

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by Cate Ethington, eLearning Inside

On June 20th, the United Nations will mark World Refugee Day. According to the United Nations, over 65 million people worldwide are now living as refugees. Millions of these refugees are children under 18 and many more are people in their late teens to mid-twenties who, under other conditions, would be enrolled in university. To address the growing need for flexible forms of education, eLearning continues to be brought to refugee camps around the world. As we prepare for World Refugee Day 2018, eLearning Inside News takes a look at just some of the organizations currently engaged in offering eLearning for refugees.

eLearning for Refugees: Three Programs Making a Difference

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​Affordable Learning Exchange works to increase access by reducing costly course material: Goal is to save students $10 million by 2020

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By: Chris Booker, the Ohio State University

The Ohio State University is working to move textbooks off the shelves and online to make learning more affordable and accessible to students. An update on the university’s Affordable Learning Exchange program was presented to the Academic Affairs and Student Life Committee at the June Board of Trustees session on Thursday. The program works with Ohio State faculty to find or develop high-quality, open and affordable alternatives to conventional, high-cost textbooks. “A focus has been placed on the cost of textbooks. We talk about the cost of tuition and fees. We talk about housing and dining. We talk about the other costs of school as well,” Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron said. “Sometimes it’s that last dollar that makes a difference if a student is successful or not.”

https://news.osu.edu/news/2018/06/08/affordable-learning-exchange-works-to-increase-access-by-reducing-costly-course-material/

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Take that leukemia: Andrew Jones cleared to take online classes, move into dorm

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BY WILLIAM WILKERSON, Star-Telegram

Longhorns sophomore guard Andrew Jones, who is battling leukemia, has been cleared to enroll in online classes this summer and will move into a dorm room on campus, the university announced Thursday. “We’re really happy that Andrew Jones has been approved to enroll in web-based coursework for the first session of summer school today,” Texas head coach Shaka Smart said. “Andrew continues to receive treatment, but this is another positive step in his recovery. He will move into a dorm room, which will allow him to have a home base here during the times he is on campus. It will be great to have him around more, as he continues his fight.”

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-texas/article212810319.html

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Here’s How Higher Education Dies

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by ADAM HARRIS, the Atlantic

Futurist Bryan Alexander says the industry may have nowhere to go but down. What does the slide look like? In the spring of 2013, there were 19,105,651 students enrolled in higher ed; this spring, there were 17,839,330, according to recently released data from the National Center for Education Statistics. That represents a roughly 7-percent decrease—and is driven largely by declining enrollments in the for-profit and community-college sectors, as well as stagnant enrollments among four-year non-profit public and private institutions. And the trend of declining enrollment in higher education is likely to continue, he argues, for a couple of reasons, but most notably, a declining birth rate means that there will be fewer 18-year-olds entering academe, and there are fewer international and immigrant students to fill those seats. Why is the dip in enrollment such a big deal? Well, quite plainly, the business model for a lot of colleges is dependent on enrollment.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/06/heres-how-higher-education-dies/561995/

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June 17, 2018

In the digital age, the standard lecture may not be enough

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By Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
For the time being the traditional lecture format still works for higher education, but as “other organizations can create credentials of equal or greater value, universities, as they are currently structured, are in trouble,” wrote Steven Murphy, the president of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, in a guest post for The Globe and Mail.   Murphy contends that while most institutions are trying to experiment, the industry as a whole is lagging behind with innovation, especially as pressure mounts to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs.  To confront this challenge, Murphy offered three pieces of advice. First, institutions should partner with the private sector “to enhance experiential learning.” Second, they should turn risk management into an opportunity for embracing change, where disruptive technological advances can be beneficially leveraged; and, finally, institutions ought to educate administrators and boards of governors on how to prepare for disruption, setting “benchmarks to measure innovation outcomes.”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/in-the-digital-age-the-standard-lecture-may-not-be-enough/524499/

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Bootcamps Go To College

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Matthew Rascoff, Evolllution

Rather than viewing bootcamps as a threat, higher education should integrate the bootcamp model into the undergraduate experience to prepare graduates with the combinations of knowledge and skills they will need in their careers and lives. While the intensity, flexibility and experiential learning of bootcamps are compelling, those features are complementary to four-year undergraduate education. For most colleges, bootcamps are a sustaining innovation that can be absorbed into the core—not a disruptive innovation that must be developed or acquired and protected on the margins. Bootcamps haven’t undermined the bachelor’s degree, for which the return on investment is an annualized 15 percent per year—performance that would make any Wall Street investor envious.

Bootcamps Go To College

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