Techno-News Blog

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive
The U.S. Education Department announced it will delay for two more years implementation of its controversial regulations requiring all online programs to show they are approved to operate in every state where they enroll students, according to Inside Higher Ed. The government says it will publish the regulations in July 2020, a decade after the saga all began, after another public comment period.  WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) offers a timeline and analysis of continuing congressional delays of state authorization for distance education provision. In the works since 2016 and originally scheduled to take effect in July of this year, the Department of Education last Friday confirmed another round of negotiated rulemaking for online learning access and eligibility of various institution types.  Colleges and universities have largely looked to individual state regulations and State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements to self-govern online offerings and expansion. “The institution is still under a regulatory obligation to the states in which the institution enrolls students, offers services, or participates in activities.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/state-authorization-rule-to-be-delayed-for-two-more-years/523844/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
VictoryVR, a company that creates virtual reality curriculum for grades 5–12, will be making its science content available for the Oculus Go beginning this summer.
VictoryVR, a company that creates virtual reality curriculum for grades 5–12, will be making its science content available for the Oculus Go beginning this summer. At $199 for the 32 GB edition, the Go is being promoted as “VR for everyone,” serving as an entry-level alternative to pricier options, including the Oculus Rift, which sells for $399. A 64 GB version of the Go is $249.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/05/09/vr-ed-company-targets-low-cost-oculus-go-for-science-units.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

The use of gaming for student-centered learning eliminates constraints, increases engagement, boosts collaboration and empowers students to find answers through deep and rich experiences. The idea of using games to facilitate student-centered learning doesn’t eliminate “good teaching,” said Meenoo Rami, author, trainer and teacher and, currently, manager for Minecraft: Education Edition. “The content doesn’t go away. It’s more about meeting the students where they are, taking their passion and turning it into an opportunity for learning.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/05/23/how-to-use-games-to-juice-up-science-lessons.aspx

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal
Worldwide shipments of smartphones grew 1.3 percent, year over year, in the first quarter of 2018 following a decline in sales the previous quarter, according to a report from Gartner. Smartphones made up 84 percent of the total mobile phone market, accounting for nearly 384 million of the 455 million units sold. Much of that good news came at the low end of the market, however. “Demand for premium and high-end smartphones continued to suffer due to marginal incremental benefits during upgrade,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, in a prepared statement.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/05/30/report-smartphone-sales-swing-up-following-decline.aspx

by Cindi May, Scientific American

A recent review of the scientific literature on learning styles found scant evidence to clearly support the idea that outcomes are best when instructional techniques align with individuals’ learning styles. In fact, there are several studies that contradict this belief. It is clear that people have a strong sense of their own learning preferences (e.g., visual, kinesthetic, intuitive), but it is less clear that these preferences matter. Research by Polly Hussman and Valerie Dean O’Loughlin at Indiana University takes a new look at this important question. Most previous investigations on learning styles focused on classroom learning, and assessed whether instructional style impacted outcomes for different types of learners. Some might argue that, in this era of flipped classrooms and online course materials, students master more of the information on their own. That might explain why instructional style in the classroom matters little. It also raises the possibility that learning styles do matter—perhaps a match between students’ individual learning styles and their study strategies is the key to optimal outcomes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-learning-styles/

by Kelly Walsh, University Business
Personalized learning has long been a “holy grail” in education. Ideally, we would love to be able to work with each student to achieve a more personalized level of learning that taps into individual interests, skills and desires. But doing so can take far more time than we have. Our education system was not designed to accommodate this, and moving this mountain seems far too daunting a task. Or is it? The growing interest in artificial intelligence may hold the key to a more personalized learning experience.

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/ai-and-holy-grail-education

by MIKE COLAGROSSI, the Big Think

New and exciting realities are now just a few screens away. The wildest dreams of fiction writers are slowly seeping their way into our current day and age. Many people are familiar with virtual reality. You put on some kind of headset and you’re whisked into an all-encompassing world of sound and sight. VR’s closest cousin, augmented reality, comes in a few different forms – overlaid blocks of text and information, sometimes cartoonish images and games that let you interact with the world around you. Both of these types of tech have earned their namesake, but what about when you combine the two of them?

http://bigthink.com/mike-colagrossi/gamifying-reality-how-ar-and-vr-will-combine-to-transform-experience

by JAKE RICHARDSON, the Big Think
An image of computer circuitry and electronics in the profile shape of a childs head. A depiction of learning computer intelligence or childrens exposure to technology. For some us, AI is kind of an iffy proposition. To many, it is nebulous enough to seem like it might replace us or our jobs.  Because of all this, the public perception of AI might be on the negative side. A good way to overcome uneasiness, anxiety or fear is simply be learning more about whatever seems to be the issue or problem. AI is still in its infancy, so there may be many jobs, business and investment opportunities in the near future. In fact, one estimate pegged the number of new AI jobs by 2030 at 2.3 million. Whatever your interest level is in AI we did some research and compiled this list of resources for you to peruse.

http://bigthink.com/jake-richardson/22-online-ai-education-classes-that-you-can-take-right-now

By Nancy Cervasio, US News

Personalized support from university staff can help online students reach their academic and career goals.  Online students often juggle a full-time job and family obligations while working toward their degrees. It can become overwhelming very quickly, so having personalized support from university staff is critical. That’s where a success coach comes in. Many online colleges offer coaching programs as a way for students to feel connected to the larger institution and its resources. Arizona State University’s ASU Online, for example, launched a dedicated student success center to connect students with a success coach who can support them in achieving their academic and personal goals.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2018-05-25/3-tips-for-online-students-from-success-coaches

by RICK WAGNER, Kingsport Times-News
rwagner@timesnews.net
Is your child’s teacher a holder of at least one micro-credential and/or certified proficient with Google tools?  If so, he or she may be part of two overlapping groups of educators in Kingsport City Schools. The micro-credential educators in Kingsport City Schools and across Tennessee are in a pilot program of the state Department of Education, which two local educators said is designed to help teachers improve their ability to teach.

http://www.timesnews.net/Education/2018/05/27/Teacher-professional-development-includes-Micro-Credentials-and-Google

by Stephen Beale, NC Register

The country’s first and — perhaps still only — exclusively online Catholic university is marking its 35th anniversary this year, a testament to the role it continues to play in the landscape of Catholic higher education. Marianne Mount, the president of Catholic Distance University (CDU), said the anniversary has focused the school’s attention on its distinctive mission and identity. “Now, in the words of Pope Francis, the CDU is able to reach the peripheries,” Mount said. Catholic Distance University was founded in 1983 by Bishop Thomas Welch of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, who recognized a need for the formation of the laity after Vatican II’s teachings on the universal call to holiness and witnessing to Christ in the world.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/going-the-distance-online-catholic-university-marks-35-years

By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio

Universities like UW-Superior are trying to grow their online programs to provide access to a range of students. At the same time, the university has seen declining enrollment on campus from the populations they serve in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Those two issues were key factors in the university’s recent decision to contract with outside company Academic Partnerships to recruit students for online graduate education programs, according to Brenda Harms, interim vice chancellor of enrollment management at UW-Superior.  “The population base is really shrinking and so (we’re) really needing to say how can we get creative in helping to extend our reach more into southern Wisconsin, southern Minnesota and beyond if needed,” said Harms. Academic Partnerships has brought in roughly $900,000 in tuition revenues to UW-Superior since March 2017, half of which has gone back to the company for recruiting students. It’s a common model among online program managers, or OPMs — they provide an upfront investment in exchange for a percentage of the tuition revenue.

https://www.wpr.org/state-universities-look-outside-vendors-grow-online-programs

By Anna Quinn, News Times

Virtual learning and at-home assignments may change the way kids see snow days in Connecticut.  Danbury-area students have spent nearly two weeks or more out of the classroom this year due to snow and storm school closures.  Ridgefield, for example, has requested a waiver from the state to end the year with 179 days — one day short of the required 180 — due to a record-breaking 14 school closures caused by three March snowstorms and the recent macroburst that left thousands without power for days. Other local districts have also requested state waivers.

https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Virtual-learning-could-help-solve-school-closures-12944984.php

By David Nagel, THE Journal
With only three exceptions, salaries are up across the board for technology professionals in K–12 education in the last two years. The biggest gripe continues to be (not terribly surprisingly) budgets. For technology professionals, education has been a rewarding place to work over the last year. Salaries are up for the most part; job satisfaction is high; and the outlook for the future is positive — these according to the results of our third-annual K–12 IT Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey. Overall, the average salary for technology professional in education (excluding classroom teachers) was $66,640 in 2017 — up about $3,000 from 2015 (fig. 1, click to enlarge).   While C-level salaries were up on the whole ($100,400 in 2017 versus $99,045 in 2015), CIO salaries themselves declined from $105,469 in 2015 to an even $100,000 in 2017. That, however, is a slight recovery from 2016’s average of $99,583. (C-level includes CIO, CSO, CTO and CDO.)

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/05/24/it-salary-job-satisfaction-survey.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

The report offers little direct guidance for addressing the skills gap. However, it advised governments to “make talent strategy a key priority and take steps now to educate, train and upskill their existing workforces.” The consultancy also suggested that companies themselves recognize their responsibility to train workers and “encourage governments to rethink education programs to generate the talent pipelines the industry will require.” For example, some organizations are hiring students out of high school and college with the expectation that they’ll do the training to prepare the graduates for the unique company culture and ways of working. “Our study reveals that there already isn’t enough skilled talent to go around, and, by 2030, organizations and economies could find themselves in the grip of a talent crisis. In the face of such acute talent shortages, workforce planning and a comprehensive understanding of the talent pipeline are critical,” said Korn Ferry CEO, Alan Guarino, in a prepared statement.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/05/23/skills-deficit-will-imperil-u.s.-economy-by-2030.aspx

By Mike Elgan, ComputerWorld

Google’s slow, limited, browser-only, cloud-centric laptop platform is now the most powerful and capable user platform on the planet. Yeah, I said it. Apple fans laugh at this idea, saying that a MacBook Pro can run the Chrome browser and gain all the benefits of a Chromebook, as well as all the benefits and leading-edge content-creation tools of a far more elegant, better designed and better engineered device.  Windows users carp that Chromebooks are cute, but not serious business tools. The Surface Book 2 is also a tiny laptop, they say, but a real computer. Linux developers concede Chromebooks are interesting but argue they can’t be used for software development. But these obsolete stereotypes are not compatible with the new reality of Chromebooks.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3276329/chrome-os/everything-you-knew-about-chromebooks-is-wrong.html

By David Raths, Campus Technology
New tools are helping colleges and universities tackle the accessibility of instructor-created content, student coursework, note-taking and more. Although most universities have just about mastered website accessibility, their efforts to make sure all course content can be accessed and used by students with disabilities have proved more challenging. “We have been fighting this uphill battle of content accessibility for years, and we have been fighting it without knowing what is actually out there,” said Jeremy Olguin, accessible technology manager at California State University, Chico. “If you can’t inventory, you can’t manage.” But new tools are providing more transparency into classroom document accessibility and automating some steps in making more accessible alternatives available.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/05/23/making-progress-on-course-content-accessibility.aspx

by MIT Technology Review

A new machine-learning system tries to predict whether an online conversation is going to get nasty right from the get-go. How it works: Researchers gathered more than 1,200 exchanges from the discussion sections of Wikipedia Talk pages. They went through and labeled different “linguistic cues” in the conversations, including attempts at politeness, like using “please” and “thanks,” or other phrases suggesting that debate was welcome, like “I believe” or “I think.” Using the tagged threads, they then trained a system to predict from the first comment if a conversation was going to go south. Results: Humans were successful about 72 percent of the time at the task, compared with 61.6 percent for the algorithm. Not great, but the work uncovered some trends.

https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/611207/machine-learning-could-stop-an-online-war-of-words-before-it-starts/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The hottest trend in education is personalized learning, where studies are individualized according to interest and competency, learning happens not only in the classroom but beyond the confines of the school walls and bell schedule, and students take ownership of their courses of study. Teachers have long been aware that no two children learn the same way, have the same interests, or even demonstrate the same needs when it comes to instruction. For many teachers, the only way to address the variety of needs in the classroom and deliver personalized instruction is with technology. Emerging technologies are meeting the demands of teachers and their students in surprisingly individualized ways. Some of the new technologies scaffold learning in a predictable pattern leading to skill mastery and others allow for more creative exploration.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/emerging-technologies-supporting-personalized-learning/

by Derek Newton, Forbes
Nonetheless, that ASU found it was less expensive to offer online classes at four of six schools is probably noteworthy. Those lower costs are possible, the report says, in part because schools can save money on building costs for new students. That is true but, as others have cited, only if the school is already at maximum on-campus capacity where adding students would necessitate adding more space. Still, in those cases, online offerings would save building and physical maintenance costs. But mostly, ASU says, the savings in online classes are found by having larger classes with less experienced, cheaper adjunct and part-time faculty.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2018/05/23/study-online-college-classes-cost-less-to-deliver-because-they-are-larger-hire-cheaper-teachers/#17a6c65f5379

by Business Because

“Online degrees have the potential to be offered affordably without sacrificing academic rigor or instructional quality,” says Deanna Raineri, chief academic strategist at MOOC platform Coursera—which offers online courses and degrees from some of the world’s top universities. “Graduates often tell us that the online experience is actually better in some cases than what they remember from the large lecture halls of their undergrad days.” That is because the learning experience is swiftly developing online.

https://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/5284/online-mba-industry-experts-on-rise-of-distance-learning