Techno-News Blog

by Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Administrators at universities and colleges across the country have been spending the summer in the same level of suspense as they invest scarce resources in large numbers of new programs they hope will bolster sagging enrollment. Largely unnoticed federal figures show that, even as their finances have become more and more strained and their student populations have declined, public and private higher education institutions have added 41,446 degree or certificate programs since 2012. That’s a 21 percent increase in the number that existed when the dramatic slide in enrollment began.

Panicked universities in search of students are adding thousands of new majors

by ALEX SALKEVER, the Big Think

The general consensus on whether robots will take jobs wholesale remains mixed but is trending towards resignation. The optimists believe that, as with the Industrial Revolution and the Agricultural Revolution, the technological improvements that will come from the dawning era of artificial intelligence and its offshoot in modern robotics will create more new jobs than they destroy.  But until now, those conversations have held that the robots and AI will replace human jobs at some point in the future.  What if, in fact, the robots and AI have already started coming for jobs and this is happening not due to simple automation but because these systems are rapidly attaining capabilities and skills once presumed to be defensible by humans?  In fact, the pool of things that “AI Can’t Do” appears to be steadily shrinking.

https://bigthink.com/alex-salkever/what-if-ai-is-coming-for-jobs-faster-than-we-thought

By David Raths, Campus Technology

It is a difficult fact of life for university libraries that circulation statistics for print materials have been steadily declining, despite the fact that there are a lot of print materials that students would find useful. Determined to see if a novel approach to locating materials could have an impact on this trend, St. John’s University Libraries (NY) created its own wayfinding app that takes advantage of beacons to cut down on the amount of time students spend wandering the stacks looking for books. The BKFNDr project was built from the ground up with no off-the-shelf or proprietary software and is completely tailored to the St. John’s environment. It features full catalog integration, so that students can move directly from searching the library catalog to finding the items on the shelf.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/08/07/a-mobile-guide-to-library-resources.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
When Oral Roberts University hosted the one-day event, “Blockchain Essentials in Education,” all attendees received a blockchain-based certificate from the Tulsa university verifying their participation. As CIO Michael Mathews, the event’s organizer, explained, blockchain will be as important to transforming education as the internet was. He said he believes those colleges and universities that jump on the secure public ledger concept early enough and begin testing it out will be the ones who could see the biggest benefits. Mathews believes blockchain will have the “biggest payback” within an organization’s processes where trust is essential as part of a “value chain”: student application processing, transcript evaluations, articulation agreements. Blockchain “templates” that run in the cloud could replace “entire cumbersome processes” — akin, he added, to when Microsoft Word templates were first introduced and people figured out how they could optimize word processing and mail merge.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/08/09/why-higher-ed-should-do-more-with-blockchain-tech.aspx

By Institute Communications at Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology has announced a new online cybersecurity master’s degree that will be offered for less than $10,000 and delivered in collaboration with edX. The Online Master of Science in Cybersecurity (OMS Cybersecurity) is designed to address a severe global workforce shortage in the field. According to the 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study, the shortage is expected to reach 1.8 million people by 2022.

https://www.news.gatech.edu/2018/08/08/georgia-tech-creates-cybersecurity-masters-degree-online-less-10000

By Anubha Goel, G-Cube Blog

In today’s digital scenario, Learning & Development departments have adopted an increasing number of methods to support effective workplace learning. Training has become training & development, which is a blend of formal instruction and workforce development. Smartphones and tablets provide L&D with the flexibility to reach the globally diversified audience, with a key focus on an individual’s performances. The use of personalized mobile devices, aids the modern learners to access information when they need it, no matter where they are. Realization of the real potential of mobiles is shifting the focus of a majority of industry leaders towards a mobile-first strategy.

https://www.gc-solutions.net/blog/emerging-trend-of-using-mobiles-at-workplace-delivering-smart-and-just-enough-learning/

by Greg Toppo, Inside Higher Ed

Diane Auer Jones, the administration’s top higher education official, said in an interview last month with Inside Higher Ed that the U.S. Department of Education is considering eliminating not just the standard credit-hour definition of academic course work — it may also overhaul “regular and substantive” requirements. Online education proponents and a few others call it an anachronistic impediment to innovation in an era where one-third of students study at least partially online, but others aren’t so sure. “It is an ancient rule by Title IV standards, but also it is a rule that reflects its time — and that time has passed,” said Dan Madzelan, associate vice president at the American Council on Education who previously served for years as a career official at the Education Department.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/08/08/new-debate-regular-and-substantive-interaction-between

BY DIANA G. OBLINGER, eCampus News

AI and robotics, as areas of study, are catalyzing the creation of new majors, minors, and certificate programs in our colleges and universities. Beyond the study of AI or robotics are the complexities of how our work as professionals changes alongside increasingly capable machines. As our roles change, educational needs will change. The real challenge for higher education is to look beyond the delivery of higher education to how AI, big data, analytics, robotics, and wide-scale collaboration might impact the substance of education. What students learn, what college credentials signify, and how we keep abreast of changes may all shift.

What will AI and robotics mean for higher education?

by Joshua Silavent, Gainsville Times

With enrollment growing in work-study programs and other curriculum designed to prepare high school students for life beyond the classroom, the Georgia Department of Education has unveiled a series of gold seals to be stamped on the diplomas of graduates who are considered “career-ready.” “We think this is a very positive step for a lot of our students,” said Kevin Bales, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the Hall County School District. “Absolutely, our schools will be involved.”

https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/career-ready-diploma-seals-show-students-are-ready-for-life/

by Bloomberg
Business and academia in the U.S. have traditionally been able to equip new workforce recruits with the hard skills they need to perform at a high level in the workplace. But with the regular flow of new technologies and business models into the market, today’s employees must navigate all this change with a varied skill set. This means soft skills such as adaptability and complex problem-solving are more important than ever for recent college grads, mid-career professionals, and seasoned executives. Employer needs are continually shifting in response to changes in industry and the marketplace, so workers also need to keep refreshing both their hard and soft skills.

https://www.bna.com/uploadedFiles/BNA_V2/Micro_Sites/2018/Future_of_Work/Workday%20Bloomberg%20Build-Tomorrow-Talent_FINAL.pdf

by Allna Tugend, NY Times

Transfer students — whose challenges have often been ignored in higher education — are feeling a surge in popularity as colleges and universities are increasingly wooing them. “This was a group that was always taken for granted,” said Todd Rinehart, vice chancellor for enrollment at the University of Denver. But last month, the University of California system announced that it has accepted more transfer students than ever before. And in a move that is perhaps more symbolic than substantive, Princeton University has, for its 2018 class, accepted 13 transfer students, the first such students it has enrolled since 1990.

By James Paterson, Education Dive
Two of the leading learning management system companies are cutting ties after a six-year partnership — a split that Inside Higher Education reported was likely “messy.” U.S.-based Blackboard and Australia’s Moodle separately announced the end to the partnership, which will mean that Blackboard won’t use the Moodle name in the future, but its Moodlerooms product will be maintained. Inside Higher Education reported it was a “bold move” for Moodle to strike out on its own, although Blackboard reported it had taken the action. It said it refused to renew Moodle’s contract, in part because Moodle was prioritizing separate partnerships that allowed clients to self-host rather than work with Blackboard’s Moodlerooms. Moodle CEO Martin Dougiamas said the partnership had been “awkward” and “uncomfortable” from the start.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/lms-market-after-blackboard-moodle-breakup/529147/

By James Paterson, Education Dive
Two much-talked about concepts in higher education are coming together in an agreement that joins a organization offering assessments for “21st century skills” with an ed-tech firm that specializes in credentials. Education Design Lab, a nonprofit that uses design-thinking concepts to assess the soft skills that some employers say college graduates are missing, reported it is partnering with the Credly, which provides a platform for workforce skills credentials. Credly says its working with 12,000 institutions. George Mason University in Virginia is one of the institutions that worked with Education Design Lab to develop a blended program to teach students soft skills. The nonprofit piloted the program with a number of institutions to test their methods of assessing, recognizing and badging these abilities.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/new-partnership-offers-colleges-soft-skills-credentials-for-their-students/529188/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

If you have been studying the field of education closely, as we have, you know that it is undergoing a metamorphosis. Students no longer respond to the teacher-centered pedagogy that our forefathers did. No, today’s students are immersed in a technologically advanced world and possess attention spans that last only a few seconds. Because of this, today’s teacher needs to add a new skill set to their repertoire to be successful. In this article, we will discuss the 11 key attributes that successful digital age teachers possess.

11 Key Attributes of Successful Teachers in the Digital Age

DANNY MCAULIFFE, Florida Politics

The curriculum — which covers topics like fundraising, management, messaging and field work — is widely sought after. At the end of June, course registrations exceeded 28,000, according to NDTC. In Florida, 320 Democratic candidates have made use of NDTC’s campaign resources. So far, according to self-reported data, 268 of 369 Democratic candidates who have used the training and have had primaries have won. But according to the NTDC founder Kelly Dietrich, winning local races may not be the best indicator of success. He told media his organization’s goals include electing Democrats to office at every level, creating a deeper bench of candidates for each election, and facilitating an up-ticket effect, which occurs when local candidates help turn out votes for Democrats running for higher offices.

Free online courses teach Democrats how to run campaigns

By Andy Fell, UC Davis

“Introduction to Research,” BIM 088V, is an exclusively online class taught by Louie, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis, for the University of California’s Cross Campus Enrollment program. The class was first offered in spring quarter 2018 and enrolled about 125 students, one-fifth of them from outside UC Davis. The course is intended to introduce undergraduates, especially “first generation” students with no family experience in higher education to draw on, to the ways they could conduct research with a faculty mentor. They explore their interests, practice composing letters to professors applying for a position on a research project, and learn about ethics, integrity and social impact. The accompanying game, “Re: Search, A Campus Story” is intended to engage students and draw them in while reinforcing key points from each week’s work, Louie said. There are nine game levels, with a new level unlocking after each week’s class.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/student-built-online-game-accompanies-online-class

by Paul LeBlanc, EDUCAUSE Review

As EDUCAUSE contemplates its next twenty years, what signals from our future exist today?2 Current trends are fairly well established, even if still in their relative infancy in some cases. Online learning is a mainstay of higher education. Data analytics, common in so many industries, is starting to take hold in higher education. Supplied with that data, machine learning is being applied to a variety of areas such as persistence,3 assessment, personalized learning, and improved workforce pipelines.4 But these are not signals from the future—they are technologies that are already reshaping our work. What are our present-day signals from the future? Although we may flounder and perhaps fail in our current attempts to use them (à la the Newton), I suggest paying attention to four: game play and immersive learning; virtual and augmented reality; connected learners; and artificial intelligence.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/7/reading-signals-from-the-future-educause-in-2038

Laura Jacobi, Journal of Educators Online

The purpose of this study was to examine instructional strategies used to motivate students to engage in online communication courses. Eighteen undergraduate students, seven graduate students, and ten faculty members were interviewed individually or in small focus groups. Results indicate the significance of instructional strategies that promote autonomy, perceived competence, and relatedness in motivating students. Two instructional strategies that promote autonomy (i.e., conveying choice in instructional language and validating negative feelings associated with arduous or tedious tasks) were not discussed by participants in this study, which poses interesting challenges for instructors. The results reveal the utility of Self-Determination Theory in aiding contemporary scholars in understanding the particular needs of online learners and the distinct challenges for today’s teachers.

https://www.thejeo.com/archive/2018_15_2/jacobi

Sherrie Negrea, University Business
Imagine coaching a student intern who is teaching in a school that’s so remote, there are no roads leading into town. Or trying to observe a social work major who has a field placement hundreds of miles from campus. For colleges and universities that serve rural areas, interacting with students who do not have access to campus—either by car or the internet—can be a challenge. But higher ed institutions are finding ways to expand their reach into rural communities through video-based distance learning.

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/how-colleges-reach-remote-students

by LOUISA IRVIN, Junkee

Although the idea of online study seems easy in theory — especially to tech savvy millennials — actually getting on top of the content and staying on track is a lot harder than you might think. The learning is a lot more self-driven, and although traditional on-campus courses are reliant on student involvement, online classes are in league of their own. It is a lot easier to turn off your computer than it is to walk out of a lecture hall. So, we’ve put together some pointers that will help you get through what is the minefield of online studies.

http://junkee.com/stop-slacking-off-online-degree/169602

How online learning will change education
BY DENNIS, Baltimore Post

Digital learning is, in many ways, already making inroads into our education system. The internet, and everything surrounding it, has changed the way in which we can carry out research and writing. This trend seems set to continue, and with our technology continually advancing, it will most likely expand in the coming years. How this will change our education, and the way we learn, is yet to be determined. What we know for sure is that it will change both of these things. This article will delve into some of the major ideas surrounding online learning in higher education, which will hopefully give some people a chance to understand the basics of the debates.

How online learning will change education