Techno-News Blog

October 31, 2018

Google Enters the Fray

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By Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed

The company is offering its computer science curriculum — and kicking in some funds — to 10 institutions this academic year, with more to follow. A pilot program for computer science and data science courses is underway this fall at eight institutions, which have begun offering at least one of two introductory computer science and data science courses geared toward students with little to no experience in the disciplines. The program will expand next year as three of the eight institutions, as well as two others, offer an intensive 10-week machine learning seminar, with enrollment open to students across the country. This initiative is separate from Google’s new online certificate program in entry-level IT, which more than 25 community colleges and Northeastern University are offering for credit.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/10/24/google-computer-science-partnership-brings-companys-curriculum

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Among Top Math Students, Why Does a Gender Gap Persist?

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by  Ashley Swanson, Knowledge@Wharton

The gender gap at average levels of math performance has declined a lot over time, which is great. But if you look at these higher levels — like the 95th percentile or the 99th percentile — the gender gap is high and growing as you go to higher and higher levels of performance, which is not so good. We see a much higher gender gap at these higher levels of performance than we see even at the, say, SAT 800 level. At the highest levels of performance, we observe in our data the gender gap is about 10-to-1. This is something we’ve observed looking at just 2007. This is just a snapshot of data. We speculated that this is something we can track over time, so that’s what we were trying to get at in this paper. Is this something that evolves over time? If so, how does it evolve over time?

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/gender-gap-mathematics-achievement/

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The Student Debt Crisis: Could It Slow the U.S. Economy?

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by Knowledge@Wharton

Student debt has more than tripled since 2004, reaching $1.52 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, according to the Federal Reserve — second only to mortgage debt in the U.S. College costs have outpaced the Consumer Price Index more than four-fold since 1985, and tuition assistance today is often harder to come by, particularly at schools without large endowments. As for the effect on the economy in general, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said in March that slowed growth isn’t showing up in the data yet. But, he warned: “As this goes on and as student loans continue to grow and become larger and larger, then it absolutely could hold back growth.”

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/student-loan-debt-crisis/

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October 30, 2018

Empowering the Faculty in Debates Over Managing Online Programs

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By Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed

A new tool kit from the AAUP offers faculty groups concrete steps for ensuring that partnerships with for-profit companies don’t threaten academic freedom and program integrity. The association’s materials, released Monday, don’t explicitly make the case that faculty members should seek to block deals with OPMs or other for-profit companies like learning management system providers. But they aim to even the playing field of contentious negotiations between for-profit companies and the complex network of shared governance on the institutional side.  Vickie Cook, executive director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said she thinks the tool kit is “impressive” and understands that some institutions see value in partnering with an OPM. But she remains skeptical that such a partnership would be worth the potential headaches.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/10/24/aaup-seeks-arm-faculty-members-tools-negotiations-over-managing

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10 Amazing Hackathon Ideas

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by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

You have probably heard the term “hackathon,” but you may not be sure of what it means. A hackathon is most commonly associated with hackers or computer programmers. However, while hacking typically involves computers, hackathons are primarily events where groups of people gather to “hack” an idea. At these major events, people come together to take an idea and turn it into something real using technology. As schools are focusing on STEM education, it is only natural for educators to consider adding hackathons to their lesson plans. Why? In addition to encouraging creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration, hackathons are fun! Students will learn how to take an idea and bring it to reality in a competitive (but collaborative) atmosphere.

10 Amazing Hackathon Ideas

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Adaptive Learning: A Stabilizing Influence Across Disciplines and Universities

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Charles Dziuban, Colm Howlin, Patsy Moskal, Connie Johnson, Liza Parker, Maria Campbell; Online Learning

This study represents an adaptive learning partnership among The University of Central Florida, Colorado Technical University, and the platform provider Realizeit. A thirteen-variable learning domain for students forms the basis of a component invariance study. The results show that four dimensions: knowledge acquisition, engagement activities, communication and growth remain constant in nursing and mathematics courses across the two universities, indicating that the adaptive modality stabilizes learning organization in multiple disciplines. The authors contend that similar collaborative partnerships among universities and vendors is an important next step in the research process.

https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/1465

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October 29, 2018

The role of AI in education and the changing U.S. workforce

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Elizabeth Mann LevesqueThursday, Brookings

The types of jobs that are at the least risk of being replaced by automation involve problem solving, teamwork, critical thinking, communication, and creativity.[2] The education profession is unlikely to see a dramatic drop in demand for employees given the nature of work in this field. Rather, preparing students for the changing labor market will likely be a central challenge for schools and educators. Policymakers and practitioners must adapt K-12 education to help students develop the skills that are likely to remain in demand (sometimes referred to as “21st century skills”). K-12 education should thus prioritize teaching critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork across subject areas. Teaching students to become analytical thinkers, problem solvers, and good team members will allow them to remain competitive in the job market even as the nature of work changes. Equally important, these skills form a strong foundation for independent thinking that will serve students well no matter what career(s) they pursue throughout their lives.

The role of AI in education and the changing U.S. workforce

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Will community colleges solve education ‘mix-match’ with tech training?

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By Halona Black, Education Dive
There is a significant imbalance between the types of jobs available in the U.S. and the number of people who have the corresponding education to apply, according to an Urban Institute report, which notes the “mix-match” is more apparent in local markets than nationally. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. jobs require a high school diploma or less at entry level, while 60% of the population has more than a high school diploma. Of adults ages 25 and older who have some level of college education, less than one-third have an associate degree. The remainder have a certificate or no credential. The report said tracking the educational progress of a community or population can help local, state and regional governments identify which industries or businesses to attract or retain. It also can help to create economic development policies that support entrepreneurship and innovation hubs.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/will-community-colleges-solve-education-mix-match-with-tech-training/540134/

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The 60 Year Curriculum: Developing New Educational Models to Serve the Agile Labor Market

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Chris Dede, Evolllution
With the sponsorship of Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education (DCE), I’m participating in an initiative centered on The Sixty Year Curriculum (60YC). The Dean of DCE, Hunt Lambert, is leading this effort to transform lifelong learning, which is now a necessity in our dynamic, chaotic world. The 60YC initiative is focused on developing new educational models that enable each person to reskill as their occupational and personal context shifts.

https://evolllution.com/revenue-streams/professional_development/the-60-year-curriculum-developing-new-educational-models-to-serve-the-agile-labor-market/

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October 28, 2018

A pioneer in the development of education technology

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Brenda Dionisi, University World News

If you want to discover how technology will change higher education provision in future, Rome-based International Telematic University Uninettuno, a wholly online institution, which claims to be a pioneer of educational technology, may be a good place to start. It has more than 25,000 students in 167 countries and enrolments jumped by 40% this academic year. It teaches programmes via nine languages – Arabic, English, French, Italian, Greek, and more recently taught in Chinese, Spanish and Russian. Its students learn in interactive virtual classrooms incorporating augmented reality environments such as Second Life. And the entire platform is used as a research laboratory to test and apply new software to teaching and learning – talking textbooks and 3D holographic technology are among the developments currently being studied.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20181020060525528

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Lawmakers address rural education

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by Randy Griffith, Tribune-Democrat

Many barriers to education in rural areas could be reduced through reorganizing school districts and using technology to bring specialized classes, state legislators said Friday at St. Francis University. “We need to find a way to consolidate,” said Rep. Tommy Sankey, R-Osceola Mills. “We need to regionalize, but we can’t be putting 5-year-olds on a bus for two hours.” State Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Duncansville, said he visited a school with 28 students in the graduating class. “What kind of opportunities can we have in a school where you have 28 kids in the senior class?” Eichelberger rhetorically asked the audience in DiSepio Institute for Rural Health and Wellness at St. Francis. “Every child in Pennsylvania should have access to every language that’s out there,” Eichelberger said. “They should have access to every specialized course. We shouldn’t have to have teachers on staff teaching that. It can be regional; it can be online.”

https://www.tribdem.com/news/lawmakers-address-rural-education/article_527d0746-d424-11e8-bdfb-fb6eb9959b3b.html

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Take Yale University’s ‘Science of Well-Being’ class for free online

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Bailey King, PhillyVoice
Everyone can usually stand to be a little happier, right? A little more on top of their game? A little more boss like? There’s a very popular class at Yale University teaching students how to do just that, and they’ve opened it up to the public to take for FREE online.  The class, which is being called online “The Science of Well-Being,” opened enrollment last week.  As soon as you create an account online, which you can do here, you’ll have access to all of the course information without having to drop the wad of cash it would normally cost to take a class at the Ivy League university. Oh, and if you want some tangible proof of your learning — or a piece of paper listing your name AND Yale on it — you can shell out $49 for a certification of completion confirming that you’re a Yale-educated wellness pro.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/yale-universitys-science-well-being-class-free-online/

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October 27, 2018

Two-Thirds of Phishing Emails in Ed Use ‘Attached Invoice’ Ploy

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By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
The most common form of phishing email in education tends to include an attached invoice; 66 percent of hacker attempts use the attached invoice ploy to get unwary recipients to click on an infected link; another 28 percent use a payment notification scheme; and 6 percent try online order tricks.  The findings were shared by digital security vendor Cofense, in its “State of Phishing Defense 2018” report. The company provides online services to organizations that automates response to suspicious emails and also helps them condition their employees to recognize and report phishing. (In other words, the company facilitates employers sending fake emails to test how savvy their workforce is.) For the report, Cofense used data gathered through the experiences of 1,400 clients in 23 industries around the world covering real attack attempts correlated with customer simulation data.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/10/15/two-thirds-of-phishing-emails-in-ed-use-attached-invoice-ploy.aspx

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Top Universities (Including Harvard) Offer Hundreds of Free Classes Online. Here’s How to Join In

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BY EMILY PETSKO, Mental Floss

Universities around the world—including Ivy League schools like Harvard University, Princeton University, and Columbia University—have recently launched hundreds of free online courses, according to Dhawal Shah, the founder of the online course search engine and review site Class Central. Shah has been keeping track of these Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Class Central since 2011, when MOOCs were first starting to emerge as a trend. (The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC.”) Since then, the free course landscape has grown exponentially. “In the past seven years or so, over 800 universities have created around 10,000 of these MOOCs,” he writes on freeCodeCamp’s Medium page. In the last four months alone, 190 universities have made about 600 online courses available online for free.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/560983/top-universities-including-harvard-offer-hundreds-free-online-classes-heres-how-join

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The Future of Education: Online, Free, and With AI Teachers?

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Simon Erickson, Motley Fool

Duolingo is a website and smartphone app that helps 300 million people across the world learn new languages. It’s absolutely free. It uses an artificial intelligence engine to deliver the lessons to students. To put that number in perspective, there are now more people learning languages on Duolingo in the United States than there are people learning languages in the whole U.S. public school system. That AI engine is worth double-clicking on. Duolingo is able to adjust how it teaches — for each individual student — based on the feedback it receives. If students who learn about plural nouns before adjectives are progressing faster, it can adjust the lesson plans. The goal is to maximize the overall proficiency of all students.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/10/17/future-education-online-free-and-with-ai-teachers.aspx

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October 26, 2018

What Does It Take To Lead Effectively In The ‘Post-Digital’ Workplace?

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Victor Lipman, Forbes

Following are four key attributes for the “new wave” of leaders (plus some of my thoughts about them):

— Have the ability to keep people connected and engaged (76%). “Connected” being the operative word here. As operations become more and more far-flung and decentralized, the management challenges of keeping a remote workforce motivated and engaged only increase. The best managers recognize and excel at this.

— Be more agile and digitally savvy (77%). Flexible and “agile” are always good; as noted in the point above, leaders have no choice but to opt for agility in a remote world. (“Digitally savvy” almost goes without saying. It’s what we used to call “table stakes” in the corporate world. We liked that phrase and used it often — it made us feel more like riverboat gamblers and less like office dwellers!)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2018/10/18/what-does-it-take-to-lead-effectively-in-the-post-digital-workplace/#5b8f41006822

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Trump administration planning stricter student visa rules

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By James Paterson, Education Dive
The Trump administration is planning to propose a set maximum period of authorized stay for international students in the U.S., according to Inside Higher Ed, which notes concern the change will depress the number of international students. The proposal is expected next fall. Currently, international students can retain their student visas for as long as they remain students. The new rule would set a fixed maximum term for certain holders of nonimmigrant visas, including F-1 student visas, though a timeframe has not been specified. Critics of the proposed rule say international students are already carefully vetted and monitored and are valuable additions to U.S. campuses.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/trump-administration-planning-stricter-student-visa-rules/540107/

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How work-based learning connects students with mentors and experience

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Andre M. Perry, Brookings

According to a 2006 report by the American Psychological Association, “mentored individuals often earn higher performance evaluations, higher salaries, and faster career progress than non-mentored individuals.” Notably, a 2015 analysis of Harvard law school graduates found that women who had not become partners in a firm had fewer mentors during their first five years than either women partners or men who had not achieved partnership status.

 

\https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/10/17/how-work-based-learning-connects-students-with-mentors-and-experience/

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October 25, 2018

Study: Almost half of today’s workforce believes college degrees prepare them for the job interview, not the job

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Skye Learning

While most college grads believe their college educations were worth the cost, many of them say their degrees did not help much when it comes to excelling in today’s workforce. More than two-in five say that their college degrees helped only to get them in the door for a job interview — or did not help them in their careers at all. The first annual Workplace Confidence study, commissioned by the online learning destination, Skye Learning, found that almost half of workers surveyed (44 percent) don’t think their college education played an important role in giving them the skills needed to succeed on the job.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/study-almost-half-of-todays-workforce-believes-college-degrees-prepare-them-for-the-job-interview-not-the-job-300732157.html

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Online education’s expansion continues in higher ed with a focus on tech skills

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:17 am

By James Paterson, Education Dive

Online learning continues to expand in higher ed with the addition of several online master’s degrees and a new for-profit college that offers a hybrid of vocational training and liberal arts curriculum online.
Inside Higher Ed reported the nonprofit learning provider edX is offering nine master’s degrees through five U.S. universities — the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana University, Arizona State University and the University of California, San Diego. The programs include cybersecurity, data science, analytics, computer science and marketing, and they cost from around $10,000 to $22,000. Most offer stackable certificates, helping students who change their educational trajectory.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/online-educations-expansion-continues-in-higher-ed-with-a-focus-on-tech-sk/539880/

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How Nontraditional Educators Will Influence Digital Learning

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By Michael Sano, EdSurge

Could the rise in MOOC-based and other certificates affect how traditional college degree paths are designed? What role should employers have in the design or execution of digital learning opportunities? Those were a couple of the questions debated at #DLNchat on Tuesday, October 9, when we discussed how nontraditional education providers could influence the future of digital learning. But first, who are these nontraditional providers? Many #DLNchat-ters define them as MOOC providers including edX and Coursera and bootcamps such as General Assembly and Kenzie Academy. What defines these providers as “nontraditional,” Cali Morrison said, is regulation. She defines nontraditional providers as those who aren’t covered by regional or national accreditation.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-10-16-how-nontraditional-educators-will-influence-digital-learning-dlnchat

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