Techno-News Blog

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News
It’s no wonder institutions are focused on innovation–as students demand more from their schools, institutions must be ready to meet those expectations with new mentalities and a willingness to think and act outside the box. Some schools are rethinking the way they use technologies and are turning to students for inspiration, while others are turning the idea of the traditional campus on its head and are aiming for a complete conceptual redesign. Whatever the action, most higher-ed leaders know they have to be willing to embrace change in order to remain relevant and retain students. Here’s a look at 6 different examples of institutional innovation.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/02/01/5-ways-innovation-is-inspiring-higher-ed/

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/delivering-tech-enabled-learning-opportunities-to-refugees/

Matt Krupnick, Hechinger Report

Educators and policymakers started raising alarms about low levels of college-going among people in places like this after frustration from rural Americans over limited opportunities and incomes spilled over into national politics in 2016. Now growing demand for college-trained workers has brought a powerful new voice to the chorus: businesses desperate to fill increasingly complex jobs at a time of almost nonexistent unemployment. With worker shortages hitting industries nationwide, their companies — and many states’ economies — depend on it. The high school grads least likely in America to go to college? Rural ones

https://hechingerreport.org/as-jobs-grow-hard-to-fill-businesses-join-the-drive-to-push-rural-residents-toward-college/

Will Knight, MIT Technology Review
A new report on global AI patents and publications has offered an interesting snapshot of the current boom—including the uneven way it is being commercialized. The report (pdf) from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that since the field of AI was established in the 1950s, 340,000 AI-related inventions have been patented and over 1.6 million scientific papers published. Around 49% of all AI patents relate to computer vision, and that number is growing 24% year on year. What it means: Together, deep learning and computer vision stand to have a huge impact in many commercial areas: medical imaging, autonomous driving, and surveillance, for instance. But the figures show that AI isn’t transforming every industry.

https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/612870/an-obsession-with-computer-vision-shows-the-lopsided-nature-of-the-ai-boom/

Tom Simonite, Wired

Oak Ridge National Lab’s Summit supercomputer became the world’s most powerful in 2018, reclaiming that title from China for the first time in five years. The record-setting project involved the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Summit, at Oak Ridge National Lab. The machine captured that crown in June last year, reclaiming the title for the US after five years of China topping the list. As part of a climate research project, the giant computer booted up a machine-learning experiment that ran faster than any before. Summit, which occupies an area equivalent to two tennis courts, used more than 27,000 powerful graphics processors in the project. It tapped their power to train deep-learning algorithms, the technology driving AI’s frontier, chewing through the exercise at a rate of a billion billion operations per second, a pace known in supercomputing circles as an exaflop. Fittingly, the world’s most powerful computer’s AI workout was focused on one of the world’s largest problems: climate change.

https://www.wired.com/story/worlds-fastest-supercomputer-breaks-ai-record/

By TERRY FLORES, Kenosha News

Extreme cold and wind chills of minus 50 degrees cancelled school in many areas of Wisconsin Wednesday, but that didn’t stop one high school in Kenosha County from holding classes. Students and faculty weren’t present inside the building at Central High School in Paddock Lake for the normal school day. But make no mistake, classes were taking place, assignments being turned in and collaboration was going on in virtual classrooms from their homes during two-day required “Digital Learning Days” held during the cold snap instead of making up school days missed.

http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/no-snow-days-here-central-students-go-digital-to-keep/article_2f95d2cb-b5ed-5c70-97cf-8ee6a62f1703.html

Amy Miele, Smart Brief

Creating a high quality online course is not an easy task. Focusing on key elements is essential to providing students with engaging and effective educational experiences. It is important to have meaningful activities, stellar resources and quality assessments.  The three pillars of student learning. Content is what students learn. Instruction is how students learn. Evaluation is how students are assessed. Here’s how these three pillars translate into the online learning environment.

https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2019/01/what-makes-online-course-great

High tuition fees for distance education courses are keeping some community colleges in Colorado afloat. But should rural students pay the price? Dotted across Colorado’s varied landscape are thousands of students who live many miles from their closest community college. For these rural students, online learning is not just a convenience, but a necessity. Small colleges in remote areas don’t have the funds to offer all the programs students want on-site, said Garcia. But in the CCC system, the price of learning online is “considerably” more than learning in person, said Garcia. Students who are Colorado residents pay a baseline of $148.90 per credit hour for traditional instruction at a campus. The price for online learning is $263.90 per credit hour — a difference of just over $114. Some of the 13 colleges in the system charge students more.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/01/30/high-price-online-learning-colorados-rural-community-colleges

By SHALINA CHATLANI, National Public Radio

The executive director of Tennessee’s Higher Education Commission, Mike Krause, says the agency will form a task force to see how local colleges and universities can meet employer demands. The move aligns with Gov. Bill Lee’s mission of creating more vocational education in the state.  During Wednesday’s budget hearing, Krause said he’s fearful colleges and universities in the state aren’t preparing students for jobs of the future. He says they should talk to employers before considering new course offerings.

https://www.nashvillepublicradio.org/post/top-higher-education-official-calls-more-vocational-education-tennessee#stream/0

by CAROLINE PRESTON, Hechinger Report

I asked Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, for his thoughts on this question. Carnevale told me that, first of all, the story of robots creating mass unemployment has been overhyped.  Chris Burns has heard these sorts of predictions, too. Burns works for a business near Cincinnati that sells cloud computing and other technology services, and he says there is a big shortage of skilled IT employees both nationally and in his metro area. For his part, Burns told me he suspects that “soft skills” — things like critical thinking, problem solving and communication — are going to be key and that those abilities will serve young people no matter how their jobs evolve with new technologies. The growing importance of soft skills is a topic we’ve written about here at Hechinger. And Carnevale says he shares this perspective.

https://hechingerreport.org/how-do-schools-train-for-a-workplace-that-doesnt-exist-yet/

Meghan M. Biro, Forbes

While businesses may not be facing this new reality, at least education is. As Fisher told me, “Fortunately, the U.S. education system is in step with the demand for AI talent, and the number of graduates with technical skill sets is starting to expand.” Good news, but on the other hand, consider the laws of supply and demand. If the talent shortage continues, salaries will be high.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2019/01/24/recruiting-ai-talent-4-ways-to-get-ahead-of-the-next-hiring-wave/#1ac47a659b02

by Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review

Our study of 25 years of artificial-intelligence research suggests the era of deep learning is coming to an end. Through our analysis, we found three major trends: a shift toward machine learning during the late 1990s and early 2000s, a rise in the popularity of neural networks beginning in the early 2010s, and growth in reinforcement learning in the past few years.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612768/we-analyzed-16625-papers-to-figure-out-where-ai-is-headed-next/

BY JENNIFER BROFLOWSKI, Baltimore Post-Examiner

Online tutoring is often called the future of education, which offers students an anti-stress alternative to traditional classes in schools, colleges, and universities. While opponents and supporters of this statement argue whether online education is really more effective, there is no doubt that they open up opportunities for more people to get an education than before. Studies show that distance studying is really effective. In addition, it helps to reduce stress and all sorts of pressures that students may encounter during traditional education.

http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/5-advantages-of-online-courses/2019/01/24

Personal Data Protection Commission
The PDPC presents the first edition of A Proposed Model AI Governance Framework (Model Framework) – an accountability-based framework to help chart the language and frame the discussions around harnessing AI in a responsible way. The Model Framework translates ethical principles into practical measures that can be implemented by organisations deploying AI solutions at scale. Through the Model Framework, we aim to promote AI adoption while building consumer confidence and trust in providing their personal data for AI. We encourage organisations to use this Model Framework for internal discussion and implementation. Trade associations and chambers professional bodies and interest groups are welcome to use this document for their discussions, and adapt it for their own use.

https://www.pdpc.gov.sg/resources/model-ai-gov

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Open educational resources may just be the best part of the edtech revolution: the ability to solve so many different problems in the field of education with one novel idea is truly a phenomenon to be excited about. Here are several reasons why digital publishing is the future of education.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/why-digital-publishing-is-the-future-of-education/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The entire topic of data analytics can be intimidating for teachers. There is an understandable reluctance to adopt the latest educational fad, often combined with a discomfort with the mathematical and scientific aspects of the enterprise. The key to making the transition to being a data-savvy teacher is to start small and see how an easy, simple data analytics process can improve classroom outcomes. For example, a teacher could add instant polling applications to their normal slide presentation, using Poll Everywhere or a similar tool, instead of asking one student for the correct answer. Teachers will quickly realize that some problems don’t need review—everyone in the room already understands them. Additionally, they can see precisely which kinds of errors their students make. Errors are not random, but rather reveal misconceptions. With better data, teachers can more easily assess what problems students have and respond to them in real time.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/empowering-teachers-with-learning-analytics/

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
From artificial intelligence to STEM education, these technologies and topics are worth paying attention to this year.What technologies and trends will have the biggest impact on higher education in the coming year? We asked four university IT leaders to weigh in on the top issues in ed tech and share what they’re seeing both on the horizon and in their own institutions. Here’s what they told us.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/01/24/8-ed-tech-trends-to-watch-in-2019.aspx

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Studies show that teenagers are spending more than one-third of their days using technology, amounting to nearly nine hours on average. But is this merely an obsession with technology, or is it a technology addiction? Officially, Internet addiction is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), and psychologists are divided on whether it should be included. In China, Internet addiction is already labeled as a mental disorder. The United States may soon follow suit. However, psychologists are still debating on whether people are addicted to the Internet itself or to specific online behaviors such as gambling, shopping, video games, and pornography.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/technology-addiction-concern-debates-and-finding-balance/

By IBL News

The edX organization has launched a new marketing-oriented website about the open source software called Open edX, which powers its educational portal and is freely available on GitHub. This website, open.edx.org, highlights the fact that the Open edX software is trusted and used by top organizations, such as edX, MIT, Harvard, IBM, Microsoft, XuetangX, and Global Knowledge, among others. Overall, there are over 20,000 courses built on the Open edX software and over 40 million learners. The confusion in the industry between edX and Open edX is handled on the home page. “edX is the online learning destination co-founded by Harvard and MIT. Open edX is the learner-centric, massively scalable learning platform behind it,” edX explains.

https://iblnews.org/2019/01/23/edx-launches-a-marketing-oriented-website-about-its-open-source-platform/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Ever-increasing numbers of universities and colleges are teaming up with bootcamps to deliver tech training. Does your campus need one too? When Doug Schmidt persuaded his institution to sign on with Trilogy Education Services to launch what has become known as the Vanderbilt University Coding Boot Camp, he considered it one more step forward in a 16-year effort to help improve the technology economy in Nashville, where the university is located. As this professor of computer science and co-director of the Vanderbilt Data Sciences Institute noted, everywhere else that he’s lived, worked and taught — Southern California, Northern California, Virginia, St. Louis, Maryland — has “had a really thriving tech ecosystem.” In Nashville, however, small companies, primarily in healthcare, have dominated the tech scene, making for limited opportunities for the school’s graduates who might want to stick around.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/01/23/why-build-a-boot-camp.aspx

by Camille Dickson-Deane and Tutaleni Asino, Educause Review

The rise in demand for instructional design has given way to a series of misconceptions about the discipline; two educators offer an informative view of their profession and its origins. “Can you fix my computer?” This simple question (or a similar one) has most likely been asked of every instructional designer (ID), indicating a misalignment about what IDs do and what others think they actually do. This confusion is nothing new, but what seems to be different now is that those of us in the field may have bought into the confusion — or are helping sustain the misunderstanding because we have lost our way or forgotten where we came from. In this blog we offer a quick refresher on the origins of instructional design, which is especially valuable because the demand for what we do is increasing. As Kyle Peck reminds us, “a ‘perfect storm’ of forces both within and outside education are about to accelerate the evolution of learning and learning design, increasing the demand for well-prepared learning designers, learning-related tool builders, and learning-related researchers.”1

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2018/3/dont-forget-instructional-design-is-about-problem-solving