Techno-News Blog

March 31, 2020

The Human Element in Online Learning

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:24 am

Larry DeBrock, Norma Scagnoli and Fataneh Taghaboni-Dutta, Inside Higher Ed
As colleges pivot quickly toward online learning, here’s the secret most educators and students don’t yet know: done right, online education can be surprisingly intimate. That student who’s sitting far enough away in the lecture hall that you can’t quite read her expression amid the proverbial sea of faces? When you call on her in a live Zoom session, she pops up right in front of you, one on one, looking you straight in the eye. There is no back seat in online education — every student is in the front row.

https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/03/18/how-make-online-learning-more-intimate-and-engaging-students-opinion

Share on Facebook

IBM Supercomputer Identifies 77 Compounds That Could Fight Coronavirus

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:19 am

Ryan Whitwam, Extreme Tech

Summit is the most powerful supercomputer on Earth by a wide margin, and it’s also the third most energy-efficient. Summit has run simulations on more than 8,000 compounds, searching for molecules that could inactivate the virus. Early results from Summit have identified 77 compounds that could bind to the Spike protein, preventing it from binding to human cells.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/307998-ibm-supercomputer-identifies-77-compounds-that-could-fight-coronavirus

Share on Facebook

Coronavirus could rattle colleges’ international enrollment strategies

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:15 am

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Education Dive

As concerns about the novel coronavirus mounted in the U.S., colleges canceled face-to-face classes and turned to online instruction in quick succession. Some institutions ordered residence halls to be vacated, raising questions about what would happen to students who couldn’t leave campus so easily. A chunk of this population is international students, who account for a little more than 5% of the country’s total higher education enrollment. As the disease spreads globally, officials are scrambling to help current students and stem recruitment losses.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/coronavirus-could-rattle-colleges-international-enrollment-strategies/574237/

Share on Facebook

March 30, 2020

Online Education Becomes Teacher’s Pet In COVID-19 Crisis

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:26 am

Mergermarket

Both K-12 and higher education institutions have been closing their doors to prevent the spread of the virus. School districts around the country have announced short-term closures, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said more lengthy closures might be required, perhaps eight weeks or longer, to be effective. Even before the crisis, postsecondary schools were adopting online course offerings and textbooks were being offered online to college students. The virus will ensure that this trend will only accelerate and gain traction with school-age children.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mergermarket/2020/03/20/online-education-becomes-teachers-pet-in-covid-19-crisis/#2701b5971aa1

Share on Facebook

Learning In The Time Of COVID-19

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:20 am

Linda Darling-Hammond, Forbes

This is a moment that exposes the many inequities in our society — from the broadband and computers needed for distance education to the supportive environments needed to focus on learning. For the millions of children who are homeless, food insecure, without health care, school is often the one place where they feel safe and where they are taken care of.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindadarlinghammond/2020/03/19/learning-in-the-time-of-covid-19/#476ec6fb7203

Share on Facebook

How to speed up Wi-Fi: 17 ways to boost your Wi-Fi speed

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:20 am
Christina Mercer-Myers, TechWorld
 
So, your home is your new office. Perhaps you noticed the WiFi is a bit sluggish compared to your prior office? It may be worth checking out your signal and doing a couple of tweaks. Obviously, there will be factors that are out of your control, but trying lots of different things to improve your Wi-Fi speeds should give you some ammunition to go back to your broadband provider with. Most of the tips we offer are free, however some will cost you a little money, so perhaps try them out last.
 
Share on Facebook

March 29, 2020

Johns Hopkins offers free online course about COVID-19 and epidemiology

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:25 am

John Hopkins University
The class is offered publicly on Coursera and requires no prior background in science or health fields.  Johns Hopkins will offer a free online course about the coronavirus pandemic and how it can be combatted through epidemiology. Offered publicly on the e-learning platform Coursera, the five-hour course is now open for enrollment and runs March 31 through April 14. This free, beginner-level course is designed for those who want a better understanding of how epidemiologists identify and measure infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.

https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/27/coursera-covid-19-epidemiology-class/

Share on Facebook

Grand Valley faculty, students navigate shift to online learning

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:19 am

D’Angelo Starks, The Grand Haven Tribune

“The quick time period is the thing that’s vexing most of us,” said Eric Harvey, a professor in GVSU’s multimedia journalism department. “They gave us basically Thursday through Monday as a period to see what we could do to port our classes completely online. “People might think it’s a simple matter of porting the classroom into the digital world and pushing a couple buttons and then everything is essentially the same,” he said. “But it’s a lot more challenging than that, especially for professors who rely on discussion. That’s one thing that’s hard to replicate in the digital relevance.” The initial reaction from students was excitement, but the more time to consider the information the more they realized the potential downfalls of the arrangement.

https://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/20200319/grand-valley-faculty-students-navigate-shift-to-online-learning

Share on Facebook

Online learning ‘will be okay’; but what about WiFi, special ed, graduation?

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:15 am

Ayrton Ostly, Salinas Californian

Chromebooks are already in wide use at many schools in SUHSD, making a transition to distance learning not too different from the norm.  Chromebooks are already in wide use at many schools in SUHSD, making a transition to distance learning not too different from the norm.  Though it’s a change of pace, the transition isn’t daunting; many classes already use Google Chromebook laptops and/or the Google Classroom platform under regular circumstances. Teachers like SUHSD 2019 Teacher of the Year Maggie Power use the Remind app, made for teacher-to-student communication on any device without disclosing personal information, to stay in touch as well.

https://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/2020/03/18/online-learning-will-okay-but-what-wifi-special-ed-graduation/5074866002/

Share on Facebook

March 28, 2020

Students’ Readiness to Adopt Fully Remote Learning (great data)

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:25 am

D. Christopher Brooks and Susan Grajek, EDUCAUSE Review

This research summary is one of a series of reports outlining higher education’s readiness to move teaching and learning online to preserve and continue its educational mission during the current pandemic.

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/3/students-readiness-to-adopt-fully-remote-learning

Share on Facebook

Working from home: Cybersecurity tips for remote workers

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:20 am

Steve Ranger, ZD Net

With the rapid increase in remote working in mind, European cybersecurity agency ENISA has set out a series of recommendations for companies moving to teleworking as a result of COVID-19. ENISA said it had already seen an increase in coronavirus-related phishing attacks. The agency recommends, as far as possible, that workers try to not mix work and leisure activities on the same device and be particularly careful with any mails referencing the coronavirus. “Attackers are exploiting the situation, so look out for phishing emails and scams,” ENISA said.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/working-from-home-cybersecurity-tips-for-remote-workers/

Share on Facebook

COVID-19: With everyone working from home, VPN security has now become paramount

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:15 am

Catalin Cimpanu, ZD Net

With most employees working from home amid today’s COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, enterprise VPN servers have now become paramount to a company’s backbone, and their security and availability must be the focus going forward for IT teams. “It will be very important [that] the VPN service is patched and up-to-date because there will be way more scrutiny (scanning) against these services,” said Guy Bruneau, an ISC SANS instructor in a post last week. Bruneau’s warning is just one of the many cybersecurity industry alerts published over the past few days on the topic of VPN security.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/covid-19-with-everyone-working-from-home-vpn-security-has-now-become-paramount/

Share on Facebook

March 27, 2020

Higher Ed’s COVID-19 Response Through a Sociological Lens

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:21 am

Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

As a sociologist, I’m interested in the organizational, cultural, and structural conditions that enable or impede colleges and universities from mounting an effective response to COVID-19. I wonder about the conditions that will enable some institutions to efficiently and effectively accomplish the rapid transition from residential to remote learning? How COVID-19 will re-order the existing power relationships and status hierarchies within colleges and universities will be fascinating to observe. What will COVID-19 mean for marginalized higher ed populations such as adjunct faculty?

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/higher-eds-covid-19-response-through-sociological-lens

Share on Facebook

Ed Dept green-lights virtual site visits for accreditors due to coronavirus

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:20 am

Hallie Busta, Education Dive
The U.S. Department of Education has expanded guidance issued to accreditors earlier this month about the level of flexibility they can offer colleges that are moving classes online due to the novel coronavirus. In a memo this week, the department said accreditors could conduct site visits virtually at their discretion, though they would be expected to visit in-person at a later date. Virtual visits must be interactive, such as through phone and video calls, “rather than solely document reviews or exchanges of emails,” the guidance explains. The guidance comes as at least one accreditor said it plans to temporarily take most site visits remote and as others consider the option for some schools.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/ed-dept-green-lights-virtual-site-visits-for-accreditors-due-to-coronavirus/574417/

Share on Facebook

Moody’s lowers higher ed outlook to negative amid coronavirus crisis

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:15 am

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Education Dive
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its outlook for the higher education sector from stable to negative, predicting widespread instability as a result of the new coronavirus. Colleges will face “unprecedented enrollment uncertainty” headed into the next fiscal year as the virus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, throws the country into economic turmoil, the credit rating agency wrote in an analysis released Wednesday. Institutions’ budgets will immediately be stressed as they are forced to respond to outbreaks of the virus, and those with weak finances will likely have more trouble adapting to trying conditions in the future.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/moodys-lowers-higher-ed-outlook-to-negative-amid-coronavirus-crisis/574414/

Share on Facebook

March 26, 2020

Moving to Digital Learning Fast: Where to Start

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:25 am

Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
Numerous colleges and universities across the country suddenly find themselves in the position of having to teach online due to changes introduced by the national response to coronavirus and COVID-19.  To help schools make the transition as quickly and comprehensively as possible, Campus Technology reached out to instructional teams in universities and education technology experts to answer the questions we believe nearly every institution is rushing to answer right now.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/03/18/moving-to-digital-learning-fast-where-to-start.aspx

Share on Facebook

Tools for Online Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:20 am

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
As more and more colleges and universities are shutting down their campuses over the next several weeks in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm. Some companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year; others are lifting limits to services and/or adding premium features to what’s free. The following list will be updated regularly as announcements are made.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/03/16/free-and-discounted-ed-tech-tools-for-online-learning-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.aspx

Share on Facebook

Make “work from home” work for you

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:15 am

Laura Mae Martin, Google

In my job at Google, I advise people on how to use their time as efficiently as possible. When working from home, my productivity strategies are even more important because I don’t have the ordinary structure of a day at the office, like commuting to work, walking to meetings, or running into coworkers. When your house becomes your office, you need to learn a whole new routine.  etting work done when your teammates aren’t physically with you has been the norm at Google for a while. So I put together some of my go-to productivity tips—no matter where you’re working—and a few things I’ve learned about how to get it all done from home.

https://www.blog.google/inside-google/googlers/make-work-from-home-work-for-you/

Share on Facebook

Helping universities and colleges take learning online in response to the coronavirus

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:08 am

Coursera Blog

Coursera is providing access to universities which have been forced to go online with  thousands of their courses – even to non-member universities. They’ll provide every impacted university in the world with free access to our course catalogue through Coursera for Campus. Universities can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 Specializations from Coursera’s top university and industry partners. These institutions will have access until July 31, 2020, after which we plan to provide month-to-month extensions depending on prevailing risk assessments. Students who enroll on or before July 31 will continue to have access until Sept. 30, 2020.

https://blog.coursera.org/helping-universities-and-colleges-go-fully-online-in-response-to-the-coronavirus/

Share on Facebook

March 25, 2020

Subscription Rather Than Tuition

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 8:21 am

Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
What if we subscribed to learning and educational engagement throughout our careers? Subscription models abound. They are the sustainable future of higher education. It is all about growing with the learners from where they are today to where they will be tomorrow through evolving and expanding continuing professional education and engagement.

 https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/subscription-rather-tuition

Share on Facebook

We’re not going back to normal

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:20 am

Gideon Lichfield, MIT Technology Review

Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks. It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever. We all want things to go back to normal quickly. But what most of us have probably not yet realized—yet will soon—is that things won’t go back to normal after a few weeks, or even a few months. Some things never will. What counts as “social distancing”? The researchers define it as “All households reduce contact outside household, school or workplace by 75%.” That doesn’t mean you get to go out with your friends once a week instead of four times. It means everyone does everything they can to minimize social contact, and overall, the number of contacts falls by 75%.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615370/coronavirus-pandemic-social-distancing-18-months/

Share on Facebook
Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress