Techno-News Blog

WRGB

Finding a way to teach students remotely isn’t new for SUNY Empire State College, the college has been providing distance-learning for its students since the institution opened in 1971… and has been offering online classes since 1995. Among SUNY schools, SUNY Empire is considered the leader in online education. It’s been offering its expertise and guidance on remote learning not only to other higher ed institutions but even K-12 educators.

https://cbs6albany.com/news/coronavirus/suny-empire-no-stranger-to-remote-learning-offers-guidance-to-fellow-ny-schools

Josh Kim, Inside Higher Ed

As with any attempt to articulate big categories in which individuals fall, this effort to place digital learning professionals within broad categories of progressive/moderate/libertarian is imperfect. People are never one thing. They have beliefs and priorities that span ideologies, and circumstances and constraints dictate their actions. I am trying to offer this modest and flawed taxonomy to get at what I think are the ideological roots of much of the controversies and disagreements that confront our digital learning community.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/ideological-taxonomy-our-postsecondary-digital-learning-community

Michael Muchmore, PC Magazine

With all the prohibitions against in-person gatherings, most business and education has moved online, and as a consequence Zoom’s users have has grown from about 10 million daily to over 200 million, according to the company’s blog. And it’s not just businesses, either. Some of the services below have lower participant limits, but most don’t cut your group off after a specified time. All the services linked below have free accounts for the public to use, but they vary greatly in functionality. Read on for the details on each—how many participants they allow, the platforms they work on, and their special features or requirements.

https://www.pcmag.com/products/zoom-alternatives-best-free-services-for-group-video-chatting-during-the

Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
Plenty of discussions about the use of artificial intelligence talk about how AI could help educators by shrinking the amount of time they have to spend on the trivia that pervades their work and freeing them up to focus on the job of teaching. In the latest CoSN IT leadership survey, more than half of respondents (55 percent) said that AI would have a significant or even transformational impact on teaching and learning within the next five years, if privacy issues can be addressed to everybody’s satisfaction.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2020/07/08/sending-ai-off-to-school.aspx

Leah Asmelash, CNN

The University of California’s top doctor had a sobering message for the system’s leaders this week: School won’t go back to normal for at least another year. Dr. Carrie Byington, the executive vice president and head of UC Health, delivered the message to the University of California’s Board of Regents during its two-day virtual teleconference this week. Speaking on Wednesday, Byington told the regents that in the US, herd immunity wouldn’t be expected until July 2022 — meaning that the safeguards will have to continue.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/us/university-california-reopening-covid-trnd/index.html

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Education Dive

While more than three-quarters of colleges’ chief online officers deemed the abrupt transition to virtual classes earlier this year to be largely or very successful, half said their schools will require faculty training in remote learning this fall, according to a new report. The annual Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE 5) survey polled 308 college COOs in May. Three-quarters of officials said poorly prepared faculty presented the biggest challenge pivoting to online learning this spring, and 62% said it was underprepared students. As the pandemic persists and more institutions forgo in-person instruction this fall, they will be looking for ways to improve their online offerings.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/half-of-colleges-will-require-faculty-training-for-an-online-fall-report-f/582007/

Agustian Sutrisno, University World News
The COVID-19 pandemic impacts the landscape of transnational higher education (TNHE) in three dimensions: student mobility, economic recession and international political tension. As a health catastrophe, COVID-19 affects cross-border mobility, opening up opportunities for TNHE to absorb the demand for international qualifications. The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis shows how TNHE may come into its own during a recession. However, the international political climate is less than certain and TNHE providers are facing a landscape filled with rising nationalistic rhetoric and self-serving interest.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200714143605966

Marcus Casey, Brookings Institution

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are projected to either replace or fundamentally change human effort in many occupations. Some jobs may become obsolete. But the potential gains in productivity and efficiency from these technologies will likely transform legacy industries and lead to the emergence of new industries, generating new tasks and jobs. Displaced workers and new labor market entrants alike will therefore need to invest in skills and knowledge that complement these technologies.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/07/22/looking-towards-the-future-automation-training-and-the-middle-class/

Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
As more and more colleges and universities have shut down their campuses 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/2020/05/06/updated-free-and-discounted-ed-tech-tools-for-online-learning-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.aspx

Brookings Institution
In 2018, private, four-year colleges accounted for just 20 percent of total freshman enrollment, as compared to 45 percent for public, four-year colleges and universities.[1] Public four-years go beyond enrolling many students, however – they are the workhorses of upward mobility for the middle class. In our new report, which draws on data produced by Opportunity Insights, we show that students who attend college – particularly a four-year college – are significantly more likely to experience upward mobility in adulthood, relative to their parents’ position in the income distribution, than nonattenders.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/07/22/public-colleges-are-the-workhorses-of-middle-class-mobility/