Educational Technology

by eSchool News

The Flip’s features have been copied by other manufacturers, but it’s still the most popular pocket-sized video camera. Cisco Systems Inc., one of the titans of the technology industry, on April 12 said it is killing the Flip Video, the most popular video camera in the U.S., just two years after it bought the startup company that created it. It appears to be a case of a large company proving to be a poor custodian of a small one, even one that makes a hit product. Cisco never meaningfully integrated the Flip Video into its main business of making computer networking gear. And now it has announced it is ending production.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/04/13/educators-disappointed-with-ciscos-camera-flip/

By Michael C. Purdy, Washington University

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have adapted brain-computer interfaces like the one shown above to listen to regions of the brain that control speech. The development may help restore capabilities lost to brain injury or disability.

Patients with a temporary surgical implant have used regions of the brain that control speech to “talk” to a computer for the first time, manipulating a cursor on a computer screen simply by saying or thinking of a particular sound. “There are many directions we could take this, including development of technology to restore communication for patients who have lost speech due to brain injury or damage to their vocal cords or airway,” says author Eric C. Leuthardt, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22124.aspx

By Mark LaFlamme, Sun Journal

The iPad is a wonderful piece of technology, fun and educational for all ages. Almost everyone at a city budget workshop Thursday night agreed. Whether kindergarten students require them was another matter. “Kids can’t keep track of their mittens or their school books,” Councilor Belinda Gerry said. “And you want them to have iPads? I’m at a loss. I’m at a total loss.” Gerry’s remarks launched a lively discussion among School Committee members and city councilors about the joys and pains of the iPad tablet computer.

http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/1012316

by Darren Allan, UK Tech Watch

It seems that scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine have developed technology which can enable a computer to read your mind. To a very limited extent, but still, this is highly ground breaking stuff. The system works by using a technique called electrocortiography, essentially wiring the brain up to a computer via electrodes.

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2011/04/08/mind-reading-computer-technology-being-developed/

By MICHAEL HORN, Forbes

For several years now I have been an unabashed promoter of online learning as a disruptive innovation with the potential to transform our education system from a monolithic one to a student-centric one that personalizes for different student needs. I still believe that. But in the short term, there does appear to be a bit of a “bubble” developing around innovation in education—be it in online learning products and services, blended-learning schools, and the like.

http://blogs.forbes.com/michaelhorn/2011/04/07/is-there-a-k-12-online-learning-bubble/

By MOLLY MONTGOMERY, Daily Bruin

Professors have proposed methods of maintaining instructional quality in online courses.

• Provide video lectures from current professors

• Take advantage of computer programs, including graphics and animation

• E-sections, where teaching assistants answer student questions over the internet

• Virtual office hours for professors

• Active participation in an experiment online

Students will be able to take online classes from UCLA and other UC campuses starting as early as next year through the UC Online Instruction Pilot Project. On Thursday, the University of California received a grant of $748,000 from the Next Generation Learning Challenges Program, UC officials said. The grant, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will finance the development of 10 online courses.

http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/04/ucla_puts_next_generation_learning_challenges_grant_into_improving_online_instruction_pilot_program

by cgilmart, UCF

In the fall 2010 semester, 26,000 UCF students enrolled in at least one online, blended or video course. The University of Central Florida is developing a national model for blended learning, a practice that combines web-based learning with traditional classroom instruction. The Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) awarded UCF a $250,000 grant, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others. NGLC is coordinated by EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit group that promotes the use of information technology to advance higher education.

http://today.ucf.edu/ucf-developing-national-model-for-blended-online-courses/

by the Sloan Consortium

Emerging technologies has the potential to improve education. ET4OL is the best conference you can attend on new and innovative technological advances especially in the area of teaching and learning tools. This community values new ideas and encourages rich dialogue about them. This year’s conference will feature a Cutting Edge track to explore the development and application of significant, innovative technologies.

http://sloanconsortium.org/et4online/registration

By Bridget McCrea, Campus Technology

Pennsylvania State University’s foray into e-portfolios started about 10 years ago, when static Web pages were used to store and display online versions of student resumes. Fairly innovative for their time, these early e-portfolios gave way to more dynamic versions of themselves a few years back as the university began rolling in Web 2.0 technologies. “When blogs, social networking and other interactive technologies came along, we tweaked our e-portfolio initiative,” said Jeff Swain, innovation consultant for the university. “We wanted students to be able to develop interactive, online portfolios that would be able to stay and grow with them throughout their college careers, and beyond.”

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/04/06/evolving-the-eportfolio-at-penn-state.aspx

by UK Virtual College

E-learning technology will assist educational institutions in modernising the practice of teaching, an expert in the US has suggested. Innovation in Learning Center director Dr Jack Dempsey told the South Alabama Vanguard that blended learning, which fuses both virtual and conventional forms of tuition, is an effective method that can help universities “get out of the 19th century”. “The whole nature of a traditional classroom is changing very quickly,” he added.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Online-learning-technology-will-modernise-education-800489569.~

By MICHAEL BRINDLEY, Nashua Telegraph

Put away your cellphones? Not in Nick Audley’s classroom.  Using a Web-based program called Poll Everywhere, Audley, a social studies teacher at Nashua High School South, has students in his class use their cellphones to text in their answers to problems. In seconds, their answers are tabulated and come up on the overhead screen at the front of the class. Depending on the lesson, students can also text in narrative answers to open-ended questions. “It becomes a running blog as we’re discussing a topic,” Audley said. The advantage for the students? They’re using technology they own and are comfortable with. The advantage for teachers? It gives them real-time results and it keeps the students engaged.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/914574-196/technology-innovation-go-hand-in-hand-in.html

by Tammy Swift, INFORUM

“It’s a voice,” Missy says of the device. “It’s their voice, and it’s affordable to the point that many kids have the capability of having it.” Autism, which is defined by a certain set of behaviors, is a “spectrum disorder,” meaning it affects individuals differently and to varying degrees, according to The Autism Society. But in general, people in the spectrum have some degree of communication deficits, trouble with social interaction and repetitive behaviors, according to the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. Apple didn’t develop the iPad with a special-needs population in mind – and the company has been fairly hush-hush about promoting it as such. Still, the tablet’s intuitive design, quick learning curve, versatility and portability have made it appealing to children with autism and the people who teach them.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/314452/group/Life/

By Scott O’Connell, Daily News

Facing budget cutbacks that have forced them to shed staff, services and purchasing programs, many schools in the region have little money to spare for technology upgrades these days. But that hasn’t stopped some districts from making big plans to bring the latest high-tech devices into their classrooms. From buying laptops for students in Natick to outfitting classrooms with cutting-edge interactive devices in Framingham and Milford, school leaders are willing to turn over many stones to find any funding sources they can to keep stride with a generation of plugged-in students. “Children today learn differently,” said Rob Bonnell, chief technology officer for the Milford school system. “They know technology. They grew up with it. We need to keep up with that.”

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/education/x719609083/School-technology-challenge-Keep-up-or-get-left-behind

Skype in the classroom is a free global community that invites teachers to collaborate on classroom projects where they might use Skype, and share skills and inspiration around specific teaching needs.

Teachers all over the world are using Skype to make learning more exciting and memorable. It’s easy to see why: Skype offers an immediate way to help students discover new cultures, languages and ideas, all without leaving the classroom.

One of the most inspiring examples we’ve come across is teacher Kara Cornejo’s global weather project, which started here on Skype in the classroom:

Kara from Missouri, speaks about finding teachers to connect with on Skype in the classroom from Skype in the classroom on Vimeo.

http://education.skype.com/

By Emily Morgan, Quad News

“When the university started to require the purchase of laptops, professors were encouraged to incorporate the technology into the classroom,” said Ronald Hieferman, a professor of history. On March 31, Heiferman took part in the panel discussion “Teachers Leave Them Kids Alone: Challenges and Opportunities for Wireless in the Classroom” presented by Faculty Collaborative for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and the Technology Users Group. The discussion focused around faculty’s response to students’ use of laptops, mobile devices and other wireless technologies during class session. “In the past, instructors could easily notice students passing notes or reading a magazine during class,” read the event’s flyer. “Now, mobile computing devices can shield the student’s activity behind a veil of technology.”

http://www.quadnews.net/news/wireless-technology-in-the-classroom-1.2530682

by Nick van Dam, director, Deloitte Consulting

Next Learning, Unwrapped,” a new book authored by Nick van Dam, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and a chief learning officer, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, details how social networks, tablets, smartphones, wikis, blogs, performance support, online communities, gaming, and other social and collaborative learning technologies are becoming an integral part of the day-to-day learning environment of many organizations and rapidly transforming the way businesses accelerate development of their people around the world. The book presents new technology-driven learning concepts in the context of nearly 40 business cases from leading organizations that use technology-based learning to achieve business goals. Business and learning leaders can use these success stories and lessons learned as blueprints to embed technology-based learning deeper into the culture of their organizations.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-future-of-technology-driven-workplace-education-is-the-focus-of-new-book-next-learning-unwrapped-from-deloittes-nick-van-dam-119174989.html

by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

Most college library directors would order print books removed from the library if there was a robust and trustworthy way to provide access to electronic versions, according to a new study released bythe nonprofit Ithaka S+R.  he same study also reveals undercurrents of doubt from the library directors about how to proceed strategically as their institutions navigate the bridge from print to electronic collections. Most worry that they don’t know enough about the costs and benefits of the various models of e-book access to develop an informed strategy for making the switch. And an ideal “system” for licensing e-book content that librarians consider both robust and trustworthy does not yet exist.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/04/study_shows_good_outlook_for_digital_books_and_journals_at_college_and_university_libraries

By David Murphy, PC Magazine

New numbers released by Comscore show that Android-based phones are continuing to take a chunk out of the market share of competing devices. And smartphones based on Google’s mobile OS now eat up 33 percent of the U.S. market, or one out of every three phones sold. RIM was the hardest hit in this latest batch of metrics, dropping 4.1 percent of its market share between November 2010 and February 2011.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382985,00.asp

By SHARON OTTERMAN, NY Times

Despite sharp drops in state aid, New York City’s Department of Education plans to increase its technology spending, including $542 million next year alone that will primarily pay for wiring and other behind-the-wall upgrades to city schools. The city is making an effort to move toward computer-based learning and testing programs. The surge is part of an effort to move toward more online learning and computer-based standardized tests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/nyregion/30schools.html?_r=1

by Jenny Lu, McGill Daily

The video game industry is comprised of people from many different fields, such as design, music, and marketing. About a third of these people come from Computer Science programs, the graduates of which are primarily male. Addressing this skewed gender distribution is the subject of a joint research project between the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Education and its Department of Computing Science. Their research involved introducing boys, who had more experience with video games, and girls, who had less, to ScriptEase, a game design program. Their findings showed that girls and boys showed equal interest in the program, despite differences in initial experience. According to one of the paper’s researchers, Duane Szafron, a Computing Science professor at the University of Alberta, it is important to have more women in the field. He believes that a greater balance between genders is necessary in universities because, “it is important for students to be educated in an environment that is similar to the one in which they will spend their lives. … The education they experience should be in a context in which they interact with as many women as men. This idea also suggests that other kinds of diversity should be present in the university [setting] to match the diversity of the Canadian community with regards to race, religion, et cetera,” he added in an email to The Daily.

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/03/balancing-gender-in-the-video-game-industry/

By COLLEEN JASKOT, Kansas City Star

About one-third of children experience bullying each year, according to the White House, and it can lead to academic failure, absence from school, drug and alcohol abuse, health problems and even suicide. Now, after a recent string of suicides related to bullying, there are numerous private, nonprofit and federal commitments to stop bullying. At the White House’s first Conference on Bullying Prevention on March 10, President Barack Obama and the first lady called on other parents to follow in Knight’s footsteps, because parents are responsible for knowing what is going on in their kids’ lives. “We don’t always know, because they don’t always tell us every little detail,” said first lady Michelle Obama. “We need to get involved in their schools and in their activities so that we know what they’re up to, both in and out of school. And when something is wrong, we need to speak up, and we need to take action.”

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/28/2757237/there-are-resources-out-there.html