Educational Technology

By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Wall Street Journal

The global market for “cloud computing” — that fluffy word for services delivered over the Internet — is going to increase from about $41 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020, according to new estimates from research firm Forrester. It’s the latest report trying to get a handle on the cloud computing business, which is growing quickly and driving investment in things like data centers — vast warehouses of computers that power the Internet. It’s always risky to predict such things so far in advance, of course. Attempts to estimate the potential value of cloud computing vary: Another firm, Gartner, projected that it will have revenue of $148.8 billion by 2014, higher than Forrester’s forecast of $118.7 billion for the same year.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/04/21/more-predictions-on-the-huge-growth-of-cloud-computing/?blog_id=100&post_id=22380

By Ellen Ullman, School CIO

Two years ago, Eric Sheninger was no fan of social media. “Like most principals, I felt that YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter had no place in education and were a distraction from learning,” says the principal of New Jersey’s New Milford High School. Then Sheninger read an article about Twitter and learned that it let people send free messages to anyone. “I thought, What a great way to get information to my stakeholders!” Eventually, Sheninger dedicated one Twitter account to high school and created another for professional learning. Soon the National Association of Secondary School Principals came calling. “They’d noticed my professional-learning tweets. I had 8,000 followers; they had 1,000.” The NASSP is now collaborating with Sheninger to show other school leaders how social media and Web 2.0 tools can be integrated into schools and how principals can use them to promote their schools, enhance communication, engage students, and explore opportunities.

http://www.schoolcio.com/showarticle/39006

By Mary Bart, Faculty Focus

More and more colleges and universities are developing general education curricula that include courses involving critical reflection, including how the various disciplines address some of the big questions facing today’s society. But be warned, critical reflection is not for the faint of heart. “Critical reflection is not a neat and tidy exercise that closes an experience with a nice, tidy, little bow. Rather, reflection is ongoing, it’s often messy, and it provides more openings than closings,” said Barbara Jacoby, PhD, senior scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park. “This is one of the challenges that faculty who engage students in critical reflection find all the time. We don’t know where students will go with their reflection, and … we have to let go of thinking of ourselves as the expert in a certain topic, because critical reflection opens questions that we are not necessarily going to be the expert on.”

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/critical-reflection-adds-depth-and-breadth-to-student-learning/

BY LISA KINTISH, Neighbor News (Montville Edition)

A simple touch of a finger to a screen and the Cedar Hill Elementary School fifth graders can access information from a variety of books and sources thanks to the 25 iPad 2s that will be in their classroom. The $12,075 cost of the iPads was covered by a grant from the Montville Education Foundation, MEF, and Cedar Hill Home and School, H&S. “Although some feel pencil and paper are sacred in public education,” said MEF President Michael Weinstein, “ultimately we felt the weight of the possibilities and the great power and potential of these devices. The MEF, knowing we could not comfortably fund the grant in full, wanted to make this happen. I reached out to Cedar Hill Home and School who responded with great enthusiasm. Although the price tag was high, greater than we’re used to, two groups got together to support and co-sponsor something very special.”

http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/120939649_iPads_bring_another_touch_of_technology_to_Cedar_Hill.html

By: Kim DesLauriers, Morris, IL Daily Herald

Immaculate Conception School entered the world of technology in the early 1980s with the purchase of an Apple IIE computer that was placed on a cart and moved from classroom to classroom. The emphasis on technology at I.C.S. has certainly increased since the arrival of the first computer. During the past 30 years, many great advances have been achieved as the school has made ongoing efforts to keep current in the ever-changing world of technology. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the school added a technology lab and hired a full-time technology coordinator. The tech coordinator’s duties include instructing students and teachers, as well as maintaining the network. I.C.S. students in kindergarten through eighth grade receive instruction in the tech lab on a weekly basis. The tech lab is also available to individuals, groups and classes on an ongoing basis. The lab is in constant use.

http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/articles/2011/04/28/73063098/index.xml

by Indiana University

IU center develops iPad application that will help people working in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Want to learn Pashto? There’s an app for that. Language specialists in Indiana University’s College of Arts and Sciences have developed a new application for the iPad that will help people working in strategic areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan to read and write in Pashto, one of the region’s primary languages. Screen capture of one of the application’s features The new tool was developed at the IU Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR), with Title VI funds from the U.S. Department of Education and the support from the IU College of Arts and Sciences.

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/18361.html

By Nancy Caramanico, School CIO

What do you do when you read a research study related closely to the work you do? Do you share it? Save it? Discuss with colleagues? What makes a research study truly valuable is taking those results and turning them in to action. Recently the 2010 version of the Speak Up Survey was released. Studies such as these are intriguing and insightful. They are more than that tough. They are guides for us in a rapidly changing world. Close to 400,000 students, parents and teachers were polled in the recent Speak Up 2010. Conducted by Project Tomorrow, the Speak Up Survey conducts yearly studies on Education and Technology. Take the time to read and share the full report with others in your school community. The results point us to desired classroom environments where mobile technologies, online learning and collaboration and access to digital resources are abundant and effective for learning.

full Speak-up Survey Report:

http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU10_3EofEducation%28Students%29.pdf

http://schoolcio.com/showarticle/38546

by School CIO

Binghamton City School District recently implemented TestWiz, a web-based testing analysis and reporting tool, to help expedite the student assessment reporting process for K–10 classrooms in the district. Created by dataMetrics, a Massachusetts-based company specializing in test processing and reporting software for K–12 educational institutions, TestWiz allows district personnel to use the program’s plain paper scanning technology to quickly analyze student assessment outcomes. The district initially began using TestWiz as a pilot program with middle school summer session students. Impressed by the functionality of the program, the district chose to replace their internal data collection system and expand their use of TestWiz to assist with the scanning, processing and reporting of student benchmark results.

http://schoolcio.com/ShowArticle/38754

by School CIO

The Texas Afterschool Centers on Education™ (ACE™) program administered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has launched the Texas ACE Activity Collection, a database designed to help build capacity of out-of-school-time practitioners to deliver high-quality activities to students and families across Texas and the nation. This database, available at TexasACE21.org provides out-of-school-time practitioners with a venue to search through a collection of activities and lesson plans using a variety of search criteria (e.g. topics, objectives, etc.). This database allows users to download activities and lesson plans and modify them to meet their specific program needs. All lessons are aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards and include standards for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, English language proficiency and Texas College and Career Readiness.

http://schoolcio.com/showarticle/38414

By R.M. Shor, ASTD

There are several cloud computing services available today from a few vendors that can help you immediately take advantage of online collaboration using websites, email, spreadsheets, and word processing documents, as well as other capabilities. Fees usually range from little or no cost to about $50 per person per year, for simple hosted applications, depending on the type of organization and the total number of users. Below are some examples of the various services that are available, and which best serve a certain type of organization.

http://www.astd.org/LC/0511_shor.htm

By Lee Stayton, ASTD

Mobile learning (m-learning) offers possibilities for delivering information that guides, supports, and coaches employees from a smartphone, iPad, or other mobile device throughout the course of their work day. Does this mean that you should rush to implement your next training or education program as m-learning? Maybe, but it depends on the project. Before investing heavily in a mobile learning platform, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of your business needs, and how appropriately they align with the benefits, constraints, and requirements of a mobile strategy. Remember that m-learning is a delivery mechanism for information. It’s not a learning solution in and of itself. A careful review of the goals, characteristics, and context of your learning need will help you make a wise decision.

http://www.astd.org/LC/0511_stayton.htm

by Kurt Moore, Marion Star

Playtime is becoming learning time for a group of Marion Harding High School freshmen. The Freshmen Select, a group of freshmen in need of extra academic guidance, are getting to study the Nintendo Wii and the Kinect for Xbox 360. Their aim is not to become better players, but to learn more about the science behind and the history of the gaming systems. The objective of the lesson is to let the students integrate information into a group project. Students do the research and decide how best to present it.

http://www.marionstar.com/article/20110502/NEWS01/105020305

By KEVIN TRUMAN, The Star

When designing curricula, one thing is certain: now is a great time to make a commitment to science, technology, engineering and math education. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that job opportunities will increase for engineering and computer science students, it is imperative that we focus on scientific education pipeline programs. Programs, such as the NASA-funded, UMKC-housed Inventure University, have provided minority middle and high school girls the opportunity to learn engineering principles and analytical thinking skills at the School of Computing and Engineering. Additionally, the National Science Foundation-funded UMKC Institute for Human Development is increasing the number of students and veterans with disabilities who enter scientific programs and the Kauffman Foundation-funded KC STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Alliance is working to increase the number of students prepared to enter scientific careers in Kansas City. Even as the economy struggles to recover, it is evident that the future is bright for the science, technology, engineering and math industry.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/01/2840988/now-is-the-time-to-consider-a.html

By Audrey Watters, WQED Mind/Shift

We have looked here before at how OCW has shaped education in the last ten years, but in many ways much of the content that has been posted online remains very much “Web 1.0.” That is, while universities have posted their syllabi, handouts, and quizzes online, there has not been — until recently — much “Web 2.0″ OCW resources — little opportunity for interaction and engagement with the material. But as open educational resources and OCW increase in popularity and usage, there are a number of new resources out there that do offer just that. You probably already know about: Khan Academy and Wikipedia, for example. But in the spirit of 10 years of OCW, here’s a list of 10 cool OER and OCW resources that you might not know about, but should know:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/05/10-open-education-resources-you-may-not-know-about-but-should/

by Hugo Ortega, GottaBeMobile

Like most technologies that finally make it to the mainstream, tablet PCs and the iPad in particular are finding success in large part because they have generated huge amounts of interest from the average consumer. As is often the case, Apple’s first target was the average tech savvy Joe. But, we’re over a year into the tablet push (since the first iPad was released) and with the RIM Playbook now available, we’re entering a new phase in the “tablet boom” – the one where these devices start to infiltrate institutions at rapid speed.

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/04/30/after-the-consumer-market-where-is-the-next-big-tablet-push/

By AMMU KANNAMPILLY, the Star

Two successful engineers do their bit by conducting online lessons for children in their remote village in India. The electricity keeps cutting out, the Internet connection is crackly and the speakers don’t always work, but Santosh Kumar knows that 20 pupils far away in eastern India are relying on him. Once a week, Kumar uses the Skype computer programme to teach Mathematics to children in Chamanpura, a poor village in the struggling state of Bihar, 600 miles (970km) from his two-storey house in the suburbs of New Delhi. The free Internet service allows the class to see, via a projector, Kumar’s tutorial which includes an animated tale about a greedy priest and a wily countryman to teach the students about numbers and the concept of infinity.

http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2011/5/1/education/8423717&sec=education

by Courtney Comstock, Business Insider

Meet DEviaNT, a new technology or “robot” with the ability to tell the joke, “that’s what she said.” That means the robot is able to listen to a sentence and “understand” that replying “that’s what she said,” would make people laugh. According to its developers, 72% of the time, DEviaNT (Double Entendre via NounTransfer) gets it right, and “says” “that’s what she said” after a serious sentence, and it’s hilarious. The sexual joke-making computer program is a hit. (A full explanation of what DEviaNT does is embedded below.) The developers’ application of voice-recognition technology might seem juvenile (and awesome and hilarious) but, the technology might be a break though, and if so, it’s actually pretty significant. It could mean that computers will someday be able to understand humor — one of the abilities thought to be unique to humans.

http://www.businessinsider.com/thats-what-she-said-computer-technology-2011-4

by Maggie Gordon, Stamford Advocate

Stamford school administrators are developing a pilot program that would provide every eighth-grade student with an Apple iPad tablet computer. But the hurdles that stand in the way of bringing such a program to fruition in Stamford are significant. “We first need to assess the schools’ connectivity, to make sure they would have Internet access and can support the infrastructure,” said Phillip Dunn, the district’s chief information officer.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/default/article/An-Apple-for-the-teacher-and-students-1360437.php

By Teri Vance, Nevada Appeal

While preparing for his presentation at the Carson Nugget, author and education innovator Milton Chen realized the podium there was not equipped with the technology to be able to see his slides at the same time he was showing them to the audience. He voiced his concern to Carson High School sophomore Stefan Murray. “Stefan downloaded an app on his iPhone, which allowed me do that,” Chen told the audience. “If you want to get something done, ask a high school student.” That exchange, he said, is at the heart of his message in “Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools,” where students no longer learn from just the teacher but from one another as well as others in the community.

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20110501/NEWS/110509967/1001&parentprofile=1058

by CadCam News

Fun physics puzzle game with over 800,000 downloads gets even more mobile. Autodesk, Inc announced its TinkerBox App— a free* game designed to playfully spark interest in physics and mechanical engineering — is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. Following the success of the Autodesk TinkerBox App for iPad, players can now experience the joy and excitement of invention on a variety of iOS devices. The stimulating mechanical puzzles and challenging physics problems in Autodesk TinkerBox require players to devise imaginative solutions, insert gadgets, assemble components, customize switches and test their inventions. Completing each challenge inspires players to increasingly complex innovations. The game’s ‘Invent’ mode enables players to design their own contraptions and share them with friends.

http://www.cadcamnews.in/2011/04/autodesk-tinkerbox-app-now-comes-to.html

by Kevin O’Neill, Times-Tribune

Technology has introduced some new tools for those living and working with autistic kids. There’s an expanding list of special education apps for electronic devices, like the iPad and iPod, that offer some hope for kids with developmental disorders. Because autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning there’s a range of symptoms and severity that are unique to the individual, none of these apps is likely to be a silver bullet cure. But some of these apps are likely to be helpful, and any progress in this struggle is welcome. If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, then you’re familiar with getting apps from the App Store in iTunes. There’s a special education section with lots of apps for various disabilities.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/lifestyles-people/apps-may-help-autistic-kids-communicate-1.1139554