Educational Technology

By Bakar Mansaray, PV Ottawa, Canada.

The future of electronic books (e-books), from all indications, will be brighter. It will even be more so if these books should become the sun in the sky of learning and information dissemination in Africa and the African Diaspora. By then, many users will have the opportunity to quench their intellectual thirst from that fountain of knowledge that has been so elusive. If e-books should have this much impact in Africa and its Diaspora then these books would likely curb the challenges facing learning and information dissemination. Some of those challenges will be to reach a wider audience, to maintain the African culture and identity, and to address associated legal concerns. If e-books could be made technically functional for Africa and the African Diaspora, then learning and information dissemination would be at our finger-tips.

http://www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/spip.php?article6334

by Jason Warner, Edudemic

As digital access grows and the global village shrinks, online learning has quickly become a highly useful tool for the entire planet. From bookkeeping to social media management, mathematics, or project management, the Internet has allowed for virtual classrooms for people of all backgrounds and cultures. This melting pot of learning brings with it many unique advantages and disadvantages, but a crucial takeaway should be that the overall experience often hinges on the individual student.

http://edudemic.com/2011/12/online-education-steps/

by FREDERIC LARDINOIS, Tech Crunch

This is becoming somewhat of a holiday tradition for Google: the company just announced that it is extending it free domestic calls from Gmail in the U.S. and Canada for yet another year. Just like at the end of 2011 and 2010, Google today said that Gmail users will once again get one more year of free voice calls from the Gmail chat widget. It’s interesting that Google continues to extend this service year after year.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/26/google-extends-free-gmail-voice-calls-in-the-u-s-and-canada-through-2013/

by Michael Barbour, Virtual School Meanderings

Unlike most of 2011, and for that matter pretty much all of 2009 and 2010, K-12 online learning has begun to receive a lot more attention in recent months – particularly full-time K-12 online learning. Much of that attention has been critical – and based on the available data that we have available – deservedly so. What I have found interesting is the reactions from different people involved in the K-12 online learning community.

http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/critiquing-k-12-online-learning/

By JILL REILLY, UK Daily Mail

Smartphones and e-readers could lead to the death of the textbook in classrooms, according to a leading headmistress. In future, pupils will be able to access textbooks and information ‘anywhere, anytime, any place’, changing the face of school lessons, Louise Robinson said. Mrs Robinson, the incoming president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA) suggests that children can get more from the ‘magic’ of using smartphones and tablets, than simply reading a book. But also, not only that, the fact that they’ll be able to access anything they want to, in advance of your lesson, so if you say ‘the next lesson’s going to be on the skeleton’ what you can see online now in terms of the skeleton and where you can go with it, makes children have far more control over their learning than they ever could do before.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079337/Smartphones-e-readers-death-textbooks-classrooms.html

By Jim Hills, Shoreline-LakeForest Park Patch

Shoreline Community College is going mobile in an effort to meet students where they are, wherever they are. Shoreline is the first community college in the state to launch full-featured “apps” for Apple and Android mobile devices. A Blackberry option is on the way and a Windows version is anticipated. The college also has a new mobile Web site. In the coming weeks, the college will launch a new communication service, Connect–ED, that sends emergency and other important messages via e-mail, texts, voicemail to cellular and land-line phones and even to TTY-TTD devices for the hearing impaired. And, they all tie in with the college’s existing learning management system that can allow students to go to class on their smartphone, iPad or other mobile device.

http://shoreline.patch.com/articles/shoreline-community-college-introduces-mobile-apps

by eSchool News

Dakota County Technical College is offering what is believed to be the only year-long nanotechnology program for high school students in the country. Brad Dow. Remember the name; it could be the answer to a science or engineering essay question someday. At least, that is what the Farmington High School junior is hoping as he enters the field of nanotechnology through a novel program at Dakota County Technical College.“The nanotechnology field is very young now,” said Dow, 17. “It’d be great if I was the answer to an essay question in the future about nanotech.” Dow is one of about 20 high school students from Farmington and Burnsville, Minn., enrolled in the nanotech class at the college.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/12/21/nanotech-creating-big-buzz-among-high-school-students/

By HATTIE BERNSTEIN, Nashua Telegraph

On Thursday, for the second night in a row, dozens of students, teachers and parents wearing bright blue FIRST Robotics Team T-shirts crowded into the multipurpose room at the middle school to lobby against proposed cuts to the high school’s technology program that would eliminate an engineering course and the extracurricular FIRST program.In addition to technology cuts, the board also is proposing to cut a full-time technology teacher, a full-time social studies teacher, and a part-time math and computer teacher, as well as reducing a full-time art teacher to part-time. It was the proposed cuts to the technology program, however, that drew the crowds. Supporters came armed with fact sheets and emotional testimony about how the program had benefited them or their children.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/944150-196/dozens-cry-out-to-keep-technology-program.html

By Bruce Johnson, Atlanta Journal Constitution

I work for Google, and having a full pipeline of great recruits is critical to our success. For any tech company, it isn’t unusual to hire only a tiny percentage of applicants, but when those ratios are so small, hiring more people requires a very large pool of qualified applicants. How can we maximize the number of qualified applicants? It’s a big and fundamental question for Georgia and, in my opinion, it is as much a cultural question as a business and education question. I believe that it starts with kids. Google’s analysis of its own engineers found that exposure to computer science in high school, or earlier, greatly influenced their school and career trajectory.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/tech-workforce-starts-with-1269790.html