Educational Technology

March 24, 2012

New iPad Reviews: What Critics Are Saying

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by eWeek

Although not everyone might agree with what one person who has used the device for the past week might say, they give some indication into what the experience might be like to use such a product. What’s good? What’s bad? What could be improved? Those are the kinds of questions reviews answer to help consumers determine if they should buy the device or hold off and wait for something else. Knowing that it’s somewhat of a pain to sift through all the reviews that have cropped up around the new iPad, eWEEK thought it might be worth it to help you get the finer points in one place. So, here are some of the themes that have been coming up in all the new iPad reviews that have landed.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/New-iPad-Reviews-What-Citics-Are-Saying-777785/

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The New iPad Could Clog 4G Networks

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Those who are lucky enough to acquire a new iPad this Friday, when the latest version of the tablet goes on sale, may find their download speeds slowing over the coming months. They may also run up against the data limits in their wireless contracts. The new tablet connects to 4G networks that are today only lightly used. If it sells in large numbers, the device will place significant new demands on those networks, experts say, requiring bandwidth to be spread more thinly. The new iPad’s “retina” display, capable of playing full 1080p HD video, will likely encourage heavy data usage that will exacerbate that effect. Many users may also get their first taste of what it is like to bump up against the data limits that are now a standard part of wireless contracts.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39896/?p1=

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’90s Tech Icons: Where Are They Now?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:28 am

by Mashable

The 1990s comprised a fascinating, transitional time in technology — more people were buying home computers, Windows 3.1 was released, and we all started logging on to this thing called the World Wide Web. Of course, none of that innovation would have been possible without the creative minds behind those advancements. To that end, let’s catch up with some of the people that made ’90s computers and Internet culture cool.

http://mashable.com/2012/03/16/90s-tech-icons-where-are-they-now/

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March 23, 2012

Ebooks: the format of the academic future

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by Steven Schwartz, the Guardian

We have a profoundly different higher education system to the one that took shape in the 19th and 20th centuries. Technology is influencing higher education as never before. As Google chief Eric Schmidt has said, the internet isn’t making inevitable change faster; it has become the engine of change. I do not believe in technological determinism. Nothing is inevitable, and we have the power to shape the way we use technologies. But, a technological revolution is taking place and it will go ahead with or without us. As one who has frequently called on universities to embrace and adapt to technological change, I leapt at the opportunity to write an ebook. It is no MITx, MIT’s online learning initiative – but it is the first ebook to be published by an academic at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia

http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/mar/15/ebooks-academic-future-universities-steven-schwartz

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The Schools That Rule The Web

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by Educators Technology

As technology is creeping into our lives, things are no longer the same as they were before. An example of this change is clearly seen in education. Decades ago people never knew or heard of something called online learning. Brick and mortar institutions were the only places to get educated. Are they still ? Definitely no, many colleges and universities are offering their degrees online. People can study at the comforts of their couches right at home. This is a huge achievement and the infographic below will brief you on some of the best education sites .

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/03/schools-that-rule-web.html

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WebQuests + Wikis = WebQuest 2.0

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by Nancy Rubin

WebQuests are an online tool for learning. According to Bernie Dodge, WebQuest expert, they are a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web. WebQuests are a great way to promote 21st Century skills. They are also a great way to teach students how to use web-based resources effectively.

http://nancy-rubin.com/2012/03/17/webquests-wikis-webquest-2-0/

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March 22, 2012

Instruction for Masses Knocks Down Campus Walls

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:38 am

By TAMAR LEWIN, New York Times

The pitch for the online course sounds like a late-night television ad, or maybe a subway poster: “Learn programming in seven weeks starting Feb. 20. We’ll teach you enough about computer science that you can build a Web search engine like Google or Yahoo.” But this course, Building a Search Engine, is taught by two prominent computer scientists, Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford research professor and Google fellow, and David Evans, a professor on leave from the University of Virginia. The big names have been a big draw. Since Udacity, the for-profit startup running the course, opened registration on Jan. 23, more than 90,000 students have enrolled in the search-engine course and another taught by Mr. Thrun, who led the development of Google’s self-driving car. Welcome to the brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs — a tool for democratizing higher education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

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Khan Academy online courses transforming the educational approach

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by Anthony Carranza, Minneapolis Tech Culture Examiner

The Khan Academy, a non-profit organization created by Salman Khan in 2006, is like all things that are new perhaps redefining education; It is also fine-tuning many aspects of the traditional models for education in America. Its website has over 3000 videos that cover relevant subjects like biology, chemistry, K-12 math and more. Some noteworthy metrics to consider the Khan Academy in social media, particularly its YouTube Channel currently has registered 295,000 subscribers and earned close to 130 million video views. So is there a buzz or educational value about this online venture? Is the content from Khan Academy merit to be part of the curriculum?

http://www.examiner.com/tech-culture-in-minneapolis/khan-academy-online-courses-transforming-the-educational-approach

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We Need Disruptive Technology in Our Classrooms

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:29 am

By: Andrew S. Clark, CNBC

When we think of disruptive technologies like smart phones and web conferencing that have transformed American business, we tend to see the positive. In the classroom, skepticism concerning these types of game changing technologies runs high. Fair or unfair, education technology has been more heavily scrutinized than virtually every other aspect of society where technology has been introduced. Perhaps this is because some pundits have made the case that incorporating technology into the classroom is largely driven by commercial, not pedagogical considerations? Clearly, market incentives are the driving force behind some of the most significant digital integration trends in education today – but the pundits miss the bigger point: These market forces are actually working in favor of the students.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46760210

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March 21, 2012

Understanding the Implications of Online Learning for Educational Productivity

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:44 am

by the US Dept of Education

This report by SRI calls for further research and identifies nine areas for possible gains in productivity in K/12 via online learning:

1) Broadening access in ways that dramatically reduce the cost of providing access to quality educational resources and experiences, particularly for students in remote locations or other situations where challenges such as low student enrollments make the traditional school model impractical;

2) Engaging students in active learning with instructional materials and access to a wealth of resources that can facilitate the adoption of research-based principles and best practices from the learning sciences, an application that might improve student outcomes without substantially increasing costs;

3) Individualizing and differentiating instruction based on student performance on diagnostic assessments and preferred pace of learning, thereby improving the efficiency with which students move through a learning progression;

4) Personalizing learning by building on student interests, which can result in increased student motivation, time on task and ultimately better learning outcomes;

5) Making better use of teacher and student time by automating routine tasks and enabling teacher time to focus on high-value activities;

6) Increasing the rate of student learning by increasing motivation and helping students grasp concepts and demonstrate competency more efficiently;

7) Reducing school-based facilities costs by leveraging home and community spaces in addition to traditional school buildings;

8 ) Reducing salary costs by transferring some educational activities to computers, by increasing teacher-student ratios or by otherwise redesigning processes that allow for more effective use of teacher time; and

9) Realizing opportunities for economies of scale through reuse of materials and their large-scale distribution.

http://ctl.sri.com/news/ImplicationsOnlineLearning2.pdf

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Reach for the laptop

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

By MICHAEL PURVIS, THE SAULT STAR

One autistic teenager is turning his education around thanks to his laptop computer and the tech-savvy teachers at his high school. “On last semester’s report card, I fell short of 90% by the smallest possible margin,” boasts Matthew Doherty, a Grade 11 student at St. Basil Secondary School. Matthew, 16, has Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder characterized by social difficulties, trouble communicating, and a tendency to focus intently on select interests. In school, it means Matthew has trouble with organization — remembering what assignments he needs to do, when to hand them in and when to expect his next test in class. But in the three years since Matthew started high school, he has found he is having less and less trouble with those things, and he attributes it to a laptop program that lets students and teachers interact digitally.

http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3501940

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School Report 2012: Do kids want to code in class?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

By Jane Wakefield, BBC

Technology is central to most young people’s lives, but there is a disconnect between how they use it at home and how they are taught it. It is a point not lost on Education Secretary Michael Gove, who wants to radically overhaul the ICT curriculum by next September. He wants to do two quite opposite things: modernise and go back to basics.The retro approach would see pupils return to the “beneath the bonnet” lessons of the 1980s when schoolchildren had little choice but to learn to code because computers were altogether less intuitive. In a survey of 100 pupils, the school reporters found mixed feelings about the changes. Thirty-five percent disagreed with Mr Gove’s view of ICT as “dull”, while 28% thought it was a good idea to make changes. The rest were undecided. While there appears to be plenty of evidence of dull ICT education across the country, I sense something of a backlash from teachers, aggrieved that their efforts are not being recognised” As a result they have been teaching programming in the classroom for a while.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17373972

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March 20, 2012

Internet privacy a growing concern, Pew finds

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by Benny Evangelista, San Francisco Chronicle

Americans are using online search engines, especially Google, more than ever before, but an increasing number worry that the tracking of their online activities is an invasion of privacy, according to a new study released Friday. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 73 percent of users said they would not be OK with an online search engine keeping track of their queries even if the data provides personalized results in the future.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/09/BUIO1NIIJ6.DTL&type=tech

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Internet Explorer 10: touch-friendly, and securely sandboxed

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

By Peter Bright, ars Technica

Microsoft is continuing to show off new features coming in its Internet Explorer 10 Web browser, with a couple of posts describing its touch-friendly Metro interface and its enhanced security. The current trend in browser design, led by Google Chrome, is to scale back the browser’s interface so that it takes less and less of the screen, devoting more room to the Web content itself. Windows 8’s Metro design similarly removes window chrome to put the focus on content. Metro Internet Explorer 10 is the logical conclusion of this trend: most of the time it has no visible interface at all, leaving only the Web page visible. Its app bar, displayed by swiping from the top or bottom of the screen or right clicking the mouse, contains tabs, the address bar, and so on.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/03/internet-explorer-10-touch-friendly-and-securely-sandboxed.ars

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New iPad: a Million More Pixels Than HDTV

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG, Wall Street Journal

Apple’s iPad could be described as a personal display through which you see and manipulate text, graphics, photos and videos often delivered via the Internet. So, how has the company chosen to improve its wildly popular tablet? By making that display dramatically better and making the delivery of content dramatically faster. Apple’s latest iPad could be described as like getting a new eyeglasses prescription, WSJ’s Walt Mossberg says. Its dramatically better display and faster content delivery make you suddenly realize what you’ve been missing. There are other changes in the new, third-generation iPad—called simply “iPad,” with no number, which goes on sale on Friday at the same base price as its predecessor, $499. But the key upgrades are to those core features—the 9.7-inch screen and the data speed over cellular networks. These upgrades are massive. Using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription—you suddenly realize what you thought looked sharp before wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could be.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304459804577281472610072322.html

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March 19, 2012

TED launches learning initiative at YouTube

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by Dawn.com

The alliance with the world’s top online video venue marked the start of a TED-Ed initiative to combine exceptional teaching with eye-catching animations to make captivating lessons available to anyone on the Internet. “We want to show that learning can be thrilling,” said TED ‘curator’ Chris Anderson.  “By turning great lessons into vivid scholastic tools, these TED-Ed videos are designed to catalyze curiosity,” he continued. Videos made available at youtube.com/tededucation were designed to be captivating and short, lasting no longer than 10 minutes so teachers could easily show them to students in real-world classrooms. Lessons are geared for students and teachers but should appeal to “lifelong learners,” according to TED.

http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/12/ted-launches-learning-initiative-at-youtube.html

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Howard Rheingold: Knowing How to Collaborate Is Essential

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:33 am

by Roland Legrand, Media Shift

I just read the Kindle edition of “Net Smart,” written by writer and critic Howard Rheingold. The book provides a thoughtful analysis of some major theories and discourses about the “always on” era, while at the same time giving new insights and practical advice about the literacies we need to thrive in this environment. I’ve followed Rheingold’s posts and videos for some time now, attended presentations, and participated in some of his courses. He’s not only an expert in virtual communities (a term he coined himself) and social media, but also teaches digital journalism. I had the opportunity to interview him recently about the implications of his thinking on media, journalism and journalism education.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/03/howard-rheingold-knowing-how-to-collaborate-is-essential072.html

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Tablet Ownership Triples Among College Students

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:29 am

By Nick DeSantis, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The number of college students who say they own tablets has more than tripled since a survey taken last year, according to new poll results released today. The Pearson Foundation sponsored the second-annual survey, which asked 1,206 college students and 204 college-bound high-school seniors about their tablet ownership. The results suggest students increasingly prefer to use the devices for reading. One-fourth of the college students surveyed said they owned a tablet, compared with just 7 percent last year. Sixty-three percent of college students believe tablets will replace textbooks in the next five years—a 15 percent increase over last year’s survey. More than a third said they intended to buy a tablet sometime in the next six months.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/tablet-ownership-triples-among-college-students/35764

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March 18, 2012

Game consoles like XBox and PlayStation killing future innovation – Raspberry Pi CEO

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

by Claire Connelly, Herald Sun

Remember the 1980s, where you could write your own computer software and program it to do all sorts of nifty tricks to impress your friends? This joy of discovery is what the tiny, programmable Raspberry Pi computer is trying to save, says founder, CEO and Cambridge graduate Ebon Upton. Though some gaming companies like XBox were beginning to come out of the closed platform cave, (Microsoft released the source code for the Kinect free last year), Mr Upton told News.com.au gaming consoles were killing technological progress because they were not programmable by default. “I think it’s unfortunate these programmable machines were killed by PCs,” he said. “Though some PCs are technically programmable, they don’t try and tempt you into programming. I think these closed platforms are a threat.” The Raspberry Pi on the other hand is the size of a credit card and provides all the basics any programmer would need for just US$25.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/gaming-consoles-like-xbox-and-playstation-killing-future-innovation-says-raspberry-pi-ceo/story-fn5izo02-1226297332981

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Facebook message: Girls, too, can do computers

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:32 am

by Brier Dudley, Seattle Times

If video games can inspire boys to study computer science, perhaps Facebook can have the same effect on girls. Something has to change because the number of female computer-science students has mysteriously fallen since the mid-1980s, when nearly 40 percent of the majors were women. Lately it’s been less than 20 percent, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. That’s despite concerted efforts by Microsoft and other software companies to draw more women into the talent pipeline. Now Facebook is taking a crack at this puzzle, flexing its newfound stature and influence.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017719779_brier12.html

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YouTube to host online learning initiative

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by Reuters

The non-profit group behind thought-provoking TED conferences on Monday launched an education channel on YouTube in a bid to make learning irresistible. The alliance with the world’s top online video venue marked the start of a TED-Ed initiative to combine exceptional teaching with eye-catching animations to make captivating lessons available to anyone on the Internet. “We want to show that learning can be thrilling,” said TED ‘curator’ Chris Anderson. “By turning great lessons into vivid scholastic tools, these TED-Ed videos are designed to catalyze curiosity,” he continued.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/45443-youtube-to-host-online-learning-initiative.html

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