Educational Technology

By Scott Travis, Sun Sentinel

Florida’s colleges are on high alert in the battle against what they fear is a growing number of tech-savvy cheaters. Smartphones and social networking have made cheating easier and more widespread than ever, some say. And experts add that if schools don’t crack down on the dishonesty now, there could be long-term consequences for society. “Do you want to drive over a bridge designed by an engineer who cheated his way through school?” asked Jen Day Shaw, dean of students at the University of Florida. “Do you want to be operated on by a surgeon who cheats? If the students don’t learn honesty and good values here, what are they going to do in the real world?” Students will start final exams during the coming weeks, and the stakes can be huge. A poor grade in even one class may be enough to squash a student’s chances to get into graduate school. For those already struggling, it can mean the difference between graduating and dropping out.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/highered/fl-cheating-college-students-20120406,0,3605621.story

by Fastcoexist

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit, already rates thousands of movies, video games, books, and apps for age-appropriateness on things like sex, violence and language. Their new ratings, created by a cadre of Ph.Ds, aims to measure something more complicated: the educational value of a video, app, or game–not just according to the Common Core academic standards on things like math and reading, but also on even more difficult-to-evaluate qualities like social and emotional intelligence and creativity. “We created a fairly detailed rubric based on factors shown to be important to kids’ learning in any setting–things like, is the learning baked-in vs. extraneous to the material? Is there feedback present, and does the child experience build in their performance?” says Seeta Pai, managing director for education and research at Common Sense. Parents, teachers, and young people will be able to annotate the ratings with their own feedback.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679657/transforming-the-market-for-kids-media-by-rating-its-educational-value

BY NICK JUDD, Tech President

When The New York Times began its coverage of the revolution in Egypt last year, YouTube videos led its blog posts. One of the most interesting experiments in online education, Khan Academy, began as a series of YouTube videos. Google’s video-sharing site continues to power Khan Academy’s tutorials. And YouTube has been reaching out to nonprofits with products like branding capabilities that aren’t publicly available, and a feature that allows nonprofits access to a Google Checkout-powered “Donate” button. Now early Google employee and former YouTube product director Hunter Walk leading is “YouTube for Good,” an initiative formalized last year to make the video site more useful to activists, educators and nonprofits. The initiative draws on time contributed from existing teams inside the company, but also relies on a small and growing staff — when I spoke to Walk on Thursday, he was on the hunt for an engineer — to work specifically on products for those groups.

http://techpresident.com/news/22030/how-youtube-wants-make-itself-more-nonprofit-and-activist-friendly

by onlinelearninginsights

“In the course of the next 10 years, a new generation—Generation C—will emerge…As they grow up, this highly connected generation will live “online” most of their waking hours…” (Friedrich et al., 2012). Move over generation X, Y and Z. The new group in town is Generation ‘C’, dubbed so in February 2012 by Nielsen Wire – yet generation ‘C’ is universal (in developed nations) according to Booz & Company Global management company. I predict we’re going to hear much more about this expanding, connected and media savvy group of 18 – 34 year olds, and we educators need to sit up and pay attention. I’ll share with you what I’ve learned about this group, and more importantly what this means for teaching and learning sooner rather than later.

http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/how-generation-c-will-change-education-forever/

BY PAT LEWIS, VANCOUVER SUN

Classroom sizes too large? How about one teacher to hundreds of thousands of students! Progressive tests and reports too time consuming for teachers to produce? How about having them done automatically! Students not able to all learn at the same rate, thus either holding back the faster ones or leaving behind those that need more help? Not a problem, all automatic! Need to free up teacher’s time to allow them more one-on-one time with students? Done! Not enough money in the budget to accomplish the above? How about free?

http://www.vancouversun.com/Kahn+Academy+points+future+education/6429596/story.html

by Aina Irbe, SSB Bart Group Training Manager

I am intrigued by the intersection of usability and accessibility in the many delivery options offered by the online learning environment. Many terms define and describe the online delivery environments, and as these options expand the audiences and learners also grow more diverse. The downside to the exponential growth of e-Learning is that the more e-Learning expands around the world, the more disparate the usability and accessibility becomes, leading to more incongruent learner experiences. I mean, how many of us have been to websites that just don’t work well? How many times have we just given up when trying to locate information because it wasn’t clear where to navigate or just took too long to find? Even worse, how many of us have taken online training that frustrated us with poor or inconsistent navigation, or led us to a dead end where we couldn’t complete the course? Frustrating, right?

https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/2012/04/09/e-learning-accessibility-usability/

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

The following is a look at one of our most popular articles from the April issue of the Edudemic Magazine. Written by our very own editor, Terry Heick, the piece looks at the past, present, and future of interactive technology. Terry examines what brought us to the point where we need information 24-7-365. Google is a big part of the classroom experience and it would not surprise me to see students wearing Google Glasses so they could have a seamlessly integrated experience where education and technology blend together like never before. But first, what exactly are Google Glasses?

http://edudemic.com/2012/04/will-your-students-soon-be-wearing-google-glasses/

by Edudemic

Google Docs is such an incredible tool for college students, offering collaboration, portability, ease of use, and widespread acceptance. But there are so many options, both hidden and obvious, that there’s a good chance you’re not using Google Docs to its fullest capability. We’ve discovered 50+ great tips for getting the most out of Google Docs as a student, with awesome ideas and tricks for collaboration, sharing, and staying productive.

http://edudemic.com/2012/04/50-little-known-ways-google-docs-can-help-in-education/

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

Oh sure, Google’s great and all…until you realize it’s not perfect. Google is designed for everyone on the planet. But what if Google was totally rebuilt with education in mind? It’d probably look exactly like instaGrok. InstaGrok is a discovery and learning engine that’s captured my attention for the past week or so. After putting it through it’s paces, I’m happy to endorse it and encourage you to give it a whirl. Without going into too much detail, instaGrok basically lets you punch in any search term (I’d recommend using a subject matter or item you’re learning about) and get a neatly formatted and interactive experience as search results.

http://edudemic.com/2012/04/instagrok-the-search-engine-made-just-for-education/

by Julie Delello, Edudemic

Children learn social skills by interacting freely with peers. Playgrounds provide an opportunity for children from different classrooms to interact and enhance skill development. What if there was a place for the teachers to play, learn new skills, and network with others? For some, the relatively new social network site Pinterest has become a virtual playground allowing users to “pin” inspiring images from around the web.

http://edudemic.com/2012/03/the-teachers-quick-guide-to-pinterest/

by Lena Kim, Digital Trends

With demand for higher education greater than it’s ever been, could a new business model be a solution to a growing problem? One Silicon Valley CEO thinks so, and hopes to prove it with the Minerva Project. Ben Nelson, former CEO of Snapfish and former chairman of RedBeacon, is looking to shift the paradigm of elite higher education with his latest endeavor, the Minerva Project. An online university seeking to rival Harvard, Yale and other universities of their ilk, the Minerva Project has already attracted a significant amount of interest – and scrutiny – for its novel approach to the business of learning. In an interview with PandoDaily today, Nelson says that the idea was inspired in part by his time at the Wharton School and in part by a growing worldwide demand for access to quality higher education. “Universities have frozen their class sizes,” said Nelson, “and there is a market that is begging for a service that is in increasingly short supply.”

http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/minerva-project-the-online-university-challenging-the-ivy-league/

by Yale News

Seven new Yale College courses — in subjects ranging from the great 20th-century American novelists and the philosophy of human nature to financial markets and organic chemistry — have been added to Open Yale Courses, the University’s open educational initiative. The content for each of these courses is available for free to anyone with access to the Internet. The seven courses, along with 35 posted previously, are featured on a redesigned website.

http://news.yale.edu/2012/04/05/seven-new-open-yale-courses-now-available-free-online-0

by The Arizona Republic

Of all changes to our world being wrought by the Internet, its prospects as an education tool always held the most promise — and the most frustration. As we have learned, the World Wide Web’s vast and ever-growing store of data requires sifting. What is honest research? What is baloney? But the greatest frustration of the Internet as an educational tool has been figuring out how to make it add real value to what students learn. We now may be there. Suddenly, it appears that educators have stumbled onto a genuine “eureka!” moment in the evolutionary merger of traditional classroom education and online learning.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/04/02/20120402editorial0403-teaching-innovation.html

By KELSEY SHEEHY, US News

Some say digital literacy should be required for undergraduates. Earning a college degree often involves completing a list of general education requirements. Aimed at turning out well-rounded graduates, the mandated curriculum can include groups of courses from a variety of disciplines—literature, philosophy, social and physical sciences, history, and foreign languages. As we continue on a track where technology powers everything from our toothbrushes to our textbooks, should computer science be added to the list? “Yes, it absolutely should be,” says Geoffrey Bowker, professor of informatics at the University of California—Irvine. “All aspects of our personal lives and our work lives are affected by computers. We need to know about the tools that we’re working with.”

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/04/03/computer-science-transitions-from-elective-to-requirement-computer-science-transitions-from-elective-to-requirement

By Thomas O’Brien and Edward Fersch, Daily Star

In the 1930s, new transportation technologies changed society. The automobile and its cousins meant that people could travel longer distances in less time. Educators saw the potential of this technology to transform education in rural areas; the school bus was born. Each hollow no longer needed its own school. There was now a safe way for the children from the relatively isolated farm families to travel greater distances to school each day. The one-room schoolhouses were closed and large centralized schools were built in the larger villages. Today, new communication technologies are changing the world. Internet connections, video conferencing and other forms of digital technology have made it possible for us to communicate in real time with more and more people. Our generation needs to realize the potential of this technology to transform education in our time. We no longer need the school bus to bring students to the teacher; we can use this new technology to bring the teacher to the students.

http://thedailystar.com/columns/x1361428302/Time-to-get-off-the-bus-and-on-the-computer

By: Darryl K. Taft, eWeek

Celebrating math, IBM has produced a new math app for the iPad called Minds of Modern Mathematics. To celebrate the history of math and its impact on the world, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has released Minds of Modern Mathematics, a new iPad app. The new app re-imagines a classic 50-foot infographic on the history of math. The husband-and-wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames created the infographic, which was displayed at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. The app, which can be downloaded from the iPad App Store, is an interactive experience for students, teachers and tech fans that illustrates how mathematics has advanced art, science, music and architecture. It reinvents the massive timeline on the history of math from 1000 AD to 1960 that was part of “Mathematica: A World of Numbers…and Beyond,” IBM’s historic World’s Fair exhibit.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/IBM-Delivers-Free-Math-App-for-iPad-178572/

By MELISSA DILLEY, SNP Columbus News

The Upper Arlington City School District isn’t surprised that even middle schoolers today have smart phones, Kindles, iPads and laptops. That’s why, following spring break, Jones and Hastings middle schools began implementing a Bring Your Own Technology policy that was revised recently by the school board to include students in sixth through eighth grades. “I think our students having the ability to bring devices like a Kindle or an iPad or laptop into the classroom for education purposes is exciting,” Hastings Principal Robb Gonda said. “It’s another step forward for us to help them achieve in the classroom.”

http://www.snponline.com/articles/2012/04/05/multiple_papers/schools/alluatechn_20120403_0719pm_4.txt

by Virtual-Strategy

With teachers in the United States regularly going public about their frustration at technology’s impact on spelling, eReflect bucks the trend – announcing that computers may be just what kids need. Textisms and slang among young people are more popular now than ever before. While many are blaming technology for lazy spelling and grammar, eReflect – a leading producer of self-improvement software – believes that computers may actually be the cure. The company is making the claim after noticing the recent story of Ryann Barr, a teacher from Valley High School in Pittsburgh. After noticing her students’ poor spelling, Barr decided to hold a spelling bee to find out just how well her students measured up. After drawing up a list of the ten most commonly misspelled words, Barr claimed that the use of computers made spelling the “least of their (students’) concerns.”

http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2012/04/05/while-america%E2%80%99s-teachers-blame-technology-bad-spelling-ereflect-announces-computers-can-b

By Stephen Noonoo, THE Journal

Thanks in part to a recent 60 Minutes segment with founder Sal Khan, education wunderkind Khan Academy has become very popular. The nonprofit’s video lessons have racked up more than 130 million views to date from a wide spectrum of learners, opening a dialogue among educators coast to coast on the merits of the flipped classroom and the promise of technology to differentiate instruction. At the same time, the company is still very much a startup–30 employees and growing–that admits there is a lot of work to be done before it achieves the lofty goal of providing a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere. THE Journal Associate Editor Stephen Noonoo recently spoke with Khan Academy’s Matt Wahl, who splits his time between the products and implementation teams, about the newly released iPad app, using data in the classroom, and how the company thinks schools can finally dump the “sage on the stage” model once and for all.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/04/05/khan-academy-talks-analytics-oer-and-ipads.aspx

By Leanne Smith, Michigan Live

A university professor in Pennsylvania has completed a study and written a soon-to-be-published paper on the effects of text messaging by college students during class. Students who send and receive texts during class have a hard time paying attention to lectures and risk not learning as much as they would if they weren’t texting and were paying attention. Washington, D.C.’s National Communication Association, will publish the paper in its July print issue of its journal Communication Education. The study’s principal author is Fang-Yi Flora Wei, assistant professor of broadcast communications at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. In the release, she says, “Now we see that in-class texting partially interferes with a student’s ability to pay attention, which prior studies show is necessary for effective cognitive learning.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2012/04/new_study_shows_college_studen.html

By Robert Talbert, Chronicle of Higher Ed

This US News article points out a growing interest among colleges and universities to make basic computer science a required course for all students. Georgia Tech already does this. The article points out that universities not normally considered to be science/technology-heavy are leaning this way too: Every student at Montclair State University in New Jersey must complete a computer science in order to graduate. For most students, that course is Introduction for Computer Applications: Being Fluent with Information Technology. (Music majors take Music and Computer Technology I.)

http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/04/04/making-computer-science-a-requirement/