Educational Technology

by MARK HACHMAN, ReadWriteWeb

How well does Microsoft expect Windows 8 to do? Oddly enough, the company doesn’t want to talk about it. And while maybe the company just being careful, this is not an encouraging sign. On a conference call Thursday afternoon, Wall Street analysts pressed Microsoft executives for specifics about expectations for the forthcoming version of Windows. But Microsoft refused to make any predictions. Analysts have reason to be concerned. Windows 8 represents a radical overhaul of the company’s flagship operating system, one that that some fear may be so radical that it will turn customers off. “We’ll see how it goes,” Microsoft CFO Peter Klein said when pushed for specifics on how the company expects Windows 8, Windows RT or its Surface tablet to sell.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/10/how-is-windows-8-going-to-do-microsoft-doesnt-want-to-talk-about-it.php

by MARK HACHMAN, ReadWriteWeb

Google Thursday announced a new $249 Samsung Chromebook, finally delivering a Web-optimized computer at a price that makes sense for consumers. The “new Samsung Chromebook,” as Google executives officially refer to it, will complement the existing $449 Chromebook and the $329 Chromebox computers, both of which are also manufactured by Samsung. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome and apps for Google, told a San Francisco press conference full of analysts and reporters that the new Chromebooks were the first of many more to be launched with a number of partners. Google will sell the new Chromebooks at Best Buy beginning next week, Pichai said. The new netbooks will also be available via Google’s Google Play online store.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/finally-a-properly-priced-google-chromebook.php

by Edudemic

You’ve all seen it before, or maybe you’re guilty of it: A lovely couple (or family) out to dinner. Both of them with their heads buried in their smartphones, not even looking or talking to one another. We all know that the world is more connected now than it ever has been, and that will only grow as technology continues to develop. But just how connected are we? Take a look at this infographic for some surprising numbers regarding mobile usage. The number of mobile subscriptions in the world averages out to one for 85% of world residents.

• In the UAE, the number of mobile subscriptions averages 2 cellphones per resident.
• The average American sends 15,145 text messages per year.
• 200 cellphones are left in NYC taxis per day

http://edudemic.com/2012/10/just-how-mobile-are-todays-students/

by Edudemic

How do you discover the education news and research that matters to you? Probably by curating a list of the top thought leaders, local people you want to keep track of, and a smattering of other helpful folks. But it’s not always easy to find the thought leaders from around the world you should be following. Whether you agree with what they’re saying, tweeting, or believing … their opinion matters to many. So rather than shutting out a particular point of view, consider adding some of these 50 education thought leaders curated by Online College to your stream to keep it lively and interesting!

[ed note: you are also invited to follow me! @rayschroeder ]

http://edudemic.com/2012/10/worldwide-education-twitter/

by Edudemic

Your students have smartphones. If you’re looking for some simple and straightforward ways to easily integrate these powerful little devices into your classroom, look no further. The following 50 tips are simply that: tips. So use a few and toss the rest. However, be sure to try out at least one or two of them!

http://edudemic.com/2012/10/40-quick-ways-to-use-mobile-phones-in-classrooms/

by Edudemic

Whether you’re a Facebook fan, Twitter lover, Stumbleupon … uh … stumbler, you know there’s something addictive to sharing things online. It’s not just you. Millions of people are seemingly addicted to social media in its many forms. Thanks to a new infographic from Marketo, we now know the 10 common types of social media addicts. Do you fall into one of these categories?

http://edudemic.com/2012/10/social-media-addiction/

by Cloud Tweaks

One of the great aspects of cloud computing is that it is quantifiable. It takes a challenge and accounts for it in hard figures. If it is software, one rents it and pays for the time he or she spends on it. If it is education, particularly, students come to know the time they spend in a remote learning environment will come back to them in the form of a certificate or degree. There are different ways in which the ubiquity and easy accessibility of otherwise expensive resources and data has affected micro-learning. Here are five such ways, beginning with the most quantifiable revolution.

http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2012/10/cloud-computing-is-redefining-micro-learning-in-five-revolutionary-ways/

by Mohammad Issack Santally, Yousra Rajabalee, Dorothy Cooshna-Naik, EURODL

This paper discusses how modern technologies are changing the teacher-student-content relationships from the conception to the delivery of so-called ‘distance’ education courses. The concept of Distance Education has greatly evolved in the digital era of 21st Century. With the widespread use and access to the Internet, exponential growth has been experienced in the field of multimedia and web technologies. These developments have greatly reduced the significance of the term ‘distance’ in Distance Education. Consequently, the term distance stands as a paradox in the globalised networked environments. As a result with new communication and collaboration tools, and possibilities to disseminate high quality audio, video and interactive materials over the information superhighway, the educational design process of distance education materials has new perspectives to explore in order to improve and even re-engineer the overall ‘distance’ teaching and learning concept.

http://www.eurodl.org/?article=521

By Alisha Azevedo, Chronicle of Higher Ed

In an effort to raise student performance in a difficult course, San Jose State University has turned to a “flipped classroom” format, requiring students to watch lecture videos produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and using class time for discussion. And initial data show the method is leading to higher test scores, university officials announced this week.The midterm-examination scores of students in the flipped section were higher than those in the traditional sections, said Mr. Ghadiri. Although the midterm questions were more difficult for the flipped students, their median score was 10 to 11 points higher.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/san-jose-state-u-says-replacing-live-lectures-with-videos-increased-test-scores/40470

By Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

Blackboard has become the latest company to get into the business of helping colleges and universities build online programs. The company, which built its education technology empire on selling software and implementation support, has upped investment in its “online program management services” in an effort to compete with a growing number of entities that are taking aim at the many colleges that are scrambling to reassert, or reinvent, their brands on the increasingly crowded frontier of online higher education. The field of companies courting institutions that need help with the funding and logistics of building a viable online arm is also crowded. Bisk Education and Embanet+Compass, along with Pearson, are perhaps the most visible players, but Academic Partnerships, Deltak, 2tor and Learning House have also built successful businesses doing online program development for colleges.

http://www.gilfuseducationgroup.com/blackboards-new-bag

By Wendy Roshan, Center for Digital Ed

I finally agreed to give the flipped classroom a try. The results were astounding: last year, over half of my students earned a perfect score! More importantly, my students were thrilled with the new class format. They loved having the ability to pause, rewind and replay each lesson at their own pace, as often as they liked. Additionally, this model allowed for increased flexibility, ensuring that a student never missed (or misheard!) any lecture. Another major benefit of the flipped class was evident this year when one student who really wanted to take AP Calculus was unable to fit the class into her schedule. Because of my new class format, she was able to take the class as an independent study. After watching the videos at home, she would come into my office during her free periods to complete problems, and I would sit nearby in case she needed help on difficult material. It ended up being a very successful solution for both of us, which lead to her earning a “5” on the AP exam.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Flipped-Class-Model-Turns-AP-Calculus-Upside-Down.html

by JESSIE CHUANG, Classroom-aid

The use of devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones is pervasive. According to the 2012 ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, a full 86 percent of college students own a laptop, with smartphone ownership topping 60 percent. Clearly, there is need for these devices, and colleges increasingly are providing the infrastructure to make them as useful as possible. ECAR has surveyed undergraduate students annually since 2004 about technology in higher education. In 2012, ECAR collaborated with 195 institutions to collect responses from more than 100,000 students about their technology experiences. The findings are distilled into the broad thematic message for institutions and educators to balance strategic innovation with solid delivery of basic institutional services and pedagogical practices and to know students well enough to understand which innovations they value the most.

http://classroom-aid.com/2012/10/16/ecar-report-of-undergraduate-students-and-technologies/

by Tricia Bobeda, WBEZ

Computer programming seemed like alphabet soup to Keautishay Young when she was a freshman. But after four years at Chicago Tech Academy, she can rattle off half a dozen programming languages she’s comfortable working in. “We learned HTML, CSS, C-Sharp, C++,” Young said. “We learned a little bit of Java, HTML5 and CSS3.” At the charter school on the southwest side, teens aren’t just using computers to browse Facebook. They’re learning to build their own websites and smartphone apps.

http://www.wbez.org/news/tackling-tech-gender-gap-teaching-girls-code-103078

By Dominica Wambold, Stanford Daily

William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University, discussed how online education could help fix crippling student debt in a two-part lecture held on Wednesday and Thursday. (MEHMET INONU/The Stanford Daily) William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University, drew attention to the crippling debt burden placed on students by universities in his two-part talk on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Emphasizing the power of institutions like Stanford and Princeton, he argued that a cooperative and immediate effort by elite universities could pull America’s national higher education system back from the brink of disaster. His presentation, part of the annual Tanner Lectures on Human Values hosted at nine universities across the world, set out to explain causes and present solutions for what he considers the dire economic threats stemming from the increasing costs of higher education.

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/10/12/bowen-pressures-top-universities-to-fix-increasing-education-costs/

By Zack Whittaker, ZDNet

Leaked pricing details of the expected iPad mini suggest the device will cost in-between the iPod touch and the fully-fledged iPad. A leaked inventory system screenshot has purportedly leaked the pricing scheme behind Apple’s upcoming 7-inch tablet, dubbed the iPad mini. The base price of the iPad mini (8GB storage, Wi-Fi only) is set at €249, or $320 at the current exchange rate, according to German site MobileGeeks (via GigaOm). The leaked screenshot is reportedly from a widely used inventory system in Europe and Asia used by mobile firms and cellular networks.

http://www.zdnet.com/alleged-ipad-mini-models-pricing-leaks-online-7000005732/?s_cid=e539

by Benny Evangelista, San Francisco Chronicle

Brewster Kahle was a 19-year-old computer science student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when a friend posed a simple, yet life-changing question: “What can you do with your life that is worthwhile?” Kahle is still happily pursuing his second big idea – to create the digital-age version of the Great Library of Alexandria. His Internet Archive – fittingly based in an old Richmond District church that architecturally harks back to the ancient Egyptian library – is building a rich repository of modern digital culture. It’s best known for the online Wayback Machine, which provides a searchable online museum of the Internet, archiving more than 150 billion Web pages that have appeared since 1996. The nonprofit archive stretches beyond the Internet. It has recorded 350,000 television news broadcasts, including reports from around the world during the week of the 2001 terrorist attacks, and stores 200,000 digitized books.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Brewster-Kahle-s-Internet-Archive-3946898.php

by Kevin Mathews, Care2

Schools in San Antonio, Texas have unveiled new technology that places a radio-frequency identification chip on its students so it can monitor their whereabouts throughout the day. As The Huffington Post and RT report, the chip is implanted in the students’ IDs, which are to be worn around the neck constantly. Despite protests from students and parents, the Northside Independent School District says it will be expanding the program to over 100 schools and nearly 100,000 students. School officials have threatened that students who refuse to wear their monitoring devices are subject to punishments like suspension or being transferred to another school. Currently, students without their IDs are also not allowed to participate in afterschool activities, eat in the cafeteria or go to the library.

http://www.care2.com/causes/how-schools-use-computer-chips-to-monitor-your-kids.html

by FRUZSINA EÖRDÖGH, ReadWriteWeb

YouTube is still the pesky younger sibling of television, which is the wicked uncle of Hollywood. But the social video site is slowly becoming a formidable medium in its own right, creating new business models and spheres of influence for – literally – a million rising stars. OpenSlate, which describes its services as delivering “actionable information about the value of online video to advertisers,” recently put together an infographic analyzing the top 1,000 YouTube channels. Some of the findings are mind-blowing, like the fact that over one million YouTubers run ads on their content. To put it another way, YouTube writes checks to more than one million people monthly. That’s more than the U.S. television industry employs. The highest-performing 1,000 make a cool six figures a year. According to OpenSlate, the average revenue for the top 1,000 channels is $23,000 a month for an average annual payout of $276,000. (Contrary to popular belief, YouTube money is not easy money. Many of the top YouTubers have been at it for years. They produce content regularly, and employ cameramen, editors, researchers, managers and writers.)

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/infographic-youtubes-top-1-000-channels-reveal-emerging-power-of-social-video.php

By Peter Flanagan, Independent.ie

IT’S taken a little more than two years, but tablet computers, such as iPads, are now causing havoc in the PC market. According to a new study from research firm IHS iSuppli, personal computer sales are expected to fall this year for the first time in more than a decade, as tablets begin to make significant inroads into their market. The study forecasts some 348.7 million computers will be bought this year around the world, down from 352.8m in 2011. Assuming that forecast holds, and with the back to school — the busiest time for laptop sales — already passed, it will be the first time since 2001 that PC sales have declined. Meanwhile, technology firm Gartner said PC shipments fell 8pc during the third quarter of the year.

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/apples-ipad-takes-a-massive-bite-out-of-pc-sales-3258200.html

by Katie Hafner, Sydney Morning Herald

The history of medicine is defined by advances born of bioscience. But never before has it been driven to this degree by digital technology. The proliferation of gadgets, apps and web-based information has given clinicians — especially young ones like Rajkomar, who is 28 — a black bag of new tools: new ways to diagnose symptoms and treat patients, to obtain and share information, to think about what it means to be both a doctor and a patient. And it has created something of a generational divide. Older doctors admire, even envy, their young colleagues’ ease with new technology. But they worry that the human connections that lie at the core of medical practice are at risk of being lost.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/redefining-medicine-with-apps-and-ipads-20121010-27ceg.html

by Jeremy Friedman, edtech digest

Data integration and data standardization are a major obstacle for school districts. As districts collect increasing amounts of information on their students, from attendance records to test scores, they are seeking new ways to store, analyze and view this data to improve the academic performance of students and help teachers improve their processes. More recently, there has been the emergence of consumer-focused education technology focused solely on the individual teacher. Before these technologies, managing data was more feasible because a majority of the technology was managed and deployed at a school district level. Now there is a combination of school district technology, as well as self-service tools that are adopted by students, parents, and teachers without direct involvement of school districts. Newer companies are often hesitant to integrate with these local systems because data synchronization is complicated and expensive.

http://edtechdigest.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/the-data-dilemma-in-education/