Educational Technology

By Editorial Board, Duke Chronicle

It is coming. After years of forecasting, anticipating and strategizing, online education is making bold strides in elite higher education. Duke reached an important milestone by announcing its collaboration with Semester Online, a platform created by the company 2U that will allow students to take online courses at Duke and nine other universities for credit. Students need not attend any of the consortium universities, as long as they pass Semester Online’s admissions requirements. For-credit online courses feel inevitable given the growing momentum of online platforms in higher education generally. But Duke’s participation in Semester Online seems to be the result of a thoughtful and productive partnership with 2U. Semester Online will have real benefits for the University.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/their-online-credit

BY ksssann

The new consortium will allow students from the ten participating universities to enroll in and receive credit in a wide range of online course offerings.. Students attending colleges or universities outside the consortium’s universe still can apply to take the courses. According to one source, there is a possibility that other universities will be joining this latest consortium, but nothing has been confirmed as yet. This is 2U’s first venture into online undergraduate platforms. The company’s previous online learning platforms were confined to graduate programs developed in concert with individual universities, such as the online master’s degree in public health offered by George Washington University.

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13426449-more-gains-for-online-education-new-consortium-brings-big-players-into-the-mix

by Michael Fitzgerald, Technology Review

Boundless Learning, a Boston company that has begun giving away free electronic textbooks covering college subjects like American history, anatomy and physiology, economics, and psychology. What’s controversial is how Boundless creates these texts. The company trawls for public material on sites like Wikipedia and then crafts it into online books whose chapters track closely to those of top-selling college titles. In April, Boundless was sued by several large publishers who accused the startup of engaging in “the business model of theft.” Theft or not, the college textbook industry is ripe for a disruptive shock from the Internet. Publishers today operate using what Mark Perry, a professor at the University of Michigan, calls a “cartel-style” model: students are required to buy specific texts at high prices. Perry has calculated that prices for textbooks have been rising at three times the rate of inflation since the 1980s.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506371/free-textbooks-spell-disruption-for-college-publishers/

By DANIELLE CURTIS, Nashua Telegraph

Melanie Conley was sitting at her desk Tuesday, hard at work on a project about the life processes of plants. “I love working on the computer,” Melanie said, nearly jumping with excitement. Melanie and her classmates moved with ease through Microsoft PowerPoint, making elaborate slide shows complete with illustrations and photographs, animated text, and even voice recordings and videos. The project was part of the classroom’s efforts to increase technology in all areas of the curriculum, a task made easier this year for the class, and another at Mount Pleasant Elementary School, thanks to a $90,000 grant from Dell and Vermont nonprofit Digital Wish.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/984140-469/digital-wish-grant-gives-nashua-classrooms-one-to-one.html

By Reid Creager, Charlotte Observer

Steve Hicks finds it ironic: Some of the technology that’s intended to improve our quality of life can do just the opposite. So he does something about it. The Covenant Day School AP language teacher recently completed the sixth annual Technology Freeze-Out for his high school students, most of whom were surprised to find that no Facebook and less texting and less iPad use was a good thing. Highlights of the weeklong challenge included no Facebook visits and only 30 minutes a day for students to use other technologies such as the Internet, email, iPads, television and video games.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/16/3669868/students-control-their-gadgets.html

by Hal Hodson, New Scientist

Ecstacy. Joy. Sadness. Despair. The sweeping lines and blocks of colour in abstract art prompt us to respond emotionally in ways that we do not really understand. Now computers are getting in on the act, and the results could add a new dimension to the weird world of artificial creativity. The pioneering abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky (whose work is pictured) suggested that the emotional effects of abstract art are “objective, determined by the characteristics of the colours and their interactions”. If that is true, machines should be able to get a handle on those emotions, too. It turns out that they can. A team led by Nicu Sebe at the University of Trento in Italy used machine vision to analyse 500 abstract paintings at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628916.000-computers-identify-what-makes-abstract-art-move-us.html

by eLearning Industry

Does your learners prefer acquiring and processing information via images, pictures, maps, graphs, charts, illustrations, and other visual aids? Since they are visual learners have you though of using infographics at your course? At the List of Free Tools to Create Infographics for your Learners you will find 22 Free tools to help your learners acquire knowledge the “visual” way.

Top 5  recommendations for creating learning Infographics

• Incorporate much imagery into your infographics
• Replace words with images
• Use color to highlight key learning information
• Use many “visual words”
• Use 3D images for key concepts

http://elearningindustry.com/subjects/general/item/361-list-of-free-tools-to-create-infographics-for-your-learners

by Christopher Pappas, elearningindustry

Would you like to produce a podcast for free? To create or edit an audio file? To integrate the recording on your own website or blog? At the list of Free Podcast tools you will find 15 free tools that you will make your life easier. I highly encourage you to see:

List of Free Screen Capturing Tools

List of Free Photo and Image Editing Tools

Free Testing and Quizzing Tools for Online Education

Free Podcast Tools

http://elearningindustry.com/subjects/tools/item/358-free-podcast-tools

by Teresa Watanabe, LA Times

A new college program that will primarily select students by personal characteristics -– grit, resiliency and motivation –- rather than test scores began accepting applications this week for campuses in California and Colorado. Portmont College at Mount St. Mary’s aims to give students who have “the will but not the way” high-quality, personalized programs featuring online learning, success coaches and other services — all for the bargain price of $5,240 per year. The program, which will initially launch with a few hundred students in San Francisco and Denver, is a nonprofit joint venture between Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles and MyCollege Foundation, a charity of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has donated $3 million to the effort. “If you think about the American dream as offering a fair shot to all, it’s not as fair as it used to be,” Srikant Vasan, Portmont’s founder and president, said Tuesday. “This is our opportunity to make the dream true again.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/new-college-program-targets-students-with-grit-not-high-test-scores-.html

by Amy Scott, Marketplace

There’s a moment in John Covach’s course on the history of rock music when he takes apart the Beatles song that launched the British Invasion. Until now only students at the University of Rochester could take Covach’s class. Starting next fall it’ll be open to students at Duke, Northwestern and Vanderbilt — online. Rochester is one of ten universities teaming up to offer online courses to one another’s students. Students from outside can also apply. Unlike massive online courses, these classes will be small. Think the opening credits of “The Brady Bunch.” Also unlike most free online courses, students will earn full college credit. Ed Macias, provost of Washington University in St. Louis, says, “we want the online learning experience to be as rich and robust as that we already have in our in-classroom experience.” Speaking of rich, that experience will cost just as much as traditional classes — roughly $4,000 a course.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/education/anti-mooc-small-costly-online-courses

By Jessica Pena, Daily Californian

When Carlos Noreña entered UC Berkeley as a freshman in 1988, he, like so many university students, “came armed with a large, boxy Apple Macintosh computer.” As students, the computer is our lifeline, our bread and butter, the indispensable utility belt to our Batman. But, for Noreña, the situation was not the glamorous lifestyle of personal laptops and instantly accessible lolcatz. “I was one of maybe five students on my dorm floor to have my own computer,” he said, “so my room, as a result, was a hub of activity, as my floormates clamored to finish up their term papers, or, more commonly, to play what in those days qualified as awesome video games.” It seems impossible for us now — with projectors in nearly every classroom, multiple computing facilities within reach, and bSpace — to fathom this world in which personal computers were so scarce. Visions of dystopian landscapes emerge. They are barren, barbaric landscapes where people had to walk, check out and — it pains me to say — turn pages in a book to find out what exactly was the Jugurthine War (note: an old war, apparently).

http://www.dailycal.org/2012/11/16/a-look-back-at-uc-berkeleys-computer-evolution/

by Rachel Metz, MIT Technology Review

As smartphones skyrocketed in popularity, we got used to using our fingertips to navigate their touch screens with pokes, taps, swipes, and two-finger pinches. There’s more to our fingers than just the tips, though, and a startup called Qeexo aims to take advantage of this with technology that can differentiate between fingertips, nails, and knuckles. The San Jose, California-based company’s technology, called FingerSense, can be used to do things like bring up a menu of options (akin to right-clicking on a mouse) on an e-mail with the knock of a knuckle, or enable new kinds of controls in games. Currently in talks with phone manufacturers, Qeexo hopes to have FingerSense installed in smartphones within a year.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/507516/qeexos-touch-screen-tech-can-distinguish-fingernails-from-knuckles/

By Anna Kårhammar, E&T

School children who use a tablet computer benefit the most when allowed to take it home, rather than just using it in school, reveals research from the University of Hull. The iPad Scotland Evaluation Study set out to establish the impact of handheld computer tablet devices in schools, and found that personal ‘ownership’ of such devices is the single most important factor for successful use of the technology. The study is the largest of its kind ever conducted within the UK, covering students from eight schools across six Scottish Local Authorities over a six-month period. “We saw very early on that the biggest impact came from personal ownership of the computer, and being able to take it home,” said Kevin Burden, principal investigator on the research project. The research focused on four central themes in order to evaluate the overall effectiveness of these devices in assisting with learning, and was carried out by researchers from the Technology Enhanced Learning Research group at the Faculty of Education at the University. The first theme – how tablet devices impact on teaching and learning generally – found that benefits included greater motivation, engagement, parental involvement and understanding of complex ideas.

http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2012/nov/scottish-schools.cfm

By Alisha George, Carroll County Times

Carroll’s school superintendent said he will consider making changes concerning the new palm-scanning technology being used in several school system cafeterias after backlash from some parents. Superintendent Steve Guthrie said he will meet with his staff and discuss issues that have been brought up by parents and community members, such as privacy concerns and parental rights. But he doesn’t guarantee that any changes will be made. “I’m going to look at the reasons to see if there are any compelling reasons to do anything differently than we’re doing now,” he said.

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/school-system-considers-changes-to-hand-scanning-implementation/article_eaf96d6f-cebb-5dd5-b774-08285b784cce.html

by UK MSN

Innovation charity Nesta claimed millions of pounds worth of cutting-edge technology is sitting unused in school cupboards. UK schools are spending more than £450 million a year on hi-tech computing equipment, with “little or no evidence” about the impact on learning, a report has warned. The report from the innovation charity Nesta warned that schools were “buying into the hype and lure of digital education” without thinking through how new tablet computers, whiteboards and games are going to be used. As a result, millions of pounds worth of cutting-edge technology is sitting unused in school cupboards. The report, entitled Decoding Learning, found that modern technology was largely being used to support existing teaching practices, rather than transforming the learning experience. Nesta chief executive Geoff Mulgan said: “A tablet replacing an exercise book is not innovation – it’s just a different way to make notes.

http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/schools-criticised-on-computer-use-1

by ACE

ACE has announced a wide-ranging research and evaluation effort that will examine the academic potential of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Working with institutional leaders, organizations like Coursera and the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), and supported by generous funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ACE will leverage its position as the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions to identify and answer questions about the disruptive potential of this new and innovative approach to higher education. Among the questions ACE will address in research undertaken in collaboration with the University of Illinois Springfield’s Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service are to what extent do MOOCs reach low-income young adult and older adult learners, what is the level of satisfaction of students enrolled in MOOCs, and do MOOCs have the potential to help lead to degrees or certificates.

http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/ACE-to-Assess-Potential-of-MOOCs,-Evaluate-Courses-for-Credit-Worthiness.aspx

by Associated Press

A southwest Florida math teacher is getting students around the world excited about math thanks to some creative YouTube postings. St. Petersburg High School teacher Rob Tarrou began recording lessons on algebra, trigonometry and statistics last year and posting them online to help a student who couldn’t attend class. The Tampa Bay Times reports people around the world have watched “Tarrou’s Chalk Talk” videos more than half a million times. More than 3,000 people from more than 100 countries have subscribed to his online channel.

http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2012-11-12/Fla-math-teachers-online-lessons-go-viral#.UKRUK-TaI44

http://youtu.be/UBBV7O_KT8c

By Melissa Catalanotto, Central Florida Future

Imagine students being able to take classes solely because they are genuinely interested in the topic and not having to pay the ever-increasing tuition costs for it. Come spring 2013, that may be reality for many UCF students and the general public alike. UCF has recently joined an online learning platform called Canvas Network. The program consists of free online courses from universities and community colleges nationwide. Tom Cavanagh, assistant vice president of distributed learning at UCF, describes the decision to join Canvas Network as a way to give back to the community. It will also allow the school to “keep involved with latest trends happening in higher education … [and] look for additional ways to innovate.” So far there are more than 20 classes on Canvas, two of which are being offered by UCF professors Bernardo Ramirez and Robert Cassanello.

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/news/ucf-to-offer-free-noncredit-courses-online-1.2792343

by Edudemic

MIT may very well be the most influential and important university on the planet right now. That’s according to Boston Magazine and shouldn’t surprise many. The school relentlessly pursues big dreams, important breakthroughs, and innovative solutions to problems. It’s exactly what a school should be. So how does MIT approach innovation in education technology? Thanks to Tom Daccord at the EdTechTeacher iPad Summit, I heard about MIT Technology-Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL). It’s just a spoke in a wheel of innovation at MIT and I figured the rest of Edudemic readers would stand to benefit from learning about it and the other things MIT is working on.

http://edudemic.com/2012/11/mit-innovation-in-education-technology/

by Edudemic

As a school psychologist intern highly interested in ‘flipping classrooms’, I have consulted with many teachers and school staff that have adopted (or have expressed interest in) the flipped classroom model, and those that have implemented the model, have nothing but great things to say. Below are some frequent questions I get about flipped classrooms from teachers; and my answers, based on personal interactions and professional consultations with teachers.

http://edudemic.com/2012/11/flipped-classrooms/

by Edudemic

So how exactly has education been affected by technology? A new infographic from DeVry University spells out how it’s helped teachers, students, and modern education as we know it. I refuse to use the term 21st century learning. But is technology’s role too big already? We’re still quite a long way off from widespread adoption of technology (if ever) and there’s already talk (in this infographic) about how technology may have some downsides. Read on to learn more!

http://edudemic.com/2012/11/how-technology-has-impacted-education/