Educational Technology

by Jackie Gerstein, User Generated Education Blog

During Fall, 2012, I developed and taught a graduate course entitled, Social Networked Learning, for the Boise State University’s Educational Technology Program. Most of the students were in-service K-12 educators. This was a new course in educational technology. As is true for many of us using educational technology in the classroom, we are experimenting with how technology can enhance the learning experiences of our students. Sometimes we have failures, often times we have successes. Yet, in this age of evidenced-based education, educators, administrators, and other decision-makers are depending on and using the data gleamed from large studies often completed by companies with vested interests, e.g. Gates Foundation, book publishers, and testing companies.

http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/social-networked-learning-course-reflections/

by Harry G. Tuttle, Tech and Learning

Many textbooks now have an e-text version. Do these e-texts improve student learning?

Some advantages:

• No heavy or bulky textbook to carry; portable
• Font size can be adjusted so students can more easily read or see information
• Text can be searched
• Often has an online assessment; allows online quizzes to be graded automatically online
• Often has an online homework management; allows homework activities to be graded automatically online

Some disadvantages:

• Often is an exact reproduction of the textbook. An E-text probably is not linked, therefore, students cannot click on words or images to get additional information
• The e-text is still mainly print (word) based
• Many images may supplement the text but they do not add new information; images help explain the text instead of the image being the main source of information
• Usually a student cannot write in the e-text such as writing comments in the margin

http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&entryid=5221

By Joe McKendrick, ZDNet

The year ahead will continue to be a good one for software developers as organizations seek competitive edge via information technology and analytics. Systems analysts, network/sys admins, network architecsand DBAs also make the top 15 list. Many of the job openings are in the Silicon Valley and Washington, DC metro areas. CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists (EMSI) have released the best bachelor degree jobs for 2013 based on occupations with the most jobs added since 2010. The study uses EMSI’s labor market database, which pulls from over 90 national and state employment resources and includes information on both employees and self-employed workers. Openings for software developers — the number-one job of all jobs) have grown 7% over the past two years, EMSI reports. There are now close to a million positions within the U.S. alone. Opportunities for systems analysts have increased 5% during this time, and there are now about 530,000 positions in the U.S. alone.

http://www.zdnet.com/software-developers-systems-analysts-rated-as-best-jobs-for-2013-7000008848/?s_cid=e539

By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

More than 6.7 million, or roughly a third, of all students enrolled in postsecondary education took an online course for credit in fall 2011, according to the 2012 iteration of the Babson Survey Research Group’s annual Survey of Online Learning. While the upturn in the number of online enrollees (9.3 percent) represented the smallest percentage increase in the 10 years that Babson has conducted this study, overall enrollment in American colleges and universities fell in 2011 for the first time in 15 years, to put the slowing of online growth in some context.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/08/survey-finds-online-enrollments-slow-continue-grow

by Bryan Alexander

Over the past several years I’ve been working on the higher education version of the Horizon Report, a New Media Consortium (NMC) and Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) project designed to address this question. Horizon uses the Delphi method., involving 40+ experts from around the world in a three-month process to collaborative identify key trends (Wikipedia; my explainer article, which puts Delphi in context). NMC staff then turn the results into a short, accessible, Creative Commons-licensed report, published annually. The full higher ed Horizon Report for 2013 is forthcoming shortly, but the trend analysis is complete and public. You can find a preview (pdf) and a call for exemplary projects, along with the Delphi process wiki.

http://bryanalexander.org/2012/12/31/emerging-technologies-for-education-the-2013-horizon-report/

by Claire Schooley, Claire Schooley Blog

My colleagues and I talk often about social collaboration and its tepid adoption. The fact is it’s hard to get employees to use a tool unless they see a real use for it. This is certainly true in learning. Most of the learning management vendors have some kind of social offering. The uptake depends on the efforts made by the learning department staff to integrate social, and how appropriate social is to the specific learning content. Another stumbling block for learning and social is that using social tools is a change from a typical online learning experience and it demands some change management. Most people don’t embrace change; they need help in learning to use the tool and they need to see that social has positive effects on their learning. The purpose of social learning is to provide an environment where learners share experiences and resources and work together. A social learning environment supports conversations, discussions, and learning from each other. I see a number of ways that organizations are beginning to use social learning.

http://blogs.forrester.com/claire_schooley/12-12-31-use_social_media_to_drive_more_learning

by A.J. Hakim, Grosse Point News

“Traditionally we wouldn’t consider people literate if they could read but not write. And today we shouldn’t consider people literate if they can consume but not produce media.” — Henry Jenkins, media scholar The golden moment for Lars Kuelling with Grosse Pointe Academy’s new emphasis on technological production over consumption happened on a Monday morning in the middle school library. “A group of eighth grade boys, no less, were standing around a computer monitor and it was a Monday,” the head of school said. “And they were all on the Internet. I said, ‘Uh-oh, eighth grade boys, Internet, Monday. If I’m lucky, it’s sports.'” It wasn’t sports, nor was it anything disconcerting. As Kuelling approached, he overheard a student “excitedly sharing” with others a Prezi presentation he created for class matching characters in a Shakespeare play with their celebrity counterparts based on traits.

http://www.grossepointenews.com/Articles-Schools-i-2012-12-20-248673.114135-Academy-unveils-new-technology-program.html

by SHERYL RICH-KERN, NHPR

SNHU’s online College for America is getting attention around the country as a model for expanding access to higher eduction. Online courses in higher education have been around for decades. Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester has been offering online courses since 1996. Now the university is piloting a new online model — one that dispenses with courses, grades and credit hours. College for America is a low-cost, nontraditional approach that’s getting a lot of attention. And it may be the first of its kind to get federal approval by the Department of Education.

http://www.nhpr.org/post/snhu-online-learning-program-dispenses-grades-and-credit-hours

By Margo Rutledge Kissell, Dayton Daily News

More area school districts are offering blended learning, a combination of traditional classes and online learning. Gov. John Kasich has encouraged the expansion of digital learning to adapt the classroom experience for students because of advances in technology. Officials say blended learning provides the chance to offer the best of face-to-face and online instruction. Online learning has advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, but when combined, performance numbers increase, according to a 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Education.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/more-area-schools-offer-blending-learning-to-stude/nTg9Q/

by Judith Staines, BIOS

The course is designed for teachers, policy makers and professionals. It is led by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia and will be offered over 13 weeks, from 25 February to 31 May 2013 .The course will be offered through QUT’s online learning system, Blackboard, and via Blackboard Collaborate. Most sessions will be self-directed, with ongoing interaction with the course presenters in the online space. There will be four ‘live’ sessions presented globally by international guest lecturers. In order to successfully complete this course participants will need regular access to a computer and Internet access to download documents, listen to podcasts and view online videos. There are no associated fees for participants who wish to follow this course.

http://www.brzezinski.zdnet.pl/michal-brzezinski/opportunities/unesco-launches-online-course-in-media-and-information-literacy-and-intercultural-dialogue

by the New Media Consortium

The 2013 Horizon Project Higher Education Advisory Board initially voted on the top 12 emerging technologies — the result of which is documented in this a interim report: the NMC Horizon Project Short List > 2013 Higher Education Edition. This Short List then helped the advisory board narrow down the 12 technologies to six for the full publication. Those results are available in the official Preview. View the work that produced these findings at http://horizon.wiki.nmc.org/ .

http://www.nmc.org/publications/2013-horizon-report-higher-ed

By Sean Scarpiello, Straub Foundation

Recently in Florida, government officials have come up with revolutionary idea for the education in their state. This goal is to create another university—Florida’s 13th overall. The idea at first sounds absurd, as the economy is still poor and universities cost millions of dollars to build and maintain. However, this new university will not cost millions of dollars, as it does not need new academic and administrative buildings, labs, a gym, and dorms. This is because this new university will be based solely on online learning. This idea is great for a number of reasons. First, this will act as one of the main pilot programs full online universities and education professionals will be able to draw from experiences here to improve online universities in the future. Furthermore, since this university is created and run by the state of Florida, we can expect that the credits gained by the students at the school will be recognized throughout the country.

http://straube.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-new-state-run-online-university.html

by Fred Sitkins, Edudemic

With so many schools adopting the use of iPads I find it strange that we aren’t hearing more about the incredible opportunities available in iTunes U. Well I suppose it isn’t that strange given that schools in the early stages of transitioning to an iPad platform are extremely busy and learning one more thing can seem overwhelming. Trust me, I understand that, but I believe if you were to learn one more thing it should be about the power of iTunes U. The possibilities of this incredible tool are endless. I’d like to provide you with just a few examples of the many uses of iTunes U in the hopes that more schools will join this incredible network of learning resources.

http://edudemic.com/2012/12/itunes-u-courses-methods/

by Frank Kalman, Chief Learning Officer Media

A new survey sheds some light on where learning leaders will invest in learning technology in 2013. Technology is still the hot topic in corporate learning conversations, but how are organizations putting their money where their mouth is? A new survey by learning services provider Impact Instruction Group found that e-learning is still the top learning technology investment heading into 2013, with 86 percent reporting that they are investing heavily in the strategy. Moreover, companies also reported they are focusing their investments in webinars and video — 66 percent and 56 percent, respectively — for learning delivery for next year.

http://clomedia.com/articles/view/learning-technology-where-s-the-money-going

by Science Daily

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s (BGU) Social Networks Security Research Group in its Department of Information Systems Engineering has developed a novel method to predict how well or badly a student will perform in an academic course. The information can be used to determine which students need the most help, as well as which ones excel and might be guided to further study or careers in that subject area. The paper, “Predicting Student Exam Scores by Analyzing Social Network Data,” was presented earlier this month at the Advanced Media Technology Conference in Macau, Hong Kong. The researchers analyzed data from a BGU course that included assignments submitted online and Web site logs (containing 10,759 entries) to construct social networks of explicit and implicit cooperation among the students. The implicit connections are used to model all the social interactions that happened “offline” among the students: e-mails with questions, conversations in the lab while preparing the assignments and even course forums.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121227142957.htm

by Audrey Watters, Inside Higher Ed

The lead on Google’s self-driving car project Sebastian Thrun is, of course, also the founder of Udacity, one of the most important education startups of the year and key to 2012’s most important ed-tech trend, MOOCs. It was Thrun’s Artificial Intelligence class offered in the Fall of 2011 that’s often credited for igniting the whole MOOC craze. In January , Thrun announced his departure from Stanford where he’d been a research professor and the director of SAIL, the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Now the director of SAIL is Andrew Ng, who along with fellow Stanford machine learning and AI professor Daphne Koller, is the founder of Coursera.

In March, Anant Agarwal announced that he was stepping down as the director of CSAIL, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Laboratory in order to become the president of MITx (now edX). The year’s three major xMOOC initiatives — Udacity, edX, and Coursera — all originated in AI labs. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a trend.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/hack-higher-education/top-ed-tech-trends-2012-automation-and-artificial-intelligence

by Nick Groff, Idaho Press

The world-renowned Khan Academy will soon be piloted in select Idaho schools, with the help of Northwest Nazarene University and the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation. The Albertson Foundation will provide funding for the program. Khan Academy was started by Salman Khan, a former hedge fund analyst, in 2008 with the intent to provide free education to anyone, anywhere, anytime. By 2012, Khan was one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. The worldwide, nonprofit academy is online and provides content in areas of math, finance, history and art through thousands of video tutorials and in many languages.

http://www.idahopress.com/members/world-renowned-khan-academy-to-pilot-in-idaho/article_7a7f2ab8-50cb-11e2-b354-0019bb2963f4.html

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

Pinterest and education go hand in hand. If you haven’t started using the popular social bookmarking site, you may want to give it a try during your break this week. What better time to discover new and exciting resources from teachers, admins, and students around the world? We try to keep a regular flow of Pinterest boards on Edudemic. As you can see from the article linked above, there’s no shortage of interesting boards you can follow, repin, and learn from. Due to the popularity of the last post on Pinterest, I thought it might be worthwhile to organize the submitted education technology Pinterest boards so you can see them. Below is a list of all the education technology boards submitted to Edudemic over the past few months. We’ve done our best to go through them and make sure they’re relevant and useful. There are thousands of useful education technology Pinterest boards out there and we’ve only just scratched the surface. Hope you find some of these boards useful!

http://edudemic.com/2012/12/education-technology-pinterest-boards/

by Educators Technology

The top educational social networking sites for this year have been shortlisted for Edublogs Award of the best Educational Social Networking Websites for 2012. but before you start exploring them, let me just provide you with some guides I have written here before to help you understand the concept of educational social networking and learn how to leverage the power of social networking in your teaching and professional development. You will also get to learn about many other GREAT social networking sites at this link.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/12/social-networking-sites-teachers.html

By Lynn Waddell & John O’Connor, the Ledger

When Cunningham, 20, started the course, the program diagnosed her as weak in all but a handful of reading skills. It then directed her to a series of learning modules focused on skills she needed to improve, including reading comprehension and organizing ideas. The program also allowed her to bypass exercises in skills she was already proficient in. Her instructor goes over exercises in class and also follows her progress in the computer modules online.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20121227/news/121229450

By Rachel Metz, Technology Review

Live and learn: Everybody went mobile in 2012 (or so it seemed), but the most groundbreaking movement on the Web may have been the rise of digital education. This year, the Web was dominated by online education, shifting social networks, and the continued march toward mobile. For all the attention lavished on the Web’s growth on mobile devices this year, one of the most interesting Internet trends is still best experienced on a desktop computer: online education. The rising cost of higher education (the average bachelor’s degree now costs more than $100,000), combined with increasing access to high-speed Internet service and a desire for more efficient and flexible learning methods, brought new prominence to websites offering free or low-priced courses in everything from programming to literature. Free online code-learning startup Codecademy’s effort to teach novices to code snagged more than 400,000 participants for its weekly lessons in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/508976/online-learning-and-upheavals-in-social-networks/