Educational Technology

by Jessica Lieber, Technology Review

The shockwaves created by the iPhone and its App Store, for instance, are still being felt across the computer industry. It’s uncertain whether Glass will have a similar impact, but Google is creating high expectations that it will become a mass-market device (see “Google Wants to Install a Computer on Your Face”). While being secretive about certain key details, it intends to start selling Glass this year and has already been looking for outsiders’ ideas that could help make the device a hit. Last month, Google held two-day hackathons for selected developers in New York and San Francisco. (It had “Glass Foundry” attendees sign agreements to stay silent about their experiences.) It has also given early access to certain, but not all, developers of popular smartphone apps that could be a natural fit for Glass’s tiny, head-worn, Android-powered display.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512046/will-anyone-create-a-killer-app-for-google-glass/

 By Ada Heckler, Fractus Learning

I know that most readers at Fractus are probably pretty tech-savvy, but still, some may not quite be to that level yet. The worst part about it is that the technology world moves so fast and changes so rapidly that the jargon and slang is extremely hard to keep up with, even for people who try to pay close attention. So today I thought I’d bring you a mini-encyclopedia or mini-dictionary of sorts, where I’ll lay out some of the more confusing technology terms that educators will encounter on a regular basis. I’ll do my best to explain them as well, so you can at least sound knowledgeable if you are, say, stuck in a conversation with someone who knows a lot about technology.

http://www.fractuslearning.com/2013/03/04/technology-terms-for-teachers/

by Ellis Booker, Information Week

Now in its third full semester, some 10,000 IU students are part of its e-text initiative, which has doubled to 250 course sections in just the past year. From a cost standpoint, IU believes it has saved $200,000 in total over next-best options. At IU, e-texts are managed by Courseload, an online learning and collaboration platform. Among other things, Courseload lets teachers add any sort of media or annotate existing textbooks, and push this onto students’ devices. Similarly, students can highlight or add notes to their digital files, as well as collaborate with others — for example, members of a study group. Synchronization is handled over the network. Along with ongoing, searchable access to all of their e-texts while they are enrolled at IU, students using e-text can print for no additional cost or get full printed versions for a small fee.

http://www.informationweek.com/education/instructional-it/indiana-university-models-e-textbook-suc/240149826

By Tim Sohn, THE Journal

Adaptive Curriculum has launched a Web-based learning system for students in grades 5-12 designed to use interactive real-world scenarios to help them understand math and science outside of the classroom. Uzinggo, available now, allows students to earn rewards as they progress through lessons. Uzinggo incorporates the 5E Instructional Model–engage, explore, explain, elaborate. and evaluate–into its study plans, called ZingPaths. ZingPaths subjects include pre-algebra, geometry, biology, chemistry, earth and space science, life science, physical science, physics, prep and review courses, and more. It uses interactive graphics and audio prompts to guide students through self-paced game-like activities.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/03/04/adaptive-curriculum-launches-online-learning-system-uzinggo.aspx

by NPR

Dale Stephens left school at 12 years old to take part in “unschooling,” the self-directed branch of home-schooling. He is the founder of UnCollege.org.There are several famous and staggeringly successful college dropouts, including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison. You may not end up with fat wallets like them, but Dale Stephens says you can find a different education path. “When you think about education as an investment, you have to think about what the return is going to be,” Stephens tells NPR’s Renee Montagne. Stephens points to an alternative self-education system by taking responsibility for learning on your own and using networking to your advantage. He also says school just isn’t for everyone. “I left school because I didn’t feel like school was an environment that left me free to learn,” says Stephens, who dropped out of college. His book explores why and how to ditch the cost of tuition and find a personal educational system.

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/05/173416593/skipping-out-on-college-and-hacking-your-education

by Elizabeth Rudd, Innovation Management

As demand grows for alternatives to the traditional model of earning a university degree based on coursework, a new model where universities grant degrees based on skills competencies is gaining momentum and credibility. The education industry is under increasing pressure to prove its relevancy, provide value and meet the needs of students, employers and industry. Discussion of the need for innovation in higher education is increasing. One of the challenges of degree programs is finding the balance between cost, time and quality. Traditionally earning a college degree is a combination of credits, classes and tuition. But not any more. A newer model is gaining popularity- one which doesn’t require credits, or courses- just competencies. Through a series of competency based assessments, if a student can meet the degree requirements, the university will issue a degree. Knowledge can be acquired from anywhere- no credits and no actual courses need be completed at the university issuing the degree.

http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2013/03/06/redefining-accreditation-from-courses-to-competencies/

by Jane Hart, Learning in the Social Workplace

A good example of the difference between instructional packaging and instructional scaffolding was provided recently by Debbie Morrison in her post A tale of two of MOOCs: divided by pedagogy. In a very useful table (reproduced below) she compares the approaches taken by the (very popular, connectivist) e-Learning and Digital Cultures MOOC with the (aborted, instructivist) Fundamentals of Online Education MOOC. (The first is a great example of instructional scaffolding.)

http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2013/03/06/instructional-design-packaging-to-scaffolding/

by Inside Higher Ed

A few hours before President Obama signed an order officially instating across-the-board spending cuts Friday night, the U.S. Education Department issued guidance on what the automatic budget cuts would mean for federal financial aid programs. The Pell Grant is exempt from the mandatory cuts in 2013. But loan origination fees will increase immediately for new loans, by about 0.05 percentage points on subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans, from 1 percent to 1.05 percent, and by about 0.2 percentage points, from 4 percent to 4.2 percent, on Parent PLUS and Grad PLUS loans. The first disbursements of some grants — the TEACH Grant and Iraq-Afghanistan Service Grant — are also subject to cuts.  Funding will be reduced for the federal work-study program and for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant beginning in the fall if sequestration remains in effect. http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/030113ImpactofSequestrationonTitleIVFSAProg.html

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/03/04/sequestration-and-financial-aid

by: Jim Booth, Scholars and Rogues

A recent article at Raw Story (RS) contained the alarmist headline, “Research shows everyone does worse with online learning.” The article goes on to cite a new study by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University that states uncategorically, at least according to RS, “students tended to perform worse academically in online classes — suggesting that students had ‘difficulty adapting’ to online learning. Perhaps even more startling, students of color and men fared the worst.” Hogwash. I know, both from personal experience teaching there for over a decade and from the large number of studies that have been done, that are being done, and that will be done, that Raw Story’s headline is an example of the sort of “journalism” that misrepresents the research of academics both in its “attention grabber” tactics and in the lack of clarity/understanding of the research it reports upon and its implications/applications to populations other than those intended that, sadly, riddles the 4th Estate in these confused times we know as the Information Age; CCRC’s research study focuses on a specific group of students and their experience and success/problems with E-Learning. Any responsible academic (and I have no doubt that a research center associated with Columbia University would be responsible) would offer caveats abounding concerning this research study and its applicability to any population beyond the scope of its research.

http://scholarsandrogues.com/2013/03/03/were-here-were-online-get-used-to-it/

BY R. F. MACKAY, Stanford

Games help us develop non-cognitive skills, which are as fundamental as cognitive skills in explaining how we learn and if we succeed, according to the panelists. We may think we’re pretty smart, but in fact we have very little notion of how humans learn. Kids know: They play games. Until, that is, they go to school. That’s when the games stop. And often, so does the learning. That was the sad panorama painted by a panel of distinguished experts on education and “gamification” who nonetheless were optimistic about the promise of using games in pedagogy.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/march/games-education-tool-030113.html

by Pamela Fox, Pamela Fox Blog

I’ve been toying with an idea in my head lately, and I want to put it out there now to help me think through it and see what you all think. First, some context. Around San Francisco, we have an increasing number of “co-working spaces”, and I’ve co-worked at a handful of them myself. A “co-working space” is where you can rent a seat, a desk, or a whole room of desks, and you can go there every day and work on whatever it is you do, around other people also doing their work thing. The space provides amenities that you typically get at an office, like Wi-Fi, a fridge and mini kitchen, mail delivery, fax/printer, conference rooms, and often also tries to provide opportunities for networking and business growth. A “co-learning space” would be oriented entirely around enabling and encouraging learning. All of its amenities, its layout, its target members, its events, its pricing, all of that would be learning oriented. When you walked into the space, you would immediately know you were surrounded by learners and be inspired to learn yourself.

http://blog.pamelafox.org/2013/03/co-learning-spaces.html

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

Libraries are changing. They’re becoming an online resource for students of all ages, a meeting place for the entire community of a school, and bridging the gap between school and home. That’s just a few of the ways outlined in this handy roadmap / visual at the URL below. As you can see, it lays out a handful of ways libraries impact learning. From the first step (offer access to electronic resources) to the last one (enable social collaboration), it’s clear the role of the library is extremely important. While I personally think each of these services is of the utmost importance, there are even more things I believe a library should be doing. From figuring out future trends of data storage, Open Access, and identifying new ways to open up the virtual stacks to the world. It remains to be seen how libraries will evolve over the coming years but it’s a great time to start paying attention to what your library is doing during this time education evolution.

http://edudemic.com/2013/03/critical-services-all-libraries-should-offer/

by James Hendler, GigaOm

As we understand Watson better, our students will also be exploring how to deepen its capabilities by programming new components. They will learn how this new generation of “cognitive computing,” as IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research John E. Kelly has called it, really works. They will come to understand the architectures, software, and hardware that power the approach, and they will program new modules to give Watson new abilities. And finally, of course, there’s the blue sky nature of what Watson may allow. Given such a potent new tool, we suspect this list of projects still just scratch the surface of what our students will come up with. As one said, he is “eager to teach Watson to daydream.”

http://gigaom.com/2013/03/02/watson-goes-to-college-how-the-worlds-smartest-pc-will-revolutionize-ai/

by Heather Wolpert-Gawron, Edudemic

The first thing to think about is the purpose of what you wish to accomplish. Are you merely looking for a place to house videos of yourself teaching lessons so students can watch them for review? Or (and I hope this is your answer) are you instead looking for an additional place to build the community of learners? One that could still house lessons, but also can become a place for discussion, informal assessments, and collaboration? Let’s assume for a second that you want the latter. That being the case, there are many free options to choose from when creating an online classroom. All of them are intuitive and all of them are education-centered.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/online-student-lounge-resources-heather-wolpert-gawron

by The Associated Press

Thousands of Idaho students in public, private and charter schools big and small next fall will be able to log into math, physics and history classes provided by the Khan Academy, a growing content provider focused on making free education available to anyone, anywhere. With $1.5 million in startup money from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, Khan Academy content will be provided in 47 schools, making Idaho the nation’s first proving ground for a statewide implementation of the academy’s free educational content and teaching model.

http://idahobusinessreview.com/2013/03/01/grant-helps-idaho-schools-plug-into-online-classes/

by John Danner, Huffington Post

Sugata Mitra was awarded the TEDPrize, which comes with a $1 million check and the commitment of TEDsters to help fulfill a wish of the winner. Professor Mitra is one of the pioneers in online learning, working in the slums of India. His vision forms the first step towards Online Learning 2.0. Dr. Mitra is clearly pushing for the day when learning will become 10 times easier and 10 times less expensive for students, opening up learning to billions of children that could not previously participate in the global economy. In his “Hole in the Wall” experiment, he provided very poor children in the slums of India with a computer and left them alone, to discover that a few hours later they had figured out how to get online, browse, and learn. He replicated the experiment in several forms and it is now his hypothesis that students learn just fine in a Self-Organized Learning Environment (SOLE), with no adults around.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-danner/ted-prize-sugata-mitra_b_2790055.html

BY LYNNETTE CURTIS, Las Vegas Journal-Review

Nevada’s public colleges and universities must better embrace online education, or their students will go elsewhere. That was the message an education consultant delivered Friday to the board that governs public higher education in Nevada. “If we don’t succeed in this – and time is of the essence – there will be others who will usurp nearly everything,” Richard N. Katz told the Board of Regents. “They will take (our) students.”

http://www.lvrj.com/news/seamless-e-learning-system-pushed-for-nevada-higher-education-194394041.html

By Cecilia Reyes, Columbia Spectator

University President Lee Bollinger addressed undergraduate students’ concerns about the future of education as the University joins its peers in the online-courses race, as well as the quality of the courses offered in the Core Curriculum, in his latest fireside chat. Newly elected University Senator Cleo Abram, CC ’15, asked one of the first questions of the night, regarding Columbia’s involvement in online education. “The University has a great responsibility to share our knowledge with the world,” President Bollinger said. “You can learn a lot by watching someone online.”

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2013/02/27/fireside-chat-online-education-topic-debate

By Nick Anderson, The Washington Post

Dissatisfaction with live lectures helped drive Ng and Stanford colleague Daphne Koller to put course materials online. The success of those experiments led them last year to launch the MOOC platform Coursera. Coursera and edX, another online platform led by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have drawn millions of people around the world to sign up for free online classes from top-flight schools. And they have fueled debate about what matters most in instruction. Teaching reforms go well beyond MOOCs. In Maryland, educators have slashed live lecturing recently in courses such as Psychology 101 at Bowie State and Salisbury universities, Intermediate Algebra at Frostburg State, and Principles of Biology and Principles of Chemistry at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. “In the end, students are more satisfied, and faculty are more satisfied,” said William E. “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

http://nhregister.com/articles/2013/02/27/news/doc512e1286aeaf8330408681.txt

By Jen Whyntie, BBC

Scientists have connected the brains of lab rats, allowing one to communicate directly to another via cables. The wired brain implants allowed sensory and motor signals to be sent from one rat to another, creating the first ever brain-to-brain interface. The scientists then tested whether the rat receiving the signal could correctly interpret the information. As the ultimate test of their system, the team even linked the brains of rats that were thousands of miles apart.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21604005

By Oliver Dreon, Faculty Focus

Almost 25 years have passed since Chickering and Gamson offered seven principles for good instructional practices in undergraduate education. While the state of undergraduate education has evolved to some degree over that time, I think the seven principles still have a place in today’s collegiate classroom. Originally written to communicate best practices for face-to-face instruction, the principles translate well to the online classroom and can help to provide guidance for those of us designing courses to be taught online.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/applying-the-seven-principles-for-good-practice-to-the-online-classroom/