Educational Technology

By Susan Galer, Business 2 Community

The business world is ripe for an e-learning explosion as the number of qualified experts can’t keep pace with innovations like mobile, cloud, and Big-Data. Arming employees with the latest skills and knowledge so they can function with excellence is a strategic imperative for every business regardless of size, location, and industry. Institutions of higher education are corralling more and more students in online study sessions (officially known as Massive Open Online Courses—MOOCs). Now the business world is finally entering the fray. This past winter, I took the plunge by attending an eight-week social media course offered by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC). Here are the highs and lows based on my experience.

http://www.business2community.com/business-innovation/can-online-education-help-business-innovate-faster-0484286

by ALVA NOË, National Public Radio

Colleges and universities are communities with their own local cultures, values and ways of doing things. In the face of budgetary pressure, how will these communities withstand the temptation to give up the hard work of making knowledge and, instead, just subscribe to courses being produced and packaged elsewhere? One might object that MOOCs are no different from textbooks. What is a textbook, really, but a programmed course template, a whole course in a box? Have popular textbooks destroyed local learning communities and entrenched established hierarchies? No. This is an important point and it brings out how complicated the issues are. So often with new technology we simply reenact old battles. But maybe the comparison with textbooks breaks down. Textbooks are limited in ambition. They don’t replace the whole curriculum; they give it a grounding. Good teachers use textbooks. Will they come to use MOOCs the same way?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/05/03/180824705/is-massively-open-online-education-a-threat-or-a-blessing

by Wagdy Sawahel, Univesrity World News

The African Virtual University (AVU) and the International Council for Open and Distance Education, or ICDE – a global body for the open and distance education community – have launched an e-learning partnership aimed at providing cost-effective and efficient tools to promote access to higher education in Africa. The initiative was announced on 23 April, according to an ICDE press release. “The partnership between the AVU and the ICDE will help in promoting e-learning, online learning and mobile learning as an ideal tool for expanding university access in Africa, as in other parts of the world,” Gard Titlestad, secretary general of the Norway-based ICDE, told University World News.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130503125440116

By Jason Gallaher, CSUN SUN

CSUN is in the beginning stages of figuring out how a proposed interstate reciprocity system for online courses could affect online education at the university. The Commission on the Regulation of Postsecondary Distance Education released a report in April proposing a new system to authorize institutions to teach online courses to out-of-state students. Currently, higher education institutions have to be authorized by the states in which out-of-state students who take online courses reside. “Providers of distance education now have to meet 50 different state policies,” said Terri Taylor, a policy and legal advisor who worked with the commission on creating the interstate reciprocity system. “This proposal would create baseline requirements that are the same for all states participating in this.” Under the agreement, every institution would be authorized to teach students based on standards created and monitored by that institution’s home state.

http://sundial.csun.edu/2013/05/campus-figuring-out-ways-to-offer-online-classes-out-of-state/

by Larry Gordon, LA Times

While Jennifer Clay was at home taking an online exam for her business law class, a proctor a few hundred miles away was watching her every move. Using a webcam mounted in Clay’s Los Angeles apartment, the monitor in Phoenix tracked how frequently her eyes shifted from the computer screen and listened for the telltale sounds of a possible helper in the room. Her computer browser was locked — remotely — to prevent Internet searches, and her typing pattern was analyzed to make sure she was who she said she was: Did she enter her password with the same rhythm as she had in the past? Or was she slowing down? In the battle against cheating, this is the cutting edge — and a key to bolstering integrity in the booming field of online education.

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/5/2/using_technology_to_fight_cheating_in.htm

by David F. Carr, Information Week

The panel on MOOCs included three CIOs: David Baird of Wesleyan University, Gayle Barton of Amherst College, and Patricia Schoknecht of Rollins College. Each school has a different approach to MOOCs. Wesleyan is active in Coursera, the for-profit MOOC that has so far accumulated the longest list of university partners. Amherst was recently in the news after faculty shot down a proposed partnership with edX. Rollins will offer a MOOC-style course, but do it independently.

http://www.informationweek.com/education/online-learning/moocs-what-university-cios-really-think/240154120

by Virtual College (UK)

In order to meet the demands of different learning styles, teachers should launch a protected online learning environment for students. This is according to Carolyn Lewis, managing director at Vocational Innovation, who wrote in an article for Training Zone that launching such a platform would also allow educators to integrate various resource types, such as video, audio and games, into one location. She claimed technology offers pupils the freedom of independent learning, but there are skills that need to be developed first to achieve this. “Most of all, technology can make learning more varied, interesting, fun and well-supported, but if learners haven’t experienced it how can they express it as their preferred learning style?” Ms Lewis added.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Technology-helps-support-all-learning-styles-newsitems-801579179.aspx

by DEBBIE CAFAZZO, News Tribune

Students at many Washington community and technical colleges will have more access to low-cost or free textbooks and class materials following completion of a project known as the Open Course Library. Students and teachers at two-year schools in the Tacoma area are leading the way. Launched in 2011, the OCL project is a collection of online materials – everything from course activities to readings and assessments – developed by teams of educators from the state’s two-year colleges. The courses include digital textbooks that are either free or cost no more than $30, offering the potential for big savings for students. “Students are clearly the winners,” said Marty Brown, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/05/01/2579682/online-textbook-project-finished.html

By Krysten Cooper, Prospectus News

Online learning offers many advantages to students, but most have limited experience with this type of environment. If you’re using online components in a traditional class or taking a full course over the Web, keep these tips for success in mind:

Start by making sure you understand the structure of the online components. For example:

Do you need to blog?

Will you watch videos?

How do you upload or download different file types?

If there are any unfamiliar requirements, work with your instructor or other students to understand everything before you start the class. In addition, make sure you have a plan B if any of the technology isn’t working when you need it.

http://www.prospectusnews.com/how-to-get-the-most-from-online-classes-1.3039093#.UYOibqLP2nI

by Associated Press

A leading platform for the popular “massive open online courses” offered by elite universities is moving into a new realm: the expansive field of continuing education for teachers. Coursera, the California-based for-profit platform for MOOCs from 62 leading universities such as Stanford, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, planned to announce Wednesday a new range of partners that include education schools and, in a first, non-degree granting institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History that help train teachers. The announcement would give teachers pursuing their continuing education requirements, or courses that could give them a salary boost, a new set of options to learn from master professors at leading education schools such as Vanderbilt and the University of Virginia, along with a handful of museums and other institutions.

http://www.postbulletin.com/news/nation/coursera-to-offer-new-mooc-options-for-teachers/article_a602c02c-af91-5cd9-b5f3-e2d6c8a5990d.html

BY BRETT SAMUELS, the Daily Orange

As the end of the semester approaches, students at Syracuse University are turning to their computers in order to fill out course evaluations. The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment at SU organizes this process for many academic departments on campus. Seth Ovadia, the office’s assistant director, said in an email that most departments that use OIRA for processing course evaluations have switched from paper to online evaluations. As of the spring 2013 semester, Ovadia said there are only 12 departments on campus that work with OIRA and don’t use an online evaluation system.

http://dailyorange.com/2013/04/increasing-number-of-academic-departments-use-online-course-evaluations/

By TAMAR LEWIN, NY Times

In Bunker Hill’s modified program, though, students come to class twice a week, pay tuition and get credit. So Anant Agarwal, president of the M.I.T.-Harvard online collaboration, edX, calls the community college pilot program a SPOC, for “small private online course.” “On campus, it’s not about bringing it to scale,” Dr. Agarwal said. “It’s about improving the pedagogy, finding the best way to teach the material. On campus, we can blend online videos and interaction with professors.” The blended course, teaching Python computer programming, is being tried at both Bunker Hill and MassBay Community College, but at different paces. The Bunker Hill class moves slowly, taking two weeks on each week of M.I.T. material. MassBay, whose students have more computer background, matches the M.I.T. pace.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/education/adapting-to-blended-courses-and-finding-early-benefits.html?_r=0

By Sophie Quinton, National Journal

New technologies become disruptive when they enter the traditional classroom—and they get colleges thinking about whether the existing model will suffice. In many ways, online education isn’t that different from old-fashioned instruction: Algebra is still algebra, no matter how you do your scratch work. But online tools allow educators to personalize learning in ways that weren’t possible before. This is good news for a system of higher education that’s straining to provide opportunity to everyone who wants to learn. Access to education means being able to pay for it, and it means being able to succeed academically in a college setting. “You can’t look at the cost question, the attainment question, the quality question in isolation,” said Candace Thille, director of the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University. Different technologies will serve different students best, she said, just as no single brick-and-mortar university is right for everyone.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-economy/solutions-bank/how-online-education-saves-everyone-money-20130425

BY BOBBY BLANCHARD, Daily Texan

This semester, more than 20 journalism and computer science students entered senior journalism lecturer Robert Quigley’s new Mobile News App Design class. All of them will leave the class as developers, with an app either already in the Apple App Store or on its way. The class represents an ongoing trend for journalists: the need to become a jack of all trades. In the class, computer science and journalism students were grouped into five different teams. This wasn’t a class students could just register for — they had to apply to prove both their worth and interest. Once accepted into the class, students were paired up and immediately sent to work on their apps. They had to have an app ready to pitch by the second class day, and then they immediately began developing it.

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/life-and-arts/2013/04/29/app-building-class-turns-students-into-developers

by Diane Heldt, the Gazette

Enrollment in for-credit distance education programs at Iowa’s three state universities has increased more than 54 percent in the past five years, and officials say interest in online courses is driving much of that growth. As distance education booms, officials at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa said they monitor those programs to make sure students get quality instruction, whether it be on campus, via the Internet or face-to-face at a site elsewhere in the state. “We’ve all committed throughout our distance offerings that the quality of off-campus courses and educational programs will be the same as on campus,” said Dave Holger, ISU associate provost for academic programs.

http://thegazette.com/2013/04/29/as-online-offerings-grow-universities-focus-on-quality/

by Fionnuala Duggan, the Guardian

There are over 11 million people with a limiting long-term illness, impairment or disability in the UK. Many of them are using educational resources and completing university courses. Universities have a responsibility to provide these students, and all students, with the necessary learning materials regardless of their accessibility needs. It is here, in the place where educational resources and students with disabilities intersect, that technology has a vital role to play. Technology could operate as the great equaliser. It could – and indeed, it should – help move all students towards a level playing field. This is particularly true in when it comes to learning resources, and specifically textbooks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/apr/28/disabled-students-use-e-textbooks

By Matt Hamblen, Computerworld

Canvas offered the school a way to help instructors monitor Navigator students in their discussion groups to see how they handle group projects. “We needed to find a way to help them do group work, which is always difficult on the autism spectrum,” Gardner said. Students meet in small project groups once a week face-to-face and can extend those meetings with the online collaboration tools, Gardner said. About half of the students use smartphones whole others use tablets to access Canvas, where they can read assignments and announcements from instructors and classmates. Because some of the students travel three hours each way to attend classes, their smartphones are extremely important to their learning. Gardner herself is on the autism spectrum, and took her job on the condition she be able to telecommute part of each week because she finds office socializing and frequent face-to-face interactions difficult and exhausting.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238727/Bellevue_College_looks_to_online_software_to_help_autistic_students_collaborate

By Mike Orcutt, Technology Review

Low-cost 3-D technology could usher in new mobile entertainment content. Last week, a company in Singapore began shipping $35 plastic screen protectors for the iPhone 5. These are no ordinary screen protectors, though—each has half a million tiny lenses precisely patterned on its surface, which can turn an ordinary phone into a device capable of displaying 3-D images and video, no glasses required. The 3-D effect of the “EyeFly 3D” screen protectors, made by Nanoveu, is based on lenticular lens technology, which was invented over a century ago and is used to make posters and postcards that move as the viewer changes his or her perspective. The lenses send separate images to the left and right eye to create the illusion of depth.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514106/how-a-cheap-plastic-film-can-give-your-smartphone-a-3-d-screen/

by Paula Bramante, edtech digest

As technology continues to change rapidly, online learning is evolving alongside it, cultivating a new generation of learners and exciting new options for postsecondary education. These changes are shaping not only the way we view our classrooms, but also the way we view our students. In today’s mobile world, the online “classroom” is wherever students want it to be. Online students, more than ever before, are enjoying an educational experience where they can control the location of their “classroom” through eLearning technology that supports multiple learning styles.

http://edtechdigest.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/online-on-course/

by Jessica Lander, Poly Mic

The more modern American classrooms would be hardly recognizable to a teacher of the 19th century. Gone are the one-room buildings, the long benches, the pieces of slate, and the sticks of chalk. The most modern classrooms have SmartBoards, some even have personal iPads for each child. And along with the classroom gadgets, has come a wave of education technology. This technology is revolutionizing education, but it is also throwing a wrench in many time-honored canonical classroom excuses. Here are just a few well-used excuses that will have to be retired:

http://www.policymic.com/articles/37691/dog-ate-my-homework-and-other-excuses-killed-by-the-e-classroom

By Nicole Ogrysko — the Ithacan

As the price of four-year public and private universities increases nationwide, online education companies are offering up massive open online courses — otherwise known as MOOCs — as a way to bring higher education to students who cannot afford the traditional campus experience. Now, private colleges like Ithaca College are questioning their place in the rapidly changing arena of higher education. In a letter from Ithaca College President Tom Rochon to college employees in February, he said, “We were particularly struck in the just-concluded Board meeting by the depth with which Trustees discussed the subject of online learning, including the rapid development of Massive Open Online Courses, as a threat to the residential college model.”

http://theithacan.org/32401