Educational Technology

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

These free courses are all designed to help you get that little bit of extra knowledge so you can know what to look for in future apps, be able to quickly decide if it’s right for you, and you’ll simply know more than your students. For a couple minutes, at least. All these courses are from a side-project I’ve been working on called Modern Lessons. It’s a free online school for teachers and other education-lovers. Enjoy!

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/08/10-free-online-courses-for-technology-novices/

by Katie Lepi, Edudemic

When it comes to browsers, most people fall into one of two camps: Those who have no idea what the ‘thing’ they use to browse the web is called, and those who Feel Very Strongly About It. So you might find yourself in a situation where you have multiple browsers to choose from, or you have one friend/colleague/family member or another telling you that you *have* to use one browser or another. So what is the best choice for you? Take a gander at the handy infographic at the URL below to see what browsers are the fastest and most popular on different platforms.

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/08/which-browser-is-best-for-you/

By Francesca Di Meglio, BusinessWeek

Nowadays you can go back to school without leaving your living room (or getting out of your pajamas), and new online education providers crop up everyday. One of them, an upstart from Russia called Eduson.tv, is focusing on the BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China) with a model that features business courses taught mostly by real-world practitioners. Since launching in April, Eduson has attracted tens of thousands of registered users and is adding more every day. As of June, 80 percent of them were from Brazil and India. “Distance learning is a primary solution for those in BRIC nations who need to be prepared for quickly growing economies,” says Eduson’s chief executive, Elena Masolova.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-16/mooc-newcomer-offers-online-business-courses-taught-by-pros-not-profs

By Hajer Naili, Women’s Enews

A year after The New York Times ran an article about Silicon Valley, which opened with “Men invented the Internet,” FemTechNet is about to launch an online curricula highlighting the significant contributions of feminists to technology. FemTechNet, which describes itself as “a global network of feminist, students and artists who work on, with and at the borders of technology, science and feminism in a variety of fields,” is calling the curriculum a DOOC, or Distributed Open Collaborative Course. “Dialogues in Feminism and Technology,” its first DOOC course–running from Sept. 16 through December in 15 universities across the United States and Canada–is something of a pilot, which starts in North America and aims to expand across the globe in the coming year.

http://womensenews.org/story/education/130814/feminists-launch-model-online-learning#.Ugy_S9LYcig

by Harvard Magazine

HarvardX announced fall online courses on the edX platform in fields spanning Chinese history, neuroscience, and poetry (see “HarvardX Announces Fall Courses”). Meanwhile, edX formed its first partnership in India, as the Indian Institute of Technology became an affiliate. In an interview with The Financial Times, edX president Anant Agarwal predicted a purely online degree offering by a partner university within less than one year. Coursera, the for-profit company offering a wide array of massive open online courses (MOOCs), raised $43 million in a second round of financing, from new investors including a World Bank affiliate; that brings its capitalization to $65 million. According to news reports, Coursera aims to expand international outreach (in part by translating materials and developing mobile-device courses for students in Africa and elsewhere who lack computers); open its platform to third-party developers (edX is open-source); and double its staff to approximately 100 (on a trajectory parallel to edX’s reported plans).

http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/09/brevia

by Resource Link

In education, mobile devices have taken a strong hold – and for good reason. They are less expensive than computers, more portable, and far more responsive for impatient learners who demand instant access. There are thousands of apps designed with an educational focus, and many more productivity and content-creation apps that can be used effectively by students to facilitate and enhance their learning. Like all new technology, apps bring challenges to the school library – the centre in the school for resource and information management.

http://resourcelinkbce.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/living-appily-ever-after-in-the-library/

by James Kendrick, ZDNet

Whether a student or the parent of one, that frenzied time just before the start of a school year is here. If your student has an Android phone and/or tablet, that can help keep ahead of studies for even the heaviest of course loads. Good apps can sometimes make the difference between getting that assignment finished on time or not. This collection of Android apps are designed with the student in mind, and some can be of benefit to everyone. There are apps in this collection to keep track of assignments and for planning, some for reference, and even one that makes recording lectures nice and easy. Many of these apps are free, and none of them cost more than a buck or two.

http://www.zdnet.com/10-android-apps-for-back-to-school-7000019341/

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, Christian Science Monitor

Spelling out what students need to demonstrate to earn passing or high grades “takes the subjectivity out of it,” says Sanborn English teacher Aaron Wiles. A student tripping over one math concept gets pinpointed help, rather than accumulating gaps in understanding and having to take the entire course again. Students reflect on and revise their work until they meet expectations. “They take ownership of it,” Mr. Wiles says. This approach to learning is known as competency-based education, and New Hampshire is among the pioneers. As it gains momentum around the United States, the expectation is that it will deepen learning and tie education more explicitly to skills that will equip students for the workplace and college-level studies – everything from accurate math and writing to creative problem-solving. Competency education can be done in a variety of ways and across all subjects, but it takes a different mind-set than simply marching through a textbook-based curriculum.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2013/0814/Is-your-student-competent-A-new-education-yardstick-takes-the-measure

by Ashley MacQuarrie, K12 Blog

We’ve previously written about the educational potential of Minecraft, and the response from our readers was huge! Parents told us how their kids play and learn with Minecraft, kids let us know that they think it’s educational too, and teachers shared the ways they’ve used the game with their students. But we wondered if there were even more ways to engage kids in game-based learning with Minecraft, and it turns out, we had just scratched the surface. Creative parents and educators have found so many fun opportunities for learning in this virtual world.

http://blog.k12.com/learning-games-mobile-apps/transforming-way-we-learn-more-ways-kids-can-learn-minecraft

by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, ZDNet

Most Mac and Linux users think anything Windows can do their operating systems can do better. Often, they’re right, but then there comes that day when they really need to run that one special Windows application and then they’re stuck. There are many ways of handling this. Some people keep old Windows PC around; others dual boot their computers; and quite a few run virtual machines (VM)s of Windows on their Linux PCs and Macs. That’s all fine, but it’s also a fair amount of trouble. Then, there’s CodeWeaver’s approach: Use a program, CrossOver, which enables you to install and run the one or two Windows applications you need on your favorite operating system.

http://www.zdnet.com/run-windows-apps-on-both-os-x-and-linux-with-crossover-12-5-7000019345/

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

A new type of memory chip that a startup company has just begun to test could give future smartphones and other computing devices both a speed and storage boost. The technology, known as crossbar memory, can store data about 40 times as densely as the most compact memory available today. It is also faster and more energy efficient. The technology’s ability to store a lot of data in a small space could see it replace the flash memory chips that are the basis of memory cards, some hard drives, and the internal storage of mobile devices. Data can be accessed and written to crossbar memory fast enough to see it also possibly compete with DRAM, used as short-term memory, in computing devices. The technology is significantly more energy efficient than both flash and DRAM.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517996/denser-faster-memory-challenges-both-dram-and-flash/

By National Math and Science Initiative

The National Math and Science Initiative’s (NMSI) first ever web-based training modules are being developed to reach more than 50,000 teachers from 26 states. Thanks in part to a $248,760 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NMSI will design online training modules for teachers grades 3-11 in the critical subjects of math, science and English Language Arts to expand their understanding of the instructional rigor required by the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS). “Our goal is to provide NMSI-trained teachers with ongoing virtual training and support so they not only understand the standards, but can deeply embed them in their instructional practice,” said NMSI CEO Sara Martinez Tucker. “We will help build outstanding teacher leaders nationwide.”

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/13/5646473/online-learning-modules-will-play.html

by George Siemens, eLearnSpace

The big idea is that learning and knowledge are networked, not sequential and hierarchical. Systems that foster learning, especially in periods of complexity and continual changes to the human knowledge base, must be aligned with this networked model. In the short term, hierarchical and structured models may still succeed. In the long term, and I’m thinking in terms of a decade or so, learning systems must be modelled on the attributes of networked information, reflect end user control, take advantage of connective/collective social activity, treat technical systems as co-sensemaking agents to human cognition, make use of data in automated and guided decision making, and serve the creative and innovation needs of a society (actually, human race) facing big problems. Together, with another colleague, Shane Dawson and programmers Nikola Milikić and Zoran Jeremić, we’ve been working on what we feel is a learning system (educational software) that represents the type of learning needed by individuals and organizations today. We have run pilots with the software and have a few additional pilots planned for fall. We want to move beyond closed, course-based pilots and engage in messier and sloppier learning experiences. To this end, we are offering an open online course starting November 1, 2013 on learning analytics.

http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2013/08/13/whats-next-for-educational-software/

 by David Button, Talking of Teaching

The use of online portfolios came about as a response to the development of a new set of courses at CELE. As a result of changes to the syllabus and a resulting move away towards a greater emphasis on formative assessment, there was a need for students to map and evidence their progress and to provide a tool to facilitate frequent feedback on drafts of work which will form a part of assessment. In essence, Mahara serves as a repository for the student’s work, and facilitates this ongoing collaborative process between students and all their tutors. This process is key to supporting a shared understanding of appropriate language use, current issues and achievements and targets based on evidence…. After two terms piloting online portfolios, there is now an increasing interest in extending their use to include greater scope for collaborative learning by encouraging learners to take greater ownership of their own spaces, organised around class groups.

http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/talkingofteaching/2013/22331/

by Richard Sandlar, Online EDU

We’ve read about its merits, we’ve discussed its advantages. Whether it’s flexibility, convenience, ability to learn from a distance or what not, we’re sure you have been convinced at least to check out some online programs. Many students, however, continue to be puzzled about how they can get a full-fledged degree just by sitting on their laptops. To put these apprehensive future online students at rest, we’re presenting some means of delivering online learning across the US and also across the world. After reading this, you should have no doubts about how useful distance learning can be.

http://www.onlineedublog.com/how-online-education-system-works/

by Lee Gardner, Chronicle of Higher Ed

IBM is expanding its push to encourage the study of “big data” through a brace new partnerships with prominent universities and a new round of grants to support data-analytics pursuits in academe, the company announced on Wednesday. Georgetown University, George Washington University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Northwestern University are among the nine institutions and higher-education agencies worldwide that will introduce new curricula developed in partnership with the computer company. The other participating institutions—the University of Missouri, India’s Mother Teresa Women’s University, and universities overseen by the Philippines Commission on Higher Education—are introducing graduate and undergraduate courses. The universities join more than 1,000 other institutions with which IBM has created partnerships in order to boost the number of students able to grapple with the floods of data currently redefining how things are done in business, science, and other fields.

http://chronicle.com/article/IBMUniversities-Team-Up/141111/

by Education News

The number of students learning online via K-12 schools is rapidly growing across the United States, and now Atlanta, Georgia schools have adopted an online education system to help improve graduation rates in the district. According to Mark Niesse of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta launched the online classes program after nearly half of its students failed […] The number of students learning online via K-12 schools is rapidly growing across the United States, and now Atlanta, Georgia schools have adopted an online education system to help improve graduation rates in the district.

http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/atlanta-schools-using-online-education-to-improve-graduation-rate/

by Chloe Anderson, Globe University

Seven online resources with tips, techniques and applications for using iPads in education. Each of the Websites offers insights into optimizing the use of iPads in the classroom.

http://blogs.globeuniversity.edu/2013/08/12/7-articles-on-ipads-enhancing-education/

By Ken Hess, ZDnet

Tablet computers in schools might eventually transform our classrooms into empty shells. Is this a good thing? And who is it good for? Teachers? Students? Parents? I’m not sure. As a former student from primary, secondary, college, and graduate school, I’m just not sure. It’s possible that within ten year’s time, traditional classrooms will only exist for special needs children. I have mixed feelings on having mainstream students work entirely or mostly remote from other students and teachers. It’s a tradeoff that I believe that we need to consider seriously before making the evolutionary leap from classroom to living room.

http://www.zdnet.com/are-tablets-the-first-step-toward-mobile-or-non-existent-classrooms-7000019342/

by Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOM

Consumer eye-tracking technology that automatically pauses videos when viewers look away is moving into the corporate arena — but it’s not really for your benefit. . . it’s for your boss’s. Each year, companies pour $62 billion into corporate training programs, according to a recent report from Bersin by Deloitte. But just $2 billion of that goes to online learning. Digital learning companies say C-suite executives would be willing to increase their spending if they could feel more confident that employees were actually using the content, not just hitting play and possibly checking their email instead. To give companies a more clear window into how their employees are using online training programs, online training company Mindflash on Tuesday rolled out a new eye-tracking feature (in beta) that monitors employees and automatically pauses the video when it senses that they’ve been distracted. Mindflash develops online training software that allows businesses from Microsoft to McDonald’s to create their own online courses for new hire onboarding, sales training and other kinds of non-technical corporate training.

http://gigaom.com/2013/08/13/paying-attention-new-online-corporate-training-tech-keeps-an-eye-on-employees/

By International Association for K-12 Online Learning

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute (MVLRI), a division of Michigan Virtual University, today announced the launch of the new Research Clearinghouse for K-12 Blended and Online Learning (http://k12onlineresearch.org), to house the latest research examining studies and trends in blended and online learning. “This clearinghouse offers the most complete picture of innovative instructional models and practices for blended and online teaching and learning for personalizing K-12 education,” said Dr. Kathryn Kennedy, iNACOL’s Director of Research. “It provides a wealth of information for researchers, policymakers and education leaders exploring all aspects of blended and online learning as they consider implementing next generation learning models for students and teachers.”

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/13/5646211/new-education-research-clearinghouse.html