Educational Technology

Steven A. Lowe , InfoWorld

Much of today’s talk is about youth ruling development and IT. Sure, there are a lot of eager, bright young people in tech, and most of them like to think that they “rule,” but the truth is we oldsters still run the show. Why? Because hard-earned lessons provide the wisdom to distinguish fantasy from reality, and the determination to do what’s necessary, not just what’s fun or cool.

http://www.cio.com/slideshow/detail/117841

by Al Sacco, CIO

An online-research firm released a list of what it says are the most popular mobile apps in the world. CIO.com blogger Al Sacco says the list is questionable, but it does provide some interesting findings. The infographic in this post supposedly spotlights the 16 most popular mobile apps in the world, based on usage. It comes from online-research firm GlobalWebIndex, which asked respondents, “Which of the following mobile applications have you used in the past month?”

http://blogs.cio.com/mobile-apps/18229/globalwebindex-most-popular-mobile-apps-google

By Todd R. Weiss, eWeek
 
Google is offering a free online course from Sept. 17 to 30 to help Web developers make their sites more accessible to visually impaired users. Google will offer a free online course Sept. 17 to 30 to teach Web developers and designers how they can make their Websites more accessible and friendly for blind and visually impaired users. The course, “Introduction to Web Accessibility,” will offer a host of practices and design elements that will allow sites to serve visually impaired users who wish to have better access to the online world, Eve Andersson, the manager of accessibility engineering at Google, wrote in a Sept. 9 post on the Google Developers Blog.

http://www.eweek.com/developer/google-gives-online-class-on-making-websites-accessible-to-the-blind.html/

By Emma Brown, Washington Post

A group of local and national organizations on Monday announced a $2 million grant competition meant to spur the creation of District schools that combine online and face-to-face instruction. D.C. competition is open to traditional and charter schools that want to redesign their instruction. Also eligible are groups seeking to open new schools in the District. The aim is to encourage the use of technology to reach each student at his or her own level, a personalized approach that has gained momentum around the country. Funders see it as a powerful way to lift achievement quickly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/foundations-announce-2-million-grant-competition-for-blended-learning-schools/2013/09/09/89dcd89c-194e-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html

by Christine Flammia, UF Alligator

Students looking to save money on a college education can consider swapping conventional classrooms and on-campus housing for an online program or a commute to campus. Fifty percent of parents said they would consider having their child commute while living at home, according to a new study from Fidelity Investments. An even higher 54 percent said their children should take courses online. UF might make a parent’s money-saving strategy a reality. UF Online will offer a full bachelor’s degree program completely online.

http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_d91cafc0-19d7-11e3-9970-0019bb2963f4.html

By BRIAN ELLISON, MATTHEW LONG-MIDDLETON AND SYDNEY LLEWELLYN, KCUR

Dr. Jennifer Friend tells us that online courses have transformed the way we learn by making the educational experience more individualized and more student-centered. The online component can take many forms in education. Classes can be offered in an exclusively online format in which students connect to the lectures, discussion boards, and assignments entirely online from their home or work. In hybrid courses, students spend part of their time on campus for the face-to-face portion of the class, and the other part of the course online. Also, some classes rely mainly on traditional lectures with additional resources and forums online.

http://kcur.org/post/online-courses-education-future

by CHRISTINE TYLER, Daily Cal

At a talk Monday morning during this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt SF, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom discussed how technology relates to the future of higher education. On stage with Newsom was Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Udacity, a MOOC provider.  Thrun said innovation is the key to expanding students’ opportunities in higher education. He argued that there is an educational vacuum that companies like Udacity can fill by providing people with skills. The different learning format presented by online education also can reach a broader base of learners, Thrun said. “It’s been shown that a C-level math student can move to an A-level just by working at their own pace,” Thrun said. “Why can’t education be as fun as video games?”

http://www.dailycal.org/2013/09/09/newsom-lauds-online-courses-at-techcrunch/

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Efficiency inside: This Fujitsu chip for processing images in digital cameras is the first in production based on a new transistor design that offers significant power savings. A new way of designing chips could solve one of the biggest problems facing wearable computers such as Google Glass and the Samsung smart watch—their batteries generally have to be recharged every day. The novel design comes from SuVolta, which has been working since 2006 to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of transistors, the fundamental component of computer chips. The company has received $62 million in venture funding. At at the industry conference Hot Chips in California last month, SuVolta showed results from an experiment in which its technology was used to make a version of an existing chip. SuVolta’s version consumed half the power of the original while running at the same speed

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519191/low-power-transistors-may-boost-wearable-computer-battery-life/

By Todd R. Weiss, eWeek

Launched in 2008, Chrome presently holds 41.4 percent of the global Web browser market, compared with 27.7 percent for its closest competitor, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. When Google launched its Chrome Web browser five years ago today in 2008, most users still ran Chrome using a personal computer. Things sure have changed for Chrome’s 5th birthday. Nowadays, mobile is huge and Chrome is a big part of a mobile user’s online arsenal, allowing users of just about any device to browse the Web, conduct quick searches and find the information they are looking for, whether they are at home, at work, traveling or vacationing.

http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/google-chrome-browser-celebrates-5th-birthday.html

by Educators Technology

Attending conferences both virtually and physically is part and parcel of our professional growth plans. They are a great way for teachers to get to meet other educators and exchange their expertise and learn from each other. Personally speaking, each conference I attend I come out of it with a bunch of new ideas to try out or to investigate further. I also always get to extend my professional learning network via adding to it more like-minded teachers and educators. However, the question that is often posed is how and where to find such education conferences. The answer is in the list below. This is a non-comprehensive list that outlines some of the most popular conferences teachers, educators, librarians, and administrative folks need to know about. I am sharing it with you below and I hope you’ll be able to select some to attend for this new school year.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/09/26-great-conferences-for-teachers-to.html

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

typing on computerMore and more educators are leveraging technology in their classrooms, which is one aspect of being a 21st century teacher helping their students (and probably themselves, too) to develop 21st century skills. Finding a combination of the most useful devices, web tools, and apps can be a powerful learning tool for your students. But leveraging technology in such a way that it helps your lesson rather than being the focus of your lesson isn’t always easy, especially when you’re using apps that focus on specific topics. Its so easy to look at the material in the app as being the lesson. On the other hand, the technology can also end up being an afterthought, which is also less than idea, just on the other end of the spectrum. So how do you go about creating 21st century lesson plans that leverage the technology to support your lesson without being your lesson?

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/09/how-to-lesson-plans/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

If you haven’t taken an online course yourself, have you ever wondered what online learning is really like? While the online learning platforms used from school to school may differ slightly, online learning offers more than what most people would think. The handy infographic below takes a look at some of the common myths about online learning, following them up with a more accurate representation, as well as some of the things that online learning offers students, regardless of age or the subject that they’re studying.

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/09/online-learning-myths/

by Katherine Long, Seattle Times

University of Washington senior lecturer Matt McGarrity reached tens of thousands of people around the world this summer with his free online course on public speaking. The senior lecturer at the University of Washington counted among his students a 16-year-old girl in Pakistan who spoke passionately about the need for eloquent speech in a vibrant democracy, and a group of students in India who took the course at work and helped each other practice speeches. But perhaps he was most moved by a man in England, a quadriplegic who could not have taken the class any way except online. He reached out to McGarrity by email, telling him how much the course had meant toward boosting his self-confidence. “I’ve taught for many years, I’ve had thousands of students, but that made an impact on me because that told me that it had a tangible impact on somebody’s life,” McGarrity said.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021778386_speakingmoocxml.html

By Denny Carter, eCampusNews

College students are scouring social media to find out about perspective colleges more than ever, though students with the highest SAT scores took a slightly different approach to their Twitter and Facebook research when compared to their peers. The education consulting firm Art & Science Group released the results of a study that showed 44 percent of student respondents said they had used some form of social media in their search for a college or university. That’s more than double than 18 percent of students who used social media in their college research five years ago. The preferred social media platforms were hardly surprising, with 36 percent of students using Twitter and Facebook, while 13 percent used Google+. A mere 7 percent used YouTube in their school searches.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/social-media-research-colleges-037/

By Jake New, eCampusNews

Just days after announcing an expansion of a collaboration with Pearson to bring its adaptive learning technology to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses, Knewton has announced it is also expanding its reach to new parts of the globe. Knewton collects millions of data points to create models that can be broken down to help with learning. Since 2008, Knewton’s technology has been fueling adaptive learning for millions of students, but it’s been primarily confined to North America. Now, the company is partnering with Cambridge University Press to power the press’s English Language Teaching products, and opening an office in London to support adaptive learning in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The press’s Learning Management System is used by 250,000 students, and it has a presence in more than 50 countries. “This is really important technology that doesn’t just affect North American students,” said David Liu, Knewton’s chief operating officer. “Students in other countries want it, too. They need it.”

http://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/knewton-cambridge-global-016/

By EVAN SELINGER, Wall Street Journal

As for professors, we can make things easier for students by including detailed etiquette policies in our syllabi. Too many of us leave our likes and dislikes to be discovered by trial and error. But even the most detailed code of conduct can’t hope to specify or resolve every possible sticking point. Society writ large is constantly struggling to come to grips with technological disruption, and so too are the adults at the front of the college lecture hall and the wired, distracted young adults who are there to learn from them.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324577304579054922229616730.html

by AgriNews

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is offering online courses for youth and teachers through its teachers and students webpage. Through these courses, students can learn about how soil, water, air, plants and animals help sustain a healthy environment. The webpage’s components include interactive and downloadable classroom activities. Young students will be entertained by NRCS characters such as S.K. Worm, while older students can partake of lessons that offer hands-on activities and promote field investigation. This collection of NRCS resources provides teachers with standardized information created from scientific research in environmental conservation.

http://agrinews-pubs.com/Content/News/Latest-News/Article/Online-courses-for-youth–teachers-offered-by-NRCS/8/6/8181

by Newsday

Today, Americans for Prosperity Foundation released a policy brief explaining the exciting new frontier that virtual schools provide in the struggle for economic freedom. “Thanks to the Internet, a quality education is a click away for thousands of students who were previously unsatisfied with their brick-and-mortar public school,” AFP Foundation Policy Analyst Casey Given explains in the report. Since virtual schools aren’t bound by enrollment caps and geographic location like brick-and-mortar schools, Given argues that they have unprecedented potential to extend educational choice to every student with an Internet connection. The policy brief then explains the history of online learning, its various forms, and its contemporary challenges.

http://www.newsday.com/business/new-afpf-brief-online-learning-makes-quality-education-a-click-away-for-underserved-students-parents-1.6025134

by Dan Rodriguez, Northwestern Law

Over the last five to ten years, there has been a major shift in thinking about how students learn. That shift is from teacher-focused to student-focused learning – whereas the focus in the past has been on how the teacher conveyed information, now, the focus is on how students learn information. A key driver of this shift is new technologies that facilitate different interaction between students and professors, and that allow for different interaction among students. The “flipped classroom” – where students view lectures and engage in other learning activities online prior to class, and then use the classroom for problem-solving and team activities, real world speakers, or having the professor tailor class time to the subjects students are having the most problem with – is one of the most visible examples of what new technologies are bringing to higher education. While much of the new technology promotes learning online outside the classroom, the classroom environment nonetheless remains vitally important, as students and professors meet for the enhanced learning opportunities that technology has afforded.

http://deansblog.law.northwestern.edu/2013/09/06/the-flipped-classroom/

By Michelle Rempel, Grande Prairie Public Library

It’s back to school this week. I’ve exchanged a few fist pumps with other moms and witnessed some happy dances. The kids are learning, but what about us? If you have kids in school or your children are grown, perhaps it’s time to look at lifelong learning opportunities for yourself. Your library can help.

http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/2013/09/05/learning-opportunities-at-the-library

BY RONY ZAROM, Wired

The move by universities and colleges to make more courses available online often meets resistance from students who want to ensure they’re getting the best learning experience possible as they pay increasingly more for the privilege of a higher education. That’s why it was a big surprise when a top Ivy League institution received glowing accolades for a recent online class. Not only was there an 86 percent improvement in engagement over previous online courses, but students gave the class a 9-out-of-10 when it came to “quality expected from this university.” So, what made the difference? The answer may lie in students’ increasing comfort in the spotlight. delivering its online course. Wanting to mimic the in-person classroom experience as much as possible, it not only delivered a live video feed of the professor but also of the 25 students — simultaneously.

Want to Make Online Learning Work? Turn Students Into the Stars