Educational Technology

by Adeline Koh, Prof Hacker Blog

Unlike the typical passive viewing sessions, live tweeting allows instructors to directly engage in the student’s learning, by directing attention to issues that they might otherwise miss. This semester, I’m teaching a graduate seminar in the digital humanities, and one of the assignments for the semester is for students to live tweet the class and to later storify the tweets as notes. I’ve decided to implement this assignment for two reasons: (1) to provide some kind of a backchannel for more quiet students to participate, and (2) to encourage a public dimension to my students’ learning. After writing up the assignment, I did some searching for best practices of live tweeting events to help my students out, but didn’t find much that would be directly pertinent to what they needed. This post is the result. Effectively live-tweeting an event to take notes is a little different from how one would approach live-tweeting an event simply to participate. I list some ideas for best practices for live-tweeting for note taking below at the URL below.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/livetweeting-classes-some-suggested-guidelines/54963

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Think about it: when children are young, they’re encouraged almost constantly to be creative. They tell stories, play make believe and dress up, build forts, and draw pictures. Once they get to school, that flow of creativity starts to dwindle, and continues to do so as they get older and older. But the truth is that encouraging students to think creatively can be a challenge in today’s curricula and test focused classrooms. Our modern educational models don’t leave a lot of room for creative free thinking. The handy infographic linked below takes a look at four strategies to boost students’ confidence in their creativity.

http://www.edudemic.com/creative-thinking-students/

By Daniel Shumski, Edudemic

A recent look at what Los Angeles is paying for students’ iPads in its 1:1 program found that the cost far exceeds what other nearby districts are paying for programs offering iPads, Chromebooks or other laptops. Now, Los Angeles is surveying dozens of other school districts to find out what they’re paying. So, what do other tablet and laptop programs cost? And what are districts getting for that money? As of June, about 10 million of the 155 million iPads sold were in schools. But it’s not just iPads that schools are buying. Visit the URL below for a look at six 1:1 programs across the country.

http://www.edudemic.com/ipad-classrooms-cost/

by Brittany Schmidt, News 8000

As the times continue to change, so do the teaching techniques used on a daily basis. “Whether we like it or not, kids are starting to use technology on their own. By using it in this structured environment where they are really learning how to use it, that just benefits them in the end,” said Jeanne Halderson, a teacher at Longfellow Middle School. There are some social media sites that teachers have not brought into their classroom. For example, the La Crosse School District does not allow students to use Facebook or Twitter at school. The La Crosse School District uses Facebook and Twitter outside of the classroom, as a way to communicate with parents and the community.

http://www.news8000.com/news/teachers-use-social-media-to-encourage-online-learning/-/326/24128412/-/fapyc4/-/index.html

By Associated Press

Tweets and other social media posts are part of modern communication and are modern forms of expression. Some schools and colleges are embracing them. On students’ desks are hand-written notes and copies of “Rebecca,” a psychological thriller by Daphne du Maurier. But instead, the focus of Valerie Williams’ ninth-grade English class were often on a different tool: their smartphones. In recent years, Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy has incorporated social media and other technologies into the classroom, encouraging teachers to allow smartphones as part of their lessons.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/471775-english-class-includes-tweeting/

by Channel News Asia

It is not simply about using more technology in education, but using it in a way that brings out the heart of education that is important. Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said this in a posting on his Facebook page on Sunday morning. He noted that Singapore will have an integrated online learning portal for all primary and secondary school students by 2016. He described it as “a most invigorating prospect”, but said it’s not just about using technology more. “Ultimately it is about how we use technology to bring out the heart of education,” said Mr Heng.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/technology-matters-but/968426.html

By eCampus News staff

Academics using these seven apps can help colleges and universities deliver instruction more efficiently and bolster student enthusiasm about the learning process.  Administrators and educators are constantly thinking of new ways technology can help deliver instruction more effectively and enhance the student experience. eCampus News has assembled a list of education “apps” for Apple devices that we think are noteworthy for higher education. The majority are free, while the others range in price from $0.99 to $4.99.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/business-news/highered-interactive-apps-416/?

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Big Data is all around. Used in every type of industry to identify trends and possibility, data is also being used in education. Identified as one of the top trends in education, institutions are using them in all sorts of different ways. Think of it like the Google analytics for your classroom. Google analytics analyzes your website’s traffic and shows you what your best opportunities are for presenting certain ideas to certain audiences. Learning analytics can analyze your students and their work, and you can pinpoint some opportunity for personalization and optimization of your teaching and classroom. The handy infographic linked below takes a look at some ways that data mining and learning analytics can help enhance education. Keep reading to learn more.

http://www.edudemic.com/big-data-education/

by Jake New, eCampus News

Following two high-profile education events organized by the White House, the Obama administration is asking institutions for their input on technology and college affordability. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released a notice earlier this month inviting colleges and universities that participate in student assistance programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to propose ideas for new financial aid experiments. “The secretary is particularly interested in experiments that will improve student persistence and academic success, result in shorter time to degree, and reduce student loan indebtedness,” the Department of Education said.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/white-house-technology-024/

by the New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE

The NMC Horizon Report > 2014 Higher Education Edition is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE Program. This eleventh edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education. Learning analytics, flipped modalities, and “quantified self” are among the emerging technologies.

http://www.nmc.org/publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed

By Jaci Conrad, Pearson Black Hills Pioneer

Learning opportunities have gone viral at Lead-Deadwood High School. Kids seem to do practically everything else on the Internet. Starting with this year’s Lead-Deadwood High School senior class, every student who graduates is now required to complete an online learning course in order to do so. What that means for students is a chance to take a class they’d never dreamed of enrolling in, a prospect quite appealing at both the student and administrator level. “What we’ve found is that whether a student continues on to vo-tech or the School of Mines, they will be expected to complete at least some coursework online,” said Lead-Deadwood Secondary Principal Nick Gottlob

http://www.bhpioneer.com/local_news/article_49170e6e-8383-11e3-ac8b-0019bb2963f4.html

By Karen Edwards, WRDW

“We all know that kids need redemption. There’s always going to be that one or two classes that really are a sticking point for them,” said Stacey Mabray, Richmond County schools curriculum and instruction director. That’s why Richmond County began offering a summer blended program where students could make up courses that could have held them back a grade or prevented them from graduating. We ran a blended learning opportunity for students to actually engage the content on the computer with the support of a teacher,” Mabray explained. “We had 126 students who met the challenge and we’re really excited about that.” And Mabray says the results exceeded expectations.

http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Online-courses-could-help-decrease-school-drop-out-rates-241623591.html

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Memorization sometimes gets a bad rap in the education world. Yes, education IS way more than just memorizing facts, dates, formulas, spellings, and pronunciations. But you do have to get information into the brain somehow, right? Technology has brought more information to our fingertips, but does it also make us forget things more easily? The handy infographic linked below takes a look at how Google and its tools have changed how we find and retain information. Pretty interesting stuff – and if you can’t remember it later to tell your colleagues about what you read, you can always refer back to this page!

http://www.edudemic.com/google-memory/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

The State University of New York (SUNY) has formally introduced a new online program that allows students to access courses, degrees, professors and academic resources from any of SUNY’s 64 campuses. Open SUNY, as it’s called, is a mix-and-match service that offers access to 400 “online-enabled” degrees, 12,000 course sections and eight full degrees. The system’s expectation is that people from inside and outside the state will attend courses, including international students. Students can use the program to start a degree, finish a degree or just take a single course

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/01/21/open-suny-unites-online-ed-offerings-across-64-institutions.aspx?admgarea=news

By Oliver Staley, Bloomberg

Yale University said it was wrong to block an online course guide built by students that competed with the college’s own website. Mary Miller, dean of students, said the university objected to the way student feedback about the courses was presented as a numerical score without the context of their comments. That violated the school’s policy about modifying data without permission and encouraged students to select courses with incomplete information, Miller said in a Jan. 20 letter to students and staff. “Although the University acted in keeping with its policies and principles, I see now that it erred in trying to compel students to have as a reference the superior set of data that the complete course evaluations provide,” Miller said. “Students can and will decide for themselves how much effort to invest in selecting their courses.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-22/yale-concedes-error-in-banning-student-course-evaluation-website.html

By David Nagel, THE Journal

A new national poll shows that the vast majority of Americans have concerns about student data privacy and the potential use of such data for commercial purposes. In a survey of 800 adults conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group for nonprofit Common Sense Media, 89 percent of respondents indicated the are “very or somewhat concerned about advertisers using kids’ personal data to market to them.” “What we are hearing from American families is that students’ personal and private information must not be used for advertising, period,” said Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media. “Privacy in general is a major concern for Americans, and what we are clearly seeing from this poll is that schools should be completely off limits when it comes to collecting the personal information of students for marketing purposes.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/01/22/concerns-over-student-data-privacy-widespread-among-americans.aspx

by George Anders, Forbes

Coursera has been pushing to offer a more formalized, paid version of its MOOC experience. The site now invites students to take Signature-track classes, in which final exams are digitally proctored and students pay $100 or so for a completion certificate. Currently more than 200 of Coursera’s total 584 classes are offered in Signature format. Topics range from calculus to Roman architecture. Coursera has set up the Specialization label to cover a series of interlocking courses that are meant to provide students with full mastery of a subject. See the graphic linked below shared by George Anders.

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/georgeanders/files/2014/01/Coursera.Specializations.jpg

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

An online course provider will this spring introduce bundles of courses created by top-tier universities that can be completed for certificates. That description fits both Academic Partnerships and Coursera, and both programs are called “Specializations.” The similarities are more than mere coincidence, as​ the two companies have since last summer discussed a partnership proposed by Academic Partnerships for its platform to use Coursera’s university course offerings. Yet Coursera’s Specializations, announced Tuesday morning, took Academic Partnerships CEO Randy Best by surprise. When the parties spoke recently, Best said Coursera “expressed that they were going to defer for now the idea of Specializations.”

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/22/after-failed-talks-academic-partnerships-and-coursera-both-introduce-online-course

by eLearning 24/7

Published by E-Learning 24/7, which not only publishes a regularly updated list of the top LMSs but also a list of the top rapid content authoring tools (comprising some 168 vendors), and the work of the internationally-known corporate online learning industry analyst, Craig Weiss, the current top ten LMSs in the world are:

1. ExpertusOne
2. Growth Engineering
3. Blackboard
4. Instructure
5. eLogic Learning
6. IMC-Clix
7. Docebo
8. Biz Library
9. Meridian Global
10. CM Group LTD

In addition, this latest report on the state of the learning management system (LMS) industry includes comments on LMS market trends and forces, as well as developing trends in LMS features. Craig Weiss also presents a continent-by-continent analysis of the LMS market.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1691998

By Carl Straumsheim, THE Journal

Harvard University will this spring offer three versions of its Introduction to Computer Science course, each with its own level of rigor and student-instructor interactivity. With a paid option that offers students a discount toward future studies at the university, the course represents yet another attempt to find a sustainable business model for massive open online courses. The course can be taken for no academic credit as a free, self-paced MOOC through HarvardX, the university’s branch of edX, and also as a credit-granting online course through the Harvard Extension School for $2,050. The school is also offering a third path that blends the flexibility of the HarvardX course with biweekly, online office hours with senior lecturer David J. Malan and a discussion forum moderated by teaching fellows. That hybrid option, which costs $350, can be completed for an official certificate, and the cost is returned in form of a discount on a future course through the Extension School or Summer School.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/21/harvard-u-experiments-three-versions-same-course

By Amanda Sloane, HLN TV

A Georgia high school senior who was suspended in December for hugging a teacher will be allowed back in school — but only to take online courses, according to HLN affiliate WGCL. “It’s a step forward that they gave him an alternative for him to finish his education online,” the teen’s mother, April McNair, told WGCL. “But you’re still stripping him of graduating with his class… going to prom, having the experience of a high school graduate.” Sam McNair told HLN in December that he had hugged the teacher numerous times before and that, “She was totally fine with it. That’s why I was so surprised when this situation happened.”

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2014/01/20/student-suspended-hugging-teacher-sam-mcnair-online-classes