Educational Technology

By David Nagel, THE Journal

Apple and Samsung accounted for a full 71 percent of tablets shipped in the first quarter of 2014. Apple remained in the top spot for the quarter, though Android as a whole accounted for slightly more than half of all new tablets shipped through March, according to early results released by market research firm ABI Research. Of the top 3 vendors, only No. 2 Samsung showed positive growth in the quarter, which is typically the softest quarter for tablet sales. Samsung shipped 13 million units, up 10.8 percent from the same quarter in 2013.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/05/21/tablet-competition-heats-up-samsung-apple-vie-for-top-spot.aspx

By Geoffrey H. Fletcher, THE Journal

“Technology has changed; the needs of schools have changed; the E-rate program must reflect this change.” So said Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a talk to a group assembled by the Council of Chief State School Officers in mid-March. His talk was but the latest in a flurry of activity around the E-rate in particular and the federal role in educational technology in general.The positive flurry began in June 2013. In a speech at Mooresville Middle School (NC), President Obama announced his ConnectED initiative and directed the FCC “to begin a process that will connect 99 percent of America’s students to high-speed broadband Internet within five years.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/05/22/shifting-federal-priorities-mean-more-funding-for-ed-tech.aspx

By David Nagel, THE Journal

Six critical shifts are happening in education right now that are being driven, at least in part, by technology. According to preliminary findings from an upcoming report, these changes affect everything from the role of the teacher to a rethinking of how schools themselves work. The findings are part of a preliminary report introduced this week by the New Media Consortium and the Consortium for School Networking. Each year, NMC releases an annual Horizon Report, detailing new and impending developments affecting K-12 education in the United States — including emerging trends, technology drivers and barriers to adoption. The findings are the result of research in coordination with an expert panel of Horizon Project participants, ranging from representatives of individual schools to the World Bank.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/05/21/6-shifts-in-education-driven-by-technology.aspx

By Michael Sharnoff, eSchool News

A new app aims to counter the ‘summer learning loss’ by piquing student interest in science and math and helping inform parents about STEM education. STEM-app-summer-lossNext month, students across the United States will toss aside their books for relaxation and outdoor summer activities. However, many parents and educators are concerned that summer vacation spent away from dedicated learning leads to learning loss known as the “summer slide.” The Wheelock College Aspire Institute may have found a unique solution. The STEM Activity App, a new free web app specifically designed to engage families with elementary-age students in STEM activities, provides engaging experiments for parents and children to learn more about science, tech, engineer and math.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/05/22/stem-app-summer-learning-234/

By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor, eSchool News

By now, apps have cemented their place as valuable resources for students, teachers, and administrators. But these apps go deeper, helping educators transform teaching and learning while promoting essential skills such as critical thinking and collaboration. “There’s no one app that’s better than all the others,” said Michelle Luhtala, head librarian at New Canaan High School in Connecticut, while presenting a list of 50 apps that educators and students might find useful. Luhtala featured apps that have been crowsourced by a handful of her colleagues and students. The apps promote and target 21st-century skills such as collaboration and creativity.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/05/22/30-apps-educators-634/

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

As districts increasingly move to digital content, many school leaders are chucking printed textbooks in favor of the more interactive content that eBooks and digital texts can offer. Ann Fondren, retired district library coordinator for Spotsylvania County Schools (Va.), outlined a number of key considerations district library media specialists and administrators must keep in mind as they move to eBooks during “Take the Plunge with eBooks,” an edWeb webinar.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/05/26/8-ways-ebooks-784/

By Jenel Few, Savannah Now

There are several members of the public school system’s Class of 2014 who have extra reason to celebrate. Aaliyah Davis is one of many students who would not be graduating if not for the Savannah-Chatham school system’s Twilight School. Because she repeated eighth grade, Davis thought she was destined to trail behind students her age. But Twilight School’s online classes enabled her to complete four years of high school coursework in three years and graduate on time with the class of 2014. “I changed middle schools twice, failed the math section of the CRCT and I had to repeat the eighth grade,” Davis said. “When I finally got to Johnson High, I was self-conscious about being older than everyone else.”

http://savannahnow.com/news/2014-05-24/twilight-school-helps-boost-savannah-chatham-graduation-rates

by PETER CAMERON, Citizen’s Voice

When Maj. Chris Costello of the Pennsylvania National Guard received his fourth overseas deployment in a decade, this time to Kuwait in 2012, he decided to go back to school — in the Arabian Desert. Along with 20 other soldiers at Camp Buehring, about 10 miles south of the Iraqi border, Costello enrolled in an online MBA course through Marywood University, more than 6,000 miles away. Camels would roam the outskirts of the base. Most of the servicemen and -women lived in tents. And sandstorms sometimes knocked out the basewide Wi-Fi and sent some of the soldier-students scrambling through the stinging wind for a better connection in the recreation hall. As an officer, Costello had the benefit of living in an air-conditioned apartment on the base with his own Internet connection.

http://citizensvoice.com/news/ease-of-online-education-allows-many-to-get-degrees-1.1687840

by Debra Erdley, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Buffeted by increasing costs, shrinking public subsidies, soaring student debt and growing public skepticism, American colleges are approaching a tipping point. More than 4,000 colleges and universities are scattered across the country, and experts agree that — with the exception of elite, well-endowed research universities — few will remain unchanged in 30 years. Some will close, others might merge, and leaner models likely will emerge to meet public demand. “I think all change is incremental, but what’s different about the period we’re in is there are so many forces out there that the cumulative effect of those forces will produce big changes,” said Patrick Callan, president of the Higher Education Policy Institute. Donald Heller, dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University, said colleges and universities will emphasize more online offerings as they reshape to survive.

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6035965-74/online-governors-percent#axzz32kvaS78T

BY BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press

The Smithsonian Institution is venturing further into online education with a new deal to provide content for digital courses in history, science, culture and the arts, the museum complex announced May 5. Smithsonian officials unveiled an agreement with the Chantilly, Virginia-based education group The Great Courses for a new series of multimedia lectures. The 10-year deal will include at least 12 courses, with the first four to be released this fall. The courses will be primarily targeted at college-educated lifelong learners, but The Great Courses also serves college students, homeschooled students and a growing audience through Netflix and other entertainment sites. The company has recently created similar partnerships with National Geographic and the Culinary Institute of America.

http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce/May-Issue-4-2014/Smithsonian-makes-deal-to-offer-online-courses/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Blended learning can tick a lot of boxes for a lot of different teachers who teach in potentially quite different scenarios. From 1:1 classrooms and schools with plenty of iPads to BYOD classes filled with different types (and amounts) of technology, blended learning can help nearly every teacher make learning more personalized and more interesting for their students. Implementing a blended learning program in your classroom can be a great way to put the technology tools you have – whatever they may be – to use. The handy infographic linked below takes a look at 10 blended learning trends that are showing up in today’s classrooms. Keep reading to learn more!

http://www.edudemic.com/blended_learning_trends/

By Dale Borgeson, Edudemic

If your classroom does not already have an active and vibrant website you are missing out on one of the biggest ways to reach your students and their parents. Already have a site? Good, now, let’s talk about keeping it in shape. The quality of your site will determine if it is actually used and if the visitors return on a regular basis. There are a few simple things your should keep in mind to keep your classroom website looking good.

http://www.edudemic.com/classroom-website/

By Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

Many teachers have added ‘digital literacy’ as number four on the list of literacies their students should have (or be working towards, in most cases). Reading, writing, and math are now followed by digital literacy. Obviously, depending on the grade level you teach, your students will have different abilities in each of the four areas, so your expectations and your teaching approach may differ quite noticeably from your colleagues. But the nagging question still remains for many teachers – what exactly is digital literacy?

http://www.edudemic.com/digital-literacy/

by Mark Boxser and Anant Argarwal, Huffington Post

Eighteen months ago at a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos the star was not Bill Gates of Microsoft or Larry Summers of Harvard, but 12-year-old Khadijah Niazi of Lahore, Pakistan, who captivated the audience by talking about a trend that could revolutionize education. She is one of millions who have improved their education by taking a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC). Certainly Khadija is an exceptional teenager, as we found out when we met her at the Global Education & Skills Forum in Dubai a year later. She was only 10 years old when she took an Artificial Intelligence online course. But, however preternaturally gifted she is, she underlines the fact that MOOCs may be more appropriate for pre-university learners (K-12), than simply as a means of taking university courses online.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-boxser/why-moocs-might-be-just-r_b_5365503.html

By Debbie Manis, Orlando Sentinel

Little Clickers computer classes will be offered at the Leesburg Public Library, 100 E. Main St., for children ages 3 to 7 and their caregivers. The classes will teach basic computer skills and internet safety for young children. Lessons will include the parts of a computer, basic searching, how to drag-and-drop and staying safe online. The sessions will help build a foundation for learning more advanced computer skills in the future, while also helping instill confidence and ease with A certificate of completion will be given to participants. The three-week youth laptap lab program is funded by the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-lk-education-notes-052114-20140520,0,3566381.story

By Freddie Diaz-Batista, Fire Engineering

In my previous article, I discussed several learning management systems (LMS) available for the fire rescue community that can store your online content. So, now you’ve installed the LMS that is right for your department. What’s the next step? The course! So let’s get started.  To make the design process easy, I broke it down into the following 10 easy steps to help you with the creation of your first e-Learning course:

http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2014/05/ten-steps-to-creating-a-successful-e-learning-course.html

by Trista Bridges, Rude Baguette

DragonBox Algebra is a game designed specifically to tech algebra. It presents the player with whimsical icons that need to be manipulated until the ‘DragonBox,’ representing the unknown variable, is isolated on one side of the game board. When they start playing, the student generally doesn’t realize that they are already learning basic principles of algebra such as balancing an equation. Through the course of play, these icons are gradually replaced with numbers and variables until the player is solving real equations. In the study, an adaptive version of the game was developed in conjunction with the Center for Game Science to get participating students focused on one goal: solving hundreds of thousands of equations.

http://www.rudebaguette.com/2014/05/20/dragonbox-challenge-proves-kids-can-learn-basic-algebra-just-1-5-hours-gameplay/

By Jesse Singal, NY Mag

If you give someone a big chunk of information to learn, they may not go about it the most efficient way — maybe they won’t break it up into digestible chunks, or maybe they’ll waste too much time solidifying something that’s easy for them at the expense of something that’s hard. Online games can fix all these problems dictating the terms under which you learn, from the intervals at which material is repeated to the rate at which new material is introduced. Plus, they can adapt to your learning style. None of this is to say there aren’t a lot of scam-y online learning platforms out there based in pseudoscience, because there are. But as this study highlights, if you know what you’re doing, learning in a gamified way can serve you a lot better than more traditional alternatives.

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/05/games-are-better-teachers.html

by Center for Digital Ed

The California Legislature is considering a bill that would allow high school students to count their computer science classes toward college math admission requirements. SB 1200, sponsored by State Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), asks the state’s two university systems to match up their admissions standards in math and language arts to those of the Academic Content Standards Commission. The comission benchmarks at least 85 percent of its standards to the Common Core State Standards. The bill would require the California State University system to align its standards, but requests the same from the University of California system. It also would have them develop guidelines so that high school computer science courses could satisfy math requirements for admissions purposes.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/California-Computer-Science-College.html

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Ed

Picture this: A world flooded with a sea of data from every connected device on the planet — devices found in and on human bodies, in homes, around communities, in products, and in the natural environment. And these devices on the Internet of Things are sharing information constantly with the promise of making people’s lives better. But the government, corporations and criminals can all tap into these data streams and use what they find for evil, if they so choose. And that tension comes through loud and clear in a report on the Internet of Things that includes opinions from more than 1,600 experts.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Where-the-Internet-of-Things-Could-Take-Society-by-2025-.html

by Bruce Betts, Planetary Society Blog

I have completed the lectures for my online 2014 Introduction to Planetary Science and Astronomy Course at California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH): All lectures are free and online at http://planetary.org/bettsclass and you can earn a Certificate of Achievement for watching them. You can learn more about the class on the same web page including syllabus and assignments.In a nutshell, I tried to give an entertaining introduction to planetary science, light on math and heavy on pretty pictures with explanations, as well as in the last couple lectures covering the broader universe (stars, galaxies, Big Bang, etc.). The class, taught in participation with the distance learning experts at CSUDH, was offered for college credit to those high school juniors and seniors in their Young Scholar program. Anyone who watches all the lectures can now earn a Certificate of Achievement to download from The Planetary Society.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/complete-2014-astronomy.html