Educational Technology

By Keith Krueger, eSchool News

Superintendents lead. They are charged with preparing students to be college-, career-, and life-ready, and with enabling a 21st-century learning environment. Increasingly, this means leveraging digital technologies to create personalized learning opportunities. As leaders, superintendents play an essential role as a catalyst for using technology to transform learning. In districts where superintendents have created a clear and compelling vision for technology, positive learning changes are occurring. In districts where the superintendent has abdicated that responsibility, technology is rarely scaled in a systemic manner.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/02/cosn-empowering-superintendents-901/

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

Creating a pipeline of girls who are interested in leadership roles in school is essential. Educators are uniquely positions to help girls assume leadership roles and overcome stereotypes both in and out of school, according to a new report from the National Education Association (NEA). Educator support in helping girls take on leadership roles is essential, especially in middle and high school. The report, based on 2014 NEA survey data, recommends several actions to help educators close the leadership gender gap.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/02/girls-leadership-roles-549/

By Kelly Corrigan, Glendale News-Press

California school leaders must tell parents they are monitoring students’ social media posts, and must delete this information when students leave the district, under a first-of-its-kind state law. The law aims to protect students’ online privacy. If California school officials collect information about students’ public posts on social media websites, they must discard this information within a year after a student leaves the district, and they must tell parents they are monitoring their children’s social media posts, under a new state law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown Sept. 29.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/10/02/social-media-monitoring-639/

By David Nagel, THE Journal

The United States Department of Education has issued guidance to education leaders calling attention to disparities in educational resources along ethnic and economic lines and characterizing such disparities as “potentially … unlawful discrimination.” The list of those disparities explicitly included quantity and quality of technology-based resources available to students. In a 37-page “Dear Colleague” letter sent Wednesday to schools, districts and state agencies, Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, outlined the various ways in which high-poverty schools and schools serving a large proportion of “students of color” are receiving unequal funding and access to resources, which, according to the latest guidance, is in conflict with federal law. The letter detailed disparities in the quantity and quality of curricular offerings, instructional materials and facilities and focused extensively on access to technology — devices, courseware and infrastructure.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/10/02/feds-inequalities-in-ed-tech-resources-potentially-unlawful-discrimination.aspx

By Michael Hart0, Campus Technology

A little finesse goes a long way in communicating with tech-challenged users — and more important, it can bolster IT’s strategic role across the university.You’ve spent hours on the phone with a user whose problem, you finally discover, is nowhere close to what he has been describing to you. Or you’ve gotten that excited call from a professor who has just learned about “the most amazing technology ever” and wants you to get it for her “immediately.” (Never mind that the technology costs a mint or won’t actually suit her needs!) Every IT professional at a higher education institution has had these experiences. It doesn’t matter if you’re a one-person team at a small community college or part of a massive IT department at a major university. Failed communication is just one symptom of the chasm that sometimes exists between IT professionals and the faculty, students and administrators they serve.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/09/25/how-to-bridge-the-it-communication-gap.aspx

By David Nagel, Campus Techology

Shipments of Apple’s iPad have fallen off 13 percent so far this year. Meanwhile, according to a new report, Samsung’s tablet shipments have increased 26 percent in the first half of 2014. According to market research firm ABI Research, Apple and Samsung continued to account for roughly 70 percent of all tablet shipments in the first half of 2014. However, there is a new contender on the block. “The roller coaster ride from the leading two tablet vendors has market watchers looking to other vendors to create sustainable growth,” said ABI Senior Practice Director Jeff Orr, in a statement released to coincide with the report. “All eyes are on Lenovo as it is one of few to demonstrate consistent growth over the past year.”

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/09/30/ipad-declines-as-samsung-lenovo-tablets-push-forward.aspx

by Edudemic

There is a staggering amount of free video available online that makes great fodder for teaching students, particularly in flipped classroom settings. Instead of giving students YouTube links or telling them to search for a video on a particular subject, with EDpuzzle teachers can select videos, edit them down, assign them to students, and quiz them as they watch. EDpuzzle is a very simple tool that walks teachers through the video lesson creation process, with only a few limitations. With this solution a teacher can make the most of the video assets he or she has access to, plus everything the Internet has to offer. It is also an easy enough experience that you can quickly create individualized video lessons for different students and their particular needs or areas of interest. It is not a replacement for a MOOC platform or LMS, but it is a nice complement to those and perfect for the teacher that wants to make sure that online video assignments are actually being watched and that students are grasping the concepts and information being presented.

http://www.edudemic.com/edpuzzle-review-easy-use-tool-lets-teachers-quickly-turn-online-video-lessons/

By Edudemic

Contemporary classrooms have moved far beyond the worlds of pen and paper. Many technological advances are helping teachers everywhere engage and educate students of all ages and abilities like never before. Take a look at some of the best recent innovations that you can use to revolutionize your classroom. Begin with Google Drive.

http://www.edudemic.com/use-classroom-upgrades-revolutionize-school-day/

by Edudemic

One of your jobs as a modern-day teacher is to invite your students to the technology table. Since most kids get a lot of their at-home entertainment from computers, tablets, and smartphones, it’s not hard to entice them. The trick is to convince them that tech gadgets aren’t just for entertainment; they’re also for learning. But how do you convince a die-hard Zelda fan that algebra games are fun on the iPad? How do you persuade a Facebook addict that Edmodo can be just as fun when shared with friends? Your kids won’t reach their learning goals if you don’t lure them in. Also, once you hook them, there’s also a question of keeping them under your control. Any teacher with experience knows that classroom management is a delicate dance that often crumbles at the first misstep.

http://www.edudemic.com/guide-creating-tech-friendly-classroom-management-strategies/

by Nidhi Subbaraman, Beta Boston

Walking, jumping, running robots like Big Dog and Atlas are equal parts amazing and terrifying. And look how they’ve grown: MIT’s Cheetah bot, once a tethered machine on a treadmill, can now bound across an open field unchained. A few makers of the sophisticated moving robots that are starting to pop up in public more and more are going to be sharing their wisdom with the masses. MIT’s online course on moving robots is open for business. “Algorithms for Walking, Running, Swimming, Flying, and Manipulation,” a 10-week course, is led by researchers at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratories and hosted at EdX, the MOOC platform that MIT is a member of.

http://betaboston.com/news/2014/10/01/mit-online-course-will-teach-you-to-design-a-robot-that-moves/

Security has kept pace with the innovations but security has not kept pace with the sophistication of potential intrusions. They’re moving faster than the innovations themselves. There’s always a willingness to work with the security operations folks to do what you can to make sure that our systems that are online and elsewhere stored externally are secure. The sophistication of the intruders has become exponentially more sophisticated and more frequent as evidenced by some of the breaches in payment systems in retail within the last six months or a year. IT leaders should take a fresh look to make sure everyone is looking at every system they’re planning to update or put into place. I’m very wary of cloud-based solutions for business programs because of their vulnerability as well. It’s up to the IT leaders and the other business leaders within the university to push the vendors very hard on the vendors’ responsibilities to make sure to safeguard the systems and to accept responsibility [when breaches occur].

http://www.evolllution.com/distance_online_learning/audio-takes-student-information-safe-digital-age

by MARGARET RHODES, Wired

Technology and data are reshaping every aspect of our jobs, at an astonishing speed. Yet our higher education system still clings to a format created about 800 years ago: a teacher, in front of a classroom full of students, giving a lecture. This dichotomy is at the heart of a current national debate over the value and cost of higher education, and how that education gets delivered. At issue is how institutions long wedded to a rigid teacher-classroom format can better prepare students to become what Sarah Stein Greenberg of the Stanford University d.School calls “daring, creative, and resilient problem solvers.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/4-smart-proposals-reinventing-college-stanfords-design-school/

by Valorie Eversole, Daily Union Editor

Windsor High School seniors have a chance to learn what it’s like to take an online college class. This is the first year a college bound English literature course has been offered as an alternative to English 4 at the school. The course also frees students’ schedules so they make take another course. English instructor Shanna House has received training for instructing an online class. She said the students have received the online class well. The course requires independent work and projects and yet get the one-on-one feedback.

http://www.shelbyvilledailyunion.com/community/education/article_0cf8a914-48d2-11e4-a27c-dfbe357cbbca.html

by Arthur F. Kirk, Huffington Post

A question that prospective online students often ask us is “how do I know if I’m ready for an online course?” For adult students who may be juggling full-time jobs, families or other obligations the answer almost always involves time commitment. Online classes offer more flexibility, but flexibility does not mean less rigor. In fact, an online degree program can sometimes be more challenging than the traditional classroom. So, how do you know if you are a good candidate for an online class? Consider these 10 tips before enrolling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-arthur-f-kirk-jr/are-you-ready-for-online-_b_5900886.html

by Kate Patrick, Heartland

Homeschooling has been around for centuries, but online school is a comparatively recent innovation. In the last decade, all kinds of online education options have popped up, providing homeschooling parents with more options than there are curriculum stands at a homeschool convention. From Christian online academies to state online schools to post-secondary classes, the avenues for homeschooling seem infinite. The new question is: Do online classes “count” as homeschooling? Some parents whose kids take online classes consider themselves homeschoolers, but others do not.

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2014/09/30/online-school-it-homeschooling

By Jeffrey Selingo, Chronicle of Higher Ed

These remain the early days of MOOCs. Remember the early days of the web? “No one knew what web search would become in 1998,” Ryan Baker, an associate professor of cognitive studies at Teachers College, Columbia University who has taught a MOOC, told me. “We had Infoseek and AltaVista, and Yahoo tried to do it like a phone book. And then Google came along, and that’s how we remember search today.” It’s during this time, after the phase of the initial and unrealistic hype, that the primary players—Coursera, edX, and their college sponsors—need to answer three fundamental questions about the position of MOOCs in the academic ecosystem if the technology is ever to deliver on some of its promises.

http://chronicle.com/article/MOOC-U-The-Revolution-Isnt/149039/

by Lisa Black, Chicago Tribune

School districts moving to “one-to-one” programs, which provide students with computers they can take home, increasingly find their officials navigating new cyber territory, aiming to keep students safe while juggling privacy issues as advances in technology increase their ability to monitor their students’ online work at all hours. In Barrington, District 220 officials field emails sent by “cyber security agents” hired to monitor student activity, alerting them to inappropriate words or suspicious phrases that can indicate such things as sexting or bullying. “There is going to be some difficulty in balancing the rights of student privacy against the legitimate rights of the school to understand how the devices are being used,” said Jacqueline Wernz, a lawyer with the Chicago firm Franczek Radelet. For school districts, she said, “it might be a matter of protecting themselves.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-school-tablets-privacy-met-20140928-story.html#page=1

by Affordable Colleges Online

The continued rise in tuition and fees has many students and parents carefully analyzing the cost of college. Does community college make sense for two years? Is the private school worth the extra cash? Finding low-cost opportunities can be the key to more students getting the higher education they deserve. However, every family preparing to take the post-secondary plunge should make sure all college options on the table, especially the most affordable ones, have the proper accreditation. No matter which type of college, accreditation indicates a school has passed certain peer-based assessments and maintains faculty, staff and curricula dedicated to high-quality education. The following page examines low-cost colleges — both traditional and online — and how accreditation ensures that even the least expensive colleges maintain certain quality standards.

http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/cheap-online-colleges/

By Michael Hart, Campus Technology

A little finesse goes a long way in communicating with tech-challenged users — and more important, it can bolster IT’s strategic role across the university. Failed communication is just one symptom of the chasm that sometimes exists between IT professionals and the faculty, students and administrators they serve. And while it’s tempting to blame the user, the truth is it’s up to IT to find a way to get the right messages across. “You’ve got to go to where people stand,” exhorted Joanna Young, vice president and CIO at Michigan State University. In other words, put yourself in the user’s shoes; listen as much as you talk or fix; and learn how to speak on his terms.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/09/25/how-to-bridge-the-it-communication-gap.aspx

By Bruce Maiman, eCampus News

A trusted bromide in academia is that you become a better student when you become a teacher. Gradually and informally, educators who repeatedly warned students to avoid Wikipedia like the plague began making it part of their course curriculum, assigning students to contribute content, either by writing original Wikipedia articles or editing existing ones. Since the program’s launch in 2010, nearly 10,000 students in some 500 classes have contributed 44,000 printed pages of content, editing thousands of existing articles and creating 1,900 new ones, all of it overseen by academics while students get credit. Participating schools run the gamut from Ivy League to community college. The California contingent includes Berkeley, Davis and San Francisco, the California Maritime Academy and Pomona College.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/wikipedia-grows-college-campuses/

By Cynthia Sewell, eSchool News

A Boise, Idaho, company is taking armchair adventuring and learning to a new level by letting anyone on the internet take command of a remotely operated underwater vehicle. The LiveDiver device from Reach-In is now installed at the Aquarium of Boise. By logging into the aquarium’s website, users can control a small mini-submarine in the shark and fish tank to get a diver’s perspective of the marine life.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/09/29/virtual-trip-aquarium-090/