Educational Technology

by FELIKS GARCIA, THE DAILY DOT

What Levine and Kearney found, though, was a rather intriguing equivalency between the lessons of Sesame Street and MOOCs, or “massive open online-courses,” a recent trend in accessible higher education. “If we can do this with Sesame Street on television,” Levine and Kearney write, “we can potentially do this with all sorts of electronic communications.” Such a development could result in massive changes in access for lower-income Americans unable afford a university education. What’s stopping us from bridging the gap between the elementary benefits of Sesame Street and higher ed—from secondary school through college?

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/13/what_americas_failing_schools_can_learn_from_sesame_street_partner/

By BRYAN MCKENZIE , The Daily Progress

Virginia students soon may be able to get their public high school diploma without ever stepping inside a school. The state Department of Education this fall will offer on a first-come basis a program offering a full-time, online high school. If the pilot, open to 100 students across the state, proves successful, officials could make the program permanent and open it to additional students. “We are excited to offer this opportunity to high school students, especially those with the potential for thriving in a non-traditional instructional setting,” said Steven R. Staples, state superintendent of public instruction. “This expansion of the Virtual Virginia program provides more choice and flexibility to students seeking a high school diploma.”

http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/virginia-to-pilot-online-public-high-school-for-fall-semester/article_ec5c62b8-123e-11e5-944a-ebdbcb516ab1.html

by CourseTalk

1. Providers should embrace reviews from unbiased, third-party sites as a way of promoting improved course selection and engagement.

2. They should not be afraid to charge for quality content.

3. Providers should make courses experiences clear, easy to navigate, fun, interactive, supportive and flexible.

4. They should focus on short course modules, but not hesitate to challenge students with heavier workloads where appropriate.

https://d3q6qq2zt8nhwv.cloudfront.net/s/coursetalk/pdf/newco/What%20Reviews%20Divulge%20About%20Online%20Education.2a5dca1b10b5.pdf

By Michael Hart, THE Journal

Detroit residents who may have dropped out of high school will now have the chance to earn either a high school diploma or an entry-level workforce certificate online. In an announcement June 10 at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Denver, Cengage Learning said that, as part of the Detroit Collective Impact Initiative, it will provide the online education and training programs centered around its Career Online High School (COHS). The goal is to graduate 1,350 youths and adults over the age of 16 during the next two years. “More than 70,000 adults in Detroit, a staggering 15 percent of the city’s total population over the age of 21, do not have a high school diploma,” said Ron Stefanski, executive director of strategic alliances at Cengage Learning and a Detroit resident. “This is a disheartening statistic and we must work together within our community to make a difference.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/06/12/detroit-young-people-get-chance-to-earn-diploma-online.aspx

by Jon Garfinkel, Edsurge

Delivering this benefit in the classroom is not easy. It requires faculty to rethink how they spend class time and cede some amount of structure and control. It further requires real interaction between students in class, when these same students have become accustomed to interacting primarily through online media. But it is precisely this preference that I think we can turn to our advantage. Let students learn the fundamental building blocks from online material, but do so outside of the classroom. Then, use class-time to work on complex, real-world, group-oriented problems. In short, make the classroom about experiential learning.

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-06-12-restoring-value-in-the-classroom-experience-with-experiential-learning

by Tim Dodd, AFR

Coursera’s Learning to Teach Online MOOC is aimed at helping traditional educators who teach face-to-face make the switch to online learning but is being extended to corporations. Jeevan Joshi, founder of the professional learning community Learning Cafe, is offering organisations additional online learning to supplement a massive open online course (MOOC) being offered worldwide by United States MOOC provider Coursera. The course, Learning to Teach Online, from the University of NSW, is aimed at helping traditional educators who teach face-to-face make the switch to online learning, letting them draw on the knowledge of experienced online teachers. Corporations should take more advantage of free online material in providing learning and development for their employees, he said. Companies were often “suspicious of anything that is not built by them”, he said. “But that needs to change, because we live in a world where there are wonderful resources available on the internet and it would be a mistake not to curate and select the best from what’s available.”

http://www.afr.com/leadership/management/business-education/how-companies-can-use-moocs-to-teach-employees-20150614-ghjzec

BY WILLIAM FENTON, PC Magazine

To get a sense of the experience of learning and teaching through Minerva’s proprietary online platform, the Active Learning Forum, I spoke with Vicki Chandler, Minerva’s Dean of Natural Sciences, and Haziq Azizi Ahmad Zakir, one of the 28 founding class students. A former faculty member at the University of Oregon and the University of Arizona, and the Chief Program Officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Chandler joined Minerva in January. Zakir, meanwhile, declined offers from Brown and Berkeley to enroll at Minerva last fall. (You can learn more him in his Minerva video).

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2485757,00.asp

by Wendy Smolen, Kid’s Screen

I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of real world and digital play. At every Sandbox Summit, and just about every other opportunity, I promote balancing screen time with physical play, inside with out, solitary with group. Now happily I see that that balance has evolved naturally. Maybe it’s survival of the fittest, or that the next generation of parents is more comfortable with technology, or maybe it’s the changing technology itself, but as today’s kids transition seamlessly from online to off to on again, so have the products that engage them. The scenarios are playing out across platforms and playgrounds; classrooms and chatrooms.

http://kidscreen.com/2015/06/10/blending-learning-blurring-the-line-between-on-and-off/

by Meg Bernhard, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The unaccredited education programs known as coding boot camps are proliferating, and gaining more students. This year the number of graduates from such programs is expected to hit 16,000, up from 6,740 in 2014, according to a recent survey by Course Report, a business that focuses on the sector. At the boot camps, which are not affiliated with colleges or universities and which offer in-person instruction, students can work and study programming for 10 hours a day — or more — for months at a time. One such program, AIT Learning, based in Washington, D.C., says on its website that prospective students should expect to study 10 to 14 hours a day and to “work with peers till late and make some real-world programs.” The programs aren’t cheap, either. A summary of the Course Report survey notes that the average cost of the courses is more than $11,000. There are about 70 of the programs in the United States and Canada today.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/coding-boot-camps-are-on-the-rise/56915

by Irene Fang, the Voice Kaleo

Paul McKimmy, Director of Technology & Distance Programs and recipient of UH Mānoa’s Excellence in Online Teaching award, acknowledged that there are downsides to online learning but also pointed out some overlooked advantages. In first place, online classes are not meant to be a copy of physical classrooms. Replicating a face-to-face classroom, McKimmy said, “may or may not be the best strategy” for a given course. With the development of technology in the past decade, online learning tools have advanced beyond a mere replication and now allow integrating with traditional methods. One such innovative tool is Blackboard Collaborate, a licensable platform also accessible through UH Mānoa’s College of Education.

http://www.kaleo.org/news/campus/the-future-hybrid-classrooms/article_93d10dea-0d8b-11e5-bfa4-5f81abcd3ff7.html

by Training Zone

We think E-Learning is great. It’s cost-effective, time-efficient and ideal for delivering standardised training to huge groups of learners spanning even greater geographical areas. However, it does not come without its challenges. One of the key issues with E-Learning lies in its struggle to retain, engage and motivate learners. Today, we’ll tackle the topic of motivation, giving you sound advice and simple ideas to help you excite and motivate learners.

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/blogs-post/e-learning-motivation-made-easy-how-keep-learners-engaged/188874

by Aaron Knapp, Journal-Times

Strange though it seemed, a class of fifth-graders at Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary School, 1722 West Sixth St., were boisterous and ecstatic about their progress in a computer program called First in Math Thursday afternoon. And they were well within their rights to be ecstatic. Of all classes in the state using the program this year, Room 215 at Jefferson Lighthouse ranked first in Wisconsin and 22nd in the country, according to their teacher, Jim Moes. “I believe and this district believes that (the program) does help on assessments,” he said. Basically, it’s a supplemental math program that really works in my opinion.”

http://journaltimes.com/news/local/education/class-scores-above-rest-of-state-in-online-math-program/article_7fd05ab7-487f-519f-b9ba-140bba5da898.html

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller argues that online courses are more effective for teaching basic skills but expects traditional classroom experiences to hold their prestige and social benefits. In a conversation about the future of education with the Wall Street Journal, Koller advocated a blended model in which core content is learned online and classroom time is used for more interactive assignments. With Coursera, Koller plans to expand international enrollment with courses in languages other than English, and she’s gearing up for the first online MBA program at the University of Illinois, according to the article.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/daphne-koller-online-ed-wont-replace-the-traditional-model/400391/

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

Hundreds of thousands across the world enroll in a MOOC that targets English. The humanities aren’t often known for their pull when it comes to attracting a MOOC crowd, but one online learning platform may have found a global crowd pleaser with its current English Language Learning (ELL) course that’s quickly become the largest attended MOOC on record. The biggest single run of a free online course began on FutureLearn last month, with more than 400,000 learners enrolled from over 150 counties.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/largest-mooc-english-278/

By Leila Meyer, THE Journal

As districts upgrade or expand their wireless networking infrastructure to support 1-to-1, online assessments and other digital learning initiatives, many are future-proofing their investment by moving to 802.11ac technology, the latest WiFi specification. Erik Heinrich, the former director of IT for San Francisco Unified School District, oversaw that district’s 802.11ac implementation. According to Heinrich, 802.11n devices may experience a performance boost when connected to 802.11ac infrastructure because the “newer access points that support the 802.11ac standard are built with newer engineering, and the faster processors improve the performance for older clients because it’s processing the data more quickly,” he said. “So even for the older 802.11n devices, they’re seeing better range and performance, even if they’re not leveraging 802.11ac protocol. It’s just better hardware inside the access point.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/05/28/should-you-upgrade-to-802.11ac.aspx

By Mike Amante, eSchool News

pi-ipadPart of the magic of the magic of the iPad are all the great apps that can turn them into so much more than a tablet. With the maker movement in schools in full force across the country, it seems like students everywhere are excited and interested in learning about programming, electronics, robotics, and more. When apps can help them make and learn, all the better. How can these two ideas be melded together to create a stellar learning experience? This is where the Raspberry Pi, a small credit card size computer that was created in England just a few years ago, comes in. The Raspberry Pi, which runs an open source Linux operating system, was created with the intention of teaching programming and computer science concepts to students. The beauty of the Pi is that you can plug it into a TV or monitor, add a keyboard, and you have a fully functional computer for under $40.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/06/08/raspberry-pi-ipad-136/

by eSchool News

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at N.C. State’s College of Education have co-released a national report highlighting examples of digital learning across various states. As State Digital Learning Exemplars National Report: Highlights from states leading change through policies and funding reveals, states are striving to support the expansion of technology tools and resources in K-12 education through state policies, programs and funding in order to provide digital learning opportunities for all students.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/06/08/digital-learning-states-893/

By Meris Stansbury, eSchool News

According to Dr. John Hattie, a professor and researcher at Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education, research and detailed statistical examination can determine which teaching methods actually improve student achievement and which are, essentially, a waste of time. “Visible learning is about understanding the attributes of schooling that truly drive student learning and have a significant impact on student achievement,” explained Hattie. “As the school year comes to a close, summer provides an opportune time for teachers to reflect on their successes and challenges in the classroom. An important aspect of this reflection is figuring out what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to improving student achievement.” Hattie said he spent more than 15 years conducting nearly 800 meta-analyses of 50,000 education studies focused on student learning.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/06/08/dispelling-common-myths-913/

By Luis F. Carrasco, Tucson.com

Joint Technological Education Districts in Arizona will not survive the cuts the new state budget imposes, officials say, and they are counting on the business community to sway lawmakers in their favor. “We have really good support from businesses. Business is what got JTED passed by the voters,” said Pima County JTED Superintendent Alan Storm. JTED in Southern Arizona was approved in 2006 to offer tuition-free career and technical education programs to high school students from public, private, charter and home schools. Adults under 22 with a GED or who are studying to get one may also participate. Throughout the state, JTEDs offer dozens of programs in fields including engineering, bioscience, health care, automotive and public safety.

http://tucson.com/business/local/jted-boss-budget-cuts-are-death-knell/article_efa4cd77-49c3-58e4-839a-b9538f14bd28.html

by Eric Weservelt, NPR

The SAT is undergoing major changes for 2016. And, as of today, students — for free — can tap into new online study prep tools from Khan Academy, the online education nonprofit. The partnership between Khan Academy and the College Board, which administers the SAT, could take a big bite out of the test prep-industrial complex; a multimillion dollar field that offers everything from $4,000 private tutoring courses to SAT prep shower curtains … for $28.99, plus shipping. And both organizations are working with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to make both online and in-person tutoring available at clubs for students who don’t have computers, internet access or a supportive or safe place to study.

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/06/03/411488278/free-online-test-prep-for-the-sat