Educational Technology

By Marco della Cava, USA Today

Parents across the U.S. are eager for their children to learn coding and other computer science skills, but their message hasn’t yet hit the in-box of school administrators. That’s the finding of a new Gallup study commissioned by Google that spotlights a potentially perilous economic disconnect as tech companies struggle to enlarge their engineering talent pools. Among key and contrasting findings are the facts while 90 percent of parents see computer science, or CS, as “a good use of school resources” (and 66 percent say CS should be required learning alongside other core classes), fewer than 8 percent of administrators believe parent demand is high. They also cite a lack of trained teachers as a top barrier to offering CS courses. Three quarters of principals report no CS programs in their school.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/08/21/coding-students-survey-672/

By Ron Bethke, eCampus News

Students break down what aspects of technology are most useful to them in the classroom in a new survey. According to the results of a new survey from VitalSource Technologies, college students overwhelmingly agree that technology boosts grades, improves their overall learning experience and alleviates costs. In the fifth annual survey of its kind, 500 currently enrolled college students were polled in order to gauge how much importance they place on the growing role of technology in higher education classrooms.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/survey-technology-student-123/

By Amanda Ronan, Edudemic

The eyes roll back, the mouth scowls, the fingers grip the not-so-secretly hidden cellphone, and the brain checks out. These are, as teachers everywhere can attest, the surefire signs of a disengaged student. And these symptoms are ravaging the educational system. Teachers know that student engagement is the key to learning retention and having a great overall classroom experience, but they often don’t have the time or energy to come up with some of the outrageous things that they see other teachers doing online to keep kids’ interest. Some of us just can’t plan a flash mob for every lesson.

http://www.edudemic.com/top-five-ways-engage-students-classroom/

By Kristen Hicks, Edudemic

There’s no question that technology is fundamentally changing the way we teach and learn. But increasing technological ubiquity doesn’t mean equality in terms of access and quality. For those on the more privileged side of the digital divide, it’s easy to take access to personal computers, tablets, smartphones and the internet for granted. But many teachers have seen how much that same level of access doesn’t apply to their students. Each of the options suggested here involve a significant amount of work and chance. Still, if you (and the administrators and parents in your school district) believe that greater access to technology is important to your students’ educational experiences, then the extra work involved should be well worth it.

http://www.edudemic.com/3-ways-schools-can-fund-education-technology/

By: Ayla Ferrone, KNOE

Online homeschooling is on the rise with options to take virtual classes anywhere in the state. Karla Curtis home schools her two children and her nephew. She says it’s the best option for her and her kids. But there’s some subjects that Curtis looks for some extra help with. She says this year she’s using online classes to supplement her teaching and make things fun for her kids. “Especially with the Spanish and some of the history, they’re really enjoying the online teachers as well,” said Curtis. Those are exactly the kind of classes the Louisiana Connections Academy offers. Lead principal Glenda Jones says the academy offers classes for students K through 12 taught virtually across the whole state. “We cover the entire state so we have students from every parish in the state from north to south to east to west,” said Jones.

http://www.knoe.com/home/headlines/Online-homeschooling-is-on-the-rise-322352532.html

By MELANIE THIBEAULT, Valley Breeze

Smithfield High School students who like a challenge have the chance to enroll in two new Advanced Placement courses this school year and three more online, which school officials are experimenting with for the first time. “We’re going to try it and see what kind of response we get from kids,” Supt. Robert O’Brien told The Valley Breeze & Observer in reference to the online courses. “We’re trying some innovative ways to provide opportunities for students.”

http://www.valleybreeze.com/2015-08-19/observer-smithfield-west/shs-expands-ap-class-selection-new-school-year#.VdaQobJViko

by Duncan Brown and James Cory-Wright, Training Zone

When smartphones and tablets become one:  the use of apps to deliver the training of the future suggests that as well as overcoming possible cost barriers, old attitudes and connectivity issues, objections around screen size will also go away. The smartphone screen is too small for training content whether that’s presented as text and graphics or video but the screen size of the smartphone is still unfinished business. It’s on an upward trend and getting closer to the screen size of the smaller tablets – like the ‘phablet’ which is a smartphone with a screen that’s ‘an intermediate size between that of a typical smartphone and a tablet computer.’ So will the two fully converge and become one to the point where smartphones become the main device for consuming online training? It remains to be seen but at the moment it looks like a distinct possibility and one that may be adopted for just the kind of applications we’ve been examining.

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/feature/technology/what-will-learning-look-future-pt2/189095

By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

What does “affordable” even mean? And if politicians, policy makers and the public don’t have a shared understanding of what families should pay for college, can we really expect them to develop and agree on what to do about the problem. Officials at Lumina Foundation don’t think so, which is why they are offering up a simple (and, they admit, somewhat simplistic) framework for concretely defining what is reasonable for the typical college student and her/his family to pay for college.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/19/what-does-it-mean-college-be-affordable-heres-one-answer

by Education World

Matt Lin, currently enrolled in UCONN’s Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates, will be student teaching 10th grade at the Academy of Engineering and Green Technology in Hartford this fall. Having previously worked with students at the middle school level in Bristol and West Hartford as a science teacher during the summer, he went to the forum to gain perspective on utilizing resources that better align to student interests and attention spans. He’s always had a love for multimedia, and thinks that its utilization is one of the most effective tools in spurring engagement. He was, like many of the attendees, very excited to share and learn. “Unfortunately, it’s very difficult in a modern technology environment to, kind of, keep their attention there,” said Lin, noting that cool features can be just as distracting as they are motivating to students while using EdTech.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/connecticut-public-broadcasting-network-strives-sustainable-classroom-engagement-2067787010

By Joshua B. Gross, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The United States has two major employment dilemmas. On the supply side, American universities produce a well-documented surfeit of Ph.D.s, far in excess of the number of tenure-track job openings. On the demand side, the American information-technology industry is greatly in need of skilled workers. But there has yet to be a move to direct Ph.D.s into IT careers in large numbers. We need to change that, and to encourage Ph.D.s — especially those in the humanities and social sciences — to pursue technology-related careers.

http://chronicle.com/article/Information-Technology-The/231955/

By Liam Casey, The Canadian Press

As Canadian kids prepare to head back to school, there’s a growing movement gaining traction across the country that involves students learning their lessons at home and doing their homework at school. It’s called the “flipped classroom” — students watch an online video of a lesson as homework, and then work on problems during class time. The method is becoming more prominent as technology in schools allows for videos to be accessed easily, either on custom-made sites, on YouTube or downloaded to a device.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/08/16/flipped-classroom-sees-kids-do-homework-at-school-after-watching-online-videos_n_7994798.html

by Dhanur Chauhan, Exam and Interview Tips

Everybody is struggling with the economy and that’s why people are taking interest in online courses. People can take the degree of any alternative field with the help of online education. They can grow their career by taking degrees in their respective areas. There are many benefits of online education and degree from any online institute will be same as the degree from any regular institute or college. This is cost effective as you can study while sitting in homes or in offices. Most study material is available on internet which you can download for your studies, so no need to buy books or workbooks which are really expensive. If we talk about the stress level for student who is taking online classes, it is very low. You can study alone whenever you want so no need to compete with each other and make your life more stressful.

http://www.examandinterviewtips.com/2015/08/online-courses-are-for-next-generation.html

By David Raths, Campus Technology

At South Mountain Community College, a homegrown Learner Support System gathers data on students’ usage of campus resources, streamlining the tutoring process and improving outcomes. With input from several areas of campus, the design team, led by programmer analyst Alan Ziv, created a Web-based application called the Learner Support System (LSS) that tracks students’ usage of campus resources as well as key academic details such as with whom a student worked, how long he or she spent with a tutor, what the focus of the tutoring session was and how effective it was perceived to be. The system provides data at the individual student, course and program level to help inform institutional strategic planning and resource development.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/08/12/tracking-students-to-improve-tutoring-and-support.aspx

By Pamela DeLoatch, Edudemic

Are you or your students wearing your Apple Watches to school, and if so, are you using them as part of your curriculum? What about the use of digital textbooks, adaptive learning, collaboration with other schools or flipped classrooms? These technologies represent some of the cutting edge tools and trends in education. While some are being implemented now, regular use of others is on the (not to distant) horizon. We’ve scanned the gurus’ lists and found the top technologies that educators need to prepare for in the next one to five years.

http://www.edudemic.com/10-emerging-education-technologies/

by Nick Donofrio, Ed Tech

Fostering skills beyond the classroom setting is just as important as studying theories. “Driving the skills agenda,” a May 2015 report published by The Economist Intelligence Unit, cited 49 percent of teachers who said current curriculum was too rigid to allow time for wider skills to be cultivated. Instead, students tend to participate in internships for a true taste of the working world. While that supplements student studies, the experience is often too brief to provide a fulfilling environment to harbor creativity and innovation. Equally important, training educators ensures that they are up to speed on the latest educational developments and technological advances. While technology continues to influence education in all fields, educators have a tough time keeping up with it. According to The Economist survey, 85 percent of teachers report that advances in technology influence the way they teach.

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2015/08/can-innovation-be-taught

By Kate Schimel, Education Dive

In Pittsburgh, a program called the Pittsburgh City of Learning is giving students digital badges for completing summer educational opportunities. The initiative is a collaboration among a group of nonprofits and city organizations to help give students proof of what they learned over the summer for potential employers or universities. Students get badges for mastering skills and store them in an online portfolio, which can be shared publicly.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/pittsburgh-adopts-online-badges-to-reward-summer-learning/403987/

By Mary Rindfleisch, Ridgefield Press

Due to the huge growth in distance learning all around the world, many more students of all ages are earning degrees and certificates without ever setting foot on campus. But they often do still need a secured and supervised setting for taking exams. That’s where the Ridgefield Library comes in. We have long done proctoring for exams on an ad hoc basis, but the increase in demand has prompted us to establish a formal policy, and also a modest fee for this service. We are pleased to be able to support our patrons’ educational aspirations, but we want to make sure that the test-taking environment we provide conforms to the requirements of the institutions of higher learning involved. A $25 charge will now be assessed for each request for exam proctoring.

http://www.theridgefieldpress.com/49827/exams-for-online-courses-the-library-does-it/

By Gretchen Sparling, Scouting

Scouting U’s new online training courses will help volunteers learn what they need when they need it. Listening to feedback from volunteers, Scouting U redesigned its online training for adult leaders, making it more convenient than ever to earn your Trained badge. The new Web-based courses deliver high-quality online learning experiences tailored for each volunteer’s role.

http://scoutingmagazine.org/2015/08/new-web-courses-make-training-more-accessible-to-scouting-leaders/

By Ian Quillen, US News

The life of an online engineering student isn’t that different from an on-ground one. Many online classes, heavily mathematical in nature, lend themselves easily to a live or archived lecture followed by a problem set students have to complete independently. Labs are sometimes more difficult to replicate online, but often students fulfill those with periodic campus visits. Because the course content translates easily, experts say, engineering schools have had a head start on making an online option available for students. But that doesn’t mean students should settle for programs that aren’t thoughtful about how to turn quality in-person instruction into an equally fulfilling virtual experience. Here are six questions to ask that may shed light on the quality of instruction in an online engineering graduate program.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/08/10/6-questions-to-ask-about-faculty-in-an-online-graduate-engineering-program

By Peter West, eSchool News

Recently, I began dubbing the current generation of students the “Netflix Generation.” They learn when they want, and expect learning resources to be available when and where they need them. This is similar to the way they consume media through streaming services such as Netflix (for movies and television series) and Spotify (for music). However, this now produces other pressures. Learning outside of traditional school hours does not remove the need for teachers. If all that students needed in order to learn was information, schools would have closed once Google and high-speed broadband arrived on the scene. Students continue to need support, a human explanation, encouragement to work through a problem, and insight to take them through a mental barrier to get to the next stage of problem solving. Yet if significant learning is happening outside traditional school hours, who is available to support it?

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/08/11/online-tutors-328/

by Grace Paine, Charlottesville Tomorrow

Does physical education need to take place in the school gym? According to staff and students at Charlottesville High School, the answer is “no.” Charlottesville High School recently wrapped up its second year of offering students the chance to fulfill their physical education credit by taking a virtual course over the summer. The program’s goal, administrators say, is to grant students greater flexibility in their schedules so that they can pursue individualized interests during the school year.

http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/21707-documentation-communication-key-to-online-pe/