Educational Technology

By ISTE and Microsoft

Multi-project initiative is to include first of its kind blueprint for school transformation, leadership courses, school development tools. At ISTE 2016 opening general session, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) and Microsoft Corp. announced they plan to combine and expand a host of their world-class initiatives to ensure educators and school leaders around the world have access to school planning and professional development resources. This collaboration stems from a shared belief that technology has the power to transform learning, and can do so most effectively when it’s embedded in how a school or educator thinks about and drives new learning opportunities.

http://www.pressreleaserocket.net/iste-and-microsoft-collaborate-to-provide-new-school-planning-and-professional-learning-resources/464157/

by Benzinga

Edtech company CWIST is expanding to become Workbench as it brings its branding in line with its core mission of creating online communities called “workbenches.” Workbench develops and maintains these communities on behalf of their education partners, which are some of the preeminent names in the maker space. Workbenches foster an engaged community where users can interact with the company and with one another to share programs, lessons and experiences. In addition, the content created in these workbenches can be leveraged by educators to drive interactive, hands-on learning in the classroom helping to meet NGSS standards. Teachers, students and fans can now share lessons that use drones, robots and circuits to teach STEM skills.

http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/16/06/p8152364/workbench-launches-to-build-engaged-online-communities-for-maker-compan

By Gayle Rich, How-to-Learn

Students in credit recovery online classes need in-school support, and a report from an education research group affirms the truth of that observation. http://leadershipandsoftskills.com/Education Northwest discovered that schools with higher passing rates offer more structure and support in school for students in credit recovery. Data from 2013-2014 showed a wide variance in passing rates from school to school, but many schools had small samples. At Montana Digital Academy, last year steps were taken to add more physical support for students in online credit recovery courses. “We were really excited to get that validation,” said Jason Neiffer, MTDA’s assistant director and curriculum director. “It really kind of takes a village to teach an online student. There’s lots of ways we can provide some efficiencies, but in the end, it takes a healthy group effort.”

http://www.howtolearn.com/2016/06/students-in-credit-recovery-online-classes-need-in-school-support/

By Kristine Walker, Parent Herald

The world is currently facing a worsening refugee crisis, where roughly 1.1 million people, who fled their homes due to violence, drought and food insecurity, are needed to be relocated this year. Fortunately, United Nations is making efforts to raise awareness about refugees, particularly in refugee education and learning. Previous researches on education technology (EdTech) have underscored its potential to revolutionize the opportunity limits and access of less fortunate students to education through the influence of new digital tools as educational resources. That’s why experts believed that education technology can help transform and improve children refugees’ education.

http://www.parentherald.com/articles/50596/20160622/education-technology-latest-news-updates-how-edtech-revolutionizes-education-for-children-refugees.htm

By Briana Shepherd, Australian Broadcasting

A grassroots community program in Perth is using animation and technology to entice young Aboriginal children to learn and then share their family’s culture and history. Students from nearby schools have been coming to the Champion Centre in Armadale once a week for the term-long project. It sees a number of volunteers help the students research, write, and then animate stories related to their family’s culture. Former Disney and Pixar writer and animator Dougie Pincott, from the UK, has been leading the program. “I work in community centres around the world facilitating arts and animation projects and poetry workshops,” he said. “I use animation and poetry and storytelling as a way to express stories, history and identity.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-25/wa-indigenous-technology-noongar-elder-program/7536112

By: Ken Bock, Country Caller

Alphabet Inc has launched an online training program, called Android Basics Nanodegree, to train users interested in developing their own applications on Android. The application is designed to teach the required skills to users to develop an application. This move is a result of collaboration between Google and Udacity, which is an online education company. The initiative has been launched in India and costs Rs.9800 per month. Here is The Country Caller’s take on how Google plans to make application development program accessible for users.

http://www.thecountrycaller.com/85029-alphabet-inc-googl-makes-app-development-accessible-for-users/

by Carol Comegno, Courier Post

Rowan College at Burlington County will offer two new programs for high school students in the fall. High school students anywhere in New Jersey will be able to take a variety of online courses at a reduced price as part of the college’s new College Head Start in High School, or CH2, initiative aimed to reduce the time and cost required to attain a college degree. In a second initiative within the Head Start program, the college is partnering with the county technical high school to offer its students a different path to an engineering degree.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/2016/06/23/online-college-courses-high-school/86304994/

BY KENT ERDAHLA, Fox 31 Denver

A tech startup is helping students, teachers and parents track online learning thanks to a free extension to the Google Chrome Browser. It’s called StackUp and some of the students who are using it say it’s already changed the way they approach summer reading. “It’s really fun,” said Kailen Bryant, who is using StackUp as part of his Scholars Unlimited summer program in Denver. “You know how much progress you’ve gotten and how well you’re doing. How much better you’re doing at reading.” StackUp is a free plug-in that anyone can download to track their own productivity or prove the amount of research they’ve put in to a given topic.

http://kdvr.com/2016/06/23/tech-companys-tool-tracks-online-learning-its-also-fun-for-kids/

by Jeffrey Pomerantz, EDUCAUSE Review

According to one estimate, the median cost of employee turnover is 21 percent of the employee’s annual salary3; another estimate puts this even higher, at 50–60 percent.4 Furthermore, the higher the level of specialized training a job requires, the higher the turnover costs. Many information technology–related positions require substantial specialized training. Losing employees imposes a significant cost on IT operations, which is especially problematic in higher education, where budgets continue to shrink or remain flat. The hiring and retention of an IT workforce appeared on the EDUCAUSE list of Top 10 issues in IT the first time that list was compiled in 2000, and it has consistently appeared in the top five issues for the past five years.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/6/retaining-the-higher-education-it-workforce