Educational Technology

by Crystal Dominguez, Temple Telegram

Temple High School recently announced the discontinuation of its online news website, The Catalyst, after cutting their journalism class. Brad Sheffield taught journalism at the school for three years until he decided to adapt to the times. “We started examining the landscape of media and journalism and how it is ever-changing,” he said. “Obviously there is a big push at Temple ISD for technology … so we wanted to keep that trend going and for the kids sake it was probably better to focus on the video side of things from a production and journalistic standpoint.”Sheffield — who has a journalism degree from Sam Houston State and a background in public relations — said he is still teaching students the principles of journalism and incorporating them into video production and broadcasting.

http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_41a66388-77a9-11e6-befd-df493f3b39e8.html

By Debbie Kelley, the Gazette

Classroom walls don’t exist to Toni Olivier-Barton, a library technology educator at Fountain Valley School. She specializes in using technology to connect students at the private day and boarding high school in Fountain with students worldwide to do projects together. “Students need to learn at a young level that they have similarities and differences” with students from Mexico, Ireland, Kazakhstan and other countries, she said. “Kids’ eyes get opened up, and they see things sometimes adults don’t see.” Olivier-Barton is one of nearly 100 educators from around the world featured in Lindsay’s new book, “The Global Educator: Leveraging Technology for Collaborative Learning and Teaching.” The book was released in July by the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit organization that focuses on enhancing education with technology. The book shares approaches, updated practices and case studies on how educators can make learning global.

http://gazette.com/at-fountain-valley-school-students-learn-interact-with-global-classroom/article/1585223

by BLOSSOM OZURUMBA, the Cable Lifestyle

Beyond the somewhat popular massive open online courses, there are other variants that are quite specific in their delivery style like the small private online courses and the synchronous massive online courses. They are all similar in the sense that you need access to the internet to participate in the learning experience. Some are free while others are paid subscriptions with options of getting certificated at the end of the learning session. I have some top favorites that have added immeasurable value to me over time and I will be sharing them below. Hopefully, you might share my excitement and please, endeavor to share with your network.

https://lifestyle.thecable.ng/learning-unlearning-relearning-new-media-comes-rescue/

by Roger Riddell, Naomi Eide; Education Dive

Of course for IT leadership on campus, it also helps to foster good relationships with the other vice presidents and provosts, as well as the campus president. “I actually report to the president, which is a real advantage because I have the president’s ear,” said Melissa Woo, vice president for information technology and CIO at Stony Brook University. “But the other VPs have to know what IT’s value is, because I think most people think IT is just keeping things running.” “It’s network that nobody notices until it’s gone,” Woo said. “It’s a lot of services that nobody really thinks about until they’re down, and I think having that relationship with the other VPs means they can actually see us as a strategic partner.”

http://www.ciodive.com/news/for-higher-ed-cios-navigating-tight-budgets-relationships-key/425875/

by Joe Callahan, Ocala Star Banner

Beginning July 1, 2018, the state Department of Education will require that 75 percent of all middle school students must have earned at least one Digital Tool certification. The IC3 Spark certification was offered as a pilot program at Howard and Osceola middle schools in 2015-16. Now, the course is being offered at middle schools throughout the district.

http://www.ocala.com/news/20160908/marion-ahead-of-curve-in-student-industry-certifications

by the Business Line

Online education firm Coursera has launched ‘Coursera for Business’, an enterprise platform, to tap into the USD 31-billion global corporate e-learning market. It has also roped in customers like L’Oreal, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as well as India’s Axis Bank. “Coursera for Business enables companies to utilise Coursera’s learning content, created by 145 universities and other institutions, to help address the rapidly evolving training and development needs of their businesses,” it said in a statement. The launch marks Coursera’s entry into the multi-billion dollar global corporate online learning market, which is growing at over 10 per cent a year, it added.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/coursera-bets-on-enterprise-learning-market/article9086162.ece

by Nichole Osinski, the Spectrum

A nationwide teaching shortage is forcing some districts to take a more creative look at how to continue providing education for students. Schools within approximately 150 districts throughout the U.S. are now streaming in certified teachers through a partnership with Proximity Learning, an Austin-based education company. The teachers head up the classroom lessons until a full-time faculty member can be hired. Proximity Learning CEO Evan Erdberg said the program started about seven years ago when a number of schools were trying to incorporate Chinese learning into classrooms. Erdberg said since expanding to other subjects, specifically in areas that have been harder for districts to find educators, he has seen more schools bringing in streaming classrooms.

http://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2016/09/08/online-classrooms-combating-teacher-shortage/89974390/

by Colorado State University Online

Nearly 5,000 students are enrolled in online courses at CSU this semester. Many study fully online, and others are taking just one or a few of their classes online. Regardless of your online course load, it’s important to remember that studying online comes with a unique set of advantages and challenges. Several CSU professors and instructors have offered their advice for success in online courses. Here are some of their best tips.

http://source.colostate.edu/experts-top-tips-for-success-in-online-classes/

by Rian Ervin, EdSurge

LaGuardia’s program, known as TechIMPACT, will partner with tech education companies including General Assembly, Udacity and The Software Guild to provide accelerated tech training for more than 300 low-income young adults over the next three years. “We think it is critical that tech jobs are taken by the diversity of people who make up America—namely women and people of color,” Mellow says.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-09-06-laguardia-community-college-where-business-and-tech-education-meet

By Ariel Cooley, Joplin Globe

Teachers at Neosho Middle School and Neosho Junior High have spent the last several months learning about an online learning management system called Canvas. “It does not replace a quality teacher,” said Mandy Lybeck, instructional technology specialist with the school district. “It is not a baby sitter; it is a tool.” The district has been evolving to meet the needs of the “digital native.” This, Lybeck said, is someone who has never lived in a world without advanced technology. To do so, the school has been pushing for a ratio of 1-to-1 with computers. This goal has been achieved in the middle school, the junior high and the high school. The lower grades are becoming closer every year.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/online-program-to-supplement-neosho-classrooms/article_2e4303fe-09ae-592f-b53b-23f556ae5e2f.html

By Associated Press

An Alaska foundation is hoping to revitalize five Athabascan languages through online education with help from a $900,000 grant. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the Doyon Foundation recently announced the grant awarded by the nonprofit group Administration for Native Americans. The foundation will use the money to create 280 online lessons focusing on Holikachuk, Denaakke, Benhti Kenaga, Han and Dinjii Zhuh Kyaa languages. The courses will be available for educators and students throughout Alaska. The project is being worked on through a partnership with an organization called 7,000 Languages, which aims to preserve languages throughout the world.

http://www.ktva.com/nonprofit-receives-nearly-1m-to-fund-online-native-language-classes-417/

by Your Story

Whether you’re new to the startup world or you are an experienced business owner, continued education paves a clearer path in your professional journey. Enrolling in an online course gives you access to an ocean of resources, thus improving your knowledge on various subjects. It doesn’t have to be a financial commitment though, since free online courses make it easy and affordable for you to learn something new from the comfort of your home.

https://yourstory.com/2016/09/free-courses-for-entrepreneurs/

BY TANYA ROSCORLA, Converge

Purdue University is working on student- and adviser-facing applications that reveal how student behavior matches up to their peers who have been successful academically. Enter Forecast, a student-facing Web application designed to compare current student behavior with the aggregated behavior of successful peers over the last eight years. Indiana university adopted hardware and software platforms to support predictive analytics, and then developed the application for students on top of that infrastructure. “We really wanted to expand what we were doing in the space of predictive modeling to allow us to look at more near-time and real-time data points of how students are actually interacting with the campus, and see how those were or were not predictive of whether they were ultimately successful here,” said Brent M. Drake, who became Purdue’s first chief data officer nearly three years ago. Purdue plans to study whether this application will help students actually change their behavior and improve academically.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/higher-ed/-Could-Predictive-Analytics-Encourage-Purdue-Students-to-Be-More-Successful.html

by Birdie Smith, Sydney Morning Herald

Want to study how to live on Mars? This course will take just 12 hours of your time. And it’s free. That’s right, gratis. Among your teachers will be astronomer Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway and chemist Tina Overton. The idea of life life on Mars has long captivated the human imagination, but while getting to the red planet is relatively easy, surviving will be a real challenge. Your classroom will be of the virtual variety, with the four three-hour-sessions run by Monash University taking place online. The course will cover the basics of how to survive on the inhospitable red planet, which offers visitors no air, water or food.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/monash-course-readies-students-for-life-on-red-planet-20160905-gr8toa.html

By Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed

From 2012-14 to 2014-15, undergraduate enrollments fell by 7.6 percent, survey finds. At a time of concern about the state of the humanities in American higher education, a new survey finds declining enrollments in history, one of the central humanities disciplines. From 2012-14 to 2014-15, undergraduate enrollments fell by 7.6 percent, according to a new survey released by the American Historical Association. The survey is based on results from 123 history departments and is focused on total enrollments, not the number of history majors.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/06/survey-finds-decline-history-enrollments

by Deidre Williams, Buffalo News

In Kriner Cash’s second year as Buffalo superintendent, he says these are just some of the changes he is implementing in his reform agenda. “We’re going to provide (students) with the opportunity to do more,” Cash said. “We’re going to have our schools open longer. We’re going to bring all the services and supports to” students and their families. Here are some of the other innovations students and parents can expect to see when the 2016-17 school year starts Tuesday: iPads for all students in pre-K through second grade and access to tablets and laptop computers for students beginning in second grade; Six new translators for the top foreign languages spoken in the district, as multilingual education reform continues. “We’re going allow you to get online and go as far as you want to go as quickly as you want to go through our online course menu and our virtual schools and our other technology upgrades that we’re bringing in from pre-K through grade 12,” Cash said.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/buffalo-public-schools/smaller-classes-innovations-to-greet-students-in-reformed-buffalo-schools-20160904

by Ann Gravells and Susan Simpson in Stanford University Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning

There are many different theories regarding the way people learn. This section will very briefly explore some of them (in alphabetical order), which you might like to research further and try out with your own learners. However, don’t get too concerned thinking you must teach in a certain way because a theorist says so. What works with one group or individual learner might not work with another. You might find at first you are teaching the way you were taught at school, college or university. It might have suited you at the time, or it might have had a detrimental effect. Don’t be afraid to try something different and step out of your comfort zone. You will need to find out through experience what works and what doesn’t work with your learners.

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1505

by DAVE HUBER, the College Fix

In a move that will cost $20 million, students in third through twelfth grade in the Springfield Public Schools (Massachusetts) will be given their own laptop to use during the school day. Superintendent Daniel Warwick tells MassLive that this is a “social justice” matter, an effort to bridge the so-called “digital divide” if you will: “This is an urban environment where many of our students are in high poverty rate situations, and with this technology they should be able to compete with any other student. We are providing technology to bring them into the 21st century and make them college and career ready.”

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/28663/

By Hussein Hatim, the Ubyssey

As technology advances, the world has become a more convenient and far less secretive place. Services like Facebook, Google and Instagram have created and replaced avenues of communication in a way that allows everyone to share more information with more people. UBC’s Digital Tattoo project aims to increase awareness of online security and privacy issues. Created with grant funding from UBC’s teaching and learning enhancement fund and from BCcampus, the project brings students and university community members together to discuss ways in which they can help students make thoughtful decisions about their online presence. The project also works with other universities including Thompson Rivers University, the University of Victoria and the University of Toronto.

http://ubyssey.ca/news/digital-tattoo-project/

By Sarah Shemkus, Boston Globe

As kids grab their backpacks and notebooks and head back to school, it is only natural that many adults start thinking about their own education. And there are dozens of choices available. But many of the best-advertised programs have been accused of scamming students, charging outsized fees, and offering little useful training. Just recently, the federal government barred for-profit education behemoth ITT Tech from using federal financial aid to enroll students. So how can an ambitious student pick a solid program and make a savvy financial decision?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/09/02/choosing-new-school-study/ged8PjNwXJmmOK5iyhLRrL/story.html

By Jessica Buterbaugh, Penn State

If there is a common complaint among teachers, it is that there is not enough time in the day to complete all the duties with which they are tasked. From lesson plans to assessments to grading and student reports, the day is gone, and for most teachers, so are their evenings. A new software suite out of Penn State’s Learning, Design and Technology program is addressing those time constraints, while also improving the literacy of young students. Named avenue pm for its audio-visual environment and progress monitoring capabilities, the suite helps teachers track the literacy development of school-aged children, specifically for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. It consists of four different assessments that measure reading and writing aptitude, and is available for free for all educators and school districts.

http://news.psu.edu/story/421902/2016/08/22/research/education-professor-develops-progress-monitoring-software