Educational Technology

by Brian Nadel, University Business

3D printing may be new to many higher education administrators, but for students it’s already old hat, as they were likely introduced to it in middle or high school. “3D Printing has changed dramatically over the past couple of years,” says Jesse Roitenberg, national education manager at Stratasys, a provider and consultant for 3D printers. “There are more low-cost options, which has led to elementary and middle schools purchasing, which has led to the high schools, colleges and universities having to step up their game.” Technology consultant Terry Wohlers estimates the industry saw over $6 billion in sales in 2016 and is growing at 17 percent a year. Colorado-based Wohler Associates, his marketing and analysis firm, tracks 113 higher ed programs that offer 3D printing.

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/3d-printer-capabilities-form-future-higher-ed

by Patrick Caughill, Futurism

Ray Kurzweil is a formidable figure in futuristic thinking, as he is estimated to have an 86 percent accuracy rate for his predictions about the future. The future he envisions is one marked by decentralization of both the physical and mental. Kurzweil continues to share his visions for the future, and his latest prediction was made at the most recent SXSW Conference, where he claimed that the Singularity — the moment when technology becomes smarter than humans — will happen by 2045. Sixteen years prior to that, it will be just as smart as us. As he told Futurism, “2029 is the consistent date I have predicted for when an AI will pass a valid Turing test and therefore achieve human levels of intelligence.”

https://futurism.com/ray-kurzweils-most-exciting-predictions-about-the-future-of-humanity/

by Ambalika Dogra, Ed Tech Review

As we are aware with the word ‘motivation’ and it is easy to identify motivated students in the classroom because they show interest, curiosity, involvement, and enthusiasm than others; same factors play a chief role in engaging students in the learning. Students who are engaged show complete involvement and intense efforts in the learning activities with the positive emotions. Skinner and Belmont (1993) while emphasizing upon behavioral and emotional aspects of the engagement implied that the opposite of engagement is disaffection which means disaffected students are bored, show anger, and they are withdrawn easily from the classroom, hence they are disengaged. In other words, engagement is a participation of students not only in classroom activities, but their cognitive and affective (Fredricks, Blumenfeld & Paris, 2004) involvement in all manoeuvres associated with the subject matter whether in class or outside it.

http://edtechreview.in/e-learning/2807-engagement-in-online-learning

By The Chronicle

Two Centralia College instructors have created a cellphone app that gives students a visual representation of their skills, allows them to see exactly how they’re doing in a class and informs them what they need to work on to improve their grades. Alisha Williams, an English instructor, and Gordon Gul, a computer science instructor, recently won the 2017 Connie Broughton Leadership and Innovation in eLearning Award from the Washington State eLearning Council for their app, according to a press release from the college. “We wanted to help students focus more on achieving the course outcomes, so we decided to link the things they are learning to the grades they are earning,” Gul said. “We needed a way to show students the correlation between their skills performance and their score on an assignment or quiz.” This resulted in an interactive app called Grade Outcomes Assessment Learning Strategy, or GOALS, that uses the Canvas online learning platform to access course information to create a color-coded, interactive chart.

http://www.chronline.com/news/centralia-college-instructors-develop-app-to-help-students-succeed/article_83e1c830-4816-11e7-859e-2776981e7d4e.html

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The ultimate goal of any good teacher is not just to teach his or her content, but to mold young men and women who will be productive, contributing members of society who can solve problems and, hopefully, make the world a better place. It’s not always important that a student can, in isolation, recite the Pythagorean Theorem or a list of prepositions. Instead, it’s important to use the tools and the knowledge learned in the classroom to positively impact the world around us. And that’s where Makerspaces come in! A Makerspace is a way to bring rote learning to life, to teach students to become lifelong learners, and to encourage problem-solving skills.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/creating-makerspace-budget/

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) last month opened the doors to its Virtual Reality (VR) Lab, a new facility for undergraduate students to develop content for virtual environments. The space looks like “a cross between a classroom and a tech pavilion at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,” according to a university prepared statement, with “25 standalone systems combining an Oculus Rift head-mounted display, two controllers for navigating inside VR environments, a computer workstation equipped with a high-end graphics card, various peripherals and a custom-made breakout box for plugging in and unplugging cables.” In addition, the lab has several 360-degree cameras, hand-tracking devices from Leap Motion and an HTC Vive VR system” that were previously purchased using a $20,000 grant from a campus-wide program.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/06/01/uc-san-diego-lab-to-focus-on-vr-content-creation.aspx

By Jacob Batchelor, Campus Technology

Computer hackers, also known as cybercriminals, are infiltrating our world with ever-increasing sophistication. In October 2016, hackers disrupted service to Twitter, Netflix and other major websites. And just last month, another group compromised the online data of thousands of people and businesses — including hospitals and other emergency services. Despite the increasing prevalence of these breaches, we still tend to disregard cybersecurity as something for someone else to worry about. But in just a few years, experts predict the so-called “Internet of Things” (IoT) will comprise 20 to 50 billion gadgets. This web of interconnected devices will reach everywhere — both in and out of school — leaving students’ and teachers’ personal data vulnerable to hackers.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/06/01/youve-been-hacked-explaining-cybersecurity-to-students-in-an-interconnected-era.aspx

By Melanie Penagos, Public Knowledge

The course was designed to be enjoyed on a self-learning basis, so we encourage readers to take it independently or explore the wide range of topical resources available. For more information, please see our dedicated course page. https://www.publicknowledge.org/open-internet-course Last week, Public Knowledge concluded the third iteration of its Spanish-language Open Internet Course for digital rights advocates in Latin America. The online course, presented in collaboration with Peer 2 Peer University, began in 2015 as an open sourced and open licensed capacity building project. Its goal is to train, inform, and support advocates and policymakers to effectively engage in technology policy discussions and push for greater transparency and accountability in the policymaking process.

https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/public-knowledge-cultivates-learning-community-of-digital-rights-advocates

By Jay Mathews, Washington Post

In a compelling piece for the Washington City Paper, D.C. high school teacher Rob Barnett has confessed his anguish at passing students who haven’t mastered the content of his math courses and described his radical solution. It’s called mastery learning. Barnett recorded all of his lessons, put them online and let each student move through them at his or her own pace. “They must show they understand one topic before advancing to the next,” he said. “I think of myself not so much as a teacher but as a facilitator of inquiry.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/seventh-grader-far-ahead-of-her-class-punished-for-taking-too-many-courses/2017/06/02/d020099e-4705-11e7-a196-a1bb629f64cb_story.html

by McKinsey Global Institute Executive Briefing

Innovations in digitization, analytics, artificial intelligence, and automation are creating performance and productivity opportunities for business and the economy, even as they reshape employment and the future of work. Rapid technological advances in digitization and data and analytics have been reshaping the business landscape, supercharging performance, and enabling the emergence of new business innovations and new forms of competition. At the same time, the technology itself continues to evolve, bringing new waves of advances in robotics, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), and especially machine learning. Together they amount to a step change in technical capabilities that could have profound implications for business, for the economy, and more broadly, for society.

http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/digital-disruption/whats-now-and-next-in-analytics-ai-and-automation

by Steve Ragan, CSO

Google has pushed four new security features to enterprise users on G Suite, the search giant’s hosted business offering. The new protections come shortly after Citizen Lab report exposed a Russia-linked Phishing and disinformation campaign using Google services, including Gmail. Google makes no mention of the Citizen Lab report in their posts on the new security features, but many of the protections take aim at common Phishing techniques used to steal data and credentials. The Citizen Lab report describes a Phishing and disinformation campaign by Russian actors, which targeted more than 200 people across 39 countries. Among those targeted were “a former Russian Prime Minister, members of cabinets from Europe and Eurasia, ambassadors, high ranking military officers, CEOs of energy companies, and members of civil society,” the report notes.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3198996/security/google-uses-machine-learning-for-new-security-features-in-gmail.html

by Emma Norris, Sporteluxe

But learning new things and picking up new skills is what helps you grow as a person both personally and professionally. For this reason, it should always be a top priority! Luckily, you no longer have to be face-to-face in a classroom to gain access to quality courses taught by qualified pros. Thanks to the growing popularity of e-learning, there are so many great online courses on pretty much every topic you can think of. To help you choose one that’s right for you, we’ve rounded up some of the best. Whether you to get on top of your finances, become more productive or kickstart your freelance career, we’ve got you covered.

http://sporteluxe.com/7-online-courses-to-help-you-level-up-in-life/

by Rebecca Sentance, ClickZ

Over the past couple of years, augmented reality has emerged from relative obscurity to become one of the hottest topics in marketing. Historically, it has always been mentioned in the same breath as virtual reality (the two are usually referred to collectively as “AR and VR”), but next to virtual reality’s almost mystical potential, it was sort of the awkward cousin that no-one quite knew what to do with. But while VR is still finding its footing in the consumer market, AR has been launched into the limelight. With the viral success of Pokémon Go in 2016, everyone was suddenly talking about the possibilities of AR; and it now looks like it might be the next big trend in social media, with first Facebook and now Instagram showcasing innovative new uses of AR.

https://www.clickz.com/what-are-augmented-reality-apps-and-how-can-they-be-used-for-marketing/111330/

by ROB LIPPS, eCampus News

A recent study from Wainhouse Research revealed the ability to capture lectures as video for student access is a key success factor in increased retention and graduation. From lecture capture to flipped classrooms to streaming education, video technology is a key driver of advancements in higher education. But what drives the successful use of video on campus? How do you facilitate a campus-wide shift to leveraging video strategically? More importantly, how do you instill a strong video culture on your campus?

http://www.ecampusnews.com/curriculum/campus-strong-video-culture-heres/

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate

It is no secret that many students are not passionate about math. Students feel disconnected from what is taught in class, unsure of the benefits of math and reluctant to pursue careers in the field. Edtech is trying to change these attitudes by providing them with new ways to engage with numbers. Many companies have developed virtual tools for math, which allow students to learn, practice, and have fun with different math concepts. We will discuss ten of the best on the market.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/edtech-tools/

by Con Sotidis, ATD

Many people have embraced learning technology, mainly because they have been told to. Then there are those who must (albeit hesitantly) to carry out their business. But deep down, technology is still seen as a foe to some folk. Those who know me know that I am a big fan of social learning and how technology can support the implementation of a social learning framework. At some stage of the consultation process, clients and I tend to discuss various platforms and technologies. Once the conversation moves into this space, I find some L&D folks start to get concerned about how this technology will be rolled out and how will they deploy it, and then they hit me with their concern: “I don’t think our people are ready for that.”

https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Links/2017/06/Learning-Technologies-Friend-or-Foe

by Jeb Bush and Joe Lonsdale, Forbes

Today, there are more than 5.5 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. labor market, up from 3.2 million just five years ago. It’s not due to a lack of workers aspiring for better jobs, but a lack of workers qualified for the very positions employers need filled. America is facing a skills gap that only continues to grow as innovation outpaces our education system. A recent study by McKinsey and Company found that nearly half of today’s jobs could be automated using current technology, a challenge on par with the industrial revolutions of the 19th century. When it comes to improving higher education today, one major obstacle is government bureaucracy. Our government has long set up insidious funding structures that saddle Americans with astronomical student loans, poor educational outcomes and little applicable, real life experience.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/06/29/the-future-of-our-economy-rests-on-innovating-our-higher-education-system/#3731ff9b3f4b

by Maria Thomas May, Quartz

By 2021, the country’s online education industry is expected to be worth $1.96 billion, a huge jump from just $247 million in 2016, according to a new report by Google and KPMG. While re-skilling and online certification courses constitute the biggest category today, particularly popular among IT workers, the report forecasts that it’s primary and secondary supplemental education that will dominate in a few years. That’s because students from smaller towns and cities will benefit from increasing access to the internet. Titled Online Education in India: 2021, the report also forecasts that test preparation courses will be the fastest-growing category as engineering and government service aspirants look to better their chances at entrance exams.

https://qz.com/994196/the-future-of-school-in-india-is-online/

By JESS BIDGOOD and JEREMY B. MERRILL, NY Times

College students have flooded into computer science courses across the country, recognizing them as an entree to coveted jobs at companies like Facebook and Google, not to mention the big prize: a start-up worth millions. The exploding interest in these courses, though, has coincided with an undesirable side effect: a spate of high-tech collegiate plagiarism. Students have been caught borrowing computer code from their friends or cribbing it from the internet. “There’s a lot of discussion about it, both inside a department as well as across the field,” said Randy H. Katz, a professor in the electrical engineering and computer science department at the University of California, Berkeley, who discovered in one year that about 100 of his roughly 700 students in one class had violated the course policy on collaborating or copying code.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/us/computer-science-cheating.html

by Doug Clark, Spokesman-Review

Let me tell you a story about readin’, writin’, ridin’ and ropin’. The tale is as much about the modern cyber age we live in. Because of that, public school can be tailor-made for even online cowgirls like Evelyn Picking. Evelyn is 13. She lives on 100 acres of cowboy country, fine rolling ranchland just outside of Omak, Washington. She’s also part of a long line of ropers and rodeo wranglers. Leo Moomaw, for example, Evelyn’s great-grandfather, established his homestead here, breeding and raising quality stock for the professional rodeo circuit. Evelyn was introverted and lacking in confidence. Her grades suffered. Something had to be done. The answer came last October, when Evelyn started taking her classes through the Washington Virtual Academies (or WAVA). An online charter K-12 program, WAVA lets students take classes over the internet. One of dozens of similar programs, WAVA, which is free because it counts as public education, is monitored by the Digital Learning Department that was created in 2009.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/may/30/doug-clark-online-education-program-lets-a-cowgirl/

by Pat Donachie, Education Dive

As the speed of information makes it all the more important to contextualize news and weed out misleading information, educators must work to instill strong digital literacy in students by coaching them in ways to identify reputable sources, according to Ed Tech: Focus on Higher Ed. With so much of students’ research and analysis done via internet browsing and searches, educators must also teach students “effective search processes,” including how to properly utilize databases and what types of resources can typically be considered accurate. In addition to properly teaching students how to find and use accurate data, colleges and institutions must ensure that their own facilities are secure. Though institutions are working to respond to cyber attacks and hacking, proper awareness among students and staff may help prevent issues in the first place.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/educators-can-use-digital-literacy-to-combat-misleading-information/443762/