Educational Technology

by Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive

The Department of Education is stepping back from two Obama era policies intended to make for-profit colleges more accountable for how they treat students. For one, it is completely withdrawing from the borrower-defense-to-repayment regulation, which provided relief to students who feel they were misled or defrauded by their institution. And, it is rolling back the gainful employment regulation, which holds institutions responsible for whether graduates find work, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is establishing a rulemaking committee to rework the gainful-employment rule, because “it became clear that, as written, it is overly burdensome and confusing for institutions of higher education,” according to the Department’s press release.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/what-administrators-can-expect-from-regulation-roll-back-on-for-profit-coll/445017/

By Sarah Craig, KQED

Nestled among rows of wine grapes, Stone Bridge School is a K-8 independent charter school in Napa County. On a recent afternoon, 28 first-graders sang during their main lesson. They can sing, paint, dance and sew. But what they don’t do — and are discouraged from — is use computers. Bill Bindewald, principal at the Waldorf-inspired Stone Bridge School, says their philosophy around technology isn’t a no-tech approach, but a slow-tech one. He says they place an emphasis on hands-on learning. But the school hasn’t gone cold turkey. By the time students reach sixth, seventh and eighth grade, they start doing reports and the state’s standardized tests online. The school has also developed a cyberethics curriculum to learn things like finding truthful sources online.

https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/06/18/why-one-napa-school-is-opting-out-of-online-learning/

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, tech Edvocate

As the American K-12 system continues to look for ways to increase student interest and aptitude in STEM learning, technology is playing an increasingly pivotal role. Children who come to classrooms today have an inherent aptitude for technology and educators should encourage that skill set with resources that integrate STEM learning. Where do teachers find resources to incorporate into their STEM instruction? The easiest place would be via the internet. To save you some time we decided to compile a list of websites that provide teachers with the resources that they need to provide quality STEM instruction.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/21-amazing-stem-resources-teachers/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Alongside other companies that have picked up integration with Apple’s Swift coding language, Lego Education has announced its own support for the iPad programming app for beginners. The company said it would be pairing Mindstorms Education EV3 with the Swift Playgrounds learning platform to allow students to program their Lego Mindstorms robots and other creations with motors and sensors. Mindstorms already comes with its own programming app, which is controlled by dragging and dropping icons into a line to form commands. Swift is a highly visual programming environment that allows the user to tap on assorted options for creation of runnable code.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/06/12/apple-swift-draws-support-from-robotics-drone-makers.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Two nonprofits in the education business have joined forces. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has merged with CoderDojo. The first foundation is a United Kingdom-based organization that produces credit card-sized devices for use in creating low-cost computers. Ten million of its devices have been sold worldwide. Recently, the foundation introduced a new version of its Raspberry Pi Zero W, an even smaller version that costs only $10 (compared to $35 for the flagship Raspberry Pi) and includes WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. CoderDojo supports a global network of free programming clubs (“dojos”) for young people 7 to 17. At the volunteer-run clubs, the “ninjas” learn how to build websites, create apps and games and explore technology in an informal and social environment.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/06/12/raspberry-pi-foundation-and-coderdojo-merge.aspx

by Wired

“I give the kids access to all the tools pretty much right off the bat,” said Eric Bredder, with a sweeping gesture taking in the computer workstations, 3-D printers, laser cutters and milling machines, plus a bevy of wood and metalworking tools that he uses while teaching computer science, engineering and design classes. But Bredder can’t give students the tool he considers most indispensable to 21st-century learning—broadband internet beyond school walls. “This is an equity issue,” said Bredder. “If some kids can go home and learn, discover and backfill information, while other kids’ learning stops at school, that’s a huge problem.”

https://www.wired.com/story/schools-secret-spectrum-free-internet-digital-divide/

BY BOB NILSSON, eSchool News

The topic of video cameras in the classroom has been brewing for years. Schools that have deployed cameras in public areas have experienced dramatic safety benefits. For example, Fraser Public Schools in Michigan found that the incidents of fighting dropped to near zero. Police officers have found body cams provide an important defense against false accusations. College professors are also eager for the protection that video surveillance can provide. In The Case for Class Cams, Amir Azarvan argues that “In an age of narcissism, we need to protect professors by putting cameras in the classroom.” According to False Accusations: A Growing Fear in the Classroom, “one in seven male teachers has been wrongly accused of inappropriate contact with students”.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/06/12/video-cameras-improve-classroom/

by LILLIAN MONGEAU, Hechinger Report

By 2021, students graduating from Maine high schools must show they have mastered specific skills to earn a high school diploma. Maine is the first state to pass such a law, though the idea of valuing skills over credits is increasingly popular around the country. When such a system works, it’s meant to offer students clarity about what they have to learn and how they are expected to demonstrate they’ve learned it. Students have more flexibility to learn at their own pace and teachers get time to provide extra help for students who need it. Ideally, every diploma in Maine would signify that students had mastered the state’s learning standards.

http://hechingerreport.org/how-diplomas-based-on-skill-acquisition-not-credits-earned-could-change-education/

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate

There’s no doubt that edtech is transforming education before our eyes. From the way teachers communicate with parents, to the way students are engaged in the classroom, edtech has a large impact on the modern world of education. Fully 80% of low income parents feel positive about classroom technology’s impact on their children. In order to provide you with data-driven info on the subject, we decided to share the infographic linked below.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/low-income-parents-feel-classroom-technology/