Educational Technology

BY PAUL RAMOS, eSchool News
A beginner’s guide to what makerspaces really are, whether or not one should be implemented, and some fun ideas for the new school year. The benefits of hands-on, active learning are firmly established, yet a lot of difference exists between being able to touch something and being able to create something. The latter allows students to practice skills in demand in the modern economy.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/09/20/4-considerations-makerspaces/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
An “assistance rod” that acts as a “rescue pack” for baby sea turtles. An improved cochlear implant that allows its wearer to hear a wider range of frequencies. An environmentally-friendly food wrap that will change color when the food inside has spoiled or been contaminated. Those are some of the winning student entries from previous “ExploraVision” science competitions. This year’s event will be open for registration from K-12 students until Feb. 8, 2018. The ExploraVision program is put on by the National Science Teachers Association and Toshiba with a goal of encouraging students to learn more about STEM-related subjects.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/09/21/science-competition-promotes-k12-science-standards-and-innovation.aspx

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal

The survey of more than 500 district decision makers was designed to shed light on how districts make full-course curriculum adoption decisions and to what degree respondents are aware of open educational resources (OER) and have adopted them. “The stated level of awareness of the terms and concepts of OER among K-12 district decision makers is very high,” according to the report. “However, that awareness does not extend to knowledge of open licensing. Nearly three-quarters of respondents say that they are aware of OER, but if we count only those who are also be aware of Creative Commons licensing, this drops to only one-third.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/09/21/report-most-educators-aware-of-oer-dont-understand-oer-licensing.aspx

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News
New research highlights the need for education leaders to incorporate digital literacy initiatives across all disciplines. Colleges and universities hoping to help students hone their digital literacy skills should look to strategies that emphasize creative thinking and problem solving across a range of areas, according to a new brief from the New Media Consortium. A new brief examines how higher education educators and administrators view digital literacy and reveals the approaches that shape how students learn, create and communicate digital content.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/curriculum/digital-literacy-in-higher-ed/

by RENEE BELL, News Bulletin

For some North Okaloosa County residents, attending school is as simple as sitting in their home office or cracking open a laptop. According to the most recent report by the Babson Survey Research Group, in 2014, 5.8 million U.S. students were enrolled in at least one online higher education course. That’s approximately one in every four students.

http://www.crestviewbulletin.com/news/20170919/some-north-okaloosa-residents-prefer-virtual-education

by Will Roper, Daily Nebraskan

When the time to choose a high school arrived, Stark, along with many rural Nebraskan students, international students, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake chose to continue this education style and enroll in the University of Nebraska High School. In early September, a video containing Britney Spears talking about her experience with the University of Nebraska High School made its rounds on Twitter. In the video, Spears said she opted to use the program as a substitute to high school, given the intensity of her career at the time. ccording to its website, the University of Nebraska High School was established in partnership with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1929 with the initial goal of providing a reliable form of distance learning to rural Nebraskans who lived in a community that couldn’t sustain a high school.

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/arts_and_entertainment/university-of-nebraska-high-school-provides-online-education-to-students/article_9b6a0358-9d9f-11e7-8636-23eebc77920c.html

Mara Leighton, Insider Picks
Most of us understand that coding is important in today’s workforce. We also understand that our society’s increased dependence upon technology creates an opportunity for job openings and job insurance. But for those of us who don’t have the opportunity to go spend a semester at a university learning how to code, that same technology comes in handy. If you’ve got a little bit of time and motivation to set aside, you can learn how to code by yourself. For instance, there are ample online courses like the ones curated below.

http://www.businessinsider.com/learn-how-to-code-at-home-online-classes-2017-9

by Brianna Bradley, Phoenix Business Journal

Arizona State University is partnering with a school in Miami, Arizona to strengthen high-school curriculum and allow students to take college credits. Miami Junior Senior High School, in the eastern city of Miami, Arizona has incorporated curriculum from the ASU Preparatory Digital online program. “We’re here to impact national college attainment and help prep for college, prep for career and prep for life,” said Amy McGrath, chief operating officer for ASU Prep Digital.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2017/09/18/asu-prep-digital-offers-online-college-courses-to.html

By Tori Hart, Heartland
An Idaho school district is partnering with a company that provides educational services to give homeschooling families free access to online courses. The Twin Falls School District announced a partnership with Harmony Educational Services to offer homeschooling families the opportunity to enroll in online classes beginning with the fall 2017 school year. Homeschooling families pay nothing for the classes. The district pays Harmony for each student enrolled in the program, with varying costs for different grade levels and other services, including mentoring. For each student enrolled, the district with receive additional state funding, magicvalley.com reported in August.

\https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/idaho-district-to-provide-free-online-courses-to-homeschool-families-in-exchange-for-state-funding

by Catherine Morris, Diverse Education

Nearly 2.1 million students, or 11 percent of all undergraduates, are single mothers, the majority of whom are women of color. Close to half, or 44 percent, attend community college. Of those attending community college, 43 percent say that they are likely to drop out due to the struggle to balance caring for their family with school attendance. Coming in second behind community colleges are for-profit schools, which account for 30 percent of enrollments among single mothers. It should be noted that the IWPR report evaluates data from 1999 to 2012, meaning that the proportion of single mothers currently attending for-profits and community colleges may have shifted. Both sectors have seen declines in enrollment in recent years. The high number of single mothers enrolled in for-profits was no accident, according to Gault. “For-profits specifically recruit single mothers,” Gault said.

http://diverseeducation.com/article/101758/

By Lindsay Ellis, Houston Chronicle

For three decades at Lone Star College’s Kingwood campus, Steve Davis has looked students in the eyes as he taught the Reconstruction era and World War II in his American history courses. This semester, he worries he’ll never see their faces. About 600 in-person courses at Lone Star College-Kingwood, including Davis’, will move at least partially online after Hurricane Harvey plowed floodwater and sewage through many campus buildings late last month, causing millions of dollars in damage and requiring the major change to course schedules. Before Harvey, the campus scheduled 28 percent of its classes to take place partially or fully online. That figure is now 73 percent.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Flood-damage-from-Hurricane-Harvey-forces-change-12204907.php

by Roger Riddell, Education Dive

With upcoming generations of student populations expected to be smaller than their predecessors, the demographic shift is set to leave colleges and universities competing for fewer students — and increasingly looking beyond their local and regional pools to boost enrollment. As a result, institutions must now bring their A-game when it comes to marketing and recruitment. And while innovations ranging from video chat to virtual reality are making it easier to do that, there’s still plenty of room for even the most forward-thinking to stumble.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/3-common-areas-where-higher-ed-recruitment-goes-wrong/504681/

By Rhea Kelly, THE Journal

Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and cyber threats are among the biggest forces that will impact the internet over the next five to seven years, according to a new report from the Internet Society, a nonprofit focused on the open development, evolution and use of the internet. The organization’s 2017 Global Internet Report predicts a mix of promise and uncertainty as we move toward the digital future, and makes recommendations for safeguarding the internet for the next generation.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/09/20/report-ai-iot-cyber-threats-will-shape-the-internets-future.aspx

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate

We have all “been there,” that dreadful place of indecision about which way to go with our careers and or how to get the job we want. Perhaps you are a qualified professional, with a Bachelors, Masters, or even a Ph.D. from an accredited university, or maybe you are a member of your town council, your professional organization, and have been working in your field for 5+ years, but still you can’t quite obtain your “dream job.” How can you make your application stand out from the rest?

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/mooc-can-help-land-dream-job/

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal
The number of lost, stolen or compromised records is up 164 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the last half of 2016, according to a new report from Gemalto. The number of breaches in the education sector more than doubled in the same period, jumping 103 percent, according to the report. The report is based on the firm’s Breach Level Index, a database that tracks data breaches around the world and measures their severity using a variety of metrics, including the type of data compromised, the source of the breach, the number of records compromised, how the data was used and whether the data was encrypted.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/09/20/education-data-breaches-double-in-first-half-of-2017.aspx

BY KENNETH CHAPMAN, eCampus News
UDL is gaining attention in colleges and universities as a way to make digital learning programs more accessible to all learners. An exciting and well-established concept known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is gaining attention in higher education as a way to make digital learning programs more accessible to all learners, including those with a wide variety of learning challenges. Endorsed by EDUCAUSE’s Next Generation Digital Learning Environment (NGDLE) and the Department of Education’s Horizon Report, UDL is a framework to design learning in a systematic way to anticipate and remove barriers to student learning. UDL isn’t about accommodating people after the fact, or just for students with physical or learning challenges–it is meant to design learning that’s engaging and effective for everyone, right from the get-go.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/ed-tech-leadership/udl-lms-reach-every-learner/

By Joel Hans, RT Insights

Artificial intelligence agents decide which actions are the most appropriate to take, and when they should be taken. These agents most often take the form of machine learning algorithms, neural networks, statistical analysis and more.   Cognitive computing is often described as simply marketing jargon, so crafting a working definition is important, although it’s more fluid right now, and there isn’t one consensus that industry experts have settled on. Still, the foundation is that cognitive computing systems try to simulate human thought processes. This process uses many of the same fundamentals as AI, such as machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing, contextual awareness and sentiment analysis, to follow the problem-solving processes that humans do day in and day out. IBM defines the result of cognitive computing as “systems that learn at scale, reason with purpose and interact with humans naturally.”

https://www.rtinsights.com/whats-the-difference-between-cognitive-computing-and-ai/

by Tereza Litsa, Click Z

The Internet of Things has the potential to bring a new age of content marketing. How can marketers prepare for this change? The Internet of Things is a growing trend, and the idea of keeping everyone connected through everyday devices is becoming an increasingly established concept. According to IHS, there were 15.4 billion connected devices in 2015, with the number expected to grow to 30.7 billion in 2020 and 75.4 billion in 2025. This is reflected in the projections for the revenue it can bring. According to Machina Research, the revenue from the Internet of Things is expected to increase from $892 billion in 2015 to $4 trillion in 2025.

How could the Internet of Things change the game for content marketers?

By Mark Engstrom, edSurge

Conventional syllabi are developed from the perspective of the teacher—designed to present what he or she plans to include in a course. I wanted to develop an alternative version that looked through the lens of the student, and my vision was to tailor each one to reflect what a particular learner would be doing every step of the way throughout the course. This was not simply a more visually appealing version of a classic syllabus, it was a radical overhaul of the student experience with the primary goal of changing their perception of their role as a learner. This drastic class redesign demanded that I ask myself some big questions: what content was required, what elements of learning could students control and what traditional and new measures I could use to gauge progress? Almost every question led to another

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-09-10-redesigning-the-syllabus-to-reflect-the-learning-journey

by Lara Ettenson, NRDC

As bastions of knowledge, progress, and innovation, it’s not surprising that colleges are often at the forefront of the battle against climate change, striving to implement energy efficiency, clean energy, and sustainability curricula and programs. When college campuses engage in the green movement, they not only reduce energy waste and increase utility bill savings, they also invest in the future by encouraging their students to become leaders and activists with a genuine interest and concern for the world. More than 90 colleges across the country have distinguished themselves as leaders against climate change, pledging to become carbon-neutral in three years.

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/lara-ettenson/how-college-campuses-can-lead-fighting-climate-change

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, tech Edvocate

If all you’ve ever used Google for is email and web searches, there’s a whole world in which you’re missing out. That world is the Google Suite, consisting of a cloud computing compendium that puts all of your instructional tools in one easily accessed location. So what can you do with Google in your classroom? As it turns out, Google offers a lot.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/10-ways-use-google-classroom/