Educational Technology

October 31, 2017

5 signs of a tech-friendly district

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

BY JOHN JENNINGS, eSchool News

The tech-friendly district is almost always the more attractive option for prospective students, families, and employees alike–here are the signs for identification.
The efficiencies afforded us by technology can play a central role in a district’s mission. That’s not to say we need to overwhelm our parents, students, and employees with apps and devices, but there are plenty of things district leaders can do behind the scenes to improve the experience of those stakeholders. How can you tell whether your district is ahead of the curve in technology adoption?

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/26/5-signs-tech-friendly-district/

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3 ways community colleges can slash costs with this technology

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

BY HARI SANKAR, eCampus News

Smaller community colleges outside of major urban areas can have less access to capital, so they suffer more financially than their four-year university counterparts. As the majority of community colleges are public institutions or not-for-profit organizations, they rely almost completely on state funding for their entire budget and annual planning. In fact, community colleges often do not have the same luxury of receiving research dollars, endowments or generous alumni donations, as their students often only attend for a couple of years before moving on to the workforce or other educational systems. For them, an ever-decreasing financial pie gets stretched even further. Determining a strategy on how to make up for that revenue loss is absolutely crucial for their future. Without an effective and sustainable financial structure, community colleges will fall behind in this volatile education market, which is where cloud technology can help.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/ed-tech-leadership/community-colleges-costs-tech/

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Can artificial intelligence learn to scare us?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by MIT Media Lab

Just in time for Halloween, a research team from the MIT Media Lab’s Scalable Cooperation group has introduced Shelley: the world’s first artificial intelligence-human horror story collaboration. Shelley, named for English writer Mary Shelley — best known as the author of “Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus” — is a deep-learning powered artificial intelligence (AI) system that was trained on over 140,000 horror stories on Reddit’s infamous r/nosleep subreddit. She lives on Twitter, where every hour, @shelley_ai tweets out the beginning of a new horror story and the hashtag #yourturn to invite a human collaborator. Anyone is welcome to reply to the tweet with the next part of the story, then Shelley will reply again with the next part, and so on. The results are weird, fun, and unpredictable horror stories that represent both creativity and collaboration — traits that explore the limits of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

http://news.mit.edu/2017/can-ai-learn-to-scare-us-shelley-mit-media-lab-horror-story-1027

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October 30, 2017

US military reveals a device that increases learning by 40%

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by SHIVALI BEST, Daily Mail

The idea of a headband you can wear to make you smarter may sound like a device from the latest science fiction blockbuster. But experts have revealed such a device in reality – and claim it could increase learning by 40 per cent. And it may not be long before you can get your hands on one, with the designers predicting its use will be common in just five to ten years. The device, which is described as ‘non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation’ (tDCS) was designed by researchers from HRL Laboratories and McGill University in Montreal, with funding from the Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA). The device applies a current to an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. This causes changes in connectivity between different brain areas, and increases learning.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5008179/Darpa-reveals-device-increases-learning-40.html

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Cyberlearning Research Report Peeks into Future of Ed Tech

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:36 am

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

People researching education technology and learning science — cyberlearning — populate the landscape. A new report from the Center for Innovative Research in Cyberlearning has undertaken the ambitious project of sifting through what those researchers are exploring to uncover the major trends and help us understand where education — pre-K-12 and post-secondary — may be headed over the next decade or two. According to “Cyberlearning Community Report: The State of Cyberlearning and the Future of Learning with Technology,” this work stretches beyond research on whether 1-to-1 programs work or if gaming can accelerate improved learning outcomes. Among the questions those hundreds of research projects are attempting to answer are these: How will students “use their bodies and minds to learn what will be important in the 21st century, such as collaboration, scientific argumentation, mathematical reasoning, computational thinking, creative expression, design thinking and civic engagement?”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/10/23/cyberlearning-research-report-peeks-into-future-of-ed-tech.aspx

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3 Keys to Successful 1-to-1 (and BYOD) Implementations

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:28 am

By Greg Thompson, THE Journal
The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and/or 1-to-1 culture is firmly in place across much of the American educational landscape, with many districts entering a third year of implementation. Such is the case at the Prince William County District in Northern Virginia, where students at Mary Williams Elementary school, Dumfries, VA, use iPads in kindergarten and first grade, and Lenovo Laptops in grades second through fifth. Every device is provided by the district on a 1-to-1 basis, and three years into the program the biggest challenges often involve elements that people can’t see. “There are a lot of hidden things that you must have in place,” said Lynmara Colon, principal at Mary Williams. “First is your internet connection. And usually it’s difficult to fund because people don’t see it as infrastructure.”

 

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/10/25/3-keys-to-successful-1to1-implementations.aspx

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October 29, 2017

Where will STEM education be in 5 years?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

BY JOACHIM HORN, eSchool News

Worryingly, only 16 percent of students graduating high school are proficient in STEM and also interested in a STEM career. The natural response to such a low percentage would be to prioritize improving STEM education efforts in the classroom. However, this is unfortunately easier said than done. The economic climate in the US has seen both budget cuts and increasingly diverse opinions among educators and administrators about where to spend the money made available to them. We must work to find ways of blending STEM education into all elements of the classroom, inspiring student interest at a young age.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/24/will-stem-education-5-years/

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Chromebooks are at the head of the class in Canada’s K-12 schools

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

by Bram Bout, Google for Education
Around the world, education has undergone a technological revolution. Cloud-connected devices and learning applications are shaping new ways of teaching and learning. Across Canada, school districts are using Chromebooks and G Suite for Education to expand learning opportunities for students from diverse communities and backgrounds. And now, Futuresource has reported that Chromebooks are the number-one-selling educational device for Canadian K12 schools. With this news, Canada joins the U.S., Sweden, and New Zealand, where Chromebooks are also the top devices used in classrooms.

https://www.blog.google/topics/education/chromebooks-are-head-class-canadas-k-12-schools/

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Report: 2 in 5 Kids 8 and Under Have Their Own Tablets

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal
Nearly half — 42 percent — of children eight years old or younger have their own tablet, according to a new report from Common Sense. That number is up from just 1 percent in 2011. Dubbed the Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight, the report is based on a survey of 1,454 parents and is the third in a series, the first two installments of which were published in 2011 and 2013.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/10/23/report-2-in-5-kids-8-and-under-have-their-own-tablets.aspx

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October 28, 2017

5G: The next great media disruption

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:37 am

by Luke Richards, ClickZ

The advent of 5G has the potential to be massive for marketers. When it does hit, mobile download speeds are expected to average 100mbps, and latency will drop to near zero. Consumers in dense urban environments will suffer fewer problems with overloading networks, and those in remote regions will experience new levels of connectivity. 5G is an opportunity for brands and marketers to reach more consumers, to be even more innovative with how they engage people, and to strive to be more responsible as customers give over more of their private space to a swathe of newly connected devices.

https://www.clickz.com/5g-the-next-great-media-disruption/113675/

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Rethinking MOOCs

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

by Duke Chronicle Editorial Board

Education innovators thus must work with academic partners who are willing to invest in bridging the gap in quality, prestige and credibility between four-year institutions and online education without increasing costs for users. These investments will most likely have to come from philanthropic and public-sector actors. Until then, MOOCs, while a boon for democratizing information, still have a long way to go before they actually fulfill their ambitious promise of providing affordable higher education to the digital masses.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2017/10/rethinking-moocs

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What Parents Need to Know about Blended Learning

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

While virtual K-12 schools may not be widespread yet and may never become the norm, blended learning is already widespread and likely here to stay. However, as blended learning, which includes the use of online learning systems and virtual strategies (e.g., the flipped classroom), expands, parents now face new challenges on the homework front. So, how can parents support their children as the classroom increasingly merges with the family home?

https://news.elearninginside.com/what-parents-need-to-know-about-blended-learning/

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October 27, 2017

8 WAYS TO IMPROVE THE EDTECH INDUSTRY

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

By Matthew Lynch
Edtech users seem to have a love-hate relationship with the edtech industry. They love what edtech can do but hate that the industry has not lived up to expectations as quickly as had been hoped. There are many reasons for this. The possibility of viral edtech success may lure potential developers into a field for which they have little interest and less passion. Creating edtech isn’t the same thing as creating partnerships. In all fairness, edtech users haven’t provided the edtech industry with long-range objectives, either.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/8-ways-improve-edtech-industry/

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Zoom Is Hot in Higher Ed

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

I’m always on the lookout for the hot technology in higher ed. This year, the winner seems to be Zoom.  Zoom is the web conferencing system that everyone I know across higher ed seems to really like. When talking to colleagues at other schools, they often mention that they have moved from some other platform to Zoom.
What folks seem to like about Zoom is that the application is: a) simple to use, b) has consistently high video and audio quality, and c) has a great mobile experience.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/zoom-hot-higher-ed

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Who is keeping student data safe in the era of digital learning?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:29 am

by TARA GARCÍA MATHEWSON, Hechinger Report
As students spend more time on digital devices in school, data security becomes increasingly important. Baltimore County has become a leader in student data privacy and security, and is one of only 13 districts in the nation to earn a Trusted Learning Environment seal from CoSN, the membership group representing the nation’s K-12 school technology leaders. The seal identifies Baltimore County as going above and beyond mere compliance with laws that require schools to protect the privacy of student records. Among the extra steps the district has taken to foster trust is posting online a complete list of all third-party vendors that receive student data and exactly what type of data they get. Parents can also read the student data privacy agreement, a strict set of expectations with which vendors must comply to do business with the district.

Who is keeping student data safe in the era of digital learning?

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October 26, 2017

Move over, Bitcoin: Ethereum is the next big thing in cryptocurrency

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by Mashable

While both Bitcoin and Ethereum are public blockchain networks, Bitcoin only offers one use of the blockchain technology: a digital monetary system that can be used for online Bitcoin payments. The Ethereum blockchain, on the other hand, uses a more advanced scripting language that allows it to run the programming code of virtually any decentralized app, from title registries to electronic voting systems. What’s more, Ethereum’s cryptocurrency (called the ether) runs on “smart contracts,” a type of blockchain technology that uses an “if:then” system — meaning it can only be traded if certain conditions are met. It’s easy to see why Ethereum has quickly become the second most valuable cryptocurrency on the market just two years after its launch. With the help of The Complete Ethereum Blockchain Mastery Bundle, a collection of four online courses taught by Certified Bitcoin Professional Ravinder Deol, you can become an early adopter of this valuable new cryptocurrency and reap the resultant rewards for less than $30.

http://mashable.com/2017/10/17/ethereum-cryptocurrency-online-course/#TRl8WJiCWqqH

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Quiet Power

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:36 am

by Karen Costa, Inside Higher Ed

I completed course work for my most recent graduate degree almost entirely online. I’m confident in saying that I was one of the most active participants in my courses. One of the things that I noticed as an online student is the importance of the time I was allowed to reflect on ideas due to the asynchronous nature of my courses. When I took traditional 55-minute land-based courses, I often thought of an answer to my professor’s questions four hours after class ended. I always felt like I was two steps behind everyone else, because introverts need time to process and consider internally. Like Joe, land-based courses made me feel like a fish out of water. As an online student, I could finally swim. Very little has been written about whether introverts are more successful in online courses, but Rick Harrington and Donald Loffredo did consider the question in their 2009 article “MBTI Personality Type and Other Factors That Relate to Preference for Online Versus Face-to-Face Instruction.” In their admittedly small study, they found that introverts were more likely to prefer online courses while extroverts were more likely to prefer face-to-face.

https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/10/17/how-online-education-benefits-introverted-students-essay

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7 MUST-HAVE APPS, TOOLS, AND RESOURCES FOR MAXIMUM STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:32 am

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

These days, it can seem more difficult than ever before to keep kids excited about learning. With tablets, online games and text messages, students seem so easily distracted. But the good news is that this technology does not have to be the bane of your existence. You can use those devices in the classroom to make learning fun with these trustworthy, user-friendly apps and tools.

7 Must-Have Apps, Tools, and Resources for Maximum Student Engagement

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October 25, 2017

How AI can help you stay ahead of cybersecurity threats

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:41 am

By Maria Korolov, CSO

Barclays Africa is beginning to use AI and machine learning to both detect cybersecurity threats and respond to them. “There are powerful tools available, but one must know how to incorporate them into the broader cybersecurity strategy,” says Kirsten Davies, group CSO at Barclays Africa.  For example, the technology is used to look for indicators of compromise across the firm’s network, both on premises and in the cloud. “We’re talking about enormous amounts of data,” she says. “As the global threat landscape is advancing quite quickly, both in ability and collaboration on the attacker side, we really must use advanced tools and technologies to get ahead of the threat themselves.” AI and machine learning also lets her deploy her people for the most valuable human-led tasks. “There is an enormous shortage of the critical skills that we need globally,” she says. “We’ve been aware of that coming for quite some time, and boy, is it ever upon us right now. We cannot continue to do things in a manual way.”

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3233951/machine-learning/how-ai-can-help-you-stay-ahead-of-cybersecurity-threats.html

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Google’s machine learning AI has been able to replicate itself for the first time

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by Harry Pettit, Daily Mail

Google’s machine learning artificial intelligence software has learned to replicate itself for the first time. The firm first revealed its AutoML project in May – an AI designed to help the firm create other AIs. Now, AutoML has outdone human engineers by building machine-learning software that’s more efficient and powerful than the top human-designed systems.
The achievement marks the next big step for the AI industry, in which development is automated as the software becomes too complex for humans to understand.
The breakthrough could one day lead to machines that can learn without human input.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4993416/Google-s-machine-learning-AI-learns-replicate-itself.html

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11 MUST-HAVE APPS AND TOOLS FOR DYSLEXIC STUDENTS

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:27 am

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate
Dyslexic students can benefit greatly from using technology. There are apps and tools available that can help dyslexic students read, write, and more. Using these 11 apps and tools with dyslexic students will ensure they can keep up in your 21st century classroom.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/11-must-apps-tools-dyslexic-students/

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