Educational Technology

by Alison Bosma, Metro West Daily

The class at Natick’s Johnson Elementary School has Skyped with students in other states and countries, tweeted favorite authors, shared pen pal letters with students in Uganda through Google Drive, sent cloud observations to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and an average Thursday morning had them solving a math challenge from students in Georgia. That’s the short list. “It’s cool because when we were in third grade, we could say, ‘Yeah, I do science experiments in class,’” Magee said. “But now (students can say), ‘Yeah, I do science experiments and send them to NASA.’”

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20180211/raising-good-digital-citizens

By Michael Santone, the Advocate

Contra Costa College has until March 1 to complete its application to join the next cohort of California Community Colleges in the Online Education Initiative (OEI). OEI, which was announced by Gov. Jerry Brown back in January 2013 is a collaborative effort among state community colleges to provide students with easier access to high-quality online courses.

Contra Costa College aims to join statewide web college program

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

At last count, there were over 80,000 educational apps available to teachers. There are apps for everything: literacy, STEM, productivity, audiovisual, etc. There are apps which improve accessibility for students with different learning challenges, i.e. text to voice, voice to text, etc. While many of these may be a dream come true for educators, the dizzying array of choices is also a nightmare. Teachers just don’t have time to filter through thousands of apps to find the one that works best for the needs of their students. To help, we started to create curated lists of the best apps in a variety of education related categories. In this installment, we will present the best math apps for middle school students. 

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/7-best-math-apps-middle-school-students/

by Heather Cherone, Pioneer Press

As one of three Illinois school districts participating in a pilot program that could put an end to snow days for good, Leyden High School District 212 in Franklin Park declared its first “e-learning day” Friday as snow piled up on streets throughout suburbs west of the city. The three-year pilot program, approved by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2015, was launched in the wake of the polar vortex that plunged Chicago into a deep freeze during the winters of 2013 and 2014 and forced schools to cancel several days of instruction. Leyden High School students were expected to complete at least five hours of classwork from home on Friday, using computers provided by the school district.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/franklin-park/news/ct-fhj-leyden-not-snow-day-tl-0215-2-20180209-story.html

by Stephen Spinelli Jr. , CNBC

Is our higher education system ready for the challenge? The answer is no – at least not yet. For too long, college degrees have rewarded students’ proficiency in taking exams, not their readiness for a career. As a result, students are trained to recite definitions, processes and formulas, but their lack of experience in real-world application limits their effectiveness and ability to innovate within their respective fields. This has to change. Higher education must focus squarely on developing the skills students need to succeed in a rapidly evolving job market. We must reject the false dichotomy of theory and practice. Deep thought and decisive action must be linked – this is the imperative for today’s university graduate.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/02/automation-will-kill-1-million-jobs-by-2026-what-we-need-to-do-commentary.html

by Abby Norman, Futurism

Police officers in Zhengzhou, China have been spotted wearing sunglasses equipped with facial recognition software that allows them to identify individuals in a crowd. These surveillance sunglasses were actually rolled out last year, but a recent report from China’s QQ published a series of photos of the glasses in action.

Chinese Police Add Facial Recognition Glasses to Their Surveillance Arsenal

by Maureen Downey, My AJC

DeKalb County School District will permit its students to use online learning and assignments to make up two days lost to weather.  Most metro area school districts closed for four days in January due to ice and snow. DeKalb plans to hold class on two previously scheduled days off, Feb. 16 and March 9. A survey to decide how to make up the two other days endorsed virtual learning in which students work online on assignments and labs. Other districts including Forsyth and Gwinnett have reported success using online learning on snow days.

http://www.myajc.com/blog/get-schooled/dekalb-will-use-digital-learning-make-snow-days/1muR37dBzEB0JjtezSt9yL/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The development of edtech has created new means of communication that can help to bridge the gap between distance learners. Communication technologies that are now often used in the workplace can also be implemented into a distance learning course to offer more and more ways for students and teachers to communicate in real-time. Though educators about to embark on a distance learning course may feel unsure as to how they can create a sense of community for their students, there are steps and considerations that can be taken to help close the distance in distance learning.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/can-take-distance-distance-learning/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

At last count, there were over 80,000 educational apps available to teachers. There are apps for everything: literacy, STEM, productivity, audiovisual, etc. There are apps which improve accessibility for students with different learning challenges, i.e. text to voice, voice to text, etc. While many of these may be a dream come true for educators, the dizzying array of choices is also a nightmare. Teachers just don’t have time to filter through thousands of apps to find the one that works best for the needs of their students. To help, we started to create curated lists of the best apps in a variety of education related categories. In this installment, we will present the best science apps for elementary school students.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/17-best-science-apps-elementary-school-students/

by Bernadette Tansey, Xconomy
ACT, the big college admissions testing organization whose CEO aims to make it an educational venture as well, is investing $7.5 million in interactive online learning startup Smart Sparrow. Smart Sparrow specializes in online courses that teach students how to master skills that have a physical component, such as biological laboratory techniques and drawing for engineers.

College Testing Firm ACT Invests in Edtech Startup Smart Sparrow

By: Taylor Williams, Wabash Valley]

It’s certainly not the way most teens do it, but this 15 year old started and ended high school in the same school year, all without stepping foot in a classroom. On most days this is where you’ll find 15 year old Walter Wildman, typing away on his computer. But Walter is not your typical 15 year old. In January Walter graduated high school. “Are you sure? Most of the reactions are, are you sure it’s accredited or are you lying,” Walter Wildman said.   But it’s true.

http://www.mywabashvalley.com/news/a-teen-ahead-of-his-class/952948375

by Melanie Balakit, USA TODAY NETWORK

Williamson County Schools will offer online courses to high school students next school year. Several levels of English, math, science and history are included in the 17 proposed courses. Williamson County Director of Schools Mike Looney said the district aims to offer another educational choice to students. “We’re just trying to be cutting edge and ahead of the curve,” Looney said. Looney said the district envisions a blended learning model — a mix of online coursework and in-person interaction with teachers — for students who choose to take online courses. “Some students might want to take an online course in 7th period and go to work and then do the coursework later,” Looney said. “Then they may schedule meetings with a teacher.”

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/williamson/2018/02/05/williamson-schools-offer-online-courses/307381002/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Here are the ten habits of tech-savvy schools so you can see how yours measures up.

1. They make ongoing professional development a priority. When it comes to technology, last year’s hot new trend is this year’s old news. Successful schools provide ongoing, quality training to help educators keep up.
2. They invest in the right equipment. Tech-savvy schools make solid investments in equipment that meets their needs, whether it be interactive whiteboards, tablets, and/or a Chromebook for every student. Funds are allocated thoughtfully and wisely.
3. Technology use is frequent and widespread. When you visit the classrooms in a tech-savvy school, you see that almost everyone is using technology in some form, whether it be the middle-school Social Studies teacher giving a PowerPoint presentation or a third-grader using an app to predict the weather….. See the link below for the rest.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/10-habits-tech-savvy-schools/

by Kristin Houser, Futurism

High-risk fields are retail, fast food, agriculture, customer service,  accounting, marketing, management consulting, investment management, finance, higher education, insurance, and architecture. Specific jobs include security guards, long-haul truck drivers, manual laborers, construction workers, paralegals, CPAs, radiologists, and administrative workers. Technology is going to continue to advance, and in reality, all of us are going to have become life-long learners, constantly upgrading our skills. The most important skills to have will be knowing how to be highly efficient at iterative learning — “unlearning and relearning” — and develop high emotional and social intelligence.

Experts Answer: Who Is Actually Going to Suffer From Automation?

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Digital transformation in our schools is no longer just something it would be nice to have in the future. The rapid changes in the world around us make it a necessity here in the present. If your school or district has not yet undertaken the task, there is a good chance your students are leaving school unprepared for the challenges they will face in the 21st century. But the process is far from easy. When you take into consideration concerns about the budget, infrastructure, and training, it can seem impossible.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/4-steps-driving-successful-digital-transformation/

By Stephen Noonoo, EdSurge

The key to better online security—as with other social problems and malaise—is better education, argues one education entrepreneur who believes that schools are in a unique position to reach both tomorrow’s consumer and potential security expert. “Pretty much every week you’ll hear about a major hack in the news,” says Jeremy Keeshin, the CEO of CodeHS. “And most people don’t know even the ABCs of how to create a secure password.” Keeshin’s company is perhaps best known for a series of introductory coding courses it offers on programming languages such as Javascript and Python. But starting this fall it’s adding something new to its roster: a cybersecurity course for high schoolers.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-02-02-new-cybersecurity-course-teaches-teens-the-abcs-of-ethical-hacking

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Teachers have a significant role in teaching students’ digital citizenship skills that will extend beyond the classroom. Digital citizenship is using technology responsibly and ethically. As students use digital tools regularly, they need to understand the importance of using digital content appropriately. Therefore, teachers need to implement lessons on digital citizenship into the classroom. Digital citizenship skills should be taught beginning in elementary school with these skills growing and sharpening as students move towards high school and college. In this article, we will focus on explaining three goals to help students become mindful digital citizens.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/sharpen-students-digital-citizenship-skills/

by Tomas Laurinavicius, Forbes

Meet Andrew Sutherland, the founder and CTO of Quizlet, the user-powered learning platform used by more than 30 million students and teachers each month. Andrew founded Quizlet in 2005 while a sophomore at Albany High School in California, originally building a simple website to help himself study French vocabulary. He studied computer science at MIT, which he left after three years to continue working on Quizlet. As CTO, Andrew is in charge of building the technology that powers more than 200 million study sets and allows millions of students to learn more efficiently. In 2012 and 2013, he was featured in Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 List for Education.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomaslaurinavicius/2018/01/30/startup-of-the-week-quizlet/

By Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
Candace Thille, a leading expert in learning science and education technology, has taken a leave of absence from Stanford University to be Amazon’s director of learning science and engineering, according to Inside Higher Ed.  Thille — who is the founding director of the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University — is to work with Amazon’s Global Learning Development Team to enhance workplace learning for employees, though a company spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed that Thille is “taking time away” to work on another project she is “not really at liberty to discuss.”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/is-amazon-dipping-into-higher-ed/515837/

BY AMELIA HARPER, Rocky Mountain Telegram

While most students in Edgecombe County were missing school during the recent January snow days, students at G.W. Bulluck Elementary School had the option to continue learning and the school has earned some props in the process. Hillary Boutwell, principal of G.W. Bulluck Elementary School, shared with the members of the Edgecombe County Board of Education last week the lengths her teachers went to so the students could continue learning in spite of the missed days. “This was just the teachers understanding that we had circumstances beyond our control and just thinking outside the box,” Boutwell said.

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/News/2018/01/31/Elementary-school-continues-learning-on-snow-day.html

by Kate McGee, WAMU

Credit recovery programs are largely unregulated and there’s little guidance as to what a quality credit recovery program looks like. For example, in D.C. there aren’t any regulations around credit recovery, which means D.C. public schools and individual charter schools can decide what counts as a credit recovery course without oversight. At a district council hearing in December, State Superintendent Hanseul Kang testified that she was unaware there were no regulations regarding credit recovery until she prepared for the hearing. She said her office is reviewing whether to change that. Others are concerned that a credit recovery class is often less rigorous than the original class, and is used as a way to push students toward graduation even if they might not be academically ready for college or a career.

https://wamu.org/story/18/02/01/popular-way-help-struggling-students-graduate-controversial/