Educational Technology

By: Allen S. Brown and Qiaona Yu, Faculty Focus

Dana Schutz has a visually cacophonous, 13-foot-long painting titled Building the Boat While Sailing. In reviewing the work for the New Yorker, Andrea Scott referred to it as, “an allegory for the process of making a painting.” We think this painting might also serve as an allegory for teaching, which is very much its own creative process. Even in courses with clearly stated objectives and fastidious alignment, the learning environment changes shape frequently as a given term unfolds. Moreover, with each new section and group of learners the process begins anew. Diligent instructional design is an ongoing and iterative process, and it presents time and knowledge demands that can be difficult for faculty to resource on their own. The challenges presented by such a dynamic situation are particularly evident when one attempts to incorporate new digital technologies into the teaching and learning process.

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/faculty-learning-communities-technology/

by Melanie Balakit, USA TODAY

Williamson County Schools will offer online courses this fall, joining a growing number of districts nationwide offering virtual learning. The district already embraces technology in the classroom — students bring their own devices for classwork and teachers draft lesson plans that incorporate technology. But this is the first time the district will oversee online high school courses. Only high school students will be able to take online courses in the district’s first year of implementation. The coursework won’t be completely virtual; as of now, the district will require students to meet with teachers at least twice a week. This combination of online coursework and in-person meetings is known as blended learning.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/williamson/2018/02/19/williamson-schools-take-blended-learning-approach-online-courses/345075002/

by CHRISTIE BLECK, Mining Journal

In the digital age, adults need to always be on guard to protect themselves and their children from online predators and cyberbullies. That was the focus of a Feb. 8 Michigan InfraGard quarterly meeting, which took place at the Learning Resource Center on the Northern Michigan University’s campus. Michigan InfraGard is a public-private partnership with the FBI dedicated to the protection of Americans, particularly infrastructures and resources.

http://www.miningjournal.net/news/front-page-news/2018/02/online-predators-cyberbullies-addressed-at-infragard-meeting/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

A new initiative brought together high schoolers from five countries to the United Nations to find solutions for sustainable development issues using their STEAM skills. As part of the “Global Classroom STEAM Challenge,” a program sponsored by electronics maker Samsung, student teams worked virtually with international counterparts over the past 10 weeks to come up with solutions for problems with energy, climate change, poverty and hunger. These make up some of the 17 goals addressed UN’s “sustainable development goals” program, all of which have specific targets to be achieved by 2030. As the culminating event, the students presented their proposed solutions to a panel of adults that included government leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGO), educators and corporate representatives.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/02/15/students-use-steam-to-tackle-un-sustainability-goals.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser. THE Journal
Can voice recognition apps that are as common as Siri Assistant and Cortana help kids learn to read? That was the question posed by a literacy researcher who wanted to see whether the use of speech recognition programs in early elementary classrooms would give students who struggle with reading a boost in their efforts. Elizabeth Baker, a professor of literacy studies at the University of Missouri, observed eight first graders as they participated in structured speech recognition-supported program on iPads and iPhone four days a week for five months. According to a paper published on the results, students who used the tools averaged a 97.4 percent accuracy rate on post-study reading tests, in which participants were asked to read a culmination of the words they had used in earlier compositions.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/02/13/speech-recognition-apps-propel-literacy.aspx

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

Dr. Polly Haldeman, FLVS’s Chief Customer Officer: “We’re in our 20th year. We started in 1997 under a grant. The idea was to serve students who were looking for an option to do course work outside the traditional format. We now serve kindergarten to 12th grade students in Florida and have a global school that serves students outside Florida.” CE: How many students are currently enrolled at FLVS PH: We have an open enrolment program, but in 2016 to 2017, we served over 206,000 students, and we had over 470,000 semester completions. The majority of our students are taking a single course. In Florida, there’s an online graduation requirement, which we have had in place since 2011, so this accounts for some but not all of our enrolments.

https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/yales-most-popular-class-ever-teaches-how-to-live-a-happier-life-heres-what-students-learn.html

Posted by Matt Blois, Brentwood Home Page

Superintendent Mike Looney proposed adding online classes at a school board work session last night. If the board approves the proposal, there would be up to 500 spots available for online classes starting next fall, and potentially more in the future. Looney said the district plans to buy the courses from Florida Virtual School, an online school created by the state of Florida that offers classes to students all over the nation. The district will have to pay about $50,000 to buy 500 spaces in the Florida school’s program. At the meeting, Looney told board members that adding the online courses would give students more flexibility and could free up classrooms in a district that doesn’t have enough space for students. The district expects to grow by 20,000 students over the next decade, and it doesn’t have enough space right now to teach them all.

Williamson County Schools considers online classes for next year

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

So, you want to host a hackathon, but you don’t know where to start. Don’t worry, it’s not that hard, and there are plenty of resources out there that aim to help. Namely, the one that you are reading now. In this piece, we will discuss how you can organize a successful hackathon. The organization of a hackathon is standard, starting out with an introduction to the event, then an official kickoff where the attendees will pitch software ideas and create teams based on their skill sets and interests. We mentioned earlier that hackathons can last from 24 hours to an entire week. Without further ado, lets get started.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/tips-organizing-successful-hackathon/

by Danny Palmer, ZD Net

Cybercriminals didn’t used to be so obvious. If hackers infiltrated your corporate network, they would do everything possible to avoid detection. It was in their best interests not to alert a victim that they’d fallen victim to a cybercriminal. But now, if you are attacked with file-encrypting ransomware, criminals will brazenly announce they’re holding your corporate data hostage until you pay a ransom in order to get it back. It might sound too simple, but it’s working: cybercriminals pocketed over $1bn from ransomware attacks during 2016 alone and a Europol report describes it as having “eclipsed” most other global cybercriminal threats in 2017.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-an-executive-guide-to-one-of-the-biggest-menaces-on-the-web/