Educational Technology

May 31, 2018

Panel OKs pilot program for online classes when bad weather forces school closure

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

by ABC News 4

A South Carolina education panel has approved preliminary guidelines for an eLearning program for teachers and students. The panel says this program will help students and teachers stay on track with school work while outside of the classroom because of bad weather. Members of an education oversight committee met Monday to discuss the eLearning standards in preparations for the upcoming school year.

http://abcnews4.com/news/local/an-elearning-program-has-been-approved-for-preliminary-guidelines-during-bad-weather

Share on Facebook

Women are less likely to be replaced by robots and might even benefit from automation

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

by FABRIZIO CARMIGNANI, the Big Think

Research shows women are better positioned than men to resist the automation of work and possibly even benefit from it. Women are overrepresented in industries that require high levels of social skills and empathy (such as nursing, teaching and care work), where it would be difficult to replace a human worker with automation. Women in advanced economies also have, on average, higher levels of education and digital literacy, giving them a comparative advantage in a labour market that is continuously transformed by technological innovation.

http://bigthink.com/the-conversation/women-are-less-likely-to-be-replaced-by-robots-and-might-even-benefit-from-automation

Share on Facebook

Microsoft: We’re giving you all Euro-style GDPR rights over how we use your data

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

by Liam Tung, ZDNet

Microsoft has announced it will extend the rights available to Europeans under the EU’s new privacy regulation to all consumers across the world. The General Data Protection Regulation went into effect Friday May 22, introducing a range of new Data Subject Rights for EU residents, such as the right to obtain data a company has collected, and to request the deletion of data if the user no longer consents to a company holding it. Consumers also have the right to take data to another service provider, and to know how a company is processing their data. Rather than enabling these rights only for European consumers, Microsoft will provide them to all consumers.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-were-giving-you-all-euro-style-gdpr-rights-over-how-we-use-your-data/

Share on Facebook

May 30, 2018

Show What You Know: The Shift To Competency

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

by Tom Vander Ark, Forbes

“GPAs are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless,” said Laszlo Bock, former head of HR at Google. “Google famously used to ask everyone for a transcript and GPAs and test scores, but we don’t anymore, unless you’re just a few years out of school. We found that they don’t predict anything,” added Bock. In the now famous 2013 interview with the New York Times, Bock signaled the beginning of the end of courses and credits as the primary measure of learning and the beginning of the show what you know era. Professions (including law, real estate, and accounting) have long relied on test-based measured of readiness. Some professions have gone a step beyond to require demonstrated competence (e.g., doctors and pilots are required to pass tests, endure simulations, and perform in a variety of live settings).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2018/05/21/show-what-you-know-the-shift-to-competency/#6687f2a81a5b

Share on Facebook

Changing students’ attitudes to mathematics improves test scores

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

by Science Daily
Study shows for first time that a free, online course can change students’ mindsets towards their mathematical abilities, leading to increased academic achievement.  A new study finds a free ‘massive, open, online course’ (MOOC) led to students feeling more positive about math, more engaged during math class, and scoring significantly higher in mathematics assessments. This is the first of its kind to focus on changing students’ mindsets and beliefs about their mathematics potential.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180510101252.htm

Share on Facebook

Declining Majority of Online Adults Say the Internet Has Been Good for Society

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

BY AARON SMITH AND KENNETH OLMSTEAD, Pew Internet
At the same time, the contours of connectivity are shifting: One-in-five Americans are now ‘smartphone only’ internet users at home.  Americans tend to view the impact of the internet and other digital technologies on their own lives in largely positive ways, Pew Research Center surveys have shown over the years. A survey of U.S. adults conducted in January 2018 finds continuing evidence of this trend, with the vast majority of internet users (88%) saying the internet has, on balance, been a mostly good thing for them personally. But even as they view the internet’s personal impact in a positive light, Americans have grown somewhat more ambivalent about the impact of digital connectivity on society as a whole.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/04/30/declining-majority-of-online-adults-say-the-internet-has-been-good-for-society/

Share on Facebook

May 29, 2018

Partnerships between K-12, higher ed pay dividends in variety of ways

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

by James Paterson, Education Dive
Educators in K-12 and higher education are finding that partnerships can benefit both sectors, according to a report from EdTech: Focus on K-12 that highlights cases where the two have creatively collaborated. Megan Toliin, director of technology and innovation for the Education Department at Indiana University–Purdue in Indianapolis said in an interview that area K-12 educators received assistance with technology for their blended classrooms in one such effort, and both college students studying technology and education got experience in schools that benefited both parties. The article describes a variety of ways such partnerships can be developed, including colleges helping K-12 schools with gathering and analyzing data, which is critical for budgeting and reporting. And universities can also use the data for research purposes.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/partnerships-between-k-12-higher-ed-pay-dividends-in-variety-of-ways/523904/

Share on Facebook

Augmented reality could rule the classrooms of the future

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

by JAKE RICHARDSON, the Big Think

An analysis of research study papers pertaining to the use of AR for learning found that: ….”most of the studies reported that AR in educational settings lead to better learning performance and promoting learning motivation, which was because AR supplies the authenticity graphical content and interaction. Also, deeper student engagement improved perceived enjoyment and positive attitudes of AR are reported as the effectiveness of using AR.” Another study reached a similar conclusion: “Outcomes were consistent across all of the studies reviewed in that participants showed both an increase in conceptual knowledge and increases in topic interest and engagement.”

http://bigthink.com/jake-richardson/augmented-reality-could-rule-the-classrooms-of-the-future

Share on Facebook

Assistive Technology to Help Students with Articulation Dierrdso

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

 

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Some students encounter extraordinary challenges when it comes to forming the sounds of everyday communication. This may be due to a structural problem with the mouth or a motor-based issue. Collectively, these difficulties are considered to be articulation disorders. They can make classroom education extremely hard for both teachers and students. However, there are some ways that teachers can help students with articulation disorders still succeed academically. If you want to help your student with articulation disorder succeed, you will need some of the best assistive technology available. You can see the recommendations for the top assistive technologies used with this disorder below.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/assistive-technology-to-help-students-with-articulation-disorder-succeed-academically/

Share on Facebook

May 28, 2018

Making The Learning Experience Student-Centered To Combat The Skills Gap From College To Career

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:39 am

by Troy Markowitz, Forbes

When students are cognizant of the relevance between their education and their desired career, 63% are more likely to agree that their education was worth the cost and 50% are more likely to agree that they received a high-quality education. Today, however, college graduates are unable to make potential employers aware of the skills they’ve developed through their coursework and co-curricular activities, leading to dissatisfaction with the quality and value of their postsecondary education.

This skills gap, or what I’ve more precisely denoted as the “awareness gap,” is dangerous for the longevity of institutions and also the foundation of our educational system.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/troymarkowitz/2018/05/10/making-the-learning-experience-student-centered-to-combat-the-skills-gap-from-college-to-career/#6b3e9fb25c56

Share on Facebook

An 80 credit-hour bachelor’s degree?

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

By Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive
Lucas Kavlie, vice president for compliance and accreditation at Western Governor’s University, makes an argument that if the nation wants to decrease student debt burdens and increase student completion rates, the best way to achieve both is to “move the finish line closer” and create degree programs that require fewer credit hours.  “Institutions are judged on whether or not the students in their program are graduating in four or six years,” Kavlie said in a recent phone conversation with Education Dive. “If people were smart, they’d say we can raise our four-year grad rates by lowering the number of credit hours that people need to do” to get to the degree. He pointed out that under the Affordable Healthcare Act, a full-time employee is one who works 30 or more hours per week and, assuming two hours of out-of-class work for every hour of in-class instruction, students technically hit this mark with 10 credit hours per semester.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/an-80-credit-hour-bachelors-degree/523566/

Share on Facebook

The Future of Learning and How It Could Change Your Classroom

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

by Dan, Beth, and Beckie, Chronicle of Higher Ed

If you want more students to succeed, particularly at a time when more disadvantaged students are coming into higher education, then you need to be more deliberate in figuring out what works and trying to bring it to scale. One person described it to me by saying that the artisanal approach to teaching isn’t going to work anymore. I don’t think that means we’re going to have a bunch of robots teaching students, though. Professors should expect measurement and data and analytics to only increase (at least for those who don’t teach at small colleges). It also means they need to advocate collectively for more support to help them do their jobs better. There’s a big disconnect between what academic leaders say they want to do to support student success and what is actually offered to encourage better teaching. In my report, I really hit that point hard — don’t assume your faculty is technophobic or resistant to change. Their concerns are real, and you should pay attention to what they need.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Future-of-LearningHow/243437

Share on Facebook

May 27, 2018

Will Google Duplex Evolve Into a Virtual Teaching Assistant?

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

by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Once we get over Google’s boneheaded failure to clearly indicate that the calls were originating from a computer, can we take a step back and try to think about the implications of this technology? What Google is demonstrating with Duplex is the ability of AI (artificial intelligence) to have conversations.  Right now, these conversations are limited.  Duplex will be able to call and make a dinner reservation or a styling appointment, but it is not clear what else the technology will be able to do. The current generation of personal digital voice assistants – Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana – are just not all that useful.  They seem like a technology in search of a problem to solve.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/will-google-duplex-evolve-virtual-teaching-assistant

Share on Facebook

Don’t know the graduate next to you? You’re not alone. One-third of students take at least one class online.

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

By Jeffrey J. Selingo, Washington Post
Two decades ago, when I was a student in a part-time master’s degree program at Johns Hopkins University, I would hurry from my office twice a week to make class, hoping like many of my classmates for a few minutes to grab coffee and a bite to eat before settling in for the 2 1/2-hour seminars.  Next week, when I address the graduating class of the same school, most of them will probably be meeting face to face for the first time at commencement: Seventy percent of this year’s graduates earned their master’s degrees online.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/05/17/dont-know-the-graduate-next-to-you-youre-not-alone-one-third-of-students-take-at-least-one-class-online/?noredirect=on

Share on Facebook

What is machine learning? Everything you need to know

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

by Nick Heath, ZDNet

At a very high level, machine learning is the process of teaching a computer system how to make accurate predictions when fed data. Those predictions could be answering whether a piece of fruit in a photo is a banana or an apple, spotting people crossing the road in front of a self-driving car, whether the use of the word book in a sentence relates to a paperback or a hotel reservation, whether an email is spam, or recognizing speech accurately enough to generate captions for a YouTube video. The key difference from traditional computer software is that a human developer hasn’t written code that instructs the system how to tell the difference between the banana and the apple.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-machine-learning-everything-you-need-to-know/

Share on Facebook

May 26, 2018

Using Collaborative Crowdsourcing to Give Voice to Diverse Communities: A crowdsourcing tool helped create a safe place for sensitive discussions on diversity and inclusion at NYU

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

By Dennis Di Lorenzo, Campus Technology

Universities face many critical challenges — student retention, campus safety, curriculum development priorities, alumni engagement and fundraising, and inclusion of diverse populations. In my role as dean of the New York University School of Professional Studies (NYUSPS) for the past four years, and in my prior 20 years of employment in senior-level positions within the school and at NYU, I have become intimately familiar with the complexities and the nuances of such multifaceted challenges.  For the past two years, one of our top priorities at NYUSPS has been striving to address sensitive issues regarding diversity and inclusion.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/04/26/using-collaborative-crowdsourcing-to-give-voice-to-diverse-communities.aspx

Share on Facebook

Changes planned at Aberdeen’s University Center

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

by Allan Vought, the Aegis

anagement of the University Center, a multi-disciplinary educational, training and technology development campus in Aberdeen, is expected to change in the coming months, according to the Harford County government, which owns the facility. A spokesperson for the county government declined to release details on the expected change, saying not all of the details have been finalized. “We are looking forward to an exciting announcement about a technology transfer opportunity in partnership with Aberdeen Proving Ground, defense contractors and partners in academia,” Cindy Mumby, county director of governmental and community relations, said.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aegis/ph-ag-university-center-changes-20180427-story.html

Share on Facebook

Using Google to Maximize Student Organization and Productivity

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

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

In recent years, Google has positioned itself as a powerful presence in the educational sector. Since an increasing number of students are using Chromebooks and other Google products, it makes sense to select organization and productivity tools from Google to ensure compatibility. Here are four ideas for using Google to maximize student organization and productivity:

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/using-google-to-maximize-student-organization-and-productivity/

Share on Facebook

May 25, 2018

Washington Governors U leader aims to double student enrollment

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

by Katherine Long, The Seattle Times
Seven years after it created an affiliate in this state, an online, competency-based national university started by a group of western governors is getting its largest share of enrollment from Washington. Western Governors University has enrolled more than 11,000 Washington students this academic year, and graduated its largest class of residents of this state — 3,000 students — last month. That’s the largest enrollment from any state in the country, said the new chancellor of the WGU Washington affiliate, Tonya Drake. She believes it’s growing in Washington because WGU has done a good job of getting the word out in this state.

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/education/state-wgu-leader-aims-to-double-student-enrollment/article_e873264a-51fc-11e8-84f4-43badd69c60b.html

Share on Facebook

20 skills that are quickly gaining traction in the freelance job market — and the online courses to learn them

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

by Maria Leighton, Business Insider

Freelancing is a competitive field, and without face-to-face interactions, it can be disproportionately difficult to discern what employers want from you. Upwork, the world’s largest freelancing site, compiled a list of the 20 fastest-growing skills in the freelance job market in 2018. Below are the 20 top skills accompanied by online courses you can take to develop and demonstrate your ability.

http://www.businessinsider.com/best-freelance-skills-to-get-jobs-upwork-2018

Share on Facebook

Indications that EdTech May Not Be a Strategic Investment

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

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

The edtech market has seen rapid growth over the past decade, but is edtech actually a good investment? On the one hand, the rapid growth in some areas of the edtech market suggests that it is a strong investment option. The coding academy market, for example, has seen over 900% growth since it first appeared around 2011. Many MOOC and LMS companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and Instructure also continue to perform well. On the other hand, there are signs that edtech may not offer returns high enough to ultimately attract and hold the interest of big investors. On this account, two recent events are especially alarming.

Indications that EdTech May Not Be a Strategic Investment

Share on Facebook
Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress