Educational Technology

by Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Education: Digital Learning

MIT, once again, has taken a huge step toward further embedding technology into our lives. In this case, it is giving voice to thoughts, speech to the speechless and opening the door to telepathy. The technology, named “AlterEgo,” generates digital signals to unvoiced thoughts. One wears a tiny, spare, flexible frame that contains between 4 and 16 tiny electrodes to pick up non-vocalized speech – such as when one reads text or deliberately thinks articulated thoughts. It transforms these brain pulses into digital transmissions. What are the potential implications for teaching and learning? As with most technologies, there are both the good aspects and the challenging.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/05/23/how-might-new-technology-enabling-communication-between-human-and

by Jeanne Croteau, Forbes

I’m an adjunct professor at an online university and I absolutely love my job. Although, I used to work in a college classroom, I made the transition because I believe we all deserve more flexible options for working and getting an education. On a regular basis, I hear comments and get questions about how my job differs from those who teach in a traditional, brick-and-mortar school. Now that it’s Teacher Appreciation Week, I can’t help but reflect on those differences. Here’s a nod to my fellow online teachers who are on the front lines of this ever-changing educational landscape.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannecroteau/2018/05/08/for-my-fellow-online-teachers-during-teacher-appreciation-week/

By David Gewirtz, ZD Net

Google’s new Duplex AI sounds human, with stammers, pauses, and all. It could be a useful addition to Google Assistant or the harbinger of something much more dark and worrisome. Two years before his death, Turing was thinking about the relationship between human and computer intelligence. Today, that concept is part of everyday life, as AI permeates everything from GPS to video games to the behavior of apps on our phones. Back then, the idea that a device the size of a house designed to break codes could, someday, imitate human intelligence was about as far thinking as you could get. Turing not only understood and pioneered the idea of AI, but created some metrics by which we could judge whether we’d actually gotten to the point where AI was intelligent.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-duplex-beat-the-turing-test-are-we-doomed/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Higher-ed leaders are increasingly focused on institutional analytics, despite challenges associated with implementing enterprise-wide programs, according to a new Ellucian survey of 200 college presidents, provosts, CFOs, CTOs, and CIOs. Fifty-eight percent of surveyed leaders say institutional analytics that improve operational efficiency are of greater priority than learning analytics that will improve student outcomes, according to What Will It Take to Build an Analytics-Driven Campus? Analytics priorities seem to differ by role, with presidents, CFOs, and CIOs focusing on improved learning outcomes; provosts are focused on improved retention and completion; and CTOs are concerned with improved operational efficiency.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/ed-tech-leadership/hed-analytics-program/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

But wise teachers realize that it is worth the effort to ensure that their students view edtech not just as something that will enhance their own career prospects, but also as a platform that they can use to improve the world. Here are four suggestions for using edtech to change the world: First, epals is a website that can be used to connect your classroom to other classes around the globe. Virtually any activity that engages a classroom with another one in radically different circumstances will lay the foundation for the global mindset that students will need to work for social good. But certain projects designed specifically to expose students to struggles faced by others will do even more to open their eyes to global disparities. For example, a class that learns that their epals can’t gather for a political demonstration or don’t have reliable electricity will learn a valuable lesson.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/leveraging-edtech-for-social-good/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Digital learning is becoming almost commonplace in classrooms across America; however, you will still come across opposition. While studies suggest digital learning is changing education for the better, it does not mean that digital learning is without problems. Ask any teacher who has ever attempted to use technology or digital resources in his or her classroom, and you will be told about a time when technology let them down. And, yet, even with the digital learning challenges teachers face, most are willing to deal with them to make their classroom a digital learning environment. Today, let’s take some time to look at some of the more common digital learning challenges and discuss ways to overcome them.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-to-overcome-10-digital-learning-challenges/

By Cait Etherington

It is a widely known fact that in tech, the vast majority of employees in tech and leadership roles are still White and male. An April 2018 article posted on Recode reported that at Microsoft, Intel, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google, Black employees across genders represent less than 5% of the workforce and Latinx employees represent less than 10% of the workforce. In leadership and tech roles, the numbers are even more dismal. At Google, for example, Black and Latinx employees represent only 2% of the leadership team and only 1 and 3% of tech roles respectively. But does racial diversity in edtech reflect the numbers in the tech sector at large?

Racial Diversity in EdTech: Little Data Available and A Lot of Work Ahead

by Foster Kamer, Futurism

As if the point needs belaboring, but sure: The future of technology, no matter how far down the line you trace it, will inevitably run into A.I. at some point. So it’s fitting — if not overdue — that an established, esteemed American university would offer up an undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence. And that school is Carnegie Mellon University, of course. Per the MIT Tech Review, the program will be run out of the college’s School of Computer Science. It’ll involve the social and ethical impacts of A.I. as much as it will computational learning, along with the technical knowhow to have a decent grasp on what the future of A.I. is going to be, and maybe practical work on some of it, too (as a precursor to joining CMU’s top-flight status as the graduate school for A.I.).

Robot U: The First American A.I. Undergrad Program is Here, and Already Incredibly Elite

by Jackie Chase, Diamondback

The University of Maryland Senate passed a proposal Wednesday to create a post-baccalaureate certificate in integrated technology in education. The program is meant to teach educators how to best to include technology in K-12 classrooms, according to the proposal. The teaching and learning, policy and leadership department proposed the 12-credit program to the senate on Feb. 20. It passed by a vote of 92-3. If university President Wallace Loh approves the proposal, it will be sent to University System of Maryland Chancellor Robert Caret and the Maryland Higher Education Commission for approval. The goal is to have the program available for summer 2019, said Helene Cohen, the Office of Innovative Technology and Partnerships’ executive director.

http://www.dbknews.com/2018/05/10/umd-senate-integrated-technology-education-teachers-post-baccalaureate-program/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

3D printing has created many exciting activities for the classroom, and teachers are itching to get their hands on one. And, who can blame them? 3D printers allow teachers to bring lessons to life in a way that students can see. Plus, kids love them! Even better, they are now much more affordable than when they first hit the market making it possible for schools to purchase them for makerspaces or individual classrooms.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/best-3d-printers-for-the-k-12-classroom/

by California Competes

Transparency in public education is critical to making sound investments and serving students on the path from K-12 to college to the workforce. Currently, transparency in California ends when a student graduates from high school. Forty-three states have or are developing statewide systems to link K-12 data with postsecondary data, and 33 link education data to workforce data; California is on neither list, one of six states in the nation with no statewide, integrated education data system (Figure 1).

http://californiacompetes.org/assets/general-files/CACompetes_Data-System-Brief_Final.pdf

by Julie Strawn and Deena Schwartz, ABT
The rapid rise of career pathways strategies, including an emphasis on them in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), creates a need for more evidence on this approach. Although substantial career pathways research is in progress, more research is needed to enhance the field’s knowledge about career pathways strategies, how best to configure them, and their long-term effects. To inform future research on career pathways approaches, the U.S. Department of Labor’s(DOL) Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Abt Associates to understand the state of the field and develop evaluation design options. Abt conducted knowledge development by scanning career pathways studies and initiatives implemented as of February 2017 and consulting with 44 experts, then created a menu of evaluation design optionsto answer priority research questions. This brief gives a short overview of the project’s four reports

http://www.abtassociates.com/AbtAssociates/files/d9/d988d67a-9fa3-40c5-93d9-0a579fd76330.pdf

by Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
With declining enrollment and rising tuition rates, colleges and universities have had to step outside the box in search of business strategies that help them stay ahead of the market shifts. A new report from Grant Thornton looks into the state of higher education and points out some of the most common trends impacting the industry, as well as strategies institutions have implemented to stand out. Among the key trends, the report points out that developing the

https://www.educationdive.com/news/5-strategies-for-successful-institutional-growth/

by Susan Bartel, Maryville University in Education Dive

Most of the leadership research has been focused on men. As a consequence, women have been judged against the standard of male behaviors and characteristics for strong leadership, even though leadership is consistently failing. Gender bias and role incongruity still exist, even in more contemporary studies of leadership. Women continue to struggle with the challenge of balancing two roles: being a strong leader and perceptions of what it means to be female. If higher education wants to be stronger and innovative in this ever-changing world, then it needs to do a better job of integrating and appreciating what both men and women bring to the leadership table.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/pushing-for-gender-equality-in-higher-ed-leadership/

by Ian Nickens, KOMU

Adult classes at Columbia College are now going to cost just one fee for courses, and that fee covers everything. Starting in the 2018 fall semester, evening and online undergraduate students will only pay $375 per credit hour for classes, and that includes books. “We found a way to essentially negotiate in bulk with the publishers,” said Columbia College President Scott Dalrymple. “The college itself is buying the textbooks and we’re passing those savings along to the students.” Columbia College calls this new way of charging tuition “Truition.” The program is meant to give students who are also balancing a job an easier way to afford their education. “Truition applies to all the other students we have across the country who are generally coming part-time and for whom fees and books are significant costs and barriers to going to college,” Dalrymple said.

http://www.komu.com/news/columbia-college-is-cutting-tuition-for-adult-students

By Ashley A. Smith, Inside Higher Ed
A new analysis from Civitas Learning shows that many students are dropping out of their colleges despite having earned the majority of the credits they need for their degrees. Civitas found that on average nearly one in five students who leave college without a degree complete 75 percent or more of the credit threshold for a degree before leaving. And one in 10 dropouts has reached at least 90 percent of the credit threshold. The analysis is based on data from 30 two-year and 23 four-year universities that use Civitas student success tools and represent more than 300,000 degree-seeking students.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/05/09/students-close-graduation-may-be-risk-dropping-out

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

First, Chromebooks are substantially less expensive than Apple’s laptops. This offers significant savings to school districts on the hardware side of the equation. And there is usually improved compatibility for other devices that the district or the student might already own.  Second, the one area where even Google fans still chose Apple products was the iPad, particularly for kindergarten through second grade classrooms, where a laptop seemed developmentally inappropriate. However, Google is launching a tablet meant to compete with the iPad and specifically designed for educational uses. Third, Google Classroom is a powerful tool to organize all of a teacher’s digital resources and instructional materials in one easy-to-navigate space.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-google-can-be-a-godsend-for-cash-strapped-districts/

by Colin Wood, StateScoop

A document published this week by Connecticut officials represents one of the strongest cybersecurity plans undertaken by any state. The 41-page document, called simply the Cybersecurity Action Plan, highlights a need for increased security, more cross-sector collaboration, and heightened academic focus to help fill a cybersecurity workforce gap. The plan builds on a cybersecurity strategy proposal last year that called for Connecticut to implement dozens of new programs and policies affecting government offices, law enforcement, higher education and local businesses.

https://statescoop.com/in-a-call-to-arms-connecticut-publishes-cybersecurity-action-plan

BY ALANA DUNAGAN, Campus Technology
The centuries-old model of college is showing signs of strain under today’s turbulent economy.  Washington D.C. is slowly turning its attention to higher education. In December, on a party-line vote, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce released the PROSPER Act, a bill to update the Higher Education Act for the first time since 2008. The Higher Education Act (HEA), first passed in 1965, outlines federal higher education policy, including federal financial aid eligibility, teacher preparation programs, and how the federal government holds colleges accountable. It has also historically been a barrier to innovation in higher education, something that the authors of the PROSPER Act are determined to remedy.

Congress should prioritize innovation in higher ed. Here are 3 ways it can

By Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer

As the largest single spending category for state governments (Medicaid is larger, but the federal government supplies a majority of the money), public education took a particularly large blow from this double whammy of reduced revenues and tax-cut-driven spending cuts. Within the education category, higher education was particularly targeted for cuts, mostly for the simple reason that public colleges and university had the alternative revenue source of raising tuition charges.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/state-support-for-colleges-declines-student-diversity-grows.html

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive
A new study from the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation shows that a majority of Americans look to colleges and universities to drive the nation’s innovation imperatives. According to the survey, 71% of the respondents believe higher education to be a bigger factor in innovation than corporations or government, but they also said that the U.S. is behind other countries in research and development. With a sample size of 1,086 adults representing all 50 states, 61% of participants said that universities play “about the same role they have always played” in the future of innovation, but only 25% said that institutions are “leading the charge more than ever before.”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/poll-americans-look-to-colleges-for-research-innovation/522823/