Educational Technology

by Jacob Asch, Cavalier Daily

Arriving to college for the first time can be very difficult. There are so many things on the to-do list, ranging from what to bring with you to what extracurriculars you plan to join. Keeping it all straight can be daunting, and thankfully there are several online resources dedicated to helping students navigate these aspects of college. However, I believe new students need to be aware of sites that can help them get through what is in my opinion the most stressful part of attending college — choosing courses for the first time. I was completely lost when I was supposed to be choosing courses until someone explained many of these online services to me, so to ease the transition to college life new students must be made aware of these online resources before they arrive to Grounds.

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2018/07/asch-utilize-online-resources-when-selecting-classes

by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office

The first students to graduate from MIT’s cutting-edge “hybrid” master’s program, which combines a year’s worth of online learning through its MicroMasters program with one semester on campus to earn a full MIT master’s degree, have not only met all expectations, they ended up performing as well as and being virtually indistinguishable from traditional students in their overall performance. There was some initial trepidation among the MIT faculty, recalls Yossi Sheffi, the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, and director of the master’s program in supply chain management. People wondered, “Will they be as good?” as the traditional students, he says. Now that the first blended class has completed the program, “The answer is they are as good and, in many cases, even better!” he says.

http://news.mit.edu/2018/first-class-excels-hybrid-micromasters-masters-program-0713

By Jim Goodell, EdSurge

In his latest EdSurge column, Michael Horn laid out how Google Maps offers an aspirational metaphor for what the future of educational tools could look like. But as he also noted, locating where people are geographically is one thing; pinpointing where they are educationally is another. Today, Google Maps is an open ecosystem for accurate, real-time geospatial and navigation data. Unfortunately, current learner navigation systems more closely resemble the early, self-contained GPS devices with incomplete and inaccurate maps.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-07-14-turning-google-maps-for-education-from-metaphor-to-reality

By Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed

The share of women in many science and technology fields has increased dramatically in the last generation — in some cases reaching parity with men. But women’s gains have lagged in computer science, some technology fields and in the businesses where many of the graduates of those programs aspire to work. A new book says that both colleges and businesses can do better. Failing to improve, the book argues, means wasting talent that could promote innovation in both academe and industry. The book is The Future of Tech Is Female: How to Achieve Gender Diversity (New York University Press). The author is Douglas M. Branson, the W. Edward Sell Chair in Law at the University of Pittsburgh.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/07/17/author-discusses-his-new-book-about-women-tech-industry-and-engineering-education

By Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed
A large-scale study at the University of Georgia has found that college students provided with free course materials at the beginning of a class get significantly better academic results than those that do not. The Georgia study, published this week, compared the final grades of students enrolled in eight large undergraduate courses between 2010 and 2016. Each of these courses was taught by a professor who switched from a commercial textbook costing $100 or more to a free digital textbook, or open educational resource, at some point during that six-year period.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/07/16/measuring-impact-oer-university-georgia

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

I read lots of nonfiction. Unless these books are about higher education, higher education is unlikely to be mentioned. The Efficiency Paradox is different. Higher education plays a starring role. This is one of the first books written by someone who works primarily outside of academia that gets at a fundamental truth about higher education right. That fundamental truth is that technology to advance learning can be great, as long as that technology is a complement – and not a substitute – for a well-trained and fully-supported educator. In short, nothing matters more than the professor.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/how-efficiency-paradox-gets-edtech-right

By James Paterson, Education Dive
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed that state’s universities to continue policies that promote diversity despite the Trump administration ruling that institutions don’t have to consider race in admissions decisions, according to the Northeast Public Radio. Cuomo asked the chairmen of the boards of trustees for City University of New York and the State University of New York by mid-August to report on how they will further increase diversity on their campuses.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/new-york-to-resist-trump-rollback-of-affirmative-action-in-college-admissio/527722/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The top three tech companies, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet (the parent company of Google) have been battling for first position as the most valuable tech provider in education. In the first quarter of 2018, Amazon surpassed Alphabet/Google sales and came in at second place, just behind Apple. Amazon, under the direction of Jeff Bezos, isn’t stopping there. Amazon’s digital advertising alone has seen a 2.7% growth rate, which is nearly five times what it was the prior year. Amazon has proven itself to be a heavyweight when it comes to fighting for prominence in technology, but can Amazon overtake Google in the education market? Edtech companies know they can rake in large amounts of revenue if they can corner the education market by providing hardware, applications, and cloud storage.

Can Amazon Overtake Google in the Education Market?

by Stephanie Glass, My San Antonio

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping society as we know it in both business and consumer realms. Early use cases with Alexa, autonomous vehicles and AI-driven supply chains provide just a glimpse of the disruption that AI is poised to deliver in the near future and for years to come. Yet despite all the AI hype and initial successes, it remains in its infancy. That makes now the ideal time for young people to build the knowledge, skill sets and connections they need to capitalize on the fast-growing market for AI jobs and build a strong AI career.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/The-Sooner-You-Get-Your-First-AI-Job-the-Better-13065882.php

According to a new study by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, women made up only 7.3 percent of apprentices in 2017. That share is up by just 1.1 percent since 2008, even though apprenticeships have started to expand beyond traditionally male professions such as construction into fields such as IT and early childhood education. Apprentices earn a wage while gaining skills. But that wage tends to be considerably lower for female apprentices than males, according to the study. Women were earning a median of $11.49 an hour at the time they completed apprenticeships, compared to $27.25 for men. Female apprentices in male-dominated professions were paid less; meanwhile, apprenticeship programs in industries dominated by women, like child care, paid far less than ones in traditionally male fields.

Where are all the women apprentices?

by Institute for Research in Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania

The College Opportunity Risk Assessment is the first state-by-state analytic tool to consider the breadth of the policy landscape that must be navigated to ensure future educational opportunity. All states face risks to college opportunity, but each state faces different types and levels of risk within their diverse economic and social realities. To guide state policy makers in mitigating these risks, we offer individual state risk assessments based on four interrelated risk categories—higher education performance, educational equity, public funding and productivity, and economic policies that influence public revenue and budgeting.

https://irhe.gse.upenn.edu/College-Opportunity-at-Risk

by Lauren Bauer, Audrey Breitwieser, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh; Brookings

Educational and occupational choices matter for your earnings, but where you work matters, too. Employment opportunities and wages in some occupations vary substantially from state to state, county to county, and city to city. One location might be a great place to earn a living as a nurse but not as a construction worker (e.g., New Orleans, Louisiana), while a different location might be the opposite (e.g., Utica, New York). Does it make sense for people starting or advancing their careers to move? And if it does, to where should they move?

Editor’s Note: An interactive tool accompanies this economic analysis, allowing users to see the distribution of annual earnings across the United States for a given occupation and age group, adjusting for cost of living and taxes.

Where work pays: How does where you live matter for your earnings?

by Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

While the number of students has been rising, however, so has the proportion who begin as full-time freshmen but fail to come back for a second year. Fifty-five percent who started in 2015 were gone by the following year, the most recent period for which the figures are available, according to U.S. Department of Education data analyzed by The Hechinger Report. That’s up from 44 percent two years before.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/07/05/more-high-school-grads-ever-are-going-college-1-5-will-quit/

EdX.org has announced the results of a survey of 1,000 consumers ages 25 – 44 around trends related to career transformations. The survey found that 32 percent of respondents have considered making a career change at some point within the past year, and 29 percent of respondents have completely changed fields since starting their first job post college. The chief drivers of these continuous shifts are a desire for salary increase (39 percent) or interest in another field (21 percent). EdX commissioned the survey in order to further identify the types of challenges faced by learners, specifically as they look to change industries, in an effort to provide optimized access to quality, career-relevant education to all.  The workplace is changing more rapidly than ever before and employers are in need of highly-skilled talent. Faced with this ever-changing workplace, candidates seeking to change or advance their careers are tasked with gaining the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. In addition, many of these in-demand fields are so newly emerging that they do not map back to traditional fields of study — according to edX’s survey findings, only a fifth of respondents consider their education from their college major to be translatable to their current field.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180710005238/en/EdX-Survey-Finds-13-Americans-Ages-25

By Mary Catherine Brooks, WYOMING COUNTY

Wyoming County Schools officials are revamping school libraries, installing more computers and new furniture. The new “digital learning centers” will provide more learning experiences for students. With current technology, students have an immeasurable amount of information and experiences at their fingertips, Deirdre Cline, county schools superintendent, told board of education members during their June 28 meeting. While there will always be books in the library, officials want to make certain students also have access to the wealth of information and other experiences available through technology. Through WV Virtual School, students will be able to take online classes that are not available at the high schools, Robin Hall, assistant superintendent, said.

http://www.wycoreport.com/news/local_news/school-libraries-becoming-digital-learning-centers/article_5305a4e6-8322-11e8-b1d3-df8831b68573.html

By: Melissa Wehler, Faculty Focus

I was still dealing with the real issues of isolation, fear, and frustration that results in students leaving their online courses. To combat these feelings, professors—myself included—have to deliberately, consistently, and relentlessly work to build student-faculty and student-student relationships in online courses. As educators, we know that building community in the online environment increases the likelihood of student success. Finding ways to concretize something as ephemeral as “a sense of belonging” can be difficult; however, here are five places where you can start.

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-ways-to-build-community-in-online-classrooms/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
What do students want in the learning activities for their online STEM courses? They’d prefer more real-life problems to solve and instructional resources such as simulations, case studies, videos and demonstrations. They’d also like the chance to meet and collaborate with other students as well as teaching assistants online. Finally, they’d appreciate clear and consistent information from instructors about instructions, assignments, assessments, due dates, course pages and office hours. That’s what a research project found when it queried 537 students from 15 online STEM courses within a large, four-year public university in the southeast during spring 2016. A third of the students (36 percent) came from the college of engineering and computer science; other large groups included science majors (14 percent) and those pursuing degrees in the college of health and public affairs (11 percent). The study was done by three researchers from the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/07/09/online-stem-courses-need-more-real-world-interactivity.aspx

by Kevin Parish, Digital Trends

Among the list of devices, services and networks on the menu are multiple government systems on sale worldwide, including those linked to the United States. The team found connections to a variety of healthcare institutions including medical equipment shops, hospitals, and more. They even found access to security and building automation systems at a major international airport selling for a mere $10. The problem doesn’t just revolve around desktops, laptops, and servers. Internet of Things devices based on Windows Embedded are also on the menu such as point-of-sale systems, kiosks, parking meters, thin client PCs and more. Many are overlooked and not updated, making them a quiet entryway for hackers.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/mcafee-hackers-buy-remote-desktop-access-dark-web/

By David Nagel, THE Journal
Microsoft is expanding its line of Surface devices with the Surface Go, a $399 version of the popular tablet/laptop. Schools deploying Surface Go will have the option of running either Windows 10 Home in S mode or Windows 10 Pro. Microsoft is expanding its line of Surface devices with the Surface Go, a $399 version of the popular tablet/laptop. Schools deploying Surface Go will have the option of running either Windows 10 Home in S mode or Windows 10 Pro. The Surface Go is the latest generation Surface device, offering a 10-inch (3:2) touchscreen with pressure-sensitive stylus support. It runs on the seventh-generation Intel Pentium Gold Processor (4415Y).

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/07/10/microsoft-launching-399-surface-go-device-for-schools.aspx

BY COLIN WOOD, eSchool News

Put simply, to shift the quality of learning in schools, we need to better support teachers with evidence of learning so they can focus their effort on doing the things that work really well for every learner in the room.

Teachers report that when they look at professional learning, they ask three questions:

1. What am I learning?
2. How will I apply it in class?
3. What impact will it have on every student in the room?

If we can give teachers visibility on those three things, they’ll start to own their professional learning activities and how they practice their craft. Here are four ways that districts can replace traditional sit-and-get professional development (PD) with on-demand and personalized delivery of high-impact teaching strategies (HITS).

4 ways to make high-impact teaching a reality

BY MEREDITH HOOVER, eSchool News
We’re building a love for STEM with virtual robotics and coding camps that get students excited; here are 5 steps to get your school going in the right direction. It never ceases to amaze me when I see a middle school student excelling at virtual robot simulations, a seventh grader using computer code to solve a STEM problem, or an eighth-grade robotics team brainstorming ideas and then developing a full-blown operating robot. Even these tiniest victories go a long way, with students getting hands-on with advanced technologies and then taking that experience to college and/or out into the workforce.

How to start a virtual coding boot camp in five easy steps