Educational Technology

The latest attack is from Gov. Tony Evers’ appointed successor at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Carolyn Stanford Taylor, who is refusing to allow private schools in the choice programs to count online (“virtual”) learning toward annual class-time requirements. She is doing so even though DPI has permitted public schools to use virtual learning for a variety of reasons, including to make up for class cancellations caused by Wisconsin’s winter weather.

https://madison.com/wsj/opinion/column/cj-szafir-and-libby-sobic-dpi-should-let-all-schools/article_9359b978-116f-51a1-bb56-ce5e90d8839e.html

Danny Palmer, ZDNet

The Triton malware attack was far from the first time that hackers have attempted to target the networks of an industrial facility, but it was the first time that malware designed to attack safety systems was ever seen in the wild. The malware was designed to manipulate Schneider Electric’s Triconex Safety Instrumented System (SIS) controllers – emergency shutdown systems – and was uncovered on the network at a critical infrastructure operator in the Middle East. The malware campaign was extremely stealthy and was only uncovered because the attackers made a mistake and triggered the safety system, shutting down the plant. The outcome could’ve been much worse.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/cybersecurity-the-key-lessons-of-the-triton-malware-cyberattack-you-need-to-learn/

By Beth Humbred Scott Latham, Honolulu Civil Beat

Millions of today’s jobs are expected to be affected by artificial intelligence and automation as part of the “fourth industrial revolution.” But just which occupations are most at risk has been a guessing game among economists, futurists and scholars trying to predict winners and losers. As experts on workers’ identities and careers and industry and technological change, we developed a new tool we believe will help workers more accurately determine the fate of their professions – and figure out how best to prepare.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/04/how-you-can-tell-if-you-might-get-replaced-by-a-robot/

Andrew Kreighbaum, Inside Higher Ed

Career and technical education, which was once known as vocational training, has shed some of that stigma thanks in part to growth of new fields in communications, health care and engineering. CTE programs also have created clearer connections between skills training and continued postsecondary education. And supporters have pointed to both improving test scores and graduation rates among CTE students in high schools. But a report from the American Enterprise Institute released today finds that those signs of progress can mask continuing struggles of students who are enrolled in more traditional career and technical education courses. That’s because overall academic gains for CTE programs may reflect higher enrollment of more academically prepared, college-bound students rather than improving quality of courses themselves.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/05/01/emerging-career-education-tracks-may-mask-struggles-students-traditional-programs

Marc Fischer, Entrepreneur

Research firm Korn Ferry predicted that companies in technology, media and telecom will face a talent shortage of 1.1 million by 2020. By 2030, that number will grow to 4.3 million, the report said; and the result will be intense competition for a dwindling pool of tech professionals. The same survey showed that insufficient staff is already holding back digital transformation at 54 percent of companies surveyed. Skilled coders, of course, won’t materialize out of thin air. So, instead of hoping that traditional recruiting tactics will solve their mounting talent shortage, companies should consider a new approach — one that looks for alternatives to the human talent companies will always need but may have to struggle mightily to find. That approach: artificial intelligence.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/332896

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
Austin Community College in Texas is expanding its use of open educational resources (OER) in a big way. The school is working on developing a zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) business degree, and last fall, the school launched two “Z-degree” programs: an associate of science in general studies and an associate of arts in general studies. Each program offers a ZTC pathway, which saves students about $2,000 in textbook costs over the duration of the program, according to the college.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/04/29/austin-cc-expands-zero-textbook-cost-degrees.aspx

BY ELLEN ULLMAN, eCampus News
eCampus News recently spoke with Matthew Glotzbach, chief executive officer of Quizlet—the mega-popular site that offers tools for students to make study sets that can be used for flashcards, learning activities, and games—about how higher-ed leaders can better prepare students to enter the workforce.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/04/29/how-can-higher-ed-better-prepare-students-to-enter-the-workforce/

BY STACEY ROSHAN, eSchool News
If you want to make students know how important they are, use tech to personalize learning.  My biggest goal as a teacher is to make every one of my students know how important they are and how invested I am in their learning and well-being. I want students to enjoy learning and to walk out of my classroom with a new level of confidence. Technology allows me to do this because it lets me bring a whole new level of compassion to my teaching. Here are three ways I use technology to personalize learning for all of my students.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/04/29/tech-can-humanize-learning/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Kyle Berger, chief technology officer for Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District in Texas started his school system’s parent technology academy last school year when he realized the extent of the disconnect between district parents in regards to technology and “the world their kids were living in.” Any time he ran into a parent, it wasn’t uncommon for him to be pelted for advice on how best to filter a student’s personal phone, what he thought about a specific app, or what kind of computer the child should have at home.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2019/04/23/helping-parents-learn-tech-too.aspx

Blake Droesch, eMarketer
Fewer people in the US are accessing social networking sites via computers, with the majority of users now exclusively on mobile devices. We forecast that 51.7% of US social network users will be mobile-only in 2019. As smartphone use grows, fewer Americans are using desktops and laptops to access the internet. The number of US smartphone users will reach 232.8 million in 2019, surpassing desktop/laptop internet users (228.9 million) for the first time. And the number of those who access the internet exclusively on a mobile device will grow by 10.6%, reaching 55.1 million users.

https://www.emarketer.com/content/more-than-half-of-social-network-users-will-be-mobile-only-in-2019?ecid=NL1001

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Now, human beings are in the process of building machines that will eventually act autonomously and with human-like intelligence. In order to achieve this aim, we need machines to, like infants, learn about the world around them on their own. With machine learning, programmers don’t create step-by-step rules for machines to follow. They allow machines to learn and come to conclusions on their own. With this approach, machines gather information on their own and in the process they become more accomplished.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-machine-learning-is-helping-us-to-understand-the-brain/

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The world is drowning in data. We are creating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. That is 2.5 followed by 18 zeros!  A university executive resolution, for example, is the culmination of many discussions in meetings, countless emails and many revisions before the final decision. The eventual resolution is one data point, but it’s accompanied by so much unstructured data. Through cognitive computing’s ability to discover patterns, meaning can be derived from unstructured data. These patterns are invaluable for insights and decision-making, but they are not obvious. They can only be revealed by cognitive computing through machine learning algorithms.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/taming-big-data-in-education-with-cognitive-computing/

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
The latest Educause Horizon report names six major barriers to the innovation, adoption or scale of technology in higher education.  Improving digital fluency, the evolving roles of faculty and advancing digital equity are among the most significant challenges slowing technology adoption in higher education. That’s according to the latest Educause Horizon Report, an analysis of the trends and technology developments that are likely to impact higher ed in the short-, mid- and long-term future. After releasing a preview in February, the higher education IT association announced the full version of the report today.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/04/24/6-big-challenges-impeding-technology-adoption-in-higher-ed.aspx

Stacey Pusey, EdScoop

But a recent report on K-12 broadband access published by the State Educational Technology Directors Association indicates that while most states have coordinated efforts underway to support schools, the strategies used and ultimate results for students can vary. In a recent webinar hosted by edWeb.net, SETDA’s deputy director, Christine Fox, offered highlights from the report, while Ryan Kocsondy, director of the Connecticut Education Network, explained why Connecticut schools don’t need to worry about running out of bandwidth.

https://edscoop.com/one-way-or-another-schools-are-connecting-their-students-to-broadband/

Jennifer Lewington, MacLeans

Web-enhanced teaching, as illustrated by the Queen’s psychology class, is growing in popularity as a tool to enrich the undergraduate learning experience and create new degree options for working professionals. But some experts say higher education institutions need to quicken the pace of digital innovation. “There is momentum, but not fast enough for the needs of either the workforce or society in general,” warns Tony Bates, a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University and a widely recognized authority on technology-enhanced education.

https://www.macleans.ca/education/why-are-canadian-universities-so-slow-to-adopt-digital-learning/

School CEO says college will get a new name to reflect its mission.
LARRY GORDON, EdSource
Heather Hiles, the first president and CEO of California’s online community college. Even before it debuts its first classes in the fall, the California Online Community College will get a new name, says its president and CEO Heather Hiles. That’s because the school’s title needs to better reflect its goal of offering in-person as well as online job training for adults and to let the public know “what you are talking about,” she said. “The mission is to help people who are underemployed get fully employed. And to use whatever technology and resources are required to make that mandate a reality,” said Hiles, who started in February as the college’s president and CEO .

https://edsource.org/2019/californias-newest-college-will-blend-online-and-face-to-face-job-training/611498

Anya Kamanetz, NPR
NPR/Ipsos conducted a national poll recently and found that more than 8 in 10 teachers — and a similar majority of parents — support teaching kids about climate change. But in reality, it’s not always happening: Fewer than half of K-12 teachers told us that they talk about climate change with their children or students. Again, parents were about the same. The top reason that teachers gave in our poll for not covering climate change? “It’s not related to the subjects I teach,” 65% said.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/716359470/eight-ways-to-teach-climate-change-in-almost-any-classroom

by Michelle Rakoczy, EDUCAUSE Review
Information technology in higher education is under a state of constant change. IT staff need to be able to maintain and grow their technical skills, but what about their overall professional growth? The latest report from the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research—The Higher Education IT Workforce Landscape, 2019—shows that for job success, technical staff also need “Business skills such as effective communication and the ability to manage relationships within the institution.” Many technical staff want to continually grow and for that growth to be recognized, and promotion is one way to achieve that recognition. However, many staff do not understand the organizational process for achieving a promotion. According to the report, “Promoting employees internally results in better performance evaluations, with employees staying in their position longer than external hires.” Given how difficult it can be to recruit many IT positions, retention is very important in higher education.

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2019/4/providing-a-clear-path-to-advancement-for-it-staff

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Cognitive computing does not imply computers that can think independently like humans. Rather the technology involves computers that can analyze vast amounts of information and learn from their analyses. Through pattern recognition, machine learning algorithms can extract relevant information from massive collections of data, including unstructured data, such as emails, photos or natural speech. A cognitive computing system can spot patterns in data, interpret them and extract meaning from them. This ability can then be exploited by humans to aid them in solving challenging problems and making decisions.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/reinvent-your-school-with-cognitive-computing/

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to capture, aggregate, and analyze data from several different sources to build a student learning profile. In the past, the only way to measure what students have learned was through tests, written and oral exams and assignments. However, these methods ignore much of what a student has assimilated over the years. Over the course of many years of learning a student produces a huge amount of output in the form of assignments, class tests, and classroom participation that gets forgotten or lost in subsequent terms. But AI forgets nothing. AI will analyse and store all this and more information, including seemingly irrelevant information to form a complete picture of the student as a learner: how and with what learning material they engage successfully as well as what material they struggle with.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/using-ai-to-personalize-education-for-everyone/

EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is proud to continue the tradition of excellence begun by the New Media Consortium’s (NMC) work on the Horizon Report. The report serves as a reference and technology planning guide for educators, higher education leaders, administrators, policy makers, and technologists.  Topics include: Analytics Artificial Intelligence (AI) Badges and Credentialing Blended Learning Blockchain Competency-based Education (CBE) Digital Learning Digital Literacy Extended Reality (XR) Innovation Institutional Management Instructional Design Instructional Technologies Learning Analytics Learning Space Mobile Learning New Models

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/4/2019-horizon-report