Educational Technology

David Shrier, Times Higher Ed

Most digital learning today is terrible, resembling “bad television”, as frequent collaborator professor Alex Pentland of MIT puts it. According to a 2019 study, only 3 per cent of students who start an online class finish it. All too often, an “online class” consists of sticking a tripod in the back of a lecture hall, recording a three-hour lecture and posting it online. This is a recipe almost guaranteed to produce failure.What if I could be in 2,000 breakout group discussions simultaneously, nudging students along a more productive path? asks David Shrier.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/how-ai-will-rescue-us-online-learnings-bad-television

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Technology has slowly become a more and more important factor when it comes to education. Many students worldwide have begun using edtech, the internet, and other tools to learn from home and in their own time. Online learning is a relatively new term that has saved the academic year during the Coronavirus pandemic. Many innovative tools and platforms, such as YouTube and Khan Academy, have made this type of education possible. This article will discuss artificial intelligence and the role that technology plays in online learning.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/mixing-and-matching-how-to-blend-online-learning-and-ai/

Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Fewer students started or returned to college last fall — numbers were down half a million below 2019 [1]. In understanding those numbers, we should remember that enrollments have dropped each of the past 10 years. Prospective students have been balancing the prospect of launching a career or at least a full-time salary or putting that aside for college benefits such as greater long-term income, campus social life, maturing and finding the right career. It is, as Michael B. Horn and Bob Moesta suggest, “A Not-so-Tidy Narrative [2].” Nevertheless, as Horn and Moesta point out, “According to the University of California, Los Angeles’s annual survey of freshmen entering four-year colleges and universities, roughly 85 percent say they are going so they can get a job. That is up from roughly two-thirds in the 1970s, although down slightly from its peak in 2012.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/print/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/higher-eds-future-intersection-learners-and-employers

Jireh Deng, Nicole Delgado, Rashida Crutchfield and Stephanie Ibarra, EdSurge

The national numbers for food and housing insecurity demonstrate the very real struggle students have to balance between supporting themselves and working toward a degree. The costs of living and tuition require most students experiencing food and housing insecurity to work while also taking on a full-time course load. For example, the California State University at Long Beach Division of Student Affairs highlighted that 80 percent of their students worked while in school to support their families. Many of the jobs were in the retail and restaurant industries, which typically afford flexible hours to students but have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic closures.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-02-18-it-s-time-to-take-college-student-hunger-and-homelessness-seriously

Boston University

“Half of students in fall 2020 screened positive for depression and/or anxiety,” says Sarah Ketchen Lipson, a Boston University mental health researcher and a co-principal investigator of the nationwide survey published on Februray 11, 2021, which was administered online during the fall 2020 semester through the Healthy Minds Network. The survey further reveals that 83 percent of students said their mental health had negatively impacted their academic performance within the past month, and that two-thirds of college students are struggling with loneliness and feeling isolated — an all-time high prevalence that reflects the toll of the pandemic and the social distancing necessary to control it.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210219190939.htm

Natasha Mascarenhas, Tech Crunch

Now, nearly a year since students were first sent home because of the coronavirus, a cohort of edtech companies is emerging, emboldened with millions in venture capital, ready to take back the market. The new wave of startups are slicing and dicing the same market of students and teachers who are fatigued by Zoom University, which — at best — often looks like a gallery view with a chat bar. Four of the companies that are gaining traction include Class, Engageli, Top Hat and InSpace. It signals a shift from startups playing in the supplemental education space and searching to win a spot in the largest chunk of a students day: the classroom.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/18/edtech-zoom-university/

PBS News Hour

Many states slashed higher education funding last year, fearing the pandemic would torpedo state revenues. The higher education sector, no stranger to steep cuts during economic recessions, braced for further budget reductions in the 2022 fiscal year. But many public higher education officials’ worst fears have not been realized — at least not yet, experts say. Governors’ proposed state budgets are a mixed bag, with several states pushing to increase higher education funding or at least restore last year’s cuts.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/where-states-are-boosting-or-slashing-higher-ed-funding-amid-the-pandemic

Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Four blockchain projects have received funding with the ultimate goal of helping learners take control of their educational records. Each of the projects will receive $150,000 from a competition overseen by the American Council on Education (ACE). The Blockchain Innovation Challenge supports collaborations involving K-12, higher education, technology providers and public agencies, to facilitate more secure, streamlined sharing of learning records and create stronger links between education and work.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/02/11/4-projects-using-blockchain-to-help-learners-document-and-share-educational-records.aspx

Richard West and Jered Borup, EDUCAUSE Review

A set of seven articles discusses the benefits of asynchronous video and provides specific guidance about how to effectively incorporate these tools to improve learning.  Asynchronous video can help address several of the challenges that instructors and students encountered in videoconferencing. Having worked in online teaching for more than a decade, we have used countless tools and have learned important lessons along the way, particularly in the area of asynchronous video. We have also conducted research into the effectiveness of asynchronous video to promote greater online social learning.

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2021/2/the-power-of-asynchronous-video

Jasmine Park and Amelia Vance, EDUCAUSE Review

Many in higher education believe that students who have grown up using digital technologies (“digital natives”) have little concern for the privacy of their data. Research proves otherwise. This is particularly concerning because many in this age group live much of their academic and personal lives online. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that almost all Americans 18 to 24 years old use social media platforms: YouTube (94%), Facebook (80%), Snapchat (78%), Instagram (71%), and Twitter (45%).Footnote2

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/2/data-privacy-in-higher-education-yes-students-care

Richard Doughty, The Guardian

For Prof John Domingue, director of the Open University’s pioneering research and development lab, the Knowledge Media Institute (KMI), the “online genie” is out of the bottle and won’t go back in. So what can universities undertake to make online learning more than just a heavy focus on streaming and recording technology? Domingue points to artificial intelligence (AI) and the concept of an online library for educators based on a Google search engine dedicated to education, and a Netflix-style recommendation tool that tracks down content to suit a lecturer’s own field, based on previous searches.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/feb/16/the-future-of-online-learning-the-long-term-trends-accelerated-by-covid-19

Viet Thanh Nguyen, NY Times

As a college professor, I, too, miss some of the elements of teaching in a classroom, including the intellectual energy that can flow around a seminar table, the performative aspect of lecturing to a large audience and the little chats that take place by happenstance during breaks or after class with students. More important, with my smaller graduate classes of 10 to 20 students, I have noticed little falloff in intellectual quality. Looking at 10 or 20 faces on a screen is manageable, and the experience is a pretty faithful replication of a real-world seminar. Breakout rooms for smaller discussions are simple to arrange, and they lack the cacophony of overheard conversations in live settings. My teaching evaluations have been positive if a little less effusive than usual, perhaps because of the lack of human warmth that being face to face makes possible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/opinion/zoom-video-school-teaching.html

Paul Cowell, World Economic Forum

Five changes made to higher education due to COVID-19 will still be beneficial after the pandemic, according to an expert. These include the introduction of wider digital resources and more creative assessment methods. Students can be regarded as partners to their lecturers, making them more active in learning and giving online feedback. Online teaching can also allow lecturers to tailor activities more specifically to their subject.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/covid-19-pandemic-higher-education-online-resources-students-lecturers-learning-teaching

Riley de León, CNBC
Coursera filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “COUR.” The education tech company saw 59% revenue growth year over year, largely due to a pandemic-induced boom in digital learning. Net losses grew to more than $66 million year over year, according to documents filed with the SEC Friday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/05/coursera-files-for-ipo-amid-online-learning-boom-.html

Darrell M. West, Brookings Institution

The past several decades have seen digital technologies revolutionize a number of different sectors. Advances such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and mobile technology have reshaped the landscape and provided new ways of analyzing information, handling communications, and undertaking financial transactions. Yet 25 years ago, just as the digital era was unfolding, Congress terminated the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that provided legislators with research on new developments and recommendations for dealing with digital problems. At a time when Americans are worried about privacy, security, fairness, transparency, and human safety, it is time to bring back the OTA so that members have the latest advice on how to deal with these issues.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/it-is-time-to-restore-the-us-office-of-technology-assessment/

Adam McCann, Wallet Hub

College opens doors to more career opportunities, higher earnings and new social connections, among other benefits. But how much schooling one receives also matters to some extent. Generally, the higher the level of education one completes, the higher their income potential and the lower their chances of unemployment become. See listings below.  A separate WalletHub analysis identifies the Most & Least Educated Cities.

https://wallethub.com/edu/e/most-educated-states/31075

Daniele McClean, Higher Ed Dive

Institutional leaders fear the lack of access is widening higher education’s class divide and forcing students to drop out or not enroll in college. The latest federal coronavirus relief package, which passed in December, included $7 billion to help expand broadband to underserved communities and connect people who do not have the means to pay for it. A significant chunk of that money will help minority-serving institutions and students who receive Pell Grants, which are given to those with the greatest financial need. The package follows an earlier round of emergency relief, passed in March, some of which was used by states, cities and colleges to expand access to the internet. However, experts and institutional leaders say the funds were merely a Band-Aid that helped many students transition online quickly, but they did not close the digital divide.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/for-colleges-7b-in-federal-broadband-aid-highlights-extent-of-digital-div/595007/

MICHAEL ATKINSON, eSchool News

Often, success lies on a narrow path. It starts with the emotional intelligence to examine multiple points of view. For example, the campus distance learning administrator who seeks input and feedback from teachers and students before mapping a virtual learning framework. Or a teacher who imagines what it’s like to be a student who is struggling as they plan their online course. Caring enough to examine multiple viewpoints leads to amazing learning.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2021/02/15/effective-online-course-design-starts-with-people/

Maya Morita, Athens Post
Students living in residence halls this semester are having to adapt to doing online classes while in the same room as their roommate. With some classes starting at the same time, students may find themselves having to adjust their learning in order to be courteous to their roommate. Erin Ashley, a sophomore studying meteorology, said that she feels that she has to leave the room in order to speak in class.

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2021/02/covid-roommates-online-learning-difficulties

Sascha Segan, PC Mag

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite ISP is poised to make a big difference in rural America, according to exclusive Ookla Speedtest data shared with PCMag. Starlink is currently in a semi-public beta, serving more than 10,000 users at speeds up to 170Mbps, with no data caps, according to beta testers.
Ookla located US counties with at least 30 Starlink samples since December, and charted Starlink’s speeds county by county against all other fixed internet providers. Our own analysis shows that Starlink will make the biggest difference in rural, low-density, low-population counties with few options other than lower-quality satellite services.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/exclusive-heres-where-americans-are-using-starlinks-satellite-internet

BY ROY KAUFMAN, eSchool News

In determining whether to apply fair use to an infringement, the courts look at four factors set out in the statute (although even the statute itself says that these factors are “non-exclusive”–meaning that a judge can take other, similar factors into account as well):

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2021/02/15/7-questions-and-answers-about-copyright-during-online-learning/2/