Educational Technology

by Free Tech 4 Teachers

Udemy, an online course hosting service that I’ve previously written about, recently launched a new project called The Faculty Project. The Faculty Project is a series of free online courses developed by professors from top-notch universities including Northwestern, Dartmouth, and Vassar. The courses will be conducted through Udemy’s platform of video, slides, and PDFs. While it’s not clear if the professors will or will not be checking-in on the courses, there are discussion boards for students in each course to correspond with each other.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/01/faculty-project-free-courses-from.html

By KAITLYN BYRNE, the Reflector

During the fall 2011 semester, 201 cases of academic dishonesty were reported at Mississippi State University. By comparison, 271 cases of academic dishonesty were reported for the entire 2010-2011 academic year. James Orr, director of the student honor code office, said the increase in reported academic dishonesty cases is not due to an increase in cheating. Instead, the increase is due to professors taking a more active involvement in reporting students who are caught cheating. “Faculty members and other students are vigilant in reporting and discovering academic dishonesty,” Orr said. “Professors understand that a major part of deterring academic dishonesty involves reporting incidents and ensuring that students receive the appropriate sanction.” Orr said sanctions for violating the student honor code could include receiving a zero on the assignment, lowered course grade, dismissal from MSU and/or the course grade of “XF.”

http://www.reflector-online.com/mobile/news/cheating-reports-continue-to-increase-1.2691143

by Peter Murray, Singularity Hub

 This past August fellow Singularity Hub writer Aaron Saenz wrote about Udacity, the online university created by Stanford artificial intelligence professor and Google autonomous vehicle leader, Sebastian Thrun. At the time Thrun was gearing up to teach his Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course to a class of 200 at Stanford. But why teach 200 when you can teach 1,000…or 160,000? With Udacity, Thrun and fellow AI giant Peter Norvig created an online version of the course, and anyone that wanted to enroll could – for free. The homework assignments and exams would be the same as the ones given to the Stanford students, and they would be graded in the same way so online enrollees could see how they stacked up to some of the brightest students in the world. It was to be a grand experiment in education.

http://singularityhub.com/2012/01/28/sebastian-thrun-aims-to-revolutionize-university-education-with-udacity/

by David Zax, Technology Review

Wearable electronics gets a new boost, with a new platform from Adafruit Industries, the brainchild of DIY-goddess Limor Fried (hacker handle: Ladyada). The new platform, dubbed the Flora, points to a future where people are wearing TV screens–or at least, something vaguely like them–on their T-shirts. The Flora board is quite small, less than 2” in diameter (the thing has to be wearable, after all), and has built-in USB support (“this means you plug it in to program it, it just shows up,” says the site). CNET says the new platform is designed so that anyone can “craft a matrix of hundreds or someday, more than 1,000 small LED ‘pixels.’” Currently the Flora, which is being beta tested, can support no more than 500 linked pixels. Of course, 500 pixels isn’t an immense number–you might want to stick to your television to watch a movie–but it’s a start.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27535/?p1=A4

by Christopher Mims, Technology Review

New Hanover County, North Carolina, just rolled out Super Wi-Fi, which is its actual name, not just a patronizing euphemism I’m deploying because I think you can’t handle “a new Wi-Fi standard operating in the ‘white spaces’ between 50-700Mhz, where previously only television stations were allowed to transmit.” Aside: here’s a very accessible primer on what Super Wi-Fi is and why you should care about it (http://gizmodo.com/5646259/what-is-super-wi+fi) .

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27531/?p1=blogs

By Rachel Metz. Technology Review

The market for sweetly named smart-phone assistants is heating up, as Siri, Apple’s iPhone-based virtual helper, just got a new “frenemy” named Evi. Created by True Knowledge, a Cambridge, U.K.-based semantic technology startup, Evi, like Siri, can answer questions posed aloud in a conversational manner. But unlike Siri, which is only loaded on the latest iPhone, Evi is available as an app for the iPhone and phones running Google’s Android software.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39560/?p1=A3

by Sue Gee, I-programmer

Online Computer Science classes that have attracted tens of thousands of students have been put back for a couple of weeks. Is this on account of Sebastian Thrun’s resignation from Stanford? Students who are signed up for Stanford University Online Computer Science Classes in Cryptography, Natural Language Processing, Human-Computer Interaction and Design and Analysis of Algorithms I, which were due to start during January, were sent emails telling them of the delay:

Unfortunately, there are still a few administrative i’s to dot and t’s to cross. We’re still hopeful that we’ll go live very soon, and we’ll let you know a firm date as soon as we possibly can.

http://www.i-programmer.info/news/150-training-a-education/3659-delay-for-january-stanford-online-courses.html

by Philjaelearning, Philadelphia Online Learning

With significant advancement in the field of information technology, many impressive changes have taken place in many sectors including education. Previously, only classroom courses were available, but nowadays, lots of online college courses are offered. Students from any part of the world can enroll and finish the class by going to virtual classes. These programs include lectures, assignments, tests, multimedia presentations, and readings. And many courses even offer face-to-face teacher facilities to talk over issues online.

http://philjaelearning.org/online-college-courses-make-learning-more-accessible/

By Barrett W. Sheridan and Brendan Greeley, Business Week

Free online courses are instructing non-techies in JavaScript and other coding and design of Web apps. A growing number of people agree that not only should Congress understand how software is made, so should everyone. Designers, economists, doctors, and others with no direct connection to the technology world are embracing coding as a way to advance their careers, automate boring tasks, or just a means of self-improvement, a hobby like learning Spanish or doing crossword puzzles. And they have access to an expanding universe of free online coding tutorials from startups and universities such as Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Programming is becoming “a much more fundamental piece of knowledge, similar to reading or writing,” says Andy Weissman, a partner at New York’s Union Square Venures, which led a $2.5 million investment round for Codecademy, a site that teaches people basic programming skills.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/computer-coding-not-for-geeks-only-01262012.html

BY BOB ADELMANN, New American

The impact of that credential from MIT will be huge. Richard DeMillo at Georgia Institute of Technology, said this is “a very big deal because the traditional higher education reaction to online programs [in the past] was, yeah, but it’s not a credential. So I think MIT’s offering a credential [is] quite a splash. If I were still in industry and someone came in with an MITx credential, I’d take it.” The Times noted that MIT would open its MITx software platform to any other university around the world to offer their own courses online for free. And that is going to change the entire paradigm of higher education. Writing for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Kevin Carey saw immediately the threat the MITx program presents to its peers: Most world-famous universities got that way through a process of exclusion. Their degrees are coveted and valuable precisely because they’re expensive and hard to acquire. If an Ivy League university starts giving degrees away for free, why would anyone clamor to be admitted to any Ivy League university?

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/10672-mits-online-threat-to-the-higher-education-cartel

by Cowra Community News

Many students in regional New South Wales are expected to study at TAFE Western institutes via distance education or online in 2012. “Distance or online learning has many advantages for students – particularly those who may live in more remote communities – including being able to fit study around work, family and life commitments as well as not having to spend time travelling to and from classes,” says the institute’s learning and innovation manager, Sally Brownlow. “Distance or online learning is a great way to gain a qualification when and where it suits you. Students who study in this way are self starters who are committed to learning a new skill and disciplined in their approach to studying. “My top tips for any student considering distance or online learning are… (see URL)

http://cowracommunitynews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=9198&id=47

by Udemy

Udemy, a marketplace for online learning, today announced the debut of The Faculty Project ( www.facultyproject.com ), a remarkable initiative that brings together outstanding educators from many of America’s most prestigious universities to teach free courses online. Staffed by professors from such world-class institutions as Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Vassar, Duke, Northwestern, the University of Virginia and others, the new Web site will enable people from all over the world to benefit from college-level learning on a variety of stimulating and practical subjects–at no cost whatsoever.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/top-us-professors-unite-with-the-faculty-project-to-offer-free-online-courses-2012-01-26

By Ernesto Priego, Inside Higher Ed

One of the ideas I took with me was how important it is to realise the significant infrastructural differences between academic institutions around the world. This means going beyond the usual common-sense educated awareness that not all countries, and therefore not all academic institutions enjoy, or suffer, the same structural conditions (funding, human resources, access to technology, salaries, academic work and “impact” cultures). In this case, it means understanding that in a globalised higher education market, some simple measures, involving digital literacy strategies, can be, for the time being, an initial step towards preventing a normalization which often leaves many scholars out of the competition.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/globalisation-digital-humanities-uneven-promise

By Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

The buzz surrounding the digital humanities has largely emphasized its implications for professional scholarship. But here at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities on Thursday, a panel of digital humanists said that weaving digital humanities research into undergraduate education could help boost information literacy among college students. “I think it’s a little disgraceful how little our students are forced to learn about the tool they and their friends use every day,” said Christopher Blackwell, professor of classics at Furman University.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/27/could-digital-humanities-undergraduates-could-boost-information-literacy

by KOSU

Thrun’s colleague Andrew Ng taught a free, online machine learning class that ultimately attracted more than 100,000 students. When I ask Ng how Stanford’s administration reacted to their proposition, he’s silent for a second. “Oh boy,” he says, “I think there was a strong sense that we were all suddenly in a brave new world.”Ng says there were long conversations about whether or not to give online students a certificate bearing the university’s name. But Stanford balked and ultimately the school settled on giving students a letter of accomplishment from the professors that did not mention the university’s name. “We are still having conversations about that,” says James Plummer, dean of Stanford’s School of Engineering. “I think it will actually be a long time — maybe never — when actual Stanford degrees would be given for fully online work by anyone who wishes to register for the courses.”

http://kosu.org/2012/01/stanford-takes-online-schooling-to-the-next-academic-level/

by CEF Professional

In thе past few years of research оn instructional technology has resulted in a clearer vision оf hоw technology сan affect teaching аnd learning. Today, аlmost everу school in the United States of America uѕеs technology aѕ a part of teaching and learning аnd with eаch state hаvіng itѕ оwn customized technology program. In mоѕt оf thоsе schools, teachers uѕe thе technology thrоugh integrated activities thаt аre a part of their daily school curriculum. For instance, instructional technology creates an active environment іn whiсh students not оnlу inquire, but also define problems оf interest tо them. Such аn activity wоuld integrate thе subjects of technology, social studies, math, science, and language arts with the opportunity to create student-centered activity. Most educational technology experts agree, however, thаt technology ѕhоuld bе integrated, nоt as a separate subject or аѕ a once-in-a-while project, but аs а tool to promote and extend student learning оn а daily basis.

http://www.cefpro.org/16-how-can-instructional-technology-make-teaching-and-learning-more-effective-in-th-schools.html

by Nick Pandolfo, Hechinger Report

The Bronzeville Scholastic Institute ninth-graders were working on writing assignments in the school’s homework lab, whose 24 computers are shared by nearly a thousand students from the three schools that occupy DuSable High School’s campus on the South Side. “The ratio of computers to students is absurd,” said English teacher Andrew Flaherty, a veteran educator who reports that many of his students cannot afford computers at home and don’t get enough time to use them at school. As a result, Bronzeville Scholastic students born into a digital era struggle with basic skills, such as saving work to a flash drive and setting margins in Microsoft Word. At a time when awareness of technology and its potential uses in school is growing nationally, this public high school of 550 often feels like a poster child for the so-called digital divide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/education-technology-as-s_n_1228072.html

by Cheyenne Johnson, UCSB Bottom Line

Technology allows us to stay connected across city, state and even national lines. We can support rebels in Egypt from the comfort of the lecture hall where we’re supposedly learning English. James Fowler, a political science professor at University of California San Diego, summarized technology as “Instead of simply knowing who our friends are, and perhaps our friends’ friends, we can peer beyond our social horizon and see our place in a vast worldwide social network.” Through the Internet, we can feel tied to humanity as a whole, crossing political, social and ethnic lines to connect and discuss.

http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2012/01/technology-is-in-your-face-is-that-so-bad

By LAURA MCMULLEN, US News

Integrating technology into a high school classroom isn’t a one-step process. “You can’t just slap a netbook [computer] on top of a textbook and say, ‘Great, now we have technology,” says Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy organization. Wise says that digital learning starts with teachers, whose performance is enhanced by technology—not the other way around. That’s also the idea of Digital Learning Day, which the Alliance is spearheading.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2012/01/25/3-tips-on-integrating-technology-in-the-classroom

By D.C. Denison, Boston Globe

For most of the past six months, Vicky Shen, an editor at textbook publisher Pearson Education in Boston, has been living with a secret. Just a few blocks away in the Back Bay, Bethlam Forsa, executive vice president of global product development at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Inc. was working on the same undercover project. Both were preparing electronic editions for last week’s launch of an initiative from Apple Inc. to put textbooks on its iPad tablets. In a recent biography, the computer maker’s cofounder Steve Jobs said the textbook business was “ripe for destruction,’’ but it turns out Apple wants Pearson and Houghton to be partners, not casualties of technology.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-26/business/30663246_1_digital-textbooks-ipad-sarah-rotman-epps

By Nick DeSantis, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Association of Research Libraries might have a solution to what some librarians call “the VHS-cassette problem.” Here’s the scenario: An academic library has a collection of video tapes that is slowly deteriorating, thanks to the fragile nature of analog media. A librarian would like to digitize the collection for future use, but avoids making the copies out of fear that doing so would violate copyright law. And the institution’s attorneys have advised the librarian that the fair-use principle, which might offer a way to make copies legally, is too flexible to rely on. When the Association of Research Libraries and a team of fair-use advocates surveyed librarians to find out how they navigate copyright issues, many of them described that exact conundrum. But they may soon have a way out. Tomorrow the group will announce a code of best practices designed to outline ways academic librarians can take advantage of their fair-use rights to navigate common copyright issues.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/fair-use-guide-hopes-to-solve-librarians-vhs-cassette-problem/35151