Educational Technology

by David Hopkins, Don’t Waste Your Time

This infographic on ‘Components of a 21st Century Classroom’ has some interesting facts and figures (not all do) but the real interesting point is in the top-right corner: “top 3 reasons for teachers to use technology in the classroom”:

76% (use tech to) adapt to diverse learning styles

77% (use tech to) boost student motivation

67% (use tech to) enhance the materials being taught

Is this surprising? Did you think the figures would be higher, or lower, of different reasons? I wonder what the other reasons are that didn’t make the graphic?

http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/technology/3-reasons-teachers-use-technology-in-the-classroom-edtech-infographic/

by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

Northern Arizona University has inked a deal with Pearson to co-develop three fully online baccalaureate degree programs based on the increasingly popular and somewhat controversial “competency based” model of higher education. Beginning in January, the university plans to offer competency-based courses and bachelor’s degrees in business administration, computer information technology and liberal studies. The courses will be aimed largely at adult students who are looking to earn credit for professional and life experience and close the remaining distance to a college degree. Unlike traditional college courses, these courses will rely heavily on course materials — a buffet of traditional textbooks, recorded lectures and automated tutoring software — to instill students with the knowledge and skills they need to complete assignments and pass exams. Instructors will be available on demand, but the university hopes to assemble a library of nonhuman learning resources effective enough so that students will only need to call on professors as a last resort.

http://www.cappsonline.org/7707/competency-loves-company/

By Avantika Kumar, Columbia Spectator

Journalism School professor Sree Sreenivasan has been named Columbia’s first University-wide chief digital officer, Provost John Coatsworth announced on Wednesday. Social media expert Sree Sreenivasan will be responsible for expanding Columbia’s online distance-learning programs. Sreenivasan, who was previously the Journalism School’s dean of student affairs, has taught digital journalism and social media. In an email to senior administrators, Coatsworth said that his responsibilities will include expanding online distance-learning programs and facilitating Columbia’s use of technology as an educational tool.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/07/14/columbia-names-first-chief-digital-officer

By Philip Michaels, ComputerWorld

The references books I used to thumb through on rainy day visits to the library as a kid–your almanacs, your encyclopedias, your reference books–are all going digital. If the results are as good as what Barefoot World Atlas has to offer, that’s not a bad trend at all. Barefoot World Atlas is an iPad version of the Nick Crane-authored and David Dean-illustrated book of the same name. The app arrives courtesy of Touch Press, the same outfit that offers the terrific iPad version of The Elements. The same care and quality that went into that visual display of the Periodic Table of the Elements can be found in this kid-focused atlas app.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229079/Barefoot_World_Atlas_for_iPad

By Loek Essers, ComputerWorld

The Russian legislature’s lower house on Wednesday adopted a bill that, according to tech companies in the country, could lead to Internet censorship. The bill, which includes amendments to several current laws, still needs to be signed and in the meanwhile Russian tech companies continue to protest the legislation , trying to influence the political process before the bill is formally adopted by the upper house. The bill passed by Russia’s lower house, the State Duma, aims to make it easier to block sites that host child pornography, promote drugs or provide instructions about how to commit suicide. But the Russian IT industry sees a basis for Internet censorship because it is unclear how the blocking procedure will work.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229061/Tech_companies_continue_protests_after_Russia_adopts_online_39_censorship_39_bill

by Mike Hasten, the Advertiser

Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell says schools wouldn’t have an Internet problem if Gov. Bobby Jindal had not rejected an $80.6 million NASA grant offered to the state to provide high-speed Internet to underserved areas of the state. “He gave away $80 million,” Campbell said. “Out of 240 grants given across the United States, Louisiana was the only state to reject it.The report shows Louisiana public schools have more than 197,000 computers but only 67,038 of them (39 percent) meet current technology specifications required to administer online tests. There’s a chance that as many as 100,000 of the current computers could be upgraded to meet testing specifications. But if that’s not possible, the report says, school districts across the state would need to purchase a minimum of 37,000 devices to handle online testing demands.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20120713/NEWS01/207130319?nclick_check=1

by Andrew Maynard, 2020Science

YouTube is gearing up to transform the way we learn…We are at the beginning of an exciting revolution in online educational content. That’s the message that came across loud and clear at this morning’s VidCon breakout panel on education. In an overflowing room of well over two hundred conference goers, head of YouTube Education Angela Lin led a panel of five leading video makers in a lively discussion, that gave a compelling glimpse of the future of online education. And it was a future that didn’t feature too many conventional lessons or institutionalized videos! As the panel included John and Hank Green (SciShow, CrashCourse and a gazillion other things) I was expecting a room packed to the brim with their incredibly engaged teen fans – which it was. An odd audience you might think for a panel on education. But this was a serious, intelligent and engaged crowd, eager to listen to the panel, ask questions and provide their own insight on online learning.

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/maynard20120706

by Clive Shepherd, Clive-Shepherd Blog

E-learning, in its many and varied forms, is suitable for any learning activity which does not have to be conducted face-to-face. I went on to explain what the circumstances would be in which a face-to-face solution would be needed, but I probably didn’t go far enough to satisfy most learning professionals. The reason is that you can’t generalise about e-learning because it comes in so many forms. Computers and networks provide so many opportunities to enhance learning in the workplace, but the opportunities are dependent on the use you are making of these tools. So, here’s a more specific response to the question, categorised by type of e-learnin

http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-specifically-is-e-learning-good.html

By Amy Cavender, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Nearly two years ago, I wrote about Google’s App Inventor. Unfortunately, Google discontinued it in December of last year (though, happily, MIT now maintains it). Recently, Google released Blockly, another visual programming editor. I found it pretty interesting, and it wasn’t too difficult to figure out how to use the tool itself.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/rudimentary-programming-with-google-blockly/41171

By Barbara Fister, Library Journal

When it comes to trendy pedagogy, libraries were ahead of the curve. Two trends that seem to be in the news lately are the rise of MOOCs (massive open online courses that can be taken by huge numbers of students) and flipping the classroom. Both grow partly out of developments in technology that give teachers an opportunity to create digital versions of course content and share it online. Both take a traditional approach to teaching—the lecture—and move it online, giving students the opportunity to engage whenever they want, as often as they want, while providing new opportunities for teachers: to scale up their classroom to unprecedented sizes or to use traditional classrooms for more engaged and interactive forms of learning.

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/07/opinion/peer-to-peer-review/the-original-flipped-classroom-peer-to-peer-review/

by Virtual Strategy

Teenagers in Pennsylvania can now take a complete Pennsylvania drivers education course that is offered online. Fully approved by the state of Pennsylvania, B Line Traffic School’s teen drivers education course educates students on all they need to know to become safe drivers. The complete course is available online to make it very convenient for teen drivers or for anyone who needs to get their first drivers license.

http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2012/07/12/teen-drivers-education-online-now-option-pennsylvania-thanks-b-line-traffic-schools

by Angela Chen, Chronicle of Higher Ed

From clickers to programs like Learning Catalytics—which data-mines to match students with discussion partners—student-response systems are becoming more and more sophisticated. But Liam Kaufman, a graduate of the University of Toronto, thinks that the key to effective feedback is a tool with fewer bells and whistles.Mr. Kaufman is the developer of Understoodit, a browser-based app that lets students indicate their level of comprehension during class, and then see how much everyone else understands.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/app-tries-to-increase-student-participation-by-simplifying-clicker-technology/37855

by the BBC

Apple has rejoined an environmental ratings scheme a week after quitting the programme. The firm published a letter on its site saying it had realised the move had been “a mistake” after many of its customers had complained. The u-turn follows an announcement by San Francisco city officials that they planned to ban local agencies from buying Apple Mac computers. They said at the time that they hoped Apple would reconsider. Apple helped set up the EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) registry in 2006. It is designed to identify which electronic devices pose the least risk to the environment.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18837492

by JAMILLAH KNOWLES, The Next Web

Social Media Week (SMW) is coming up in September and there are some interesting initiatives this year that point to a need to understand the tools and technologies that have influenced the way we have come to work online and off. Skillshare, the learning marketplace where anyone can learn anything from anyone else willing to teach, is teaming up with Social Media Week to launch the School of Emerging Media and Technology. There are so many alternative education platforms around at the moment and this partnership means that those who are regular attendees of Social Media Week will have the opportunity to share their knowledge while people just starting to learn can learn from the specific experiences of practitioners who have maybe been forming their own skills over the past few years.

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/07/11/social-media-week-gets-into-alternative-education-and-supports-a-tech-camp-for-kids/

by Sacramento Bee

Forty percent of shoppers plan to purchase a tech item this back-to-school season This year, consumers are branching out, setting their sights on laptops and tablets for tech-savvy students heading back to school. According to PriceGrabber survey results, 40 percent of respondents plan to purchase a tech-type item as part of their back-to-school shopping. When those respondents were asked to select all of the types of tech-related products they plan to purchase, 50 percent indicated a new laptop splurge and 49 percent selected a tablet computer. Twenty-eight percent of shoppers indicated they plan to purchase a Smartphone and 10 percent selected a desktop computer.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/11/4623475/sixty-three-percent-of-consumers.html

by Matthew Livengood-Clouse, eLearning at Missouri

Much confusion surrounds the ominous sounding MOOC. At its heart, it is simply a Massive Open Online Course. Is it a “course” leading to a certificate or a degree? Most often, no. Are MOOCs set to replace lower-level residential courses, especially large enrollment undergraduate course? Don’t think so. Will MOOCs replace faculty or undermine shared governance? No and quite to the contrary, MOOCs typically trade on the academic stature of the scholars responsible for their creation. A key consideration here is modality: the format and manner in which we offer courses. Each of the primary modalities in which we work (lecture, seminar, online, self-paced) have a place and serve a purpose in higher education. Are they interchangeable? Not typically. For example, the benefits and challenges of a large lecture course are known but it remains a successful modality for knowledge-rich, foundational courses. Are there thing we can learn from a MOOC to improve retention, performance, and learning? Of course. Most notably, the design approaches used in a “flipped” classroom (a topic we’ve discussed in past blog entries such as this as well as an e-Mentor net-cast featuring Dr. Jason Aubrey).

http://elearning.missouri.edu/whats-a-mooc-you-ask/

by K. Walsh, Emerging Tech

The wealth of resources available across the Internet is expanding constantly, and there are many ways for the advanced student, who may be outpacing his or her regular academic work, to learn more about topics of interest and keep themselves challenged and engaged. Below are a few different ideas for providing direction and resources to advanced students to keep them engaged and let them pursue a higher level of knowledge about the content you’re covering in class. (Of course, it is also important to consider a student’s age and maturity before allowing them to freely roam the Interwebs, so be sure to keep that in mind and designate resources and structure exercises with this in mind.)

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/07/4-ways-to-use-online-resources-to-keep-advanced-students-engaged-and-learning/

by David Zax, Technology Review

No longer just a chimera, that Amazon smartphone I’ve mentioned here before now looks to be real, per Bloomberg’s predictably anonymous “two people with knowledge of the matter.” The phone would reportedly run on the Android operating system; it seems a pretty fair bet that it would look remarkably similar to the Kindle Fire, which runs a “forked” version of Android designed to funnel users into Amazonian content. A number of commentators are skeptical of the value of an Amazon smartphone–Time’s Jared Newman, for instance, sees “many problems” with such a device. And it’s true if Amazon wants to offer, in effect, a premium smartphone (read: an iPhone-like device) at non-premium-smartphone prices, it will have its work cut out for it. It’ll need apps, apps, apps, most of all.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428469/the-latest-on-the-amazon-smartphone/

by Ramin Rahimian, The New York Times

As part of a seismic shift in online learning that is reshaping higher education, Coursera, a year-old company founded by two Stanford University computer scientists, will announced on Tuesday that a dozen major research universities are joining the venture. In the fall, Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally. Even before the expansion, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, the founders of Coursera, said it had registered 680,000 students in 43 courses with its original partners, Michigan, Princeton, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Now, the partners will include the California Institute of Technology; Duke University; the Georgia Institute of Technology; Johns Hopkins University; Rice University; the University of California, San Francisco; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; the University of Washington; and the University of Virginia

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/education/consortium-of-colleges-takes-online-education-to-new-level.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

By Theo Blackwell, Local Government Chronicle (UK)

This week the cross industry Next Gen Skills campaign launches a ‘call to action’ for local policy makers to support the education of a new generation of computer programmers for our economy. It might seem counter-intuitive at a time when government reforms are decoupling schools and education authorities that councils should have a role in a new area of study – but we believe that local government, with its renewed focus on growth and economic innovation and its continuing links with educators and local firms, is now in a unique role to help get schools – and children – coding again.

http://www.lgcplus.com/briefings/joint-working/education/time-to-get-kids-coding-again/5046921.article

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

As blended learning becomes more popular, school districts are grappling with what mix of teaching methods makes the most sense for students. Those ingredients include traditional classroom instruction, supplemental digital resources, blended learning and online courses. Based on the students’ learning styles and needs, school districts have to find a recipe that works for different students. A combination of online and face-to-face learning has been happening at Riverside Unified School District in California for six years, while Medina City Schools in Ohio is just starting down this road. But both districts have come to similar conclusions: making a variety of learning methods available is a key to meeting students’ education needs.

http://www.convergemag.com/classtech/When-Does-Blended-Learning-Work-Best.html