Educational Technology

By Robby Korth, Roanoke.com

Before new Virginia Tech freshmen start classes next week they’ll be required to take an online course on diversity. New students now have to take a trio of online courses to raise awareness of issues that they may face in college, including alcohol, sexual violence and being inclusive of people from different races and backgrounds. “Providing it to new students is consistent with and reflects the value we place on inclusion and diversity at this university,” Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski wrote in an email. “Virginia Tech is proud to promote inclusion and diversity as an important part of our land grant mission.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/education/higher_education/virginia_tech/virginia-tech-requires-online-diversity-course-for-incoming-students/article_c4f0730a-7403-5968-9bae-2fdd67534c87.html

by Kevin Shea, NJ.com

Thomas Edison State University has been chosen as one of eight universities nationwide for an experimental federal pilot program seeking to connect students using non-traditional training with federal financial aid. Thomas Edison’s role in the program will study how to use financial aid to cover the cost of alternative credit courses through Study.com, and ultimately help students complete their degrees. The pilot program is called Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships, or, EQUIP and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and university unveiled it Tuesday.

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2016/08/nj_university_chosen_for_pilot_program_studying_on.html

by Christopher Ratcliff, ClickZ

You know, apart from the most obvious search engine. And possibly the second most obvious one too. In fact I’ll start again, what are the eight most popular search engines after Google and Bing? The first list below contains the most popular search engines currently available, ordered by most to least popular in the US. The ranking is according to eBiz, it’s in order of estimated unique monthly visitors and is accurate as of August 2016. The second list is a global overview of most popular search engines, according to Net Market Share, which is ranked in order of market share and is again accurate as of August 2016. As opposed to our previous list of search engine alternatives to Google, this list will concentrate purely on informational searches rather than say… Gifs or copyright free images.

https://www.clickz.com/what-are-the-top-10-most-popular-search-engines/104620/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

A summer program at Stanford University introduced high school girls to artificial intelligence this summer. Among the activities they learned more about were flying drones, how autonomous cars work, diving robots and machine learning for healthcare. The two-week AI program was developed last year by Olga Russakovsky, a Stanford postdoctoral researcher, and Fei-Fei Li, associate professor of computer science and director of Stanford’s AI Lab. They were motivated by a “desperate” need to bring more women into the field. As Li told the girls during their first day, as explained in a blog entry, AI could in the future become the “Terminator next door,” or follow a more humane direction, based on the people behind the scenes doing the research and development work. The students were introduced to the concepts of design thinking, inductive reasoning, the growth mindset and time management.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/16/stanford-hosts-ai-camp-for-girls.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

A new study from 100Kin10 and the University of Chicago has found that giving middle school math teachers access to high-quality lesson plans and support can “significantly” impact student performance and teacher effectiveness. 100Kin10 is an organization focused on building up the number of American K-12 teachers who can teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects to 100,000 by the year 2021. The non-profit worked with U Chicago’s Urban Education Lab, which researches ways to help the educational outcomes for disadvantaged children growing up in urban neighborhoods. This particular study evaluated what impact there was by providing teachers with real-world lessons from Mathalicious and access to other teachers through Edmodo. Mathalicious is a company that develops standards-based lessons that explore the math of life — sports, shopping, game creation. The Edmodo interactions among teachers went by the name, “Project Groundswell.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/08/with-high-quality-lessons-and-social-supports-even-weak-teachers-do-better.aspx

By Richard Chang, Campus Technology

The number of laptops, tablets and other electronic devices now outnumber the number of K–12 students in Vermont, according to a new Agency of Education (AOE) technology survey. Vermont schools own about 85,000 devices for student use, up from about 45,000 in the same survey just two years ago, according to the Burlington Free Press. The state has about 77,000 students in kindergarten through high school, according to an online enrollment report for the most recent school year.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/16/vermont-schools-have-more-computers-than-kids.aspx

By Mary Grush, Campus Technology

“Actually, I think we aren’t that far from being able to deliver on the powerful visions of teaching faculty.’ — Daniel Christian. The marketplace for augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality technologies may be heating up. Daniel Christian, a senior instructional designer at Calvin College observes that significant R&D investments, product development, and more powerful enabling technologies are setting the stage for new AR/VR/MR initiatives in higher education.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/16/ar-vr-mr-in-education.aspx

by David Raths, Campus Technology

The London School of Economics and Political Science was not quick to join the MOOC movement. Its faculty and administrators were concerned about the high attrition rates commonly found in massive open online courses. “We observed a persistence about the pedagogies being deployed that didn’t do a lot to arrest those problems,” said Darren Moon, a senior learning technologist at LSE. But in 2014, Moon and his colleagues found an opportunity to build a large online community that would avoid that very high attrition rate. Together with the school’s Institute of Public Affairs, they developed Constitution UK, an effort to crowdsource a model written constitution for the United Kingdom. Participation and engagement in the project actually increased as it progressed, which may provide some lessons for other large, open education offerings.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/17/crowdsourcing-for-massive-engagement.aspx

by Google

Video calling is the next best thing to being with someone in person, but too often it can be a frustrating or complicated experience. You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your call will connect, or if your friend is using the same type of device as you are. It’s no wonder that nearly half of us never make video calls on mobile*.  Today, we’re releasing Google Duo — a simple 1-to-1 video calling app available for Android and iOS. Duo takes the complexity out of video calling, so that you can be together in the moment wherever you are.

https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/meet-google-duo-simple-1-to-1-video.html

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and autonomous piloting at the University of Michigan (U-M) are receiving a financial push to accelerate research. The Toyota Research Institute (TRI), Toyota’s R&D organization, is committing $22 million over the next four years for research collaborations with U-M faculty and students. TRI CEO Gill Pratt made the announcement last week in an address to the university’s faculty. “Toyota has long enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the University of Michigan, and we are excited to expand our collective efforts to address complex mobility challenges through artificial intelligence,” Pratt said. U-M will use the $22 million commitment to conduct research in the areas of enhanced driving safety, partner robotics and indoor mobility, autonomous driving and student learning and diversity.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/15/u-of-michigan-ai-studies-receives-22-million-from-toyota.aspx

By Richard Chang, Campus Technology

Worldwide revenues for the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) markets are expected to grow from $5.2 billion in 2016 to more than $162 billion in 2020, according to research done by the International Data Corp. (IDC). The $156.8 billion increase represents a compound annual growth rate of 181.3 percent over the 2015-20 forecast period. IDC’s new spending guide expands on previous AR/VR forecasts by offering greater detail of revenues by technology, industry and geography, the Massachusetts-based market research company said in a news release. “For many years, augmented and virtual reality were the stuff of science fiction,” said Chris Chute, vice president of customer insights and analysis at IDC, in a prepared statement. “Now with powerful smartphones powering inexpensive VR headsets, the consumer market is primed for new paid and user generated content-driven experiences.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/15/worldwide-revenues-for-ar-and-vr-to-increase-156.8-billion-by-2020.aspx

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Faculty members at Pennsylvania State University are exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to provide immersive opportunities for student teachers. The team is developing AI-driven virtual classrooms, where pre-service teachers can practice student engagement techniques. Ann Clements, an associate professor and graduate program chair for music education at the School of Music, is leading the effort and working with members of Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) at Penn State to develop the AI classroom prototype, known as First Class. The device uses Microsoft Kinect, a motion-sensing input device, and utilizes rows of virtual students in a classrooms.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/15/penn-state-explores-ai-in-teaching.aspx

by Andie Burjek, Chief Learning Officer

That is the question, but there are certain factors leaders should consider when deciding whether to outsource or keep learning in-house. Outsourcing in learning and development has an inconsistent reputation. Full-time employees can lose their jobs; control over certain aspects of the business can be lost; or it ultimately cost more to outsource rather than to keep learning in house. While there’s some measure of truth to those protests, an effective L&D outsourcing program can have a positive impact on an organization. Chief Learning Officer connected with learning leaders to discuss when they know to outsource learning and development and how they choose the correct partner.

http://www.clomedia.com/2016/08/15/to-outsource-or-not-to-outsource/

by the Financial Express

The learning and education domain, with no exception, falls well within the gamut of the IoT. In fact, through effective use of technology, it is possible to create an infrastructure that can meet education-related needs of the country. The launch of smart classes in government schools is also expected to change the face of education. Thus, the implementation of the IoT in the education industry with outright accountability will improve the quality of the learning process, as well as let teachers remotely address students through video-conferencing and other systems. The IoT has become a part of everyday lives and the future too will be dominated by the same. Its prevalence in the education sector is increasingly becoming noteworthy. Classrooms today don’t just restrict to the traditional teaching and learning methods, but also extend to the smart ways of teaching.

http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/jobs/how-iot-can-change-the-game-for-education-and-learning/347587/

By LYNN HATTER, WFSU

The graduation rate of the Leon County School District has soared in the past five years, thanks largely to the use of online courses. School district officials have worked hard to get students to the finish line—offering a number of pathways. But some of those methods are under scrutiny.

http://news.wfsu.org/post/online-classes-help-leons-grade-rate-soar-district-defends-its-methods

by Los Angeles Times Editorial

As The Times explained in June, students who flunk a high-school course can still receive credit in traditional ways — summer school or after-school classes, for instance — but they also have the option of taking online credit recovery courses in computer-equipped rooms at school or anywhere they have access to the Internet. After some academics and others suggested these courses might be insufficiently rigorous, a Times editorial writer took one of the courses offered at L.A. Unified — junior-year English literature — which included teacher lectures by video, readings, practice problems and tests that are graded by the computer program (although teachers are supposed to grade any significant writing assignments). Students are allowed to move at their own pace, so they might be able to finish making up a failed year-long course in a much shorter period of time.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-credit-recovery-courses-20160814-snap-story.html

by Business Wire

Students at Insight School of Oklahoma (ISOK), a tuition-free, online public school, began their 2016-2017 school year on August 16, thankful for a place where they can learn within a unique and highly supportive environment. Students attending ISOK come from diverse backgrounds, many of them struggling at traditional brick and mortar schools before finding ISOK. Oklahoma students in grades 7 through 12 are welcome to attend ISOK. The school’s comprehensive education approach focuses on providing struggling students with the academic, social and emotional support needed to succeed in school and beyond. The online learning environment allows students to work at their own pace, giving them time to progress faster in subjects at which they excel, while spending more time on subjects and lessons where they need more help.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/struggling-students-success-oklahoma-online-181300869.html

by Parent Herald

Millennials are now the largest living generation in the country. One of the most studied and analyzed generations, millennials are now becoming parents. A new independent survey of U.S. households, supported by Connections Education, found that millennials are supportive of alternative approaches to education, with three-fourths of millennial parents (77 percent) saying a DIY approach to education, in which learners craft a path to graduation that best fits their needs, is a good idea. “The millennial generation flipped the workplace on its head, and all signs point to them breaking the status quo for education as well,” said Steven Guttentag, president and co-founder of Connections Education. “Compared to older generations, this generation of parents has more experience in education options beyond brick and mortar schools, such as online courses and blended learning. As a result, we’re finding they’re more open to and supportive of different education options.”

http://www.parentherald.com/articles/60841/20160812/survey-finds-millennial-parents-supportive-of-diy-apprroach-to-education-diverse-scholl-options.htm

by Seb Murray, Business Because

Augmented reality and cloud computing are two key innovations driving the nascent edtech market in the US, according to a new study. Tech consultancy Technavio says the twin technologies, plus simulation, which replicates aspects of the real world online, have the potential to significantly impact the growth of edtech through to 2020. “The e-learning market in the US is growing rapidly due to changes in the education sector, such as the introduction of education technology and online content to the curriculum,” said Jhansi Mary, a lead analyst from Technavio. Innovations by vendors have led to the use of more advanced technologies such as simulations, cloud-based solutions, and AR in the education system.”

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/4118/ar-cloud-computing-power-online-learning

By EMILY CLARK, Good4Utah

AISU Virtual is a blended online and on-campus program to promote a K-12 School in Murray, Utah. This allows students to work at their own speed online as well as on-campus. AISU Virtual, blends online and on-campus to personalize students learning. Core classes in English Language Arts, Social Studies and Science are taken online throughout the year at student’s own pace. All other courses, including mathematics and electives, may be taken online throughtout the year or taken on-campus following AISU’s trimester schedule. Students participate in two week learning Intensives. Three times a year (fall, winter and spring), AISU students can enroll in a hands-on interactive learning experiences, earning 0.5 credit each intensive. Students choose from 30-40 courses designed by AISU teachers and guest instructors that fulfill most elective requirements.

by Penn State University

This fall, five Penn State faculty making up the first cohort of the Blended Learning Transformation (BlendLT) program offered by Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) will be teaching their newly designed blended courses. Born out of Penn State’s mission to transform education, BlendLT not only offers full support for faculty who wish to redesign their existing residential instruction course to an innovative blended (face-to-face and online) format, but also sees the process through the actual teaching of the course and measurement of learning outcomes once the course has ended.

http://news.psu.edu/story/420516/2016/08/11/academics/blended-learning-transformation-program-offers-innovative-course