3 characteristics of successful next-gen online learning

By Kevin Gibbs and Claire Stuve, eCampus News

Two professors describe online learning platform features that can enable engaging online learning experiences—and why they’re critical to real success. High failure rates. Low retention. Disengaged students. These problems exist at many universities, but more and more institutions and instructors, like us, are leveraging online learning to turn that story around—but real success goes beyond just a format switch. Today, 82 percent of colleges and universities offer at least several courses online in order to try and provide a transformational opportunity for students who can’t spend six to eight hours a day in a lecture hall. For example, at The University of Toledo, we serve a large number of active duty military who are logging into class from around the world.

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14186

Online Learning in High School

By Nila Venkat, WQED

Youth Radio’s Nila Venkat weighs what’s lost and what’s gained when taking a course online instead of in the classroom. I’m a sophomore in high school and this semester, I started taking an online psychology course on top of my regular workload. There are assignments due every day by midnight — like reading an article by a psychologist, or watching a TED talk and then making a comment on the video. I participate in Skype chats, discussing lessons with the other 15 or so students, who live all around the globe — from Beijing to Pennsylvania. But in my online course, I can determine my own learning environment. I usually go home, have a snack, and then lock myself in my bedroom to seal out potential distractions. And it works. I’m not saying I would swap all my in-person classes for online ones. There’s something about the human connections I get at school. Like fist bumping my math teacher in the hallway.

http://www.kqed.org/a/perspectives/R201510220643

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Start learning programming early

by Andrew Fraser, St. Cloud Times

Coding is an important skill for students of all ages, but, like other languages or disciplines, an early start can be a boon to a young mind. Coding teaches problem solving and analytical thinking. Programmers are often tasked with thinking about the “why”: Why does something happen here or why does this program have an error there? In addition to honing logic skills, thinking in the “why” can be helpful for students who need help focusing on how their actions (or any actions) affect other people or things. Programming is also a great skill for learners interested in creation. With programming, students can see the results of their code play out in front of them. Games like Minecraft with building or user-generated content are very popular with kids. Coding is a deeper version of that concept, with students able to see and experience the fruits of their mind’s labor.

http://www.sctimes.com/story/money/business/2015/10/24/start-learning-programming-early/74357136/

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Brain Labs: A Place to Enliven Learning

by Lauri Desautels, Edutopia

Although emotion and cognition originate in different parts of the brain, they interact and play a powerful role in learning and memory. According to neuroscientists like Eric Jensen, priming the brain for particular states of engagement — such as curiosity, intrigue, surprise, suspense, a bit of confusion, skepticism, and the feeling of safety — prepares the mind to learn. Furthermore, incorporating emotion into our instruction and content supports long-term memory. This might not be news to teachers, but not enough students know how to optimize their brain for learning. That’s why every child should have the opportunity to explore neuroscience in a brain lab.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-labs-enliven-learning-lori-desautels

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How to Teach Internet Safety to Younger Elementary Students

by Mary Beth Hertz, Edutopia

With children spending time online at younger and younger ages, it is vital that we explicitly teach young children how to protect themselves online. Most young children get the “Stranger Danger” talk at school, so they know about how to handle strangers in their neighborhood and in face-to-face situations. There are three considerations when addressing Internet safety with these students. First, the transfer of handling strangers in “real life” to those in virtual environments is not automatic. It needs to be taught. Second, while most “Stranger Danger” programs teach that strangers are scary, mean and want to hurt or abduct children, this contradicts the way collaboration occurs between strangers online. Not all strangers are dangerous. Lastly, in “real life,” students can walk or run away from a potential threat. In an online environment, the danger is inside a student’s home and hard to escape without the necessary skills for handling tough situations.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/internet-safety-younger-elementary-mary-beth-hertz

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Modeling Constructive Online Behavior

by David Cutler, Edutopia

Plenty of students may know how to create digital media, but too few know how to produce engaging, high-quality content, the kind that makes them stand out not only to college admission officers, but also to potential employers. What does that kind of quality involve? We need to teach and encourage students to post original, outstanding content that will distinguish their unique identities in a sea of increasingly indistinguishable resumes — which are going the way of the typewriter. To help accomplish this task, I model creating a positive digital footprint by making effective use of social networking and blogging. I owe my students that much — after all, if they don’t take control of their online identities, someone else will.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/modeling-constructive-online-behavior-david-cutler

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Up next for textbooks? The bionic book

by Penn State, eSchoolNews

Penn State develops new technology to create robot-written textbooks. A new technology developed at Penn State works with faculty to automatically build complete textbooks from open resources on the web. The texts are organized according to topics and keywords provided by a user. The system is helping to usher in a new genre of media: the bionic book. The tool, called BBookX, can be used to create a variety of media, ranging from study guides to textbooks. To begin, users fill in a digital table of contents — assigning each chapter a topic with text or as many related keywords or key phrases as they’d like. Using matching algorithms, BBookX then returns text, and users can keep the chapters as they are or mix with content of their own.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/textbooks-open-resources-984/

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12 Ways to Make Money on the Side as a Teacher

By Leah Levy, Edudemic

Despite what many who work outside of education are so fond of arguing, we educators know the sad truth about teacher salaries. Unlike teachers in other leading education systems the world over, American teachers are underpaid for their education, expertise, energy, and time. Given that reality, it is often desirable – and even necessary – for teachers to generate side income. There are many excellent ways to do this, some of which will result in a nice steady drip of income, others of which could lead to the accidental birth of a Fortune 500 company. Let’s take a look at some of the best approaches out there.

http://www.edudemic.com/make-money-side-teacher/

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5 gray areas of higher education’s reinvention

By Meris Stansbury, eCampusNews

New innovations in higher-ed technology and practice are popping up daily in higher education’s reinvention—but that doesn’t mean they have seals of approval. Textbook engagement analytics, cloud systems, career training programs, MOOCs, flipped learning, virtual worlds, game-based instruction…the list could continue for pages. And while institutions emphatically communicate that many of these technologies and practices part of higher education’s reinvention need further research, even some of the seemingly accepted innovations have yet to receive a clear green light. These “gray areas” on campuses across the country often occur due to technology-based changes in social practices; and though college and university staff often are eager to incorporate these practices in the classroom or within administration, conflicts over institutional mission, student satisfaction or learning quality can occur.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/higher-education-reinvention-829/

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Report: Research & Education Networks Make Sense for K-12 as Bandwidth Demands Increase

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Tremendous pressure for broadband access is being placed on schools, stemming in part from educational needs, in part from the demands of online testing and in part from the motivation to provide equitable access for all students. To alleviate that pressure, advised a group of education technology experts, it’s high time those schools considered tapping into the massive capacity and high speeds of research and education (R&E) networks. That’s the overall suggestion of a research project jointly produced by the New Media Consortium (NMC), a global community of institutions of higher education and research centers, and Internet2, a similar organization that runs one such network for academic and research institutions in the United States.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/23/report-research-education-networks-make-sense-for-k12-as-bandwidth-demands-increase.aspx

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Penn State Technology Allows Faculty and Students to Build Their Own Textbooks from OER

By David Nagel, Campus Technology

Penn State researchers have been piloting a technology that allows faculty (and students) to build e-textbooks algorithmically using keywords to gather together materials from open resources. The tool, called BBookX, lets users generate textbooks chapter by chapter, adding materials by using keywords to find relevant resources, which can then be culled and organized, even edited by the user. Keywords are used to find an initial set of resources; adding the most relevant resources to a chapter then allows the algorithm to refine results for additional materials. Users can rearrange the materials within a chapter or reorganize entire chapters on the fly through a click-and-drag interface.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/10/22/penn-state-technology-allows-faculty-and-students-to-build-their-own-textbooks-from-oer.aspx

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8 CIO Tips for Leading Change in Higher Education

By David Raths, Campus Technology

In a recent Educause Review essay, Joshua Kim noted that campus CIOs must have one foot in daily technology operations, one foot in strategic decision-making and one foot in the larger discussion of how higher education is evolving. “You will notice the CIO needs three feet — an indication of why the role seems so impossible,” wrote Kim, director of digital learning initiatives for the Dartmouth (NH) Center for the Advancement of Learning. Indeed, being a three-footed CIO increasingly requires more communication skills than technical knowledge. In an April 2015 CT interview, Mark Askren, CIO of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said having a technology background helps in the CIO role — but communication skills are the most important to have. “Beyond just speaking skills, you need emotional intelligence, the ability to listen, be authentic and earn trust,” he said. “We are change agents. You have to embrace change and reduce the fear level.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/10/22/8-cio-tips-for-leading-change-in-higher-education.aspx

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Shmoop Offers Customizable Online Courses, Giving Teachers the Flexibility They Need

by Benzinga

With Shmoop’s new customizable course option, teachers are no longer subject to the whims of online course providers. Now they can create the course that works best for their students. J.K. Rowling might not be thrilled if fans decided the Harry Potter books were better read in reverse order. But Shmoop (http://www.shmoop.com), a digital publisher known for its award-winning Test Prep and certified Online Courses, is all about mixing things up. Users with a Shmoop subscription or license can now mix and match any of Shmoop’s course content to fit their needs, whether those needs lean more toward Hufflepuff or Dark Lord. No one’s judging. Shmoop still provides the teen-friendly content—over 200 courses ranging from short units on Photoshop to year-long core courses in ELA, math, and history—but educators can now take it apart and put it back together again however they’d like.

http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/15/10/p5935812/shmoop-offers-customizable-online-courses-giving-teachers-the-flexibili

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UT system offers free online courses to high school students

by KSAT

The University of Texas System is the largest state institution in the country that offers free online college-level courses to high school students. Four courses were made available this fall and do not have prerequisites. They are Intro to Engineering, Discover Pre-Calculus, Intro to Sociology, Solving Problems using Python and Human Geography. A fifth course is in the works, the UT System said. Instructors for the courses are at the UT Arlington, UT Austin and UT Permian Basin campuses. The engineering course runs 13 weeks and teaches students to use math to solve engineering problems. The Python programming course provides an understanding of writing Python code to solve problems.

http://www.ksat.com/news/ut-system-offers-free-online-courses-to-high-school-students

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McKinney Public Library offering online language learning system

by Chris Beattie, McKinney Courier-GazetteNews

The McKinney Public Library System is now offering the Pronunciator online language learning system for residents who want to learn a new language. The service is free for all library cardholders and can be accessed from home or office. The service offers 80 foreign languages and 50 ESL (English as a Second Language) courses for non-English languages. Pronunciator includes the ProCitizen course, which is available in English and Spanish and is preparation for the civics, reading and writing portions of the Naturalization Test administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

http://starlocalmedia.com/mckinneycouriergazette/news/mckinney-public-library-offering-online-language-learning-system/article_b5bd4c40-768e-11e5-bac2-0f7bac5fefce.html

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Ohio Schools Go Big with Blended Learning

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

A majority of schools in Ohio are using some form of blended learning, primarily in high schools or schools that house grades K-12. The big motivators are facilitating personalized learning for students, providing more course choice and improving academic outcomes. Of those that aren’t blending, nearly a third expect to do so. Those results surfaced in a survey among all of the schools in Ohio conducted earlier this year by the Ohio Blended Learning Network, the Learning Accelerator and the Clayton Christensen Institute. All 994 district and charter schools in the state were invited to participate; 211 schools responded. As the survey found, 58 percent of schools have some type of blended learning going on — most of those in and around three large cities, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/20/ohio-schools-go-big-with-blended-learning.aspx

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Google, Udacity Team Up to Offer Training For Tech Entrepreneurs

By Jaikumar Vijayan, eWeek

The four- to seven-month Tech Entrepreneur Nanodegree program is geared toward helping developers learn how to take their apps from design to market. Google has launched its new short-duration Tech Entrepreneur Nanodegree program that is designed to help software developers learn how to take their app ideas from the design stage to market. Google’s mini degree program, designed in collaboration with online course provider Udacity, takes four to seven months to complete with a minimum commitment of 10 hours per week. Students who finish the course successfully will receive certification from Google and Udacity while top-place finishers will have an opportunity to pitch their product to venture capitalists at Google.

http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/google-udacity-team-up-to-offer-training-for-tech-entrepreneurs.html

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CMU Rolls Out Technologies to Help Students With Disabilities Take Notes

By Adora Namigadde, 9 and 10 News

Central Michigan University is helping its students with disabilities be more independent with some new technology. The new programs are available for students with disabilities who register for them at CMU’s Mount Pleasant campus. In the past, Central Michigan University has hired personal note-takers to help students who can’t take notes on their own. This semester, they’re turning to technologies that can help. Programs like Kurzweil and Sonacent’s Audio Notetaker are all helping students navigate the classroom more independently. The digital note-taking programs let students record lectures, have books read aloud and even allow different accents and translating.

http://www.9and10news.com/story/30313198/central-michigan-university-rolls-out-technologies-to-help-disabled-students-take-notes

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Students use local schools’ Wi-Fi to finish homework after class

By Harold Reutter, the Independent

Last Tuesday afternoon, Walnut students Destiny Deleon, Julio Chamul and Ralph Deleon were using their Thinkpads to complete homework assignments. Destiny, a sixth-grader, was doing work for her 21st Century Learning class. She said she was creating a presentation “on a kid named Charles.” Her brother, Ralph, and their friend, Julio, were each working on a seventh-grade social studies assignment, learning about the Aztecs and the Incas. There’s nothing unusual about middle school students doing homework, except perhaps the location. The trio was sitting near Lincoln Elementary while working. As Destiny explained, she and the other students “need the Internet” to do their homework assignments and they do not have a home Internet connection. So they sit near Lincoln Elementary to use the school’s wireless connection.

http://www.theindependent.com/news/local/students-use-local-schools-wi-fi-to-finish-homework-after/article_9f131020-7548-11e5-b575-2bf261ed3324.html

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Rural Schools Get Linked Up For College Courses

by Malinda Rust, Lawton Constitution

It’s nice, according to Fourth District U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, to know that for once the federal government has spent nearly a half a million dollars “on something worthwhile.” That “something worthwhile” is right here in Southwest Oklahoma thanks to a partnership among Great Plains Technology Center, Cameron University and Western Oklahoma State College, and over a dozen rural schools. During a trip to Lawton last week, Cole visited Great Plains to experience a demonstration of the newly installed GPNet distance learning system. Kevin Chambers, the tech center’s director of information technology, initiated a conference call using a touchscreen panel on the wall, and within minutes the auditorium of the Worley Seminar Center was transformed into a digital classroom.

http://www.swoknews.com/local/rural-schools-get-linked-college-courses

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Edraak: Expanding access to education for Arab youth online

by Nina Awad, StepFeed

Adamant to change to future of Arab youth, Edraak, a non-profit Massive Open Online Course platform, was launched by the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development in mid-2014. Edraak offers free online courses in Arabic, including courses from prestigious international universities such as Harvardx and MITx. Edraak’s mission is to revolutionize delivery and access to education across the region to enable Arab society to reach its full potential. According to Edraak, progress in the region is hindered by the growing void in critical thinking and lack of problem-solving skills. It aims to address these voids by providing relevant and customized learning content across the region. Additionally, the platform showcases prominent Arab professors and role models by “broadcasting online courses” developed by these experts in a variety of fields such as STEM and entrepreneurship.

https://stepfeed.com/more-categories/big-news/edraak-expanding-access-education-arab-youth-online/

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10 Ways to Bring Active Learning To Your Classroom

By Pamela DeLoatch, Edudemic

A report from The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology revealed that active learning, versus the lecture method, improves students’ abilities to retain information and exercise critical thinking. It also increases students’ pursuit of STEM majors in college. Research has long shown that students learn more when they participate in the process in various ways—discussion, review, practice or application. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy has also guided education toward an emphasis in creation and innovation—in other words, more active learning in the classroom. Active learning activities also take into account the different learning styles that students have, and provide activities that may better engage the visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social or solitary learner.

http://www.edudemic.com/active-learning-in-classroom/

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Newseum launches free resource site

by eSchool News

The Newseum has launched a new online educational resources site called NewseumED, which gives teachers and students free access to curated, standards-aligned content from the Newseum’s vast collection of more than 35,000 newspapers, magazines and other artifacts. The website offers lesson plans that use primary sources and historic artifacts to make history relevant today and to help educators shed new light on current debates about the First Amendment and media ethics. The resource is designed to meet the needs of elementary, middle and high school classrooms, as well as college students and lifelong learners.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/10/16/newseum-resource-site-894/

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How a blended program can change Common Core math

By Gina Piero, eSchool News

One of the biggest advantages it provides is preparing our educators for Common Core instruction through professional development, training, and information sessions. They are given the strategies they need to utilize the online portal’s resources, such as lesson plans, student activity pages, and teaching tools. It also allows us to take a blended learning approach to our Common Core math instruction. Blended learning at the elementary level is different than the traditional definition. In the elementary classroom, we typically think of incorporating multiple instructional strategies, instead of the “sit and get” instructional model of long ago. In our classrooms, educator-direct instruction is minimal and there is much more student exploration and interaction, as well as some type of technology incorporated in most lessons. It’s an approach that seems to be working.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/10/16/blended-math-core-301/

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Is there a link between dropout rates and how students thrive?

by eCampus News

Although 75 percent of students are consistently accepted into their first-choice university, only one-in-two college freshman ultimately graduate, according to vibeffect’s College Optimizer Index and research conducted when compiling the index. This discrepancy is the subject of a white paper released by vibeffect, developer of a family-centered college-decision framework that helps students identify campuses where they’re most likely to thrive. Numerous misconceptions about student success in higher education contribute to middle-low-to-low thriving among college students. Common enduring myths including low income students being unable to complete college, most students unable afford tuition, or the perceived difficulty of getting into a “good” college are often cited in discussions as the cause of the higher education dropout rate. vibeffect’s findings aim to dispel such rumors and suggest re-focusing the conversation on treating the college as an ecosystem and utilizing science to define thriving for the individual student.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/college-students-thrive-835/

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Study asks: Can math teachers teach coding?

by eCampus News

An NSF study will examine how computer science shortages can best be addressed. How do students and teachers learn math and computer science, and how can we ease the coming shortage of computer science teachers? Worcester Polytechnic Institute will partner with Brown University and Bootstrap to examine those questions. A team of computing education experts will study how students—and teachers—learn mathematics and computer science, and how those ways of learning can influence each other.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/teach-computer-science-742/

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Shmoop Debuts Dozens of Online Courses

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal

Shmoop, a digital publisher of online courses and test prep resources, has launched dozens of new courses, including a year-long program on modern world history and a new math course. “Starting with the rise of democracy and ending with…today,” according to a news release, the new history course features “intros, readings and a wide array of projects, quizzes and activities” so that “students will be able to identify major turning points in history, analyze the impact of modern wars and sniff out the roots of current world issues.” The new math course, Mathematics I, is the company’s first in a trilogy of integrated math courses, with Mathematics II and Mathematics III scheduled for later release.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/15/shmoop-debuts-dozens-of-online-courses.aspx

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Tanque Verde district finds online grade discrepancies

By Yoohyun Jung, Tucson.com

Tanque Verde schools officials have found discrepancies in the grades of some high school students enrolled in the district’s digital learning program. Seventy-nine Tanque Verde High School students’ final course grades did not match the grades and supporting documents of the online course provider, said Claire Place, the district’s spokeswoman. Those students were enrolled in online courses between summer 2013 and spring 2015 and are currently enrolled at the school. The district is not reviewing the records of students who have graduated or are not enrolled in the district. “They have their diplomas,” she said. “We don’t feel that it would be of benefit to them to go back.” A teacher associated with the discrepancies has been identified, she said. The teacher resigned at the beginning of the school year, and a report was filed last week with the state Board of Education.

http://tucson.com/news/local/education/tanque-verde-district-finds-grade-discrepancies-for-online-classes/article_3b2506fc-8663-5b10-9550-2654a17eccfc.html

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U Texas System debuts free online classes, plans more to come

by Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle

The University of Texas system became the largest public university system to offer free college-quality courses for open enrollment online, designed for high school students to get a head start on college. In October, UT wrapped up five massive open online courses (MOOCs), collectively with nearly 100,000 enrollees, which system officials said they hope will help buck the trend of soaring tuition and ballooning student debt that’s moved a university education out of reach of many Americans in recent decades. The average price for a degree in Texas has more than doubled since 2003, when state lawmakers voted to deregulate tuition, mirroring a national trend. During that time, real wages have dropped in the U.S. when adjusted for inflation.

http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/UT-System-debuts-free-online-classes-plans-more-6572184.php

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Virtual courses are the future of education in Dothan City Schools

By Jessalyn Adams, Donthan First

“Education, as we knew it, is long gone and it’s changing every minute,” says Teresa Davis with Dothan City Schools. The Alabama State Legislature recently passed a bill that will require all school systems to offer online learning. Dothan City Schools has been using virtual technology in the traditional classroom setting for years, and with this new mandate, they are looking to expand the online programs and seek out the endless opportunities. “We have to provide virtual school, virtual opportunities, virtual learning opportunities,” says Davis.

http://www.dothanfirst.com/news/virtual-courses-are-the-future-of-education-in-dothan-city-schools

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4 Reasons to Use Blended Learning In Your Leadership Development

by Darleen DeRosa, B2C

Employees today often have schedules that leave little time for training. Between meetings and tight deadlines, many do not have enough hours in their workday to squeeze in classroom time. Yet if they don’t devote ample time to developing their skills, they’ll never progress into the well-rounded leaders you need to support your company’s future growth. Fortunately, technology has propelled training to the next level through blended learning programs, which combine in-person courses with instructor-led online leadership training and self-paced methods such as e-learning.

http://www.business2community.com/leadership/4-reasons-to-use-blended-learning-in-your-leadership-development-01348545

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Online summer economics course sees 97% completion rate

by SCOTT McCAFFREY,Inside NOVA

Efforts to provide support services to high-schoolers taking a summer economics and personal-finance course online appear to have paid dividends, with the 2015 effort seeing a 97-percent completion rate among Arlington participants. Students are required to pass such a course to graduate, and for the past three summers, Arlington Public Schools has offered it online. This past summer, 149 students signed up. It is “a very rigorous course,” said School Board member Abby Raphael, who should know: One of her daughters took the online summer course two years ago.

http://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/online-summer-economics-course-sees-completion-rate/article_d19f51ce-727e-11e5-88fd-537bdf9afca9.html

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Schools debate about whether devices improve exam scores, learning

by Abby Armbruster, Daily Journal

Within the past two years, four school districts in Johnson County have invested millions of dollars in laptops or iPads for their students. The goal: Options. School administrators said having the Internet at their students’ fingertips provides them with the tools they need to succeed in the future, either through learning how to create an application from scratch, figuring out how to repair parts of a computer or allowing them to take classes that were never offered in the past. Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson, Edinburgh, Center Grove and Franklin schools all supply electronic devices to at least some of their students. Greenwood and Clark-Pleasant schools have not decided to go all-in on providing each high school student with their own device, but continue to consider the idea.

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/local_story/Schools-debate-about-whether-d_1445046063

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