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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Managing Student Identities in the Digital Era

By Marie Bjerede, THE Journal

Technologies like single sign-on are convenient, but do they compromise the security and privacy of students’ data? Educators nationwide are rapidly turning to digital learning content from sites and apps, according to the Consortium for School Networking’s report Identity and Access Management: Fundamentals for Securing Student Data and Privacy. According to the report, this move is inspired by “the power of digital media to engage students in learning that is relevant to them in the classroom and beyond.” There are two areas of concern, however. The first challenge teachers and students face is managing and remembering logins and passwords for a large number of applications. The second issue is students’ release of power to third-party software, enabling the software to take actions such as sending e-mails on students’ behalf.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/08/managing-student-identities-in-the-digital-era.aspx

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Essentials for Effective Online Courses in K-12

by Nicole Gorman, Education World

Quality Matters, a nonprofit that aims to improve the quality of online education in both the higher education and K-12 sphere, has produced a guide for K-12 schools to follow when creating and offering online courses. How Can Online Education Reflect High Quality Teaching? “When you walk into a classroom, you have an instinctual feel for the quality of teaching and learning happening there, along with standards and expectations that have developed over decades. How can we do the same for online education? ” asks WeAreTeachers.com. Quality Matter’s rubric aims to help strengthen online courses that might otherwise be ineffective busy work through several recommendations that administrators and educators should familiarize themselves with.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/essentials-effective-online-courses-k-12-1397811894

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4 Fantastic and Free Professional Learning Networks for Teachers

By Graphite by Common Sense Media

Across the world, educators are turning to personal learning networks to get inspiration and trade best practices. Here are four that offer great resources for teachers at no cost. Graphite is a free service for teachers from Common Sense Media that helps educators find the best digital learning tools by presenting them with independent ratings and reviews based on rigorous rubric that evaluates learning potential.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/10/06/4-fantastic-and-free-professional-learning-networks-for-teachers.aspx

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Decatur, Hartselle planning different ways to grow virtual programs

By Deangelo McDaniel, Decatur Daily

Fewer than 90 students have enrolled in virtual classes through Morgan County’s two city school systems, but school leaders in Decatur and Hartselle expect the number to rise as they reach out beyond the Tennessee Valley. Hartselle, which has 37 students taking virtual classes, is opening its virtual doors to students from anywhere in the state, said Dee Dee Jones, director of teaching and learning.Decatur City Schools has 46 students in its virtual program and is looking to expand through more class offerings, said Tommy Davis, director of secondary curriculum/career tech. “We’re very pleased with our first-year numbers, but we see an opportunity to grow through what we are offering,” he said. Davis said 20 of the virtual program students are full time and nine are out-of-district students who paid $500 to be considered Decatur City Schools students.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/news/local/decatur-hartselle-planning-different-ways-to-grow-virtual-programs/article_50c6c3ba-2f29-54b4-b92e-ed80c639ea4f.html

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Google VP and fellow, Sebastian Thrun has the Udacity to disrupt education space

By Anand Murali, ET

India today is the second-largest traffic source for Udacity, which saw a five fold growth in enrollment for Nanodegree courses in the past eleven months. “The education system in India is very strong. The IIT’s are fantastic, they date back to the 19th century, but we now live in the 21st century; so it’s time to bring the modern technology into modern people’s lives and allow people to get educated even if they can’t go to campus,” Thrun observes. Udacity currently offers all 7 of its Nanodegree programmes in India.The platform in partnership with Google and Tata Trusts is also offering 1,000 scholarships for the Android Nanodegree to students in the country. The programmes take an average of 6-9 months and costs . 9,800 per month with the company ` refunding 50% of the tuition upon completion.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/google-vp-and-fellow-sebastian-thrun-has-the-udacity-to-disrupt-education-space/articleshow/49056826.cms

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President Obama’s New ‘College Scorecard’ Is A Torrent Of Data

By Cory Turner, NPR

Calling this a scorecard is like calling Mt. Vesuvius a hill; at best, it’s an understatement. It’s also technically wrong. What the government released today isn’t a scorecard at all — it’s a data dump of epic proportions. Here’s how it works: You can type in the name of a college here, and the site will tell you lots of old basics, including average annual cost and graduation rate. But there’s also lots of useful, new information. You can now see how much students earn 10 years after entering a school (thanks to a joint effort between the departments of Education and the Treasury). Also accessible for the first time are the percentage of first-generation students at a given school and the percentage of students who repay at least a dollar of principal on their federal loans within three years.

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/09/12/439742485/president-obamas-new-college-scorecard-is-a-torrent-of-data

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SA’s iGrow Academy expands online training courses to Canada

BY TOM JACKSON, Disrupt-Africa

South African startup iGrow Academy, which provides low-cost online vocational and soft skill courses licensed by academic institutions. Launched in September last year, iGrow Academy announced in June it had raised funding from a South African educational institution in order to expand marketing of its online courses. The startup is also expanding geographically, with chief executive officer (CEO) Jared Koning telling Disrupt Africa the company has now established a satellite office in Toronto, Canada ahead of further launches in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK). Koning said three major e-commerce players based in Canada have shown interest in selling the soft skills courses, with iGrow Academy expecting to hit more than 4,000 students in the country by the end of 2016. The startup also sees an opportunity in educating immigrants into Canada.

http://disrupt-africa.com/2015/09/sas-igrow-academy-expands-online-training-courses-to-canada/

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The Top 10 TED Talks For eLearning Professionals

by Christopher Pappas, eLearning Industry

Exploring a learning topic from a whole new perspective is a rare opportunity. Fortunately, TED talks offer the chance to dive into the minds of other educators, subject matter experts, and eLearning professionals. TED talks are inspirational and innovative speeches that delve into the presenter’s topic of choice. Each video features stories, tips, and helpful insights that you won’t find elsewhere, all packed into an 18 minute time limit. Here are the top 10 TED talks that eLearning professionals won’t want to miss!

http://elearningindustry.com/top-10-ted-talks-for-elearning-professionals

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13714

MSU’s online graduate courses for science teachers open for fall registration

by MSU News Service

Montana State University’s online graduate courses for science teachers are now open for fall registration. The courses are all part of MSU Extended University’s National Teachers Enhancement Network (NTEN). Most courses start Sept. 14 or Sept. 28. Fall courses include 13 offerings in microbiology, biology, physics, earth science, land resources and environmental sciences (LRES) and education and curriculum and instruction (EDCI). The courses are open to all teachers and informal educators. Participants can take courses for professional development or start working toward an online graduate certificate or master’s degree.

http://www.montana.edu/news/15685/msu-39-s-online-graduate-courses-for-science-teachers-open-for-fall-registration

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Redesign the Classroom to Enhance Learning

By Dustin Le, Edudemic

This article takes a look at how startups like Google, Facebook, and Airbnb have built amazing workspaces that improve employee happiness and thus (according to recent academic research) improve productivity. We then examine a few ways that schools can implement these lessons in their spaces to augment the educational experience.

http://www.edudemic.com/redesign-classroom-enhance-learning/

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Myths and Realities of Online Training

by Donald V. McCain, TD

Even after many years of online training in business, industry, and academia, there remain many myths concerning this method of delivery. Online training is impersonal. Online training can be made personal. The leader can post his profile, engage in discussions with the participants, and be available through video, chat, or email. Try using the coffee shop method by creating an informal virtual gathering place to share noncourse-related areas of interest….

https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Links/2015/08/Myths-and-Realities-of-Online-Training

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Defining College Affordability

By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

What does “affordable” even mean? And if politicians, policy makers and the public don’t have a shared understanding of what families should pay for college, can we really expect them to develop and agree on what to do about the problem. Officials at Lumina Foundation don’t think so, which is why they are offering up a simple (and, they admit, somewhat simplistic) framework for concretely defining what is reasonable for the typical college student and her/his family to pay for college.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/19/what-does-it-mean-college-be-affordable-heres-one-answer

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Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network Strives for Sustainable Classroom Engagement

by Education World

Matt Lin, currently enrolled in UCONN’s Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates, will be student teaching 10th grade at the Academy of Engineering and Green Technology in Hartford this fall. Having previously worked with students at the middle school level in Bristol and West Hartford as a science teacher during the summer, he went to the forum to gain perspective on utilizing resources that better align to student interests and attention spans. He’s always had a love for multimedia, and thinks that its utilization is one of the most effective tools in spurring engagement. He was, like many of the attendees, very excited to share and learn. “Unfortunately, it’s very difficult in a modern technology environment to, kind of, keep their attention there,” said Lin, noting that cool features can be just as distracting as they are motivating to students while using EdTech.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/connecticut-public-broadcasting-network-strives-sustainable-classroom-engagement-2067787010

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10 Emerging Education Technologies

By Pamela DeLoatch, Edudemic

Are you or your students wearing your Apple Watches to school, and if so, are you using them as part of your curriculum? What about the use of digital textbooks, adaptive learning, collaboration with other schools or flipped classrooms? These technologies represent some of the cutting edge tools and trends in education. While some are being implemented now, regular use of others is on the (not to distant) horizon. We’ve scanned the gurus’ lists and found the top technologies that educators need to prepare for in the next one to five years.

http://www.edudemic.com/10-emerging-education-technologies/

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Can online tutors make anytime, anywhere learning a reality?

By Peter West, eSchool News

Recently, I began dubbing the current generation of students the “Netflix Generation.” They learn when they want, and expect learning resources to be available when and where they need them. This is similar to the way they consume media through streaming services such as Netflix (for movies and television series) and Spotify (for music). However, this now produces other pressures. Learning outside of traditional school hours does not remove the need for teachers. If all that students needed in order to learn was information, schools would have closed once Google and high-speed broadband arrived on the scene. Students continue to need support, a human explanation, encouragement to work through a problem, and insight to take them through a mental barrier to get to the next stage of problem solving. Yet if significant learning is happening outside traditional school hours, who is available to support it?

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/08/11/online-tutors-328/

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How IT Will Elevate Educational Access and Quality

By David Weldon, Campus Technology

Education stands at a crossroads today, currently unable to produce enough skilled graduates to satisfy the workforce, but with the tools to fundamentally change the way in which knowledge is delivered, to a huge new audience, and with greater quality of learning. That is the vision of Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, who spoke at the Campus Technology conference in Boston Tuesday about the ‘Climate change crisis’ facing today’s colleges and universities. LeBlanc said he sees technology as central to the next evolutionary step in higher education, and he challenged colleges and universities to embrace and expand efforts around distance learning. The goal is not just to add enrollment numbers but to be able to offer classes, programs and degrees to those who have never had such opportunities before.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/28/how-it-will-elevate-educational-access-and-quality.aspx

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Huntsville’s newest high school brings ‘blearning’ connection with 121 universities worldwide

By Paul Huggins, Alabama

Huntsville will have a new high school starting in August, and it will be showcasing the growing trend of “blended” online and face-to-face instruction. The U.S. Department of Education found that “classes with online learning (whether taught completely online or blended) on average produce stronger student learning outcomes than do classes with solely face-to-face instruction.” Education Week’s July 13 edition had an article that said blended learning models allow “for more student-centered learning experiences” and “a powerful way to scale personalized learning.” “New learning models will continue to emerge that adopt the best features of online learning and face-to-face instruction,” stated the article submitted by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/07/huntsvilles_newest_high_school.html

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Cal State San Bernardino Powers Up With Wireless Charging

By Rhea Kelly. Campus Technology

Students at California State University, San Bernardino will soon be able to charge their mobile devices wirelessly all over campus. The school is installing the Powermat wireless charging platform in high-traffic common spaces, student union areas, study areas, and on-campus cafes and restaurants to help students stay connected to the information and learning resources they need. The next step will be a broader implementation in the university’s library and classrooms. “E-learning has become part of every student’s lifestyle with course materials, assignments and videos hosted online and accessible via mobile,” said Gerard Au, associate vice president, Information Technology Services at CSUSB, in a press release. “As mobile device usage increases, we need to extend our capability to keep up, and the Powermat platform is an important part of that infrastructure as it will allow our students to stay connected and learning all day long,”

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/14/cal-state-san-bernardino-powers-up-with-wireless-charging.aspx

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This Is What Today’s Online Learning Content Tells Us About The Future Of School

by Jordan Shapiro, Forbes

Today’s children are extremely savvy. They’ve grown up in a world where information was always just a button away. Buttons? Soon, they won’t even need buttons. With Windows 10, they’ll simply say, “hey Cortana.” She’s more like the world’s greatest librarian than a personal assistant. She delivers content on command. In the future, after children have mastered reading, writing, and arithmetic, will more formal schooling still be necessary? Because of the unprecedented access we now have to information, some folks think that online self-directed learning will soon replace traditional education as we know it. They imagine that open, web-based solutions like Khan Academy, Lynda, EdX, and Coursera—perhaps paired with a system of certifications—can address most of society’s education needs. Professors, in a world where information is ubiquitous, could become more like curators than instructors.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2015/07/19/this-is-what-todays-online-learning-content-tells-us-about-the-future-of-school/

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