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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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14130

10 things all great online educators do

By Barbara A. Popp, eSchool News

It’s no secret that virtual education has become more and more widespread, with new online schools popping up regularly and brick-and-mortar institutions adding a blended component. With that in mind, certain strategies, tips, and guidelines have been proven to help instructors begin what can seem like an overwhelming task—teaching a course without ever even needing to physically see her students. Throughout my years of experience, I’ve compiled a list of ten best practices and tips that I believe can help save instructor time.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/10/08/online-educators-585/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14030

Collaborative Aims To Plot Pathways for Women of Color in STEM

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

A consortium of 10 colleges and universities and nine non-profits is aiming to get more women and girls of color involved in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The new National STEM Collaborative will develop tools and online workshops, train hiring managers and others in addressing bias, build a database of programs to support women of color in STEM majors and highlight research to derive best practices. The work will be led by Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology (CGEST), based at Arizona State University. The center’s executive director, Kimberly Scott, will run the program. Scott founded CompuGirls, a technology program for girls in grades 8-12 to learn about digital media, game development and other technical areas.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/09/23/collaborative-to-plot-pathways-for-women-of-color-in-stem.aspx

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15 Useful DIY Professional Development Resources for Teachers

By Joy Nelson, Edudemic

Teaching is a constantly evolving profession; new ideas and new techniques that may help you become a more effective educator are constantly emerging. However, ongoing training for teachers often comes in the form of expensive conferences that are beyond the district’s budget. What’s more, too much PD can feel like a distraction and a chore when balanced with your significant teaching load – all the more so when you finally schedule time for it, only to find the course you’ve chosen isn’t as useful as you would have hoped. How can you both find a way to make time for professional development and ensure you’re finding the best courses out there? The list of resources linked below may help.

http://www.edudemic.com/professional-development-resources-teachers/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13855

LinkedIn Open-Sources FeatureFu, A Toolkit For Building Machine Learning Models

by Frederic Lardinois, TechCrunch

LinkedIn today announced that it is open-sourcing an internal tool called FeatureFu. The FeatureFu toolkit is meant to make it easier for developers to build their machine learning models around statistical modeling and decision engines. The idea here is to take LinkedIn’s knowledge around “feature engineering” and make it accessible to developers outside of the company. In machine learning, feature engineering is basically using your detailed knowledge of the phenomenon you are looking at and then using that to build machine learning models. LinkedIn argues that most large-scale recommendation systems (think LinkedIn’s own tools for suggesting connections on its site) are managed by at least two teams: one that handles the offline modeling and one that takes care of the online feature-serving/model-scoring part of the system.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/04/linkedin-open-sources-featurefu-a-toolkit-for-building-machine-learning-models/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13765

Online learning: Hundreds of NC students head back to school virtually

by WNCN

Monday marked the first day back to school for many children around our region, but instead of raising their hand for roll call, about 1500 students just logged in online. WNCN’s Alyssa Corfont spoke with leaders of the groundbreaking new programs to find out more about how online academies work and answer some common questions parents might have. While the virtual schools may be nontraditional, they will follow the traditional school calendar. Like a bricks-and-mortar classroom, live lessons are led by teachers. But unlike a traditional classroom, kids are learning from their own homes, or anywhere they can get an internet connections.

http://wncn.com/2015/08/19/online-learning-hundreds-of-nc-students-head-back-to-school-virtually/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13645

6 Questions to Ask About Faculty in an Online Graduate Engineering Program

By Ian Quillen, US News

The life of an online engineering student isn’t that different from an on-ground one. Many online classes, heavily mathematical in nature, lend themselves easily to a live or archived lecture followed by a problem set students have to complete independently. Labs are sometimes more difficult to replicate online, but often students fulfill those with periodic campus visits. Because the course content translates easily, experts say, engineering schools have had a head start on making an online option available for students. But that doesn’t mean students should settle for programs that aren’t thoughtful about how to turn quality in-person instruction into an equally fulfilling virtual experience. Here are six questions to ask that may shed light on the quality of instruction in an online engineering graduate program.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/08/10/6-questions-to-ask-about-faculty-in-an-online-graduate-engineering-program

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=13563

Study: Prospective Students See Online Education As Career Booster

by iSchool Guide

A new report revealed prospective students prefer blended programs, schools with nearby campuses, and see online programs as career booster. The growth of online education, in which enrollment increases at 1 percent annually, is fueled by factors like flexibility and the credentials that help students earn more. The Aslanian Market Research and The Learning House, Inc. have released a new report on online learning, which revealed that students find such as a pathway for boosting their career prospects. It further showed that college students prefer blended programs and find schools with nearby campuses, as well. The fourth annual survey also found that fewer students are attending college in recent years, which it attributed to the still-recovering economy and the declining unemployment rate.

http://www.ischoolguide.com/articles/19762/20150727/prospective-students-see-online-education-career-booster.htm

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Stumped by AP calculus? Click on Davidson College’s online help

BY ANN DOSS HELMS, Charlotte Observer

Davidson College is out to make the planet a bit smarter – or at least more successful on Advanced Placement calculus, physics and macroeconomics exams. The edX High School Initiative just started offering free online lessons on the concepts most likely to trip up high school students who tackle these brain-busting college-level tests. The interactive lessons were designed by Davidson professors, with teachers and students from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as guinea pigs. While the Internet teems with online lessons, it’s hard to find ones that match the AP curriculum and the College Board’s exams, said Bruce Bacon, an AP calculus teacher at South Mecklenburg High. The videos created by Davidson professors “hit the sweet spot,” he said.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article28702138.html

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Homeschool and online programs becoming a popular way to educate

By ARRIEL VINSON, Indianpolis Recorder

In 2012, 1,773 school-aged students were being homeschooled, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This was an increase from 2003, with 1,096 homeschooled students and 2007, with 1,520 home-schooled students. Some parents prefer their children not attend public or private schools, in fear of their child not learning at a quick enough pace, falling behind or maybe even being bullied. For these parents, homeschooling was an option they were willing to explore. Online programs and schools are growing in Indianapolis. Some programs are more online-based, while other programs have a blended-learning approach, using online and in-person courses to teach students. Following is a list of online programs in Indianapolis.

http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/article_6dfb84c7-8d04-5f4b-b396-fc79000e1637.html

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Spicing Up Student Learning With History and STEM Podcasts

By Leah Levy, Edudemic

Podcasts have been around for a long time now, but they have only just begun to surge into mainstream popularity. That’s all thanks to a little podcast called Serial, a true crime program that reopened investigation into the murder of a high school student committed in 1999. With tens of millions of downloads, this podcast is officially the most popular of all time. To those of us who are longtime podcast fans, the potential of the medium to both captivate and set minds whirring is no surprise. There are so many great podcasts out there, that we found we couldn’t narrow them all down into one article. Let’s take a look at some of the greatest podcasts to adapt for classroom and at-home learning within the fields of History and STEM, and we’ll follow up with other subjects in coming weeks.

http://www.edudemic.com/learning-history-stem-podcasts/

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Florida districts monitor early warning indicators

by eSchool News

Performance Matters solution aims to help administrators identify struggling students. In Florida, all schools that include grades 6, 7 or 8 are now required to implement an early warning system to identify students who need additional support to improve academic performance and stay engaged in school. The early warning system must include the following indicators: attendance below 90 percent, suspensions, and course failure or a Level 1 score on state tests in English language arts or mathematics. When a student exhibits two or more of these early warning indicators, a school-based team must convene to determine appropriate intervention strategies.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/06/04/early-warning-indicators-652/

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20 Education Administrator Blogs

By Pamela DeLoatch, Edudemic

It’s not easy being a school administrator. As leader of your school or department, it may be difficult to find peers you can confide in, discuss challenges or get insights. That’s why it’s great to tap into the opinions, knowledge and research of education administrator blogs. Most of these blogs are written for and by administrators, and can open up a conversation and help you connect with others who, like you, work to provide the best educational opportunities for your students. Others blogs are written from people who aren’t in the trenches, and can provide a different, but necessary perspective.

http://www.edudemic.com/admin-blogs/

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5 Key Ways To Stretch Your Tech Budget

By Chet Bembenek, THE Journal

The Columbus School District in Wisconsin serves a small community south of Madison, with only three schools and 1,300 total students — about 30 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In other words, we’re just a typical small school district trying to make the most of our limited ed-tech budget. Despite our modest means, we have a fairly robust technology infrastructure. A 10-gigabit fiber backbone connects our three school buildings, all of which have wireless access. We have 100 Mbps of bandwidth out to the public Internet, and we’re bumping that up to 300 Mbps soon. We’re also on our way to having one device for every student in grades 1 through 12 next year. We’ve built out our IT infrastructure with the help of a few simple strategies. Here are five recommendations based on our experience.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/04/09/5-key-ways-to-stretch-your-tech-budget.aspx

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