Students learn financial literacy

by Allison Thompson, Sheboygan Press

Ask an adult what they wish they understood more clearly before heading into the real world, and many will answer how to better manage household finances. A quick glance at Americans’ collective debt, which totals more than $11.52 trillion, proves that there are lessons to be learned. To help improve that knowledge, Kohler Credit Union has partnered with some area middle and high school teachers to provide their classes access to Bonzai, an online education tool designed to introduce students to adult dilemmas such as managing debt, reconciling bank statements, balancing budgets and making tradeoffs. The program features real-life simulations that build financial knowledge in a format that is fun and easy to comprehend.

http://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/money/2015/12/19/students-learn-financial-literacy/77488184/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14616

Take an online ‘farm to fork’ journey

by Jacy Bradford, News OK

Now more than ever, consumers want to know the journey their food takes between the farm and the dining room table. For the second time, Bailey Norwood, professor in agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, wants to share this process by hosting an online course that connects the agricultural science and the food people eat. The course, “Farm to Fork: A Panoramic View of Agriculture,” is a massive open online course, meaning it is open to anyone interested in the subject. The 16-week course is conducted completely online and focuses on different topics from week to week.

http://newsok.com/article/5467604

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14610

Best Practices for Integrating Chromebooks

by eSchool News

Chromebooks—the lightweight laptops that run software from the Internet instead of a local hard drive—have skyrocketed in popularity within the last few years. In the second half of 2014, Chromebooks surpassed iPads as the most popular devices sold to U.S. schools. Why have Chromebooks become so popular in education? What do you need to know before adopting chromebooks in your institution? Explore the information linked below to learn the greatest benefits and challenges to implementing Chromebooks in education—as well as best practices and keys to success.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/ercs/best-practices-for-chromebook-adoption/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14583

The Deepest Internet Connection on the Planet

By David Raths, Campus Technology

Do you think you have networking issues extending WiFi to remote parts of your campus? Try extending electric power and Internet service to the ocean floor three miles below the surface — the deepest Internet connection on the planet. That is the challenge the University of Hawaii had to overcome to support scientists doing sustained real-time observations in the deep ocean. Located 60 nautical miles north of the island of Oahu, the ALOHA Cabled Observatory (ACO) is the site of the long-term Hawaii Ocean Time-series open ocean measurement program, visited by research vessels 10 to 12 times each year since October 1988. Researchers use it to study ocean currents, salinity, plant and animal life, and geology.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/12/10/the-deepest-internet-connection-on-the-planet.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14576

COD introduces online learning guides for internet-based courses

by Emily Lorenz, COD Courier

The resources, found on COD’s website, range from videos to tips, to places, both virtual and on-campus, where students can go for help. These sources provide a way for students to learn all of the basics, from what type of computer they need for the best study techniques. The first two months that this resource was offered to students, 2,074 students took advantage of at least one of the resources available to them. COD’s Learning Technologies Program Specialist Becky Benkert said students using these sources have given good feedback. She feels these resources are helpful to both new and returning online students. “Students have been self-reporting that they feel more confident about pursuing their online courses after completing the orientation than they did before they began,” Benkert said. “These resources should be equally helpful to anyone enrolled in an online course. They would be most helpful to new students, but anyone who wants a refresher should find the orientation beneficial as well.”

http://codcourier.org/3588/news/cod-introduces-online-learning-guides-for-internet-based-courses/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14509

Online learning is for the disciplined

by Erik Rédli, Slovak Spectator

The seismic spread of free online courses for life-long education in some countries has caused an outflow of students from institutionalised online education. However, in Slovakia online learning is still a product offered by universities. They offer courses in management, marketing, communication, finances, human resource management and accounting. All of these fields require an active approach and constant learning, which is reflected in the profile of the students. Indeed, online study is different from day-to-day school attendance and isn’t suitable for lazy students. “Interactive online programs of LIGS University are for students who want to work on their skills and at the same time they consider their time carefully,” Dagmar Makovská, executive director at LIGS, said.

http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20064319/online-learning-is-for-the-disciplined.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14390

Why NASA is sending humanoids to college

by Kelsey Warner, Christian Science Monitor

The space agency announced Tuesday will award two Valkyrie robots, a 6-foot-tall, 290-pound humanoid, to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., and Northeastern University in Boston for intensive research and development into the robot’s applications in extreme environments. “Advances in robotics, including human-robotic collaboration, are critical to developing the capabilities required for our journey to Mars,” said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are excited to engage these university research groups to help NASA with this next big step in robotics technology development.” The space agency became urgently interested in robotics following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station incident in Japan, which the agency says “illustrated, rather candidly, how inadequate current robotic technologies are for use in highly unstructured human environments.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1118/Why-NASA-is-sending-humanoids-to-college

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14364

Tablet Shipments Decline for Fourth Straight Quarter

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal

Global tablet shipments declined in the third quarter of this year, marking a full year of contracting sales for the devices, according to a new report form International Data Corp. (IDC). The quarter saw a year-over-year decline of 12.6 percent to move just 48.7 million units in the most recent quarter. Apple continued to hold the top spot with a market share of 20.3 percent, though it also saw the second-largest largest year-over-year decline, 19.7 percent, of the top five tablet providers. That market share is down from 22.1 percent in the same period last year and total devices shipped is similarly down, from 12.3 million in last year’s third quarter to 9.9 million in the most recent quarter.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/11/04/tablet-shipments-decline-for-fourth-straight-quarter.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14249

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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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14183

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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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14168

JWCC sees success and growth in online education

by KHQA

The percentage of students utilizing online courses at John Wood Community College have doubled in the last five years from 12 percent of classes being delivered online to nearly 24 percent. Due to high demand, the college launched a program in the fall that allows students to take two classes at a time and complete their degree in two years.

http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=1180735#.VQ787PzF-Rs

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Why MOOCs Are Great for Teacher Development

By Kristen Hicks, Edudemic

For a while there, the word “MOOC” seemed to be on everyone’s tongue. For many educators who had reached their saturation points, MOOCs were the education world’s version of a song you heard every single time you turned on the radio and little by little grew to hate. In the background of all this oversaturation though, MOOCs have actually been embraced by a lot of great schools and professors. And the courses now available include a number of subjects aimed directly at teachers.

http://www.edudemic.com/5-moocs-educators-should-take-as-students/

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Enrollment in MITx MOOCs: Are We Educating Educators?

by Daniel Thomas Seaton, Cody Coleman, Jon Daries, and Isaac Chuang, Educause Review

Surveys of 11 MITx courses on edX in spring 2014 found that one in four (28.0 percent) respondents identified as past or present teachers. Of the survey respondents, nearly one in 10 (8.7 percent) identified as current teachers. Although they represent only 4.5 percent of the nearly 250,000 enrollees, responding teachers generated 22.4 percent of all discussion forum comments. One in 12 of the total comments were made by current teachers, and one in 16 were from teachers with experience teaching the subject of the MITx course in which they enrolled.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/enrollment-mitx-moocs-are-we-educating-educators

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Building a Multimodal Online Elementary Curriculum

By Jennifer Hart, THE Journal

With many states requiring students to complete one or more online courses to be eligible for high school graduation, virtual schooling has taken off in K-12 education. According to iNACOL’s Fast Facts About Online Learning, in 2013, 29 states and Washington, DC, offered their students full-time online school options. However, almost 75 percent of the 1,816,400 enrollments were at the high school level and focused on course recovery. There were far fewer student enrollments in grades 6-8, and even fewer still in grades K-5.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/01/21/7-best-practices-for-building-a-multimodal-online-elementary-curriculum.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/RuCOl1YRcOI/

Why school libraries are transforming into learning commons

By Paul Schott, The Advocate

There is no “shushing” in the International School at Dundee’s library. Students can talk; they can even get a little noisy while tapping away at keyboards, peppering a guest speaker with questions, or giving a presentation to classmates. Head over to the Makerspace and you will hear the rumbling and beeping of 3D printers churning out their latest creations. This is the soundtrack of ISD’s new, transformed library. Here, students do not stop by just to check out and read books. They visit more often, come for a wider range of activities and stay longer. It’s not even called a library anymore. Or a media center. It is now the “learning commons,” a hub for students and teachers.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/02/04/school-libraries-changing-632/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/w0KEl-7d9y8/

edX: Programming language Scratch isn’t just for kids anymore

by Barb Darrow, GigaOm

Scratch is a programming language built to help children learn basic programming skills. But now edX, the MOOC (for Massive Open Online Course) backed by top colleges including MIT, Harvard and Caltech, will offer a free Scratch course for anyone “regardless of age or digital skill.” Registration is open now for Programming in Scratch” which kicks off February 2. The course will be taught by Colleen Lewis, professor of computer science at Harvey Mudd College, a tech powerhouse and another edX partner school.

https://gigaom.com/2015/01/23/edx-says-scratch-isnt-just-for-kids-anymore/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/NNeH0Njbl2s/

Video Boot Camp

by Bill Selak, Edutopia

The rapid adoption of devices in the classroom has fundamentally changed the way we can create video. Every part of the creation process — writing, recording, editing, and distributing — is possible on the devices that can fit in our pocket. Vision is the most dominant of the five senses. Research shows that concepts are better remembered if they are taught visually. This is called the pictorial superiority effect, and it’s why video is such a powerful learning tool. Curating content is another significant way to incorporate video into your classroom. If you don’t have the time or software to make a fancy video, odds are someone has already made it and shared it on YouTube. This Film Festival is equal parts curation and creation.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/five-minute-film-festival-video-boot-camp

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Donor seeks to offer ‘freshman year for free’ through online college courses

by Nick Anderson, Washington Post

A New York philanthropist announced a $1 million donation Wednesday that aims to make that possible through an online venture overseen by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Steven B. Klinsky’s idea is for students to take foundational courses through the online venture edX that would prepare them for College Board examinations in various subjects. Those who pass enough Advanced Placement or College-Level Examination Program tests conceivably would be able to enter college as sophomores. That would cut the price of a bachelor’s degree by a quarter. Klinsky’s vision — “freshman year for free” — echoes in spirit what Obama proposed last week. The president wants Congress to approve $60 billion over the next decade for a partnership with states that would eliminate community college tuition for “responsible students” who get adequate grades and make academic progress.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/donor-seeks-to-offer-freshman-year-for-free-through-online-college-courses/2015/01/14/e4599b38-9c11-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html

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16 of the Best Blended Learning Resources

By Edudemic

In February 2014, Edreform.com published a paper on digital and blended learning that points out over “68 percent of parents support digital learning” and “digital learning has tri-partisan support, with 61 percent of Republicans, 65 percent of Independents, and 67 percent of Democrats in favor.” Such strong support may make blended learning the future standard for education. How can you make blended learning a success in your school or classroom? The following resources explore the topic from various angles.

http://www.edudemic.com/16-of-the-best-blended-learning-resources/

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