Report Examines School Internet Connectivity State by State

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

An organization that monitors Internet connectivity to schools has reported that while 20 million additional students have been given access to high-speed Internet, a comparably high number “still don’t have the speeds they need.” EducationSuperHighway’s 2015 “State of the States” report has found that more than three-quarters of school districts (77 percent) meet the widely accepted goal of 100 Kbps per student. That count was only 30 percent in 2013. The remaining 23 percent of districts leave 21 million students lacking the connectivity required for digital learning.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/12/15/report-examines-school-internet-connectivity-state-by-state.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14579

Report: Apple Device Adoption Increasing in Higher Education

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

Adoption of Mac and iPad devices is increasing in higher education organizations, driven primarily by user preference, according to a new report from JAMF Software. The report, “2015 Survey: Managing Apple Devices in Higher Education,” is based on the results of JAMF Software’s second annual survey of IT professionals in higher education organizations. Key findings from the report: 97 percent of respondents said their institutions support Mac computers, while 96 percent support PCs, 34 percent support Linux and 14 percent support Chromebooks;

86 percent of respondents said their institutions support iPads, while 69 percent support Windows tablets and 43 percent support Android tablets;

Higher education respondents reported an increase in the usage of Mac (57 percent) and iPad (29 percent) in 2015;

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/12/09/report-apple-device-adoption-increasing-in-higher-education.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14519

New term at Florence-Darlington Tech offers class credit during holiday break

BY MELISSA ROLLINS, Forence Morning News

Suresh Tiwari, vice president of academic affairs, announced during last month’s Florence-Darlington County Commission for Technical Education that the college would be offering students a shortened semester during the traditional holiday break. Tiwari said that while the term is a pilot program, the school hopes it will become a successful term. “The target audience that we are looking at is students who are coming home from various other colleges and universities to spend the holidays with their family,” Tiwari said. “Maybe they want to knock off a class from their program requirements during the holiday. Otherwise, they would just be sitting at home.” Tiwari said six classes being offered in the first holiday term.

http://www.scnow.com/news/education/article_730be5ca-9ba8-11e5-88cc-57e5db986e34.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14481

Program helps adults go back to class

By Nathan Thompson, Examiner-Enterprise

Madison Million is your typical 17-year-old dealing with an atypical situation. Million dropped out of Tulsa Public Schools because of the family issues. She said she attempted to take online classes. The adult education program in Bartlesville uses a blended curriculum format. “This is a better environment for me to learn than where I was at,” Million said. “This has been an amazing experience because I didn’t know what to expect. I thought this was going to be just like high school where there were a whole bunch of people in a class and there was no room for anyone else and not being able to get any one-on-one help. That is not the case here. The staff and teachers are great and they take the time to get me the help I need to pass the tests.” After starting the program last year, Million has taken three of the four required tests to get her GED. Her next test over math is scheduled for next week. To get to that point, she attends GED classes four times a week at Will Rogers.

http://examiner-enterprise.com/news/local-news/program-helps-adults-go-back-class

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14273

Making Lectures More Interactive

By Dennis Pierce, Campus Technology

Produced by Su-Kam Intelligent Education Systems (SKIES), named after co-founders Julius Su and Victor Kam, the app enables students to construct an interconnected web of knowledge around a topic as the professor is teaching — turning a traditional lecture format into a shared, interactive learning experience. “Students learn best not when they are passive recipients of content, but when they are actively involved in their own learning,” Su said. With the SKIES app, he said, “teachers and students can be creating and constructing knowledge together. That makes the classroom more lively, engaging and democratic — and just a great place to be. It turns into a better environment for learning.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/11/04/making-lectures-more-interactive.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14265

Pupils learn poorly when using most computer programs

by Science Daily from Lund University

“In a pilot study, we examined the top 100 apps within math and Swedish, and barely half of them could be considered digital learning tools according to our standards, only 17% of which provided some sort of informative feedback. Some were so bad that we, as researchers, would never even consider to test them in class,” says Björn Sjödén. One example is the computer program to teach parts of speech, where illiterate 5 year olds do better than those who can read. A 5 year old who quickly guesses multiple times performs better than someone who tries to read and spell correctly. “Probably more than 90% of the learning tools available online are simply test tools. They provide no explanatory information in addition to the correct answer. The pupils often compete against time, but not towards greater understanding,” says cognitive scientist Björn Sjödén.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151026112057.htm

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=14224

Take this self-assessment and discover your tech readiness

by Keith Krueger, eSchool News

CoSN has developed a readiness evaluation tool—the “District Leadership Team Assessment,” which enables your team to identify strengths and opportunities for growth. This free team assessment is part of CoSN’ s Empowered Superintendent initiative, produced with AASA (The School Superintendents Association). Complementing the team assessments, superintendents and CTOs can also measure their own skills on an individual basis through separate personal evaluations—the “Self-Assessment for Superintendents” and the “Self-Assessment for CTOs and Technology Staff.” Combined, these assessments open the door for superintendents, aspiring superintendents, CTOs, and district leadership teams to identify their strengths and weaknesses and build their knowledge, skills, and confidence both from leadership roles and within the entire unit.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/02/19/self-assessment-701/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/ztgYC1NQiP0/

Growth in Flipped Learning

by eLearning Marketplace

In last couple of years we have seen significant growth in the number of teachers who are using the flipped model of blended learning. This shouldn’t really be a surprise as the majority of teachers using this model give very positive feedback about the impact on learners and results. What is interesting though is the fact that the flipped learning model is not generally driven by leaders of schools, colleges or businesses, but initiated by the teachers themselves. In the infographic below 93% of the 2,358 teachers surveyed said they started the flipped model using their own initiative. This contradicts what we would always advise that learning and development strategy driven by leaders is the most effective way of achieving change within an organisation. In the case of the flipped model it appears that teachers themselves are driving the change.

http://www.elearningmarketplace.co.uk/growth-in-flipped-blended-learning/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/tb15IDbOEys/

Deep Learning: Gaze into the Web Abyss, and It Gazes Also into You

by John Hayward, Reuters

Americans are accustomed to the dominance of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo as search engines, but on the global stage, a Chinese service called Baidu is now second only to Google in popularity. Baidu hasn’t announced any firm plans to move into the U.S. market yet, but, in addition to the huge market in China, they’ve expanded services to countries such as Egypt, Thailand, and most recently Brazil. They’ve also recently hired away one of Google’s top researchers, Andrew Ng, a specialist in artificial intelligence who has taught courses at Stanford University.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/05/deep-learning-gaze-into-the-web-abyss-and-it-gazes-also-into-you/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/apLr54GTriU/

How Asia is Emerging as the World’s Edtech Laboratory

by Todd Maurer, EdSurge

If the US is the world’s education technology leader, Asia is fast becoming its most critical testing ground. The reasons are unambiguous: Asia has the world’s largest pool of K-12 and college enrollments with acute needs for further educational access; deep internet and social media penetration; hypercompetitive examination systems and a wide dispersion of household affordability. Yet the most profound impact from Asia’s education breakout is going to be felt on many US-based education companies, universities, investors and entrepreneurs who are operating today in what is arguably a mature but relatively low-growth American market.

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-01-02-how-asia-is-emerging-as-the-world-s-edtech-laboratory

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