Texas A&M Prof Develops AI for Adaptive Online Learning

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

A professor at Texas A&M University is developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology for creating adaptive online courses. Noboru Matsuda, an associate professor of cyber STEM education in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture at Texas A&M is currently the principal investigator on three related research projects funded by National Science Foundation grants. In September 2016, Matsuda received his latest grant for a project that aims to develop a browser-based development environment to let teachers author their own adaptive online courses without specialized training. The technology will also enable researchers to gather data about how students learn from adaptive online courses.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/10/11/texas-am-prof-develops-ai-for-adaptive-online-learning.aspx

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Library, online resources aid business

By Jeff Fox, the Examiner

A wealth of free and insightful information is available to local businesses to help them target customers, understand the demographics of their markets and look for opportunities. “You’re not alone,” Kim Nakahodo, assistant to the Blue Springs city manager and the city’s public information officer, told business owners and others at Thursday’s Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon. She was joined in the presentation by Jacqueline Reed, manager of the Mid-Continent Public Library Blue Springs South branch. Nakahodo outlined a world in rapid change: 3 billion of Earth’s 7 billion people are online now, and 75 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. Also, the county is at a demographic point that presents specific challenges to businesses trying to connect with customers. “For the first time ever, we have four generations working side by side,” she said.

http://www.examiner.net/news/20161021/library-online-resources-aid-business

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San Diego Unified School District designs today’s classroom for tomorrow’s workplace

by Cindy Marten, Google Blog

The San Diego Unified School District has more than 132,000 students across 226 schools. They’re about to embark on what will soon be one of the largest 1:1 Chromebook programs for a school district. Leading the charge is Cindy Marten, superintendent of San Diego Unified School District. We’re proud to work with San Diego Unified School District on this journey and excited about what’s to come. At San Diego Unified School District it’s our mission to prepare our students, who represent more than 180 countries and 60 spoken languages, for the competitive global economy, and we believe that integrating technology into the classroom is a core part of these efforts. To ensure students graduate with the skills, motivation and curiosity to thrive in the workplace of the future we’ve launched a over 47,000 Chromebooks and G Suite for Education, including Google Classroom, district-wide to give all students access to collaborative technology both in the classroom and at home.

https://blog.google/topics/education/san-diego-unified-school-district-designs-todays-classroom-tomorrows-workplace/

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The CIO Minute: Advice for Aspiring Female Leaders

by Tracy Schroeder, EDUCAUSE Review

http://er.educause.edu/multimedia/2016/10/the-cio-minute-advice-for-aspiring-female-leaders

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Why online learning is on the rise for your child

By Utah Online School

This story is sponsored by Utah Online School—a free public school open to all students in grades K-12 living anywhere in the state of Utah. In addition to connecting people through social media platforms, the internet strives to do even more: teach. True, people find plenty of entertainment, online shopping and social networking opportunities online, but what about learning opportunities? At times, it can be difficult for parents to teach their children without passing on their preexisting learning anxieties. When it comes to the way people learn, the tools of teaching are changing.

https://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=41847597&nid=1268&title=why-online-learning-is-on-the-rise-for-your-child

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55 Percent of Faculty Are Flipping the Classroom

By Dian Schaffhauser, Rhea Kelly – Campus Technology

Our first-ever Teaching with Technology survey gauged educators’ use of the flipped classroom model, blended/online teaching environments and more. The majority of higher education faculty today are flipping their courses or plan to in the near future, according to Campus Technology’s 2016 Teaching with Technology survey. The survey polled faculty members across the country about their use of technology for teaching and learning, their wish lists and gripes, their view of what the future holds and more. Fifty-five percent of the survey respondents said they are somewhere along the spectrum of flipping all or some of their courses, in which they ask their students to view videos or some other digital matter online before coming to school and then use class time for other activities, such as hands-on and team projects or discussions.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/10/12/55-percent-of-faculty-are-flipping-the-classroom.aspx

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Technology and Teaching: 5 tips from Bethpage Union Free School District

by David Schneider, Google Blog

About four years ago we set an ambitious goal to enable each individual student to create an individualized learning pathway, and we determined the best way to meet that goal was through providing the right technology to our students and teachers. We selected Chromebooks and G Suite for Education (formerly Google Apps for Education) primarily because of their simplicity and collaborative capabilities. In order for the rollout to be a success, we knew we needed the support of students, teachers and parents. We had to teach everyone in the district how to get the most out of the new technology. Based on our experiences here are my tips to successfully introduce new technology in the classroom.

https://blog.google/topics/education/setting-teachers-students-and-parents-success-technology-5-tips-bethpage-union-free-school-district/

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Missouri pushes initiative for students to take more classes and graduate quicker

By Ashley Jost, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In an attempt to address college affordability, Missouri rolled out a new initiative Wednesday morning, flanked with the Legislature’s support. The “15 to Finish” initiative encourages college students to take 15 credit hours each semester, increasing their odds of graduating on time and leaving college with less debt. “Lots of our students are holding full-time jobs, making it more difficult to have students managing a workload of 40 to 50 hours per week and classes,” Byrd said. “But we’ve done this already. We’ll just work case-by-case, look at their work schedule and class schedule. In many cases, our students find they can pick up an online class to get them those extra three credit hours.”

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/missouri-pushes-initiative-for-students-to-take-more-classes-and/article_9f08feea-f859-58c6-a623-ebf35fc6be79.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19478

How artificial intelligence is changing online retail forever

by Babak Hodjat, Tech Crunch

Artificial intelligence is all around us, from searching on Google to what news you see on social media to using Siri. And with the momentum around AI growing every day, it’s not surprising that some of the most innovative retail sites have recently been experimenting with the use of AI, as well. Businesses that ignore this growing trend will find themselves playing catch-up for years.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/11/how-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-online-retail-forever/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19446

Students in rural Alaska get course variety through online options

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

The Copper River School District in rural Alaska has shifted to a nontraditional schedule for high school students, giving them core courses for four weeks online and then a two-week break for hands-on electives. Alaska Dispatch News reports the shift has allowed the district to maintain variety in its course offerings for schools that have as few as five high-schoolers — there are 350 online course options with more than a dozen others offered via videoconferencing. The district has three brick-and-mortar schools and also teaches students enrolled in a home-school program, and while it employs just eight full-time teachers, aids are present for in-school classes, giving students additional support beyond their remote instructors.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/students-in-rural-alaska-get-course-variety-through-online-options/427935/

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Traditional Online Education: Comparing Their Advantages For Undecided Students

By Irina Chris, Parent Herald

It was once said by the former U.S. Secretary of Education that the best investment America could make was through education. Currently, there is a competition between traditional and alternative ways of learning, which includes online courses, but which do you think is the best option? There are criteria that need to be considered in selecting the right school for you, such as the curriculum, length of the study, location and tuition fee. If you are still confused, knowing and comparing the advantages of traditional and online education, this article may help you decide.

http://www.parentherald.com/articles/71842/20161007/traditional-online-education-comparing-their-advantages-for-undecided-students.htm

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EdX Partners Dominate the Top of Times Higher Education World University Rankings

BY JERRY HAMEDI, edX Blog

Times Higher Education (THE) recently released its 2016-17 World University Rankings list, and we’re excited to announce that eight of the world’s top 10 universities are edX partners! Among the top 10 are Caltech, MIT, Harvard University, Princeton University, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, UC Berkeley, and University of Chicago – with even more edX partners appearing on the full list. In THE’s rankings each university is comprehensively evaluated on 13 performance indicators across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

http://blog.edx.org/edx-partners-times-higher-education-world-university-rankings

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The best online study tools: students give their verdict

by Peter McGuire, Irish Times

Online supports are revolutionising learning and they may even be making learning more enjoyable. Students are taking control of their own learning. Where once it was all school, homework and grinds, the online world has revolutionised learning. In recent years, Leaving and Junior Cert pupils are taking to Khan Academy, Studyclix.ie, TheMathsTutor.ie, the Eir Study Hub and more to complement what they learn in class. And – whisper it – some of these websites, they say, are making learning more enjoyable. But what are the best resources out there and how are they assisting with teaching, learning and revising? We asked the most independent and authoritative critics of all: students.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/the-best-online-study-tools-students-give-their-verdict-1.2810540

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Rutgers launches open textbook project

BY LAURA DEVANEY, eCampus News

A new open textbook project from Rutgers University includes a grant program administered by Rutgers University Libraries that will give incentives to faculty or department groups that replace traditional textbooks with free, low-cost or open alternatives. The Open and Affordable Textbook Project (OAT) has the potential to save students across the university as much as $500,000 within its first year. At least one Rutgers course is proactively moving in this direction, business librarian Mei Ling Lo said. “Students taking the course Aggregate Economics are using our e-books this semester and the savings are substantial,” Lo said.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/news/rutgers-open-textbook/

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Learning to make a positive online footprint

by DEIRDRE KELLY, The Globe and Mail

When a student saw compromising images a classmate had posted of herself on Instagram she did what she had been taught to do: She alerted a teacher. “We do a lot of talking to girls in the school to get them to understand what constitutes appropriate behaviour online,” explains Jan Sullivan, vice-principal, student life, at Bishop Strachan School in Toronto. “The result is that the girls are now policing themselves. They have learned quickly what is good and what might be very bad to post about yourself on social media.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/learning-to-make-a-positive-online-footprint/article32108046/

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LAUSD credit recovery vendor finds strong demand for online makeup courses nationwide

by Craig Clough, LA School Report

Ever since LA Unified vaulted from a looming graduation crisis to potentially breaking its graduation record last school year after implementing a wide-scale online credit recovery program, questions have been raised about how much students are actually learning. The apparent ease with which the district was able to substantially boost the number of diplomas it handed out through a $15 million credit recovery program turned heads and has some asking if the online courses are rigorous enough. Board President Steve Zimmer has questions, as did the Los Angeles Times editorial pages and some academics.

http://laschoolreport.com/lausd-credit-recovery-vendor-finds-strong-demand-online-makeup-courses-nationwide/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19039

Interactive lecture halls enhance higher ed: Active learning in the large classroom in higher ed

by Sherrie Negrea, University Business

Gone is the stadium-style seating. Now the room, used for a wide range of courses, has 100 rolling swivel chairs with adjustable tables and nine mounted video screens. After associate professor Lois Boynton gives a mini-lecture or shows a video, student teams of four to six work on an ethical journalism dilemma. Then they regroup to present their conclusions to the full class. “I love the open teaching space,” says Boynton, who taught in the hall, Greenlaw 101, before it was renovated. “We can all see each other and interact much more effectively than in a lecture hall with fixed seats.”

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/interactive-lecture-halls-enhance-higher-ed

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=19003

Say Good-bye to the Four-Year College Degree

by Joseph Williams, Take Part

The expectation that it will take four years of rigorous study for a student to go from freshman to graduate, give or take a semester off. However, a new report on college completion by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center indicates that less than half of all full-time college students at public universities earn their bachelor’s degree “on time,” with the majority finishing more than five years after they enroll. The rate of degree completion is even worse at community colleges, with just 5 percent of full-time students reaching graduation day within the expected two years. The study also concludes that the longer a student spends in college, the more likely he or she is to drop out before obtaining a degree.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/09/23/say-goodbye-four-year-college-degree

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Jefferson Forest course trains students in technology – and puts them to work fixing IT issues

by Rachael Smith, News and Advance

At 9 a.m. Friday morning in Jefferson Forest High School’s library, about 10 students are cleaning Chromebooks with compressed air. They are only the second group to enroll in “Cavalier Tech,” a high school course designed for students interested in the technology field that also serves as an internship worth college credit. The students work together to help peers and teachers resolve Level 1 technology problems, or basic issues, on hardware and software belonging to JF and to Bedford County Public Schools.

http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/jefferson-forest-course-trains-students-in-technology-and-puts-them/article_f1c7cdb2-086c-5f71-b02b-a326dff7d9c8.html

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Scriyb: A new live streaming tool for online learning

by Washington Business Journal

Scriyb is different from other online class tools in that it uses live streaming video and allows interaction through a moderated chat room, where students can interact with each other, and a teacher can guide his or her lecture by seeing responses from the students. The chat was inspired by the chatrooms of online video games, and the streaming follows similar programing that apps such as Periscope use. It now competes against leading learning management systems like Blackboard and Canvas, but it is also designed to sit on top of an existing platform. The program takes, for example, 300 students who are signed up for a class, and then places them into groups of 30 students, whom they would interact with. It attempts to make a large class more intimate by putting it online.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2016/09/23/scriyb-a-new-live-streaming-tool-for-online.html

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