Meredith Walker: Breaking Down Barriers for Girls in STEM

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal

Women and girls continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Too many young women are discouraged early from seeking a profession in these fields. Obstacles are put up — misogynistic, socio-economic or cultural obstacles. There are other factors, too. They may not know enough about the subjects involved. Maybe no one they know works in these areas. Often, girls aren’t aware of the myriad ways that physics, engineering or technology shows up in our daily lives and makes things better.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/03/14/meredith-walker.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37942

3 Ways to Help Students Build Empathy Using Technology

By THE Journal
Can your students build empathy skills even while using technology? Yes! In fact, exercises that help students build empathy in digital spaces are a crucial part of positive social and emotional learning. Can your students build empathy skills even while using technology? Yes! In fact, exercises that help students build empathy in digital spaces are a crucial part of positive social and emotional learning. Plus, using empathy skills online is integral for helping kids become responsible digital citizens. Here are three ways teachers can give students practice using empathy online — just like they would in face-to-face situations.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/03/13/3-ways-to-help-students-build-empathy-using-technology.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37934

How EdTech Makes Learning More Accessible

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

In education, material that is “accessible” meets the needs of students from a wide variety of backgrounds, abilities, and learning styles. Based on this definition, it’s clear that accessibility is vital. All students, at all ability levels and from all backgrounds, should be able to understand and learn from the content delivered in a classroom. Fortunately, the influx of edtech has made learning more accessible than ever before. Here are just a few ways that edtech makes learning more accessible:

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/edtech-makes-learning-accessible/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37926

Jefferson County middle school offering online safety classes to students

by David Belleville, KMOV St. Louis

Administrators at Valley Middle School in House Springs are teaching 6th graders a new class on the internet safety. The district is doing this partly because when students leave middle school, they will be issued laptops. Teachers want to make sure students know how to be smart and safe when they’re online. “When I get online and I see something that might be a hacker, I just do the things I learned in this class to not do it so I don’t get hacked at all,” Destiny Clary, a 6th grader, said. “If its got an update to your computer, don’t do it, ask your parents, let them do it,” she continued. Along with online safety, students are also learning about how to use online tools, such as customizing Google pages or building websites.

http://www.kmov.com/story/34984962/jefferson-county-middle-school-offering-online-safety-classes-to-students

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=25422

Indiana educators dislike bill that would require them to pay for online courses

By Rebecca R. Bibbs, The Herald Bulletin

State Rep. Tony Cook, R-Cicero, said he authored HB 1007 to allow students — especially those in more rural areas — to be able to take courses like advanced physics and calculus or those that seek industry certifications without leaving their schools. However, school districts would be required to pay part of the costs up front and pay the remainder once the individual student has been shown to have met the predetermined educational standards. “It definitely was spurred on by the fact that we have a lot of schools who can’t afford to hire a specialty teacher,” the vice chair of the House Education Committee said. “It’s kind of to broaden the horizons and possibilities for kids to take high-interest classes.”

http://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/local_news/educators-dislike-bill-that-would-require-them-to-pay-for/article_eb26aebd-f64e-54fa-ada6-104f76e627fc.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=25412

Blended Learning: How to Make It Work in Your Classroom

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Blended learning is the best of both worlds. Online courses, especially in higher education, have become extremely popular. Online courses allow students to watch lectures and complete classwork when and where it’s convenient for them. The rise of online classes has allowed adults who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend college to earn their degrees while continuing to work or raise a family. However, there are some drawbacks to online learning. Many students feel that it is impersonal. Students can feel isolated without the in-person support of classmates. It can also be difficult to get help from professors or ask questions in an online course. By combining online and in-person elements, educators today are creating the best learning environment possible through blended learning.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/blended-learning-how-to-make-it-work-in-your-classroom/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=25397

Host STEM Camps for Students with Hearing Disabilities

By Joshua Bolkan, Campus Technology

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will host week-long summer camps focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for deaf and hard of hearing students entering grades 7-9. “TechBoyz and TechGirlz camps are designed to help students learn about and consider jobs and careers in the STEM fields,” according to a news release. “Through hands-on activities, campers will explore chemistry, computers, engineering and science — even building their own computers to take home and commanding simulated missions to Mars. They also will meet other students with similar interests and enjoy social activities.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/28/rochester-institute-of-tech-to-host-stem-camps-for-students-with-hearing-disabilities.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15436

Online service guides Iowa students to careers

by Deirdre Cox Baker, Quad Cities Times

Career Coach is an online service introduced this year through Iowa’s community college network. It was purchased as a portion of a $15 million state grant and offers information on jobs currently available in a specific area, wage projections, current employment numbers, who is hiring, the approaching age of current workers and more. In the Quad-Cities, is is tailored to eastern Iowa and western Illinois. It is also localized to the other regions of Iowa that include community colleges. It is a free service and provides mountains of information.

http://qctimes.com/news/local/education/online-service-guides-iowa-students-to-careers/article_2086cf61-1357-580f-80ee-5bac21d84c5e.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15433

Online students apply skills in out-of-class engaged scholarship opportunities

By Hilary Appelman, Penn State Univesity

Penn State World Campus students, like their on-campus counterparts, can take part in out-of-class engaged scholarship experiences that complement their in-class learning. Eric Ekobeni learned how to develop a work breakdown structure — organizing a project into smaller, more manageable components — in his online Penn State business management classes. When it came time to put those skills into practice in an internship, he chose an unconventional route: helping build a school in his native Cameroon. Angela Chang, who is pursuing a master’s degree online in geographic information systems with a focus on remote sensing and geospatial intelligence, put her new skills to work almost immediately. Last year she began working with the International GIS team at the American Red Cross, using GIS to help analyze humanitarian needs in disaster response and ongoing Red Cross programs around the world.

http://news.psu.edu/story/399727/2016/03/28/academics/online-students-apply-skills-out-class-engaged-scholarship

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15429

Roll Them In: Why TV is Still Essential Classroom Technology

By Pamela DeLoatch

Many of the teachers who bring tech into the classroom use one of three tools. Smart TVs are similar to traditional televisions, but they can connect to the Internet, allowing streaming of programs, videos and apps. Apple TVs are devices that, when used with an iPad and a projector or television screen, can stream like a Smart TV, but also allow all of the information on the iPad to be mirrored or shown on the projector. Interactive whiteboards, while not technically TVs, when connected with a projector and laptop, are often used interchangeably with the high tech TVs, replacing traditional whiteboards and DVD players.

http://www.edudemic.com/5-ways-to-use-apple-tv-in-the-classroom/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/7N0hG81nWsA/

6 Ways College Students Can Better Prepare for a Career in Business

by Drew Hendricks, Online Learning Tips

While nobody should discount the value of a good education, the truth is that you’ll probably learn more outside of the classroom than anything. That’s not a knock on any institution of higher learning; they would likely reaffirm this idea. If anybody understands the importance of a well-rounded education, supplemented with hands-on opportunities, it’s the schools that offer these opportunities for learning. As a college student pursing a business degree in 2015 and beyond, it’s critical that you take advantage of available resources. Failing to do so will limit your career opportunities and potentially stunt your professional growth in the early years.

http://onlinelearningtips.com/tag/networking-with-peers/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/YQP5vp9KDFM/

Michigan study provides detailed online learning data; shows student attributes and growth in online enrollments

by John Watson, Keeping Pace

The Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, which is a center at the Michigan Virtual University®, has recently released its latest Virtual Learning Effectiveness Report. The study reviews virtual learning in Michigan during school year 2013-14. The report provides summary information showing the number of virtual courses taken by students in Michigan: 76,122 K-12 students in Michigan took one or more virtual courses during school year 2013-14, an increase of about 38% over the prior year. Some of the growth appears to be a result of data collection changes for this report, but the researchers believe that most of the increase represents real growth. The total number of online course enrollments was 319,630, an increase of about 73% over the prior year. Most enrollments (68%) were from local school districts. Online charter schools accounted for 27%, and Michigan Virtual School accounted for 5%.

http://www.kpk12.com/blog/2015/03/michigan-study-provides-detailed-online-learning-data-shows-student-attributes-and-growth-in-online-enrollments/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/JvxaZb-A4SU/

How the world’s 10 richest billionaires are shaping education

By Roger Riddell, Education Dive

Forbes this week released its list of the 500 richest people in the world. Of course, the top of the list was filled with the usual suspects: Gates, Slim, Buffett, Ellison, the Kochs, the Waltons. While these people are probably best known for their business endeavors, they also have a hand in philanthropy. Education consistently finds itself among the industries where the world’s richest people choose to give or (sometimes controversially) exert their influence. Here’s a look at how the 10 richest people in the world have shaped education.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/how-the-worlds-10-richest-billionaires-are-shaping-education/234949/

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PPPL allows high school students to experiment with plasma online

by Jeanne Jackson DeVoe, PPPL Office of Communications

Students at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South in West Windsor, N.J., were enthralled as they watched and controlled a glowing pink plasma on a screen in their classroom through a live video stream of an experiment five miles away at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The March 12 event marked the first public demonstration of an invention that fills a gap in online education by providing students and instructors anywhere in the world with a way to take part in a laboratory experiment.

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S39/51/65E95/index.xml

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

A big deal: S.C. ranked 7th in digital learning

By PHIL NOBLE, Savannah Now

No, this is not a typo or misprint. No, we did not leave out a number, and South Carolina is not 27th, or 37th or 47th. We are indeed tied for the seventh spot in the country in overall online learning. Amazing – but true. This is a very big deal – it may be the most important and positive education news about the state in the last five years. First, about the rankings. For the last three years, the authoritative and nonpartisan Foundation for Excellence in Education has produced a Digital Learning Report Card that evaluates each state on 10 different measures of how well they are doing in using new technology in education. (check out your state’s ranking http://reportcard.digitallearningnow.com/#grade0)

http://savannahnow.com/bluffton-opinion/2014-03-22/noble-column-big-deal-sc-ranked-7th-digital-learning#.Uy2BqqhdUVI

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