Could Interstate Passport Network disrupt the transfer system?

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive
North Idaho College is the latest institution to join the Interstate Passport Network, a coalition of two- and four-year institutions which allow for block-transfer of credits between other member schools. Boasting 25 schools spread throughout 9 states, the network allows the transfer of lower-division general education credits based on learning outcomes instead of specific courses taken and passed. The network claims to be a system of support for 40% of community college students who will transfer to different schools, according to a 2015 report from the National Student Clearinghouse.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/could-interstate-passport-network-disrupt-the-transfer-system/519830/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37999

HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY TO SOLVE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS

by Michigan State University

Christine Greenhow is an associate professor of educational psychology and educational technology and the 2018 recipient of MSU’s Teacher-Scholar Award for excellence in scholarship and teaching informed by research. She is currently the principal investigator of research funded by the Bates-Byers Endowment for Technology in Education examining the affordances of robot-mediated learning for student engagement in hybrid education. In an age where the internet and social media are changing the ways we do business and communicate, it is no surprise that a professor of educational technology would inquire how to harness these technologies to solve persistent educational problems. How can we get students more engaged in their learning? How can we reach students anytime, anywhere? How can we make all students feel a sense of connection to classmates and instructor? How can we make classes more accessible, interactive, and fun?

https://msutoday.msu.edu/360/2018/christine-greenhow-harnessing-technology-to-solve-educational-problems/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37989

Navigating online professional degrees — potential and caution

By Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
When it comes to the future of learning, a debate rages within higher education circles over the question of whether certain types of curriculum can be scaled through digital technologies, as an alternative to the traditional residential classroom setting. A number of institutions already have invested in online bachelor’s and master’s degree programs — and now, there has emerged a number of professional degree programs online. The questions surrounding this trend are largely the same as with other iterations of the cyber classroom, but there’s something different about this type of education that begs this question: Does earning a professional credential in an online environment offer students the quality education they need to be considered expert practitioners in their fields, especially when the experiential learning component is reduced?

https://www.educationdive.com/news/navigating-online-professional-degrees-potential-and-caution/518847/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37979

One-to-one learning: Area schools embrace technology as educational tools

by Emma Crawford, Djournal

The Tupelo Public School District began its one-to-one technology initiative in 2009, with the introduction of laptops for seniors at Tupelo High School. All students in sixth through 12th grades received devices the following year, and the district later introduced one-to-one laptops in third through fifth grades. Starting in the fall, second-grade students also will have the devices. Jason Harris, who became principal of THS in 2011, said the initiative was still a work in progress when he arrived. Now, though, Harris said the technology has become an integral part of day-to-day life at school.

http://djournal.com/news/one-one-learning-area-schools-embrace-technology-educational-tools/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=25537

Silicon Valley staff beef up CV with tech courses, Artificial Intelligence big hit

by Swathyr Iyer, TNN

Latest data collected by the Indian wing of the Silicon Valley-based edu-tech startup, Udacity, Hyderabad, shows a rise in terms of the demand for specialised online tech courses.Artificial intelligence, deep learning, android development, machine learning, data analyst, full stack developer are some of the courses people in the city are now taking up. “This increased interest in learning specialised skills is a result of changes happening in the IT industry now and the slow recruitment and appraisal season across the sector this year,” said Ishan Gupta, managing director, India, Udacity.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/cheer-fizzles-out-silicon-valley-staff-beef-up-cv-with-tech-courses-artificial-intelligence-big-hit/articleshow/57834812.cms

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=25522

Arizona lags behind in schools’ internet access, but change is coming

By Yoohyun Jung, Arizona Daily Star

Twenty years ago, internet access was a luxury that only a small number of schools in the country could afford. That’s no longer true . However, data from a nonprofit advocating for better internet access in schools shows Arizona is still lagging. That’s not to say progress isn’t being made; a statewide initiative coupled with federal funding could boost internet connectivity in Arizona’s public and charter schools substantially in coming years. Education Superhighway ranked Arizona 44th worst out of 50 states for connectivity in 2016.

http://tucson.com/news/local/education/az-lags-behind-in-schools-internet-access-but-change-is/article_c6398795-a3b4-562b-87b5-27c4345592ac.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=25512

Campuses beware! 4 types of bandwidth-sucking apps

BY BRUCE MILLER, eCampus News

Higher education was the first market segment to adopt bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. BYOD brings with it the challenge of mixed usage, which combines critical education and business related application usage (e.g., online instruction, cloud storage, communication) with recreational application usage (e.g., streaming video, social media, gaming). When education and business mix with recreation on the same network, it creates fundamental challenges with network capacity. The network must be intelligent enough to appropriately prioritize what is important and de-prioritize (or even block) what is not.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/bandwidth-sucking-apps/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15454

Google getting serious about deep learning – Publishes free three month course

BY MUHAMMAD, Tech Worm

The course is free and will only take three months to complete, if you’re serious. Google is getting ready for deep learning and it wants you to be ready as well, which is why the tech giant has launched a three month course in order to help you learn its next level machine language. Deep learning is a machine learning technique that has become the foundation of the several services that Google already provides (this would include everything from speech recognition to automatically sorting your photo collection). The course is available to see on educational site Udacity, and could actually take longer than three months, depending on how quick you are to learn it. The course details state that if a student or any interested other person is able to invest 6 hours a week into the course, then they will be able to complete it in a period of months.

http://www.techworm.net/2016/01/google-getting-serious-deep-learning-publishes-free-three-month-course.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15451

Learn How To Code For Free Using These Top 10 Coding Lesson Sites

by Innov8tiv

In the past half a decade or so there has been a lot of concerted effort to make learning how to code a mainstream thing in the society. From boot camps, hackathons to push by civil societies to have coding become part and parcel of school’s curriculum. As we wait for these efforts to yield fruit, does it mean you will wait until the day coding lessons become mainstream especially in our public education system? Well, you don’t have to, there are plenty of sites online that can teach you how to code, and the best part you don’t have to spend much to get the coding lessons. In fact, you don’t have to spend anything at all! Well, except Internet connection and a device to connect to the web.

http://innov8tiv.com/learn-code-free-using-top-10-coding-lessons-sites/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15448

Code Studio, a free learning tool, allows Courtenay school to teach kids to code

by All Points West, CBC

An elementary school in Courtenay, B.C. is teaching kids computer programming code by using a free online learning tool. “I’d love to see every teacher doing it,” said Kyle Timms, the principal at Courtenay Elementary School. In 2013, U.K. schools made it mandatory to teach coding to children as young as 5 years old. The new course is an effort to update the country’s computer science curriculum and fill job skills gaps in the growing technology sector. Coding is not currently in the B.C. curriculum, but a new curriculum is in development.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/code-studio-a-free-learning-tool-allows-courtenay-school-to-teach-kids-to-code-1.3009591

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/FpLrnJO6DBU/

You Are the Essence of Learning, Not a School or University

by BIG THINK EDITORS

If you’re learning, you’re being taught, no matter who is doing the teaching or where the lesson is taking place (and conversely, if you’re not learning, you’re not being taught). That message reflects the mission of the Khan Academy, an online learning platform that offers free lessons to anyone, anywhere, in subjects ranging from algebra to art history. Created by Salman Khan after tutoring his cousins by telephone, the Khan Academy not only teaches academic subjects, but it also develops skills like grit and determination that are needed to take ownership of information. And this, says Khan, is what the essence of education is all about: “There’s this illusion that is created in our classical education system and even at university that someone is teaching it to you. Really they’re creating a context in which you need to pull information and own it yourself. … And when you think online, that becomes that much more important.”

http://bigthink.com/think-tank/you-are-the-essence-of-learning-not-a-school-or-university

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/kHagqSBAn4E/

Free online class helps prepare Kentucky students for college and careers

by the Lane Report

A new free online program called Take the LEAD can help Kentucky parents and community members support middle and high school students in getting ready for college and a career. The program is on-demand, allowing participants to earn their Local Education Advocate Diploma on their own schedule. Developed by GEAR UP Kentucky specifically for at-risk and underserved families, Take the LEAD provides research-based coursework to help parents advise their children on their plans after high school.

http://www.lanereport.com/46396/2015/03/free-online-class-helps-prepare-students-for-college-and-careers/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/GGiRug8wvsw/

Feeding Our Students’ Reading Interests with RSS

by Edutopia

As devices proliferate, the amount of information we encounter each day grows. Despite their access to more substantive reading material, however, our students are most often consuming what journalist Clive Thompson calls “short form” writing — status updates, tweets, text messages — without digging into other texts. How then, at a time when the Common Core asks students to “Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take” (Anchor Standard CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9), do we invite students to dig deeper, to find more substantive reading? To read critically, carefully and closely? Edutopia writers have long promoted RSS, and it is time now that we apply some of our wisdom about how to develop PLNs to make RSS reading a regular part of our students’ lives.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/feeding-student-reading-interests-rss-troy-hicks

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/2vKlO_TmHCA/

How Assessment Can Lead to Deeper Learning

by Edutopia

One key to addressing both of those issues that we understand at our Envision schools is the understanding that they are inextricably linked. While in some circles, assessment is a top-down process done by teachers who decide where students are on the continuum of learning, we engage students directly in assessing their own progress. This is part of our Know, Do, Reflect approach to learning. The reflection step in this on-going learning cycle is an essential element where assessment happens. Reflection invites students and teachers to recognize growth and accomplishments as well as identify opportunities for improvement and development. It is not separate from the learning process: It is an integral step on the path to deeper learning — it’s assessment as learning.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-assessment-can-lead-to-deeper-learning-bob-lenz

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/Et_l_749al4/

New strategy would drop college textbook costs to zero

by Carrie Wells, Baltimore Sun

A pilot program, which the university system estimates is saving 1,100 students a combined $130,000, is the latest in a shift on the nation’s campuses toward digital learning. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California State University system and the Washington State college system are among those that have built libraries of free online course materials in recent years. Still, open-source textbooks, which have been around for several years, face challenges and have not caught on broadly.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-college-open-source-textbooks-20140322,0,6567208.story

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