How to Make Online Learning Work for You

 

by Jenny Sakr, Career Faqs

Online learning has a different set of requirements and can demand more motiviation, self-discipline and a greater level of commitment than heading to class on-campus. On the other hand, if you’re juggling a full-time job and other commitments, online study means greater flexibility. “Students often assume online programs require less work and are easier than on-campus courses. In reality, online classes are designed to be equally as rigorous and demanding as traditional courses. You need to genuinely apply yourself to get through.”

https://www.careerfaqs.com.au/news/news-and-views/make-online-learning-work-for-you

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=38879

5 Things That Every Educator should Know about Digital Equity

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

First, stereotype threat is a real problem. This occurs when student performance is negatively impacted when students are reminded of stereotypes about various groups. This means that teachers need to be extra vigilant to ensure that digital media does not include harmful stereotypes, such as the idea that women are not good at math. Educators need to carefully vet images, videos, and written materials to ensure that they undermine–and do not promote–stereotypes.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/5-things-that-every-educator-should-know-about-digital-equity/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=38864

Goodbye, Passwords: Future Internet Demands Biometric Readings And Dorky Lanyard Security Keys

by Victor Tangermann, Futurism

Not only are passwords obsolete, they in fact pose a huge risk.  Luckily, the FIDO (“Fast IDentity Online”) Alliance is coming to the rescue. The organization developed a brand new standard called “Web Authentication” – WebAuthn, Motherboard reports. Now any web site that uses the application interface could require users to log in with at least two or more steps of authentication, with the ability to use biometric data for one or more of them. Now that basically every recent smartphone is equipped with at least one kind of biometric sensor— fingerprint-readers, facial recognition software in the cameras — the time is finally ripe. WebAuthn is easy enough to use on a smartphone, then, but what about devices that don’t have a fingerprint or face-reading device? This is where things aren’t quite so seamless — they’ll need an external piece of hardware to comply with the WebAuthn standard. Security hardware companies such as Yubico have developed hardware keys that act like a USB-stick-like authenticator.

https://futurism.com/passwords-biometric-security-keys/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=38854

UC-Berkeley removing resources not compliant with accessibility standards

by Pat Donachie, Education Dive

The University of California at Berkeley is removing older videos, recordings and other resources from public platforms in accordance with a January ruling from the U.S. Department of Justice that all public online content must be accessible to all viewers, including those with disabilities, under federal law, University Business reports. Higher education institutions are not required to abide by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, but often choose to adhere to the standards, and most of Berkeley’s content since 2015 has been captured in a manner that meets accessibility standards. Though content that is not appropriately accessible will not be available to the public, UC-Berkeley students, teachers and staff will be able to log in to YouTube via school-supported IDs for continued access.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/uc-berkeley-removing-resources-not-compliant-with-accessibility-standards/440994/

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UM is offering an online course to teach the public on how fake news can be spotted

by Audri Taylors, UniversityHerald

Fake news has been everywhere, constantly confusing and misleading people from the truth. And now, they are even more difficult to spot, for which reason the University of Michigan prepares to offer an online course to help their citizens be equipped on effectively spotting fake news. The faculty members of University of Michigan is offering a free online course on Friday, April 21 entitled “Fake News, Facts, and Alternative Facts” on the edX website, Michigan Radio reported. This is the website that universities use to offer free online classes to the public. According to Brian Weeks who teach communication studies, it is good that Google and Facebook are launching new tools to better help the public be informed on how to distinguish what is true and what is not. He believes that one way to do it is through citizen education.

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/73355/20170419/university-michigan-offers-online-class-help-citizens-identify-fake-news.htm

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=26620

17 of our favorite Raspberry Pi projects

by ZDNet

It’s surprisingly easy to build your own retro gaming console, media center and smartphone — all from scratch. We’re big fans of the Raspberry Pi here at ZDNet. These inexpensive mini computers are amazing — you can turn them into retro gaming consoles, printer, media servers, smart speakers, and more. Making your own electronics from scratch may seem daunting at first, but we promise: There are plenty of simple, easy, and inexpensive Raspberry Pi projects that don’t require you to code. They’re great for tinkerers and makers of all ages. Here are our favorite projects.

http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/raspberry-pi-projects-you-can-build-retropie-kodi/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=26666

Securing online identities with keystroke dynamics

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

In higher education institutions, which are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than those in other industries, identifying people by how they type could be another key privacy tool for IT administrators. Ed Tech reports keystroke dynamics are a low-cost layer of user authentication that doesn’t require individuals to learn anything new or memorize complicated instructions. While malware that logs keystrokes presents a challenge for adoption, KeyTrac CEO Thomas Wölf says no one can type the exact same way twice, meaning identical keystrokes are relatively easy to recognize as coming from a keylogger.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/securing-online-identities-with-keystroke-dynamics/417778/

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Tracking student emotions ‘could improve online retention’

By Chris Havergal, Times Higher Education

Monitoring the emotions of students during online learning could help to improve retention and course design, researchers believe. Academics at the Open University are developing tools to analyse learners’ emotional responses to online programmes, using either self-reporting or automated technologies. These could include using webcams to monitor engagement and emotions via students’ facial expressions or eye movements. But Bart Rienties, reader in learning analytics at the OU, told Times Higher Education that students would need to be convinced that the educational benefits of monitoring emotions outweighed the potential loss of privacy.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/tracking-student-emotions-could-improve-online-retention

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15675

Drawing up the Details of Classroom AV Systems

By Mike Tomei, Campus Technology

From floor plans and lighting zones to mounting specs and viewing angles, detailed AV design drawings will help keep your classroom audiovisual installation on track. The design development phase of the project lays out mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural and architectural details relating to the audiovisual systems. The technical AV system design drawings are also created at this time. The phase relies on the deliverables from the schematic design phase (the AV program report and opinion of probable cost) as the basis of subsequent design. This is why the schematic design phase, and more specifically the AV program report, are so important: Working off of a structured, thorough and approved program report/OPC is key for the design development phase deliverables and can really reduce the number of revisions made in the process.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/20/drawing-up-the-details-of-classroom-av-systems.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15671

10 free apps to build logic skills

By Stephen Noonoo, eSchool News

These days, logic games aren’t all crosswords and pairs matching, especially not on mobile devices. Dozens of challenging and engaging puzzles, games, and brain teasers are available, and a surprising number are free—either fully or via trial versions. The website APPitic.com, an app resource site with more than 6,000 apps in more than 300 subcategories, offers a number of apps pertaining to logic and gaming. Here, we’ve gathered a handful of those apps, and you can access more on the APPitic site.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/04/24/logic-apps-932/

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Teach students to learn by doing with Google school coding clubs

By Janice Mak, eSchool News

The support from Google CS First is tremendous. Upon request, they sent a loaner set of 30 headphones and peripheral materials for the students that included passports, sticker-badges for each day’s modules, detailed scripts, certificates of completion, and directions for exercises. All materials are also available for free download from the club site, with coding done in Scratch, a programming language that uses building blocks to form commands. All of these supporting materials make it seamless for anyone, be it a volunteer guru, teacher, or parent to come in and help out. A suggested script, as well as breakdown of time for each activity, is also included.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/04/23/google-cs-first-332/

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What Will Keep the CIO Pipeline Flowing?

By David Raths, Campus Technology

What skills and training will the next generation of CIOs require as technology becomes an essential part of teaching and learning? Where will those CIOs come from? Are they already working in university IT departments? Those are some of the questions that Wayne Brown, vice president and CIO at Excelsior College (NY), has sought to answer as founder of the Center for Higher Education Chief Information Officer Studies (CHECS). Since 2009, the nonprofit CHECS has been surveying CIOs and the technology leaders who work under them, as well as institutional leaders who hire CIOs, to provide insight into the career path of individuals in or aspiring to technology leadership positions in higher education.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/23/what-will-keep-the-cio-pipeline-flowing.aspx

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Google for Education is a technology trend to watch!

By Kelly Grillo, eSchool News

Developers at Google are not only giving Google Apps to K-12 schools, they are supporting schools with the new Google Console, through which anyone can serve as the IT Director. Google for Education has just partnered with Synnex Global, a super-giant Fortune 500 Company that supports IT procurement through valued-added resellers. Google is making IT deployment easy and affordable in schools so that all education professionals can focus on what matters most–student learning. Google and Synnex are positioned to deliver. Here are three reasons to move to Google Apps.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/04/23/google-education-technology-234/

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College Major Return on Investment

By Jaccii Barmer, eCampus News

STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects lead the majors with the highest earning potential. Eight out of ten top earning majors are engineering-based, with starting salaries ranging from about $103,00 for #1, Petroleum Engineering, to $61,000 for #10, Mechanical Engineering. According to the 2013-2014 Pay Scale College Salary Report, the top STEM majors earn about three times more than the average for non-STEM graduates. Another PayScale report ranks schools in terms of overall return on investment. Institutions with more STEM degrees were calculated to have higher return on invests in general. 46 schools are listed as having a negative return on investment, including 23 public state schools and 23 private, for-profit colleges.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/colleges-return-on-investment-169/2/

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25 Highly Rated (And Free!) Mac Apps For The Classroom

by Jeff Dunn, Edudemic

Wherever you look in education, there is talk about iPads, iPhones, and other Apple devices. Apple TVs and the iPod Touch are popping up in classrooms all around the globe. But what about all those people using the iMac or MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and other Macs? That’s why we’ve assembled this list of 25 top-rated education apps that are both free (woo!) and for the Mac (finally!). They range in purpose but are altogether a solid bunch of characters you should consider trying out and perhaps adding to your personal or classroom computer. Best of all, they’re free and all are pretty popular so they’re well maintained (fewer bugs) and well documented (easy to get started).

http://www.edudemic.com/mac-apps-for-the-classroom/

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