More kids are logging on to learn at cyber schools

By Amy Scott, Marketplace

From the outside, it would be easy to mistake the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School for a place to get your taxes done or mail a package. The downtown Erie branch is tucked away in a strip mall, across from a Big Lots discount store and a U-Haul storage center. But inside, a dozen or so kids are gathered around tables, making colorful sun catchers to understand how a liquid becomes a solid. “We are a real school,” Hayden said. “I think sometimes that isn’t the perception that people have, that we have a bunch of kids sitting in a dark room in front of a computer, isolated from the world, and that’s not what this is.”

https://www.marketplace.org/2017/07/27/education/more-kids-are-logging-learn-cyber-schools

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=30090

District wrestles with math teacher shortage

By DAVID ADLERSTEIN, Apalachicola Times

If you have three teachers, and you subtract all three, then how many are left after you add all the math curriculum requirements for middle and high school together with the total number of successful applicants willing and able to teach those courses? So far, the answer is zero. Faced with three vacancies in its math department, the district’s hopes are dwindling to fill them by the start of school August 8, particularly after a full-scale but unsuccessful effort in the spring and summer to recruit. Rather than put in the classroom another teacher unfamiliar with teaching math, or a substitute likely not certified as a teacher, Superintendent Traci Moses is moving forward with a plan she believes has the best chance of success – the instituting of a blended learning lab reliant on online technology.

http://www.apalachtimes.com/news/20170726/district-wrestles-with-math-teacher-shortage

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=30077

The Future of Learning: Personalized and Curiosity-led

By Sarah Zak Borgman, Skoll

Why should age be the key determent of where your brain is in its developmental journey? Short changing our students should not be an acceptable standard. We know children are naturally curious. They want to fully understand a topic, and have it presented in a 360 degree manner. Our education systems should follow their lead, not demand students conform to outdated and outmoded models of education. The world is a fundamentally different place now, and our education approaches need to reflect that. Khan Academy has disrupted the education paradigm by providing alternative learning opportunities that both augment what is being taught in the classroom, and allow a user to learn at his or her own pace to master a subject. Khan Academy also collects data on student performance to structure learning models according to student outcomes. Now doesn’t that sound reasonable? From learning to code and art history, to math and financial literacy, the Khan Academy platform continues to expand to meet the needs of learners at all ages and levels.

http://skoll.org/2017/07/27/future-of-ed-personalized-learning/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=30065

How this state is turning its virtual teachers into online learning experts

BY STEPHEN NOONOO, eCampus News

In Arkansas, as in most states, student interest in online learning is skyrocketing. While most students still take at least some of their courses in a face-to-face setting, the need to scale online learning opportunities for thousands of students has required new infrastructure, new curriculum, and, of course, new teachers. The state’s official response was to create a new program, called Virtual Arkansas, to manage its online courses and work with districts to find students who want to take them. The idea is to provide a full range of services, from catering to students in rural areas looking for a hard-to-find class to districts turning to online in the face of teacher shortages or budget cutbacks. Currently, about 30,000 students in the state take courses through Virtual Arkansas and the program employs dozens of teachers, whose experience with blended learning might be spotty at best.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/07/28/how-this-state-is-turning-its-virtual-teachers-into-online-learning-experts/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16472

Why Online Certifications Are Key To Professional Success

by Tomas Laurinavicius, Huffington Post

Simply put, online certifications deliver incredible returns for the investment, both in terms of time and resources. While a college or university degree takes three to five years to finish, online certification programs run for no longer than a few weeks or a couple of months, depending on the field of study. Increased employer recognition and the tangible benefits that follow from having a certification to your name have made this a popular choice for professionals around the world. According to Upwork, 54 million people did freelance work in 2015, with the number as high as 75 million in 2016. That’s 24% of the population of the United States! The pull of a freer lifestyle and flexible working hours have been the main reasons an increasing number of professionals are opting for freelance careers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tomas-laurinavicius/why-online-certifications_b_11081630.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16457

Social divide stays in online learning

By Sean Coughlan, BBC

The debate about access to computers should move to how they are used, says OECD research. There are strong social divisions in how young people use digital technology, according to international research from the OECD. The economics think tank found that in many countries wealthy and poor pupils spent similar amounts of time online. But richer youngsters were much more likely to use the internet for learning rather than games. The study argues that even with equal access to technology a “digital divide” persists in how the internet is used. The OECD report, based on data from more than 40 countries mostly in Europe, Asia and South America, looked at how teenagers used online technology at home. Access to the internet and digital technology are seen as important to educational achievement.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36835585

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16444

Homeschool and online programs becoming a popular way to educate

By ARRIEL VINSON, Indianpolis Recorder

In 2012, 1,773 school-aged students were being homeschooled, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This was an increase from 2003, with 1,096 homeschooled students and 2007, with 1,520 home-schooled students. Some parents prefer their children not attend public or private schools, in fear of their child not learning at a quick enough pace, falling behind or maybe even being bullied. For these parents, homeschooling was an option they were willing to explore. Online programs and schools are growing in Indianapolis. Some programs are more online-based, while other programs have a blended-learning approach, using online and in-person courses to teach students. Following is a list of online programs in Indianapolis.

http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/article_6dfb84c7-8d04-5f4b-b396-fc79000e1637.html

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MIT looks to stay in vanguard of digital education

By Nick Anderson, Washington Post

One way to find the future of higher education is to track the brainstormers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who often seem to be a step ahead of the pack. So it matters when L. Rafael Reif, the MIT president, says that an idea for digital innovation is “on the table.” Reif, in a recent visit with The Washington Post, said the institute is pondering whether to launch new online education programs that would generate revenue. “All this is on the table,” he said, “and we’re exploring it.” Such programs, Reif said, could help subsidize the operation of the campus in Cambridge. “Yes, of course,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it.” Reif, a fervent believer in residential education as well as online innovation, said he is continually looking to generate revenue that can “support the mother ship.” Exactly what form these online programs would take remains to be seen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/07/23/mit-looks-to-stay-in-vanguard-of-digital-education/

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MIT Offering Free Poker Class Online

by Ed Scimia, Cards Chat

If you want to improve your poker game, there is an endless supply of books, videos, forums and online streams out there that can help you take your skills to a new level. But few of them have the kind of clout that comes from a class offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The new course, known as Poker Theory and Analytics, is taught by Kevin Desmond. Over the course of eight video lectures, viewers are introduced first to the basic strategies of poker and then to more complex decision making skills. As a graduate-level course, the material can get pretty advanced at times, but there’s plenty of guidance to help you follow along.

http://www.cardschat.com/news/mit-offering-free-poker-class-online-13971

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/Lyu2jdrsWgM/

How to Survive a Cyberattack

By Phil Hardin, THE Journal

Here’s how a North Carolina district responded to a denial-of-service attack that came from one of its own schools. At 7:45 a.m. on Monday, April 8, 2013, 23,000 network users in the Rowan-Salisbury School System’s 35 schools were accessing their Web-based curriculum resources and administrative applications when suddenly all Internet connectivity stopped. The outage lasted for about an hour. Teachers had to quickly switch their lessons to a Plan B, since most had components that required Internet access. Internet connectivity returned briefly, but suddenly went down again for another hour. The Internet would go down for a third time before school ended.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/07/16/how-to-survive-a-cyberattack.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/ACQhtC6_JKI/

10 ways to tell you’re a tech-savvy educator

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

Technology is a necessary part of formal and informal learning today. After all, students will need tech skills as they move into college and the workforce. Using tech in the classroom today will help students develop and build those essential tech skills so that they can compete on a global scale. What does it mean to be a tech-savvy educator? Research and studies point to 10 distinguishing characteristics [2].

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/07/21/tech-savvy-educator-032/

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3 secrets to a successful digital transformation

By Frank Portanova, eSchool News

In just one year of becoming all-digital, the Stepinac academic probation rate was cut in half. During the 2013-2014 school year, Archbishop Stepinac High School became an all-digital high school, with each of its 700 students utilizing a fully digital textbook library with more than 40 academic textbooks. This transformation has driven efficiencies in our school, created a more personalized learning environment for our students and, most importantly, has positively impacted student outcomes. I have highlighted three of the most valuable lessons we learned.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/07/22/school-digital-transformation-395/

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