Designers Building Businesses Learn Digital Skills From These Resources

By Tracy Leigh Hazzard, INC

Designers learn business via digital means.  I want to talk about where designers are learning their digital business skills these days because: There might be options available out there you might not be aware of that could benefit you, and; I want you to succeed and I know your chances are higher by taking advantage of the resources available to you. I wasn’t exaggerating when I told you this year’s Design In Tech Report was packed full of great information. Some of the most interesting stats I read were the ones breaking down the truth about where designers are learning their digital business skills because I had some assumptions about this, and they were way off. Let’s put this in perspective: 86% of design students surveyed say they learned their digital skills from resources outside their coursework. And it isn’t only coding or design-based knowledge students are seeking, which I am thrilled to hear, because the more well-rounded you are, in terms of business and communication skills, the more successful you will be.

https://www.inc.com/tracy-leigh-hazzard/where-designers-learn-to-go-digital.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=30456

LSC-Tomball to Host Event for Students Taking Online Classes

by The Paper
Thirty-seven percent of all Lone Star College-Tomball students take distance-learning courses, those are classes taken completely online with no face-to-face component. This is 13 percent higher than the Lone Star College average. That’s why LSC-Tomball is hosting an Online On-Boarding event covering the basics of taking online/hybrid classes.  “Although this event is for students taking online/hybrid classes at Lone Star College-Tomball, it is a face-to-face event to answer questions and help students become familiar with the online environment,” Jamroz said. Understanding that some online students are unable to come to campus, the event will also be available to watch online.

http://fatcatwebproductions.com/ThePaper_2014/md-thenews/content/lsc-tomball-host-event-students-taking-online-classes

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=30446

Online learning startup Codecademy launches paid Pro courses

Cal State LA Launches Pokémon Go Health Walk

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

To promote student health and wellness, the university created a walking path throughout the campus that incorporates the augmented reality game. Pikachu and other beloved Pokémon are taking over California State University, Los Angeles as part of a university initiative to promote physical fitness and wellness for students and employees. Cal State LA’s Mind Matters initiative constructed a health walk that runs throughout the campus and incorporates the popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go. Formally called the #MindMatters Pokémon Go Health Walk, the route travels through the 175-acre campus and has players complete approximately 9,555 steps or five miles. The route includes 35 PokéStops, where players collect items to help them catch the pocket monsters, and three gyms where Pokémon battles take place.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/03/cal-state-la-launches-pokemon-go-health-walk.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16807

DeMillo on MOOCs and College Affordability

By David Weldon, Campus Technology

Technology has the potential to solve the affordability and access problem in higher education, according to the author of Revolution in Higher Education. Richard DeMillo, author and director of Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities says “We’ve gotten to this state by choosing the most expensive – and least effective – way to run our universities…. The cost of tuition is rising at four times the cost of inflation. And I don’t think that will change anytime soon.” In order to be sustainable, universities must find new ways to deliver education, he said. “One way to think about it – you’ve got this fight between a method of teaching that is thousands of years old, and something that is very different.” In particular, he believes massive open online courses will be a key part of the transformation. DeMillo envisions is the broader use of MOOCs to enroll more full time students than was previously possible – for entire degree programs.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/04/demillo-on-moocs-and-college-affordability.aspx

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16792

How much are Georgia college students saving on textbooks?

by Janel Davis, Atlanta Journal Constitution

Efforts to cut college costs are paying off for Georgia students. Students in Georgia’s public University System saved the most money of any school or school system on textbooks last year through an open publishing program known as OpenStax, a Rice University-based publisher. The savings information released this week by Rice shows that the almost 36,000 University System of Georgia students participating in the textbook program saved more than $3.5 million during the 2015-2016 school year. OpenStax uses grants from nonprofit groups such as the Gates Foundation to publish textbooks in about 20 subject areas including biology, economics, and algebra that are popular on college campuses. The books are free for students online, and hard copies can be purchased at a much lower cost than traditional books.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/how-much-are-georgia-college-students-saving-on-te/nr86k/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16779

The Ultimate Guide to Gamifying Your Classroom

By Amanda Ronan, Edudemic

No one wants to been seen as the stuffy teacher stuck in the past who lectures from the front of the classroom and doesn’t seem to care about student engagement. Students today are tech savvy and have wandering minds. They are able to process information coming at them from several channels at a time—walking, talking, and texting. Changing up how you deliver classroom content can keep kids’ attention, draw on their strengths, engage them as lifelong learners, and be amazingly fun. What is this magical method? It’s gamification, a word that, according to Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, wasn’t even in use until 2010.

http://www.edudemic.com/ultimate-guide-gamifying-classroom/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/WH6MV6SE1c0/

How IT Will Elevate Educational Access and Quality

By David Weldon, Campus Technology

Education stands at a crossroads today, currently unable to produce enough skilled graduates to satisfy the workforce, but with the tools to fundamentally change the way in which knowledge is delivered, to a huge new audience, and with greater quality of learning. That is the vision of Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, who spoke at the Campus Technology conference in Boston Tuesday about the ‘Climate change crisis’ facing today’s colleges and universities. LeBlanc said he sees technology as central to the next evolutionary step in higher education, and he challenged colleges and universities to embrace and expand efforts around distance learning. The goal is not just to add enrollment numbers but to be able to offer classes, programs and degrees to those who have never had such opportunities before.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/07/28/how-it-will-elevate-educational-access-and-quality.aspx

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This drag-and-drop app teaches coding like a puzzle

by eSchool News

New version of ‘Blockly’ app helps teachers introduce coding, programming concepts into the classroom. While the economic demand for computer science skills continues to surge, introducing coding to the classroom can be an intimidating overture for teachers without a technical background. To ease this transition, Wonder Workshop, creators of smart robots that teach students the basics of coding, has developed a new version of the Blockly touch app in consultation with education experts. Through drag-and-drop programming and diverse puzzles, the app’s new content brings coding to life during STEM instruction. Students use the app to program Dash & Dot robots to sense and react to the world around them.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/30/coding-touch-app-652/

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Technology Improves Higher Learning, It Doesn’t Kill It

By Gavin Moodie, RMIT

Online learning experts Martin Weller and Tony Bates are rightly annoyed that the MOOC-hypers felt no need to inform themselves on 40 years’ expertise and experience of mediated learning and 20 years of online learning because their self-declared “disruption” somehow made all previous knowledge about teaching-learning redundant. While MOOCs have usefully woken elite universities to online learning, which they mostly ignored for two decades, they are unlikely to “disrupt” universities any more than Gutenberg’s information revolution disrupted early modern universities. Rather more likely is that, as with printing, informal, open and online learning will be absorbed within existing universities to augment and improve their practices.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/826445-technology-improves-higher-learning-it-doesnt-kill-it/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/3B2Ss6EP9ak/

Meaningful Interaction in Online Courses

by Nate Sleeter, Inside Higher Ed

Critics of online education, especially in the humanities, often stress the importance of face-to-face interaction. It is face-to-face interaction, the reasoning goes, that makes traditional in-person courses superior to their online counterparts. Without rejecting the premise, it nevertheless seems counterproductive to think of in-person courses and online courses in strictly competitive terms. If online courses are here to stay and we in the humanities are expected to teach them, these vigorous defenses of the in-person course will not make us better online instructors. In other words if we want to make online courses better, then it seems crucial to think about how we can promote “interaction” when “face-to-face” is not an option.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/meaningful-interaction-online-courses

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/473ofG-LH8I/

How Technology Is Helping Students Take Ownership Of Their Work

By mrspepe, Edudemic

After finishing a unit about Newton’s Three Laws we decided to write a children’s book for the iTunes Store about the way that Newton’s Three Laws relate to the rides at Six Flags/Great Adventure Theme Park in Jackson, New Jersey. The students loved working on their books. Once the book was published my students were filled with pride about their work and they are constantly asking me to show them the metrics about how many copies have been downloaded and what is the geographic location of the people who downloaded them. There were so many learning opportunities that presented themselves throughout this process.

http://www.edudemic.com/technology-ownership-students/

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