Report: Educator Confidence in Technology Increasing

By Richard Chang, The Journal

Teachers still want more resources and professional development to implement tech in their classrooms. Sixty-five percent of educators expressed confidence in using digital technology in their classrooms, a 7 percent increase over last year, according to a recent survey commissioned by education and publishing company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). While 98 percent of educators reported using digital materials in their work, teachers still said there was room for improvement in implementing technology in class. Lack of funding continues to be a significant concern among educators (58 percent in 2017). Forty-six percent said they lack time “to plan for implementation of digital resources into instruction,” according to a news release; 40 percent said there was a shortage of devices in the classroom; and 48 percent of educators said they lacked “access to technology-focused professional development” (PD).

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/07/21/report-educator-confidence-in-technology-increasing.aspx

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Mira Debuts Augmented Reality Headset for iPhone, iPad at $99

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Mobile augmented reality (AR) startup Mira earlier this week unveiled an untethered AR headset for iOS. The new Prism headset — available for pre-order at $99 with an MSRP of $149 — aims to be an affordable option “to deliver premium and shareable AR experiences to the masses,” according to a company statement. It’s essentially a shell headset without any tech installed; similar to Google’s Daydream View headset for virtual reality, it only requires a smartphone or tablet to get started. Once an iPhone (6, 6s or 7) or iPad has been secured facing away from the user and Prism is paired with the Mira app, users can view objects rendered in stereoscopic 3D on the transparent visor. Prism also comes with a remote controller that enables users to interact with the AR objects via touchpad, trigger and two buttons.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/07/20/mira-debuts-augmented-reality-headset-for-iphone-ipad-at-$99.aspx

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CA Charter Boosts Personalized Learning Options for Homeschoolers

By Sri Ravipati, THE Journal

Visions in Education (VIE), the largest public charter home study program in California, has partnered with an Outschool to give VIE’s more than 5,200 K–12 homeschool students across nine Sacramento Valley counties more personalized learning options. According to information from the online learning company, Outschool provides live, online classes to 12 charter schools and networks in the United States and across 24 countries. Outschool’s online platform is designed to offer “flexible and personal homeschool, independent study and university prep programs at no out-of-pocket expense for families.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/07/21/ca-charter-boosts-personalized-learning-options-for-homeschoolers.aspx

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Student bandwidth demands create cost, access concern for campuses

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Colleges nationwide seek ways to monitor, pay for campus bandwidth as demand increases among students for streaming services. Cornell University has adopted an overage fee system for students who exceed a 150GB monthly bandwidth allowance. Blocking streaming capacity could make a difference in recruiting, as many students consider wireless access a key factor in their college choice, according to a recent survey.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/student-bandwidth-demands-create-cost-access-concern-for-campuses/423264/

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California community colleges get $5M to boost OER access

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

California Gov. Jerry Brown recently gave $5 million to the state’s community colleges to expand open-source textbook development for the system’s 2.1 million students. The funding calls for development and marketing of open-source textbook options for use in other state higher education systems and beyond. The model follows a pilot program launched among Virginia community colleges, which has saved students more than $3 million.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/california-community-colleges-get-5m-to-boost-oer-access/423268/

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Flaws in wireless keyboards let hackers snoop on everything you type

by Zack Whittaker, ZD Net

Your wireless keyboard is giving up your secrets — literally. With an antenna and wireless dongle worth a few bucks, and a few lines of Python code, a hacker can passively and covertly record everything you type on your wireless keyboard from hundreds of feet away. Usernames, passwords, credit card data, your manuscript or company’s balance sheet — whatever you’re working on at the time. It’s an attack that can’t be easily prevented, and one that almost nobody thought of — except the security researchers who found it. Security firm Bastille calls it “KeySniffer,” a set of vulnerabilities in common, low-cost wireless keyboards that can allow a hacker to eavesdrop from a distance.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/millions-of-wireless-keyboards-at-risk-of-spying-by-hackers-in-new-attack/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16433

The new frontier for Advanced Placement: Online AP lessons, for free

By Nick Anderson, Washington Post

On Wednesday, a new sequence of lessons for high school Advanced Placement courses in calculus, physics and macroeconomics went live on a free Web site founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The lessons, developed by Davidson College for the site called edX, represent a new step in the evolution of ties between the popular AP college-level program and the “massive open online courses” known as MOOCs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/07/22/the-new-frontier-for-advanced-placement-online-ap-lessons-for-free/

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North Carolina rolls out online physical education classes

by Associated Press

North Carolina’s Virtual Public School will be launching an online high school physical education class this fall. Multiple media outlets report that the state’s Department of Public Instruction announced the plan for the pilot program on Tuesday. The state says students will watch an online video demonstration given by a teacher. Pupils will then be tasked with filming themselves practicing the physical activity or sport. The state says the course could be useful for students trying catching to up on credits or for others who are homebound.

http://www.greensboro.com/news/north-carolina-rolls-out-online-physical-education-classes/article_2f4d3846-3066-11e5-b178-abe7306c3dcb.html

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A Dialogical Approach to Learning Technology Success

by Leif Nelson and Daniel L Gold, EDUCAUSE Review Online

Key Takeaways: A dialogical approach to learning technology initiatives at Boise State University ensures transparency and buy-in from the campus community. Project management methodologies add value to academic initiatives — finding similarities among business and academic processes can help create a common understanding. An ongoing dialogue between business and academic cultures will lead to success in higher education institutions.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/dialogical-approach-learning-technology-success

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Open online courses: Ready to be MOOCed?

By Muhammad Adil Mulki, Adnan Rizvi; the Express Tribune

The concept of online learning is fast picking up an audience, which is evident from the spike in enrollment numbers for MOOCs that have escalated from a million in 2012 to over 10 million as of date. The list of subjects offered through MOOCs is extensive, including everything from psychology to computer science to astronomy and history. The primary components of MOOCs include video lectures, virtual group projects, peer-to-peer assessments and social meet-ups for students belonging to the same geographical area. Timings are flexible and a course can be taken at whatever time is best suited to the student. Moreover, some platforms, such as Coursera, have also added a further option of sub-titling and closed captioning for disabled students. While there is no substitute for live, person-to-person interaction between an instructor and a student, the structure and precision with which MOOCs are designed and delivered compensate for that missing element substantially.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/736471/open-online-courses-ready-to-be-mooced/

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Accessibility-as-a-Service in Georgia

by David Raths, Campus Technology

As faculty members add online and multimedia elements to their courses, colleges and universities across the country continue to struggle to ensure that disabled students (and employees) have equal access to course material and university Web sites. But by taking a centralized approach, the State of Georgia finds itself in an enviable position. Its AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center, situated in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture, has grown into a hub for training, technical assistance and manufacture of hard-copy textbooks and publisher files into accessible media, for universities in Georgia and across the country.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/07/16/accessibility-as-a-service-in-georgia.aspx

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Wearable Learning

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

When you think about the learning potential of wearable technology, the first thing that typically comes to mind is students, well, wearing it. A student might use a head-mounted GoPro camera to film a first-person narrative, or perform chemistry experiments informed by a Google Glass overlay. Along the same lines, most of the futurist thinking regarding wearables seems to revolve around what can be done with the hardware: how students can engage by wearing the devices.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/07/17/wearable-learning.aspx

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