Are your college or university’s website images ADA compliant?

by Rebecca Blanchette, Carnegie Com

As higher ed institutions assess their website’s accessibility, images are a big factor for both ADA compliance and SEO. When it comes to ADA compliance on your website, images are a huge factor that must be addressed to ensure accessibility. Not only that, but making your images accessible can also make them more visible in search engines. In some ways, SEO and ADA compliance for your website actually go hand-in-hand. When a screen reader hits an image on a web page, it reads aloud that image’s alt tag or text. If you’re familiar with SEO at all, think of this as the meta description for your image. If your image does not have alt text, then the screen reader will pass it by, meaning that your site is not accessible to all users.

https://www.carnegiecomm.com/blog/are-your-college-or-universitys-website-images-ada-compliant/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37187

Do women in STEM experience hostile work environments?

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Women in STEM jobs are more likely to experience hostile work environments, including discrimination and sexual harassment, according to a new nationally-representative Pew Research Center study. Research in the study reveals that gender “is perceived as more of an impediment than an advantage to career success.” Women in three particular groups are more likely to see workplace inequities: women who are employed in STEM settings where men outnumber women, women who work in computer jobs, and women who hold postgraduate degrees.

Do women in STEM experience hostile work environments?

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37167

How to flip faculty development in higher ed

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The ‘flipped classroom’ is a phenomenon that college professors often use to vary and to enhance their students’ learning experience. It involves asking students to engage with content such as a video or an online article before the class, rather than (as is traditionally the case) introducing these learning materials in the class itself, and then using the class solely as discussion time for analyzing these digital materials. Flipping the classroom is often also known as blended learning as it blends class based and home-based learning, and online and offline learning materials. It is called flipped learning because it flips the traditional structure of the class. Did you know that this teaching tool can also be used to promote good quality faculty development? Here are three ways to flip faculty development in higher education.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/flip-faculty-development-higher-education/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=37177

Report: Collaborative learning, mobile access not major part of college study culture

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

A survey of more than 2 million college students worldwide reveals that a majority of learners are more comfortable studying on their own, and they’re not using mobile technology to access materials or lessons outside of the classroom. The survey revealed that the United States offered the most online learning tools and modules, but students in Brazil were mostly likely to use online tools to learn collaboratively, and Colombia was the world’s most active nation in content creation for academic sharing. English is the world’s most popular online subject outside of the United States, followed by S.T.E.M. subjects.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/report-collaborative-learning-mobile-access-not-major-part-of-college-stu/436850/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=24374

Online course helps aid workers help women and girls

by United National Population Fund

An online course for humanitarians is raising new awareness about women’s needs and vulnerabilities in emergency-affected communities around the world. “It acted as an eye opener, and it made me realize that gender-based violence can happen to anybody,” said Rebecca Oketch of Fortress of Hope, a girls’ rights organization in Kenya. “Now I treat survivors with dignity and respect rather than victim-blaming.” The free UNFPA course, Managing Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies, helps humanitarian workers understand the risks women and girls face in crisis settings. It also encourages better support for survivors of violence and helps to prevent violence from happening in the first place.

http://www.unfpa.org/news/online-course-helps-aid-workers-help-women-and-girls

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=24359

Using Gamification in Education Leadership Development

by Matthew Lynch, Edvocate

The idea of leadership development doesn’t often bring a sense of excitement. Most educators expect training and development activities to remain in the old paradigm with an instructor standing in front of a classroom. Overall, it isn’t a very inspiring image. But, what if there was a better way to get the same information across while keeping everyone engaged in the process? In fact, there is. And it’s called gamification.

http://www.theedadvocate.org/using-gamification-in-education-leadership-development/#mce_temp_url#

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=24339

This top-rated online course will help you create your own Android apps

By Daniel McDonald, Daily News X

Anyone paying attention to the mobile marketplace knows that there’s big money to be made in developing and launching apps. Whether you think you have an idea for the next Candy Crush or Uber or Postmates, taking your app from abstract thought to touchscreens across the world is a big undertaking, but not out of reach. For any Android users hoping to get their app on the market, or for any iPhone coders that want to expand outside of the Apple Store, Udemy is offering a course entitled Android 6: Master Android Marshmallow Development With Java that could be of great service to you. Marshmallow, released last October, is the latest edition Android and the most popular OS in the world.

http://www.dailynewsx.com/news/life-style-news/this-top-rated-online-course-will-help-you-create-your-own-android-apps-47926.html

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15219

California State University seeks new online learning system

by Kayla Nick Kearney, State Scoop

The California State University system is on the hunt for companies interested in offering a new online learning platform to its students. The RFP is part of a larger effort to offer professors access to technology that helps students learn. Kathy Fernandes, lead for the CSU project, wrote in an email to StateScoop that dependability in an LMS is critical. The California State University system is on the hunt for companies interested in offering a new online learning platform to its students. Earlier this month, it issued a request for proposals for a new learning management system that could potentially serve its 23 campuses. It closes the solicitation Monday evening. The RFP is part of a larger effort to offer professors access to technology that helps students learn. Kathy Fernandes, lead for the CSU project, wrote in an email to StateScoop that dependability in an LMS is critical.

http://statescoop.com/california-state-university-seeks-new-online-learning-system

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15216

Are MOOCs the future of education?

by the Aquinian

Imagine if you could lay in bed all day, not have to talk to people, pick and choose what you want to learn, and still get an education at your own pace – for free. Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are kind of like that. They are online university courses open to the masses and accessible online. To some, MOOC sounds like the name of a goofy cartoon character, but to many, these are considered to be the future of higher education. For Ryan Elliott, 26, MOOCs provide him with extra bits of education that compliment his job as a fulltime instructor at the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School. “Being a good student is essential in being a good instructor,” he said. Elliott is taking two MOOCs on Ancient Chinese philosophy and Sustainable Urban Development through edX, as well as Physics through Udacity. He is also studying trigonometry, calculus and algebra on a similar program, Khan Academy.

http://theaquinian.net/mooc/

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=15213

How can games support classroom practice?

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

A new study reveals that scoring systems and player progress dashboards are among common game traits that can help educators more effectively track student learning, but game design must improve to help inform teachers about the link between student play and academic gains. The study, the second in a series about games in the classroom, comes from the A-GAMES project, a collaboration between the University of Michigan and New York University that studies how teachers use digital games to support student learning and formative assessment.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/02/25/games-classroom-practice-032/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/dWtkDLT7po0/

5 steps to move technology purchasing into the 21st century

By John Carver, eSchool News

Choosing and buying the right technology can be a daunting process, especially if you don’t know where to begin technology-procurement. With marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Google Marketplace, AirBNB, and OpenTable, it’s quite conceivable to think purchasing educational technology for the 116,000 schools across the United States in a $12B market would be as easy as buying a toothbrush online. Point. Click. Buy. Rather the opposite is true. Ed tech procurement is a very analog process in a very digital world. I have seen this as Superintendent of the Howard-Winneshiek Community School District (Howard-Winn) in rural northeast Iowa. Investments in ed tech companies reached historic levels rising to $2 billion in 2014. The choice and innovation is great, but finding and buying even simple things can tax our resources.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/02/25/technology-purchasing-571/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/JA5dt9qeQQw/

Even more higher-ed IT services moving to the cloud

by Laura Devaney, eCampus News

Study highlights IT’s necessary role in moving higher education to the cloud. A new report reveals that 39 percent of surveyed higher education IT services are delivered totally or partially by cloud, and of that 39 percent, 53 percent migrated from traditional delivery and 47 percent started in the cloud. The information comes from CDW’s “Cloud 401: Navigating Advanced Topics in Cloud Computing.” The report measures the successes and struggles that organizations across multiple industries experienced as they deployed data, storage or application services in the cloud. Higher education survey respondents said that of their individual institution’s current cloud resources, they have reserved 39 percent for storage, 33 percent for computing, and 28 percent for applications.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/higher-ed-cloud-034/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/cBXQ4Cbe5n4/

What Happens In An Internet Minute?

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Instantaneous is the speed that most of us expect, and mind-numbing amounts of data are crunched, sent, and received. But just how much stuff is happening on the internet in just one minute? The handy infographic linked below takes a look at a minute in the existence of the internet. Some of the statistics are mind boggling, but moreover, I can’t wait to see what these numbers look like and what additions have been made in five or ten years!

http://www.edudemic.com/internet-minute-infographic/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/ti__OcSWxh8/

The 6 Education Technology Trends You Should Know About

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Not too long ago, the NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition was released, with the aim of examining emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching and learning within higher education settings. This is the eleventh time the New Media Consortium has put out this report, and it is interesting to look back and see what they had to say last year, as compared with their findings this year. In the report, the NMC teams with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative to identify six trends that are accelerating the adoption of technology in higher education.

http://www.edudemic.com/education-trends-keep-tech-front-center/

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Successful eLearning begins with well-prepared teachers

By Kelly Taylor, eCampus News

Gardner-Webb University began delivering its new online curriculum using Teachscape’s professional learning system in fall 2013. When the state of North Carolina dramatically reduced textbook funding, yet decided it would implement the Common Core State Standards, our School of Education at Gardner-Webb University decided to fast-track a program to make all teacher preparation courses textbook-free. We did this with the goal of preparing our students for the environment they would experience when they enter the teaching field, as well as to better equip them to meet the digital expectations that will be asked of them once they graduate.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/well-prepared-teachers-235/

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